Where did Axel August Harald get the name Ahlsen from?

Question

Splitting off the discussion from here: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/998801/emigrants-from-sweden-that-will-become-imigrants-somwhere

Melanie asked: "I have an immigrant to the US born in Linköping, Sweden.  His name is Axel Ahlsen, father was Harold Ahlsen, mother was Hilda Lof."

-and we got kind of lengthy about it.

Comments

This should also be of interest: https://archive.org/details/belvidereillustr00repu/page/24/mode/2up?q=episcopal

Axel Ahlsen is also in there, as a member of one of the fraternal societies.

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Well, here's a possible association:

Alsen, Östergötland -only in Swedish

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It may be as "simple" as Ahlsen being a contracted (and Americanized) version of Alfredsson, which would have been Axel's patronymic if he had ever used one.

He is in the Swedish sources with Harald as a surname - as is sister Ida.

Axel's three brothers are all in the sources as Haraldsson - although this is not a true, oldfashioned patronymic based on the first name of the father but a look-alike construction based on the soldier name of the father - which, confusingly is a name that is usually a first name.

Anyway, none of the siblings are in the birth book with a Last Name. What we have now is their First Known Last Names, as registered when they moved from home. For the sister that died at two days I have used the same Last Name as for her sister, rather than inventing a -dotter name for her. Had they adhered to the patronymic system she would have been Alfredsdotter - but I think this family had entered the free-for-all era of the Swedish naming system trending strongly in the last quarter of the 1800s.

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It may be as "simple" as Ahlsen being a contracted (and Americanized) version of Alfredsson, which would have been Axel's patronymic if he had ever used one.
commented by Eva Ekeblad

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This makes the most sense of anything. 

So, as nothing has been found to name him as Haraldsson, should I change the LNAB to Harald?

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Yes, I think so.

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Nobody can say we haven't researched them.

I visit the tree you are building at FamilySearch now and then, although I'm not adding to it.

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I am having a terrible time with Axel's one brother-in-law's wife. 

I may just give up on her and leave her as just a mention in the husband's profile.

I have a self-imposed timetable to get a certain part of this lineage done before the second week of July, so spending so much time on the in-laws may prevent that.  

(I have a bunch of info from Eddie King regards Axel's granddaughter's father-in-law that I need to sort out and "biographise" so I can do a profile so the two lines are properly connected.)

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Bless Eddie King!

I cannot help you in the US or Germany, and I may consider my work on the Swedish side done. I'll at least take a break. If I continue, what would you find most useful - attending to the children of Axel's brothers and sisters (I should be able to find death dates in the database I have on USB) or taking the tree another generation back (where possible - an orphan from Stockholm is probably not traceable).

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Definitely bless Eddie King!  I would be next to nowhere on some of these folk in the US if it weren't for his superior research abilities!

I think the German and Prussian parts of the lineage will have to wait for someone else to become interested, because it's beyond my abilities as well.

If you were to continue, whatever interests you the most.  I know how much easier things seem to go when interest is engaged. 

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I did a little cluster this morning: the parents of Anna Greta Johansdotter plus her sister = the second wife of Erik Johan Löf.

Answer 1

Profile made for Hilda Margareta Löf.

She was definitely Löf from the start, although this was not worth mentioning in the vicar's opinion during her servant years. She wasn't Hilda in the birth book, but she was definitely Hilda in the later books, and probably this was the name she was known by in daily life.

She's got a long string of sources - and yet I have skipped a lot of household records when nothing special happened. 

Won't be doing more today, but I find the family interesting, so I'll return.

Comments

Thank you, thank you!  My cousins will be very excited when I can tell them (show them) what we now know.

(Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but my 2-plus days no sleep caught up to me, and I fell asleep in the chair and dropped the laptop.)

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So, if Hilda/Margareta was not married when Axel was born, and his father was not yet Harald, what would his last name correctly be?

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In this image : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGC-9976-6

Who is Augusta Charl Eriksson the wife of?

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Augusta Charlotta Eriksson was the wife of Alfred Emil Haraldsson.

I plan to do the grenadier father himself today. Axel's brothers and sisters probably deserve profiles as well.

