Conference turris::scandia

    > Firstly, what is the predominant religion in Scandinavia, in particular
    > in Western Norway. I presume its Lutheran. 
    
    Not only prepredominant in Scandinavia, it is the state religion. That
    is, anyone who does not expressly register their religious affiliation
    is presumed to be a Lutheran.  Thus, there are a lot of 'Lutherans' in
    Scandinavia who are not worshipping (practicing a religion) at all.
                                                            
    
    > my question is, when did scandinavian names stop being patronymic
    
    Have you looked at note 77.39 in this conference?  
    
    > Is BRIAN a popular christian name in Scandinavia...?
    
    "Brian" has not yet appeared on any of the lists in note 77. So, I
    presume it is not a popular name in Scandinavia.
    
    > How/where can I find out about death/burial records and her
    > next-of-kin ? Any pointers ?
    
    Note 500 contains some suggestions. Reply .8 gives contact information
    for Norwegian genealogy programs.

    re. 539.1
    
    Thanks for the pointers.
    
    Just one further question - my great-grand-father was born circa 1850,
    so I reckon that the patronymic system was in vogue in Western Norway.
    Therefore his father christian name was RASMUS (or Erasmus ?). 
    Secondly, family tradition is that my great-grand-father's sister 
    never married, but I wonder if is an incorrect intrepretation by
    her Irish relatives, given that married women (under the patronymic   
    system) would have retained their maiden names. Married or single, she
    would have been Olga Rasmussen !
    
    Regards,
    	Brian

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic       
    From: [email protected] (Erling Aspelund)
    Subject: Re: patronymics
    Sender: [email protected] (For News purposes)
    Organization: NYNEX Science & Technology, Inc.
    Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:13:48 -0500
 
    My Norwegian great-grandfather changed his name from Petersen around
    the turn of the century. This was shortly before he emigrated to
    Iceland, where his family has kept the name, despite Iceland's official
    policy against continuing last names.
 
    In Iceland, of course, patronymics are still very much the rule.  There
    is a smattering of continuing last names, some from immigrants as in my
    case, but also a fair number dating back to the 19th century.  While
    not being an expert on the subject (although I'd be glad to hear from
    an Icelander who doesn't think he is!), these *19th century names* seem
    to fall into 2 categories: 1) new names created from Icelandic words
    (e.g Blondal, Eldjarn,  Snaevarr), which often refer to a place of
    birth or family origin, and 2) old Icelandic names spelled with latin
    characters to make them seem more *continental* (as in Danish, Iceland
    being a colony of Denmark at the time and suffering from a collossal
    inferiority complex).  Examples of the later kind of names include:
    Thorlaksson (spelled with the norse Thorn character,  not Th) which
    became Thorlacius (spelled with Th, not a Thorn); and  Thorarinsson
    which was changed to Thorarensen (same Thorn issue).
 
    The independence movement in Iceland during the first half of this
    century put a damper on name changes.  It became unpatriotic to change
    one's name. Nowadays it is against the law in Iceland to change a
    patronymic to a continuing last name. Furthermore, immigrants must take
    Icelandic first and last names and their children in turn are expected
    to carry on the partonymic system to all eternity.  (As a side note:
    Iceland welcomed over 100 Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, all of whom
    now have names like Hoskuldur Hrobjartsson and Svanhildur
    Sumarlidadottir). Even first names are regulated in Iceland. Last year,
    for example, my name, Erling, was taken off of the list of approved
    names and put on the list of banned names (yes, believe it or not,
    these lists exist and you can be fined if you give your child a name
    that is not on the approved list). The justification was that *Erling* 
    did not have an Icelandic ending (should be *Erlingur*) and was
    therefore *foreign*.  Woe is me.
 
    Anyway, I hope this helps you in some way.
 
    Erling Aspelund.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: [email protected] (Alf Christophersen)
    Newsgroups: soc.roots,soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: patronymics
    Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1993 01:10:15 +0100
    Organization: University of Oslo
 
    [The transistion from patronymics to continuing last names] started
    about 1840 and most places it was used about 1880. But some places in
    Telemark and eastern Aust-Agder still use [patronymics] (Songe i Holt
    in Aust-Agder and Drangedal/T�rdal in Telemark I know for certain).
    Other valleys in inner Agder changed after 1900, but most places it was
    out of use at least around 1920. In towns it was finished about 1860.
    The bigger distances from towns, the later was the change. Also in
    places where there was difficult to get to a town, even if the distance
    was small (like my homeplace, Songe i Holt (ps. today it easy for us to
    get to the towns, but now it is being modern to go back to old times
    :-) It is mainly used to differentiate between people with the same
    given name and same surname.)

