RootsChat.Com

Thanks so much - I haven't read it all yet but the information is really interesting. Walter was a clerk in Wales, then a mariner/seaman for some years, and also made a minor name for himself as a horseback wrestler in Australia, NZ and California. The family legend was that he died as a result of a fight or boxing match but the mortuary record says his cause of death was epilepsy. Fascinating stuff -   thanks again!

That's exactly the sort of detail I would miss - thanks again. Life wasn't easy for them, was it? Emma and Friedrich had five children, one of whom who died in Stepney, London, at 2 years old. Emma died aged 38 of uterine cancer in 1907. My grandfather, Max, wrote a book some years later. The main character was named Jimmy. He is exactly the same age as Max, who was known as Jimmy in real life. The story of Jimmy is so close to Max's own life that I think of it as an autobiography - it has given me many clues about the family, but there is no mention of their German and Swedish origins. Max later fought for Britain in World War 1 and Frederick was interned because of his German background, so the family kept the German thing a secret.

Hi Ian,

Thank you so much for all this information. The digitised Swedish birth, marriage and death documents are mostly from Ancestry. I also have the relevant documents from Germany and England. It's taken so long to find Emma's marriage to my great-grandfather because he was also illegitimate and used his father's surname (Boshen or Baschan) when they married in Germany and had their first two children, rather than Nagel, which he went by in England - his mother was Margaretha Magdalena Nagel. All the family in England and Australia (where I am) have always used Nagel. This is fascinating - I'm off to look at Daniel's records now. Thanks again, so much!

Hi all,

I have recently found my Swedish great-grandmother after many years of searching but, as usual, it raises more questions. I'm familiar with the patronymic surname system, having traced both Dutch and Welsh family lines, but this family confuses me a little because I don't know much about Swedish naming traditions.

1. Maja Lisa Danielsdotter was born in 1833, daughter of Daniel Jonnson Spets and his wife Elin Jonsdotter. Daniel's father was Jon Persson, so Jonsson makes sense, but where would the 'Spets' part of his name come from?

Maja Lisa Danielsdotter had four known children but the father's name is not on any of the birth registrations - all have "oäkta" after their given names, which apparently means spurious, fake or bastard. The first of these children was fostered to Maja Lisa's sister and took the surname of that sister's husband, Borgstrom.

2. The last of Maja Lisa's children was my great-grandmother Emma (1869-1907). I have records for her in Germany, where she married and had children, and England, where she had children and died. All these records have her as Emma Johnsdotter or some version of it. Does this mean that her unnamed father could be John or Johan? Or is there a naming system that carries the Jons- part of her name from Maja Lisa's parents, who both had it in their names?

3. My last question relates to Maja Lisa's other two children: twin boys born in January 1865 and only lived a day. Like the others, they have no surname and no father's name. They were Frans and Victor - what surname should I give them in my FTM file? Would it be a version of Danielsdotter? It doesn't feel right to record them with just a given name.

Thank you, people of great and wondrous knowledge!

Eve