As for Axel's LNAB I'll start on a new answer to this question for that.

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Augusta Charlotta Eriksson was the wife of Alfred Emil Haraldsson.

commented by Eva Ekeblad

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Oh, good!  That's what I thought, but FS has it indexed strangely and it appears she is the wife of the father.  

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Are you making the Familysearch tree? Looks neat.

Well FamilySearch indexing being strange is nothing new, is it!!

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Where would place Vr. Kl. be.  Presumably in Östergötland.

(Alfred Emil's daughter was indexed as being born there in 1917 -- on the 1906 - 1911 census.)

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Vreta Kloster.

That's also where Alfred Harald and Hilda Margareta Löf lived towards the end of their lives.

I haven't looked at the map or checked Swedish Wikipedia, but I think all these parishes were very close. People rarely moved far in those days. Unless they went to America

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Tack!

All this going to Amerika!

I have the Amerikan rellies asking questions.  :)

Axel's one granddaughter is in her 90s, but still very "with it", so her daughter is going to ask her some stuff in the next day or so.  (She, the granddaughter of Axel, lives alone, out in the sticks!)

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Cool!

The profile for Alfred Johansson Harald is done. I'm taking a break.

From his marriage and on I copied from the profile of his wife - which seems I mostly wrote from the husband's perspective anyway.

Alfred/Alfrid went through most of his life with the wrong birth month in the papers, and his mother died early, so he had a step mother - those were the only tricky things about him, I think.

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I think I'll be looking at Hilda Löf's parents today.

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Yay!

I have spent half the day deciphering bad handwriting, and exchanging messages with Axel's 3-greats-grandson (who is rather excited to know he has "new" cousins out there somewhere).

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Profiles created for both parents of Hilda Margareta.

I still mean to follow Erik Johan Löf from his second marriage to his death, but I'll take a walk in the summer weather first.

Erik Johan's second wife turned out to be the younger sister of his first wife (mother of Margareta).

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Tack!

I hope your summer weather was enjoyable!

Answer 2

Melanie asked: So, if Hilda/Margareta was not married when Axel was born, and his father was not yet Harald, what would his last name correctly be?

Well, that's the 64 000 dollar question. He would implicitly have had the patronymic Alfredsson (or Alfridsson) since this was the name of his known father - but I doubt that he is ever in the books with that name.

I think we leave him as Haraldsson for the time being.

I wish WikiTree wasn't as rigid about Last Name At Birth - I think First Known Last Name makes more sense in a case like this.

Comments

I think First Known Last Name makes more sense in a case like this.

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I definitely agree! 

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Hah! Found his departure from Göteborg.
I'm not sure if I can find the record somewhere that isn't a paysite, but I wrote all the info there was into a sentence in his bio.

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Great!   All I found was the naturalisation years later. 

Went through my files and re-found a photograph of what is believed to be his tailor's shop, given to me by his great-great-great-grandson.  (Knew I had some photos somewhere.)  Got one of his eldest daughter's wedding, as well -- and of her mother-in-law and the m-I-l's brother.

The gravestone photo I need to crop and upload.  It has three names. Axel, Ida, and Margaret.

I'm having trouble writing the daughter's bio, because I have to avoid the still living child in her 90s. 

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OK, so he won't have arrived  in New York on the Orlando - because that ship was on the Göteborg-Hull service.

So he will have gone by train from Hull to Liverpool and boarded a new ship.

I wouldn't ever try to trace an emigrant journey for this, if it wasn't for that mysterious name change. I'm going to get some fresh air.

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So, if he went by way of Liverpool, he could have changed his name there, or later when arriving in New York.   Oy.

Enjoy the fresh air!

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According to Ellis Island, he was Ahlsen when he arrived in 1896 -- which must've been a trip back home, as he was married in 1892.  There is no "last place of residence" for this entry.

Ahlsen, Axel

1896

N/A

Germanic

(I can't see the actual records unless I create an account.)

He also seems to have gone a-travelling in 1913,last place of residence is where he was living with his wife and daughters.