    Newsgroups: soc.roots,soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Foxvog Douglas)
    Subject: Re: patronymics
    Sender: [email protected]
    Organization: VTT
    Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1993 09:08:18 GMT
 
    In my case, continuing last names go back a lot farther.  The Norum
    family was an important family with a continuing last name in the Bod�
    area.  The name goes back at least to 1640 (sheriff Herman Hansen Norum
    1640-1715). The patronymic was also included as the middle name: HHN's 
    father was certainly a Hans, possibly a Hans Norum.  His son was Ole
    Hermansen Norum, whose son was Arnt Olsen Norum, whose...

    A woman born before 1850 named Kirsten Arntsen was married into the
    family, so her family had changed from patronymic to fixed before this
    date.  Men marrying into the line had last names, but the Norum name
    was transmitted to the children.  Perhaps it was a community name (They
    are described as living on the Norum island, but i have been unable to
    find such an island on any map.
 
    Likewise last names came in in the Trondheim-Kristiansund area as
    community names.  These names continued as long as the people stayed in
    the community.  As they moved, they picked up new last names.  The
    patronymic system remained for the penultimate name.  Some people did
    not have community last names.  So this is in between the patronymic
    and the stable last name.  
    
    As people did not move so frequently, a name might stay in a family for
    generations.  E.g. the name "Faksvaag" (anglicized to "Foxvog") has
    been in my family since 1734,  when ancestors moved to that community. 
    The name continued through one woman, who married someone who moved
    into the community.  It was said that that man "married the farm" and
    took the name "Faksvaag" at about the time of the wedding (when he
    received the farm from his new father- in-law.  Non-related people who
    moved to Faksvaag also took that as a last name.
 
    In this case how should the system be called?  Fixed last name,
    patronymic, or what?
 
    In Sweden, the name Forsberg has been in the family since 1746, when a
    Forsberg was born to Pehr Ersson �hrling and Margarita Andersdotter.
    Similarly, an Aderholm line makes it back at least until 1710.  In both
    cases patronymics occur as the penultimate names.  Other lines used
    just the patronymics which changed in the late 19th century: a Signe
    Johansson  was born in 1884 to a patronymically named Anders Johansson
    (b. 1860). In another case the name Nelson became fixed in 1898. 
    (These last two are from the Upsalla and Kalmar areas.)
 
    -- 
    doug foxvog
    [email protected]

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Frode Milch Pedersen)
    Subject: Re: Norwegian name
    Sender: [email protected] (NetNews Administrator)
    Organization: NTH -- Norwegian Institute of Technology
    Date: Sat, 7 Aug 93 12:55:16 GMT
 
    In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Paul Eric
    Pannabecker) writes:

 >I am interested in the origins of my wife's family name.  We have been told 
 >that her family came from Vos Norway.  The information we have is that 
 >the original spelling of the name is "Duxstad".  We would like to know if 
 >this has any meaning.     Thanks
 >
 >Paul Pannabecker
 
    The "bible" of Norwegian place names, their origin and meaning, is Oluf
    Rygh's extensive reference work, "Norske Gaardsnavne", published during
    the first two decades of this century, and available at most public
    libraries in Norway.
 
    There is only one "Dukstad" listed there, and that farm is in Voss, so
    there's no doubt this is the one.
 
    Rygh lists a number of old forms of the farm name, from old Norwegian
    documents: Huithaeimi, Huitarhaeimi, Huitaeimi (1319), Huimaemi (c.
    1320), Huitheimi (1324), Hwithaeimi (1339), Huidom - It then changes to
    Dugstadt in 1563, a form which reoccurs in 1611 and 1695, then
    "Dugstad" in 1723, after a partition of the farm.
 
    Rygh writes: (Quote) Hvit(h)eimr [the original Old Norse name],
    consists of "heimr" with the adjective "hvitr", white.  The name also
    occurs in Stjoerdalen and in Grong [close to Trondheim, middle Norway],
    where the first part is assumed to be the ocassionally encountered
    river name Kvita or Kvitaa. Considering the local situation, such an
    explanation is not possible here. - Milzow (1679) says that the farm
    has been called "Duxtuun, now Duxstad", after the man Halldorr dukr,
    who lived there in the first half of the 14th century, and is mentioned
    in several documents. (End quote)
 
    Note that x is just a spelling of the -ks- or -gs-sound. A few
    centuries ago, different spellings were often used at the same time.
 
