In the beginning every person had but one name, the given name. If you look at the Bible and study the first chapter of Matthew or the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke you will find that the genealogy of Jesus consists of single male names, with an occasional mention of a female. As time went on it became necessary to differentiate between two persons with the same given name, thus we find John, the Baptist and John, the Evangelist.
In most cultures, where confusion might exist between two persons with the same given name, the father`s name was used to separate the two individuals. In Sweden -son or -dotter was added to the father`s given name. The extra s in the Swedish patronymic naming system denotes the possessive case, thus Johan`s son, Carl`s daughter, etc.
When a man and a woman got married the woman never adopted her husband`s patronymic name - a name ending with -son. A woman could never be someone`s son. It did not become a custom for a woman to adopt her husband`s surname until the end of the 1800`s, when most families had adopted family names.
Patronymic names were used in Sweden until around the 1860`s when many individuals started to adopt family names. It soon became fashionable to adopt a family name but not everyone changed at this time. Most people just froze their patronymic name as their family name.
Scandinavian Vikings discovered America in the tenth century, long before Christopher Columbus. The Swedish emigration to America started in 1638, just eighteen years after the landing of the Mayflower. Mass emigration began after the 1860`s, when there was an agricultural crisis, crops failed and growing families provided for even greater poverty. Improved agricultural tools, vaccines and potatoes led to a population growth that made the countryside overpopulated. Some people left due to religious persecution and political discontent. Urbanization did not stop the emigration, since conditions in the cities were poor. Between 1840 and 1930 about 1.3 million Swedes emigrated, one fifth of the entire population. Of the European countries, only Great Britain and Norway surpassed Sweden`s emigration in proportion to the population of the home country.
After arriving in America, many immigrants anglicized their Christian and family names. If a Swede had a Christian name when arriving in America, he usually replaced it with its English equivalent. For example: Maria = Mary; Johan/Johannes = John In the case of surnames, Johansson = Johnson; Nilsson = Nelson.
My great-great grandfather, Adolf Lenard Johansson, came to America in 1880. He modified his patronymic name to Johnson and when he married his wife adopted his surname. It then became their family name. Instead of using the patronymic naming system to identify their children they used the family name, Johnson.
I am trying to create a place where anyone can come and browse for information they might be able to use and where they can send me any information that might further my research.
Although most of the information compiled here comes from birth, death, marriage and census records...some of it is from "word of mouth" as passed from one generation to another and is by no means to be considered definitive. If you have more accurate or updated information, please contact me.
Also, please remember that I am not related to everybody in this compilation. Many people are related to distant relatives by marriage, or are themselves distant cousins (by marriage) to somebody else that was a relative.
This page is for family research use only. Information contained within is not to be used for commercial purposes.
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