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HeiressofBickworth

HeiressofBickworth's Journal
HeiressofBickworth's Journal
April 5, 2018

Patronyms are confusing

I have ancestors from 1800's in Sweden. You are right, sons surnames are the father's first name and the suffix "son". Likewise, daughters names are her father's first name and "dotter" suffix. Generally, while in Sweden, women didn't change their names with marriage. That helps when there have been multiple marriages.

In the records I examined, it was helpful to look at a family as a group rather than just singling out one of them. The parish records I looked at had a column indicating when the family came to the parish, what parish they came from, and dates they left and where they went to. Deaths were also indicated with a cross and the death date. You can cross-identify by matching names, birth dates and birth places. That should help determining if you are on the trail of only one person of a similar name.

When the families came to the US, they "Americanized" their names in many cases. That meant that a single surname was selected for all family members and sometimes, even that was "Americanized". Case in point: Gustav Bengtsson had a son who changed his name to Henry Benson. Also, spelling became a fluid thing, depending on who heard it and who wrote it down. My Bengtsson was also Bentzine. Women began to assume husbands' names upon marriage, which was customary in the US.

Here's a website that may be useful for you, if you haven't already used it. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Sweden_Genealogy

I think it requires a sign-in, but there is no cost.

My turning point came when I asked my 96-year old grandmother if she knew the name of the town in Sweden where her parents came from. She Did!!! The genealogy library in Salt Lake City had the parish records from that town on microfilm. In one day, I traced by line back to 1730 in the same town.

Good Luck!

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Current location: Snohomish County, WA
Member since: Wed May 18, 2011, 02:12 AM
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About HeiressofBickworth

Retired corporate paralegal.
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