    The current name of the farm was apparently first recorded in the 16th
    century, but the farm itself must be much older. Farm names ending in
    -heim and -vin were usually settled  before the 7th century, well
    before the viking ages. Because much good farmland was avaliable at
    that time, these -heim and -vin farms were often a lot bigger and
    richer than farms settled later, esp. during the viking ages (8th to
    11th century). It seems that the original Hvitheimr (Duxstad) farm has
    been divided into several smaller farms (Rygh mentions Oefsthus,
    Lofthus, Lirhus), and must have been one such big farm in the first
    place. "-stad" is also a high status farm name, but slightly more
    "modern" than -heim and -vin.
 
    Referring to the previous discussion on s.c.n. of patronymics vs.
    family names in Scandinavia, I'd like to point out that farm names as
    family names are a relatively recent invention in Norway. As long as
    people stayed on their farm all their life, they had no use for a
    family name - it was more important to tell who their fathers were.
    When they moved away to other places, it was more distinguishing to
    take the name of the farm they came from as their last name. Possibly
    your wife's family did just that when they emigrated to America.
 
    -- Frode M. Pedersen

    To: International Swedish Interest discussion list
    From: Jill Seaholm <[email protected]>
    Organization: Augustana College - Rock Island IL
    Subj:   Swedish genealogy
    
    There have been a lot of genealogy questions on here lately, so it's
    time to re-introduce myself.  (I'm still waiting for an answer to my
    "When's IKEAcomingeMidwest?" question).
    
    I, Jill Seaholm, work at the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research
    Center at Augustana College (founded by Swedish immigrants) in Rock
    Island, IL.  My primary job is genealogy, but our records are limited
    to those of people who emigrated from Sweden, mostly to this country.
    That doesn't mean that we're completely unaware of how the actual
    Swedish records work (we've all used them quite a bit), and are happy
    to answer questions about where to find sources for Swedish genealogy
    research.  Our primary source is microfilms of Swedish-AMERICAN church
    records, so we have to know where the immigrants settled and went to
    church in the U.S. in order to search for them.  If they didn't go to
    church, we can try to locate them in some of the port passenger indexes
    like Goteborg, Malmo, Stockholm, Oslo, Norrkoping, etc.  We don't have
    U.S. port arrivals (except for Swedes arriving in New York
    1861-69--that's it).
    
    I can provide addresses to various archives in Sweden and tell you
    which counties or provinces they serve, or addresses of professional
    genealogists in Sweden, who specialize in specific areas of Sweden. We
    even have a book with the addresses of individual Swedish parishes. The
    Mormons are a tremendous source for the Swedish parish records (up
    through 1920) if one is interested in doing the research oneself. The
    records are often in old, bad handwriting, but lots of people learn to
    pick out names and get used to the writing.
    
    I sound like I'm advertising, sorry, but there have been enough
    questions lately that I thought I should chime in and let you know we
    can maybe help.  We're a non-profition and we do charge a fee for any
    actual research we do for you, but we don't charge for general
    reference questions like this.
    
    Please feel free to e-mail me personally with questions about what to
    do or where to go next (or first) with family history research.  We
    have a form letter and research request forms that tell something about
    the research we can do.  Anyone who would like info. sent by snail
    mail, I'll be happy to send it (no charge).
    
    I haven't been able to locate a specifically Swedish genealogy mailing
    list, but I know some other ethic groups have them.
    
    Happy to help.  It's my job.
    
    Jill Seaholm
    Researcher
    [email protected]

    To: International Swedish Interest discussion list
    From: Roland Johansson <[email protected]>
    Subj:   Scandinavian genealogy
    
    I have set up a Scandinavian genealogy page at
    http://www.bahnhof.se/~floyd/scandgen.html.                 
    
    On this page, I will try to provide some helpful hints to those looking
    for their roots in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden and Denmark There
    are lots of things that needs an explanation, and I will try to update
    this page with new things when I find reason to do so. I have no
    intention to make a complete "How-to"-guide, but rather give some
    hints.
    
    Also, I would like to point out that many of the explanations to
    things, are more popular than scientific. If you should find any of the
    facts on this page to be wrong, please let me know, so I can change it.
    Please be welcome to visit it, and make comments.
    
    /Roland
    ============================================================
    Roland Johansson        Mail:  [email protected]
    c/o Falkner             Web:   http://www.bahnhof.se/~floyd/
    Saetra torg 12          Phone: +46-8-88 56 11
    S-127 38 Skaerholmen
    Sweden
    ============================================================