Ahlsen, Axel

1913

Belvidere, Ill

Mauretania

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(I wonder if he went back to Sweden with his brother.  It's the same year you said Ture was in America until.) 

So -- still missing is the original entry.

(ETA missing "if".)

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Found it. Had the brilliant idea to look for some of the other people who left Göteborg on the same ship.

Oh, I see this is one of the transcriptions that can be edited at FS, I'll give it a try.

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So the name change took place AFTER he arrived in the US, and before he married in 1892.

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Yes. Wonder where he got the idea.

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I was reading the official stuff on name changes in the US, especially pertaining to immigrants.  One of the things said was, most name changes were to simplify the original name, or to Anglicise it.  I would have thought Harald/Harold was much simpler than Ahlsen .. so he MUST have had some reason for the choice.  And the "en" as well.  His wife's family were German immigrants, so I wonder if that influenced him in any way.

I have no idea how to look for this in US records, or even where to look (which state, as he came in at New York, but lived  in Illinois).

(I've a  cousin on my Scottish line who changed his Swiss name to his step-father's more English/Scottish name in order to get work.)

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I agree that a version of Harald had been much easier.

What I see in practice, agrees with what you have read up on - sometimes the anglicization is as simple as from Olsson with two s to Olson with one s, sometimes, when there already is a family name in Sweden the anglicization is more or less recognizable. Sometimes pick a recognizably Swedish family name on the doorstep of emigration and have it slightly anglicized in the US - in the cases I'm thinking of the Swedish family name has a recognizable link to something about the family, like the parish they came from. Axel is one of the few cases I  have seen where I cannot see any such link (yet).

And yes, German influence sounds reasonable. I think Swedish names ending in -én have some sort of German connection a few hundred years ago.

Names are interesting

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BTW, I read something the other day - there may not have been any special legal procedure for name changes yet in the US in 1890.

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Not just back then.  Even today you can change your name and use it and it is 100% legal, so long as you didn't change it for fraudulent purposes.   (It was the same in Aus when I left.)

I don't expect his granddaughter will know, but I am going to get HER daughter to ask.

Not directly related to Axel, but to his wife, Ida (who has middle initial M, but no name to match it! (more name puzzles!!)) -- I cannot make out the name of the church . .  something Trinity church, Chicago.  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-YXS9-VD

Google only gives me "holy", but it doesn't look like holy.

(Ida's brother has a profile on WT already, so I thought I could add the father and get them connected.)

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I think it says Ev. Luth - Evangelisch Lutheran
(scuse my half-German)

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In Sweden, nowadays, we have rules about name taking. Not all names are open for taking and if you invent a new name it has to be approved. But there are lots of new "unique names! every year.

Good idea to get them connected.

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I think it says Ev. Luth - Evangelisch Lutheran
(scuse my half-German)

commented by Eva Ekeblad

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That would make perfect sense!  (Did they name themselves evangelical back then?) 

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I don't think they did in Sweden - it was mostly just our Lutheran State Church. But I see Evangelisch "all the time" when there is somebody German involved.

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Well, whatever it was then, it doesn't seem to exist now.  (At least, according to google.)  There are Swedish churches in the area.  Maybe I should try emailing, or phoning. 

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Have not yet heard back from Axel's great-granddaughter (did get feedback from another descendant, but his info was about the 1913 "immigration" record), but have discovered living cousins for her  and her siblings.  Oh, the joys of genealogy research! 

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So, now there are profiles for the parents of Alfred Johansson Harald.

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Is "tack så mycket!" correct to say "Thank you very much!"?

I have added a crop from a larger photo to Axel's profile.  His 3-greats grandson couldn't name everyone in it, but says Axel is one of the men outside the tailor shop.

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Thanks for the thanks - yes, it's correct!

If the photo is from Axel's shop I would guess that he and his wife are the ones in front of the door. It's ony a guess, of course.

It's a pity that the booklet about Belvidere was printed as early as 1896, when he wasn't established enough to get portrayed.

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I would agree with that guess.  It just makes sense that "the boss" would be central.

I have some photos of other family members, too, just not on this line.  OLD photos.

I've asked the great-granddaughter and the 3-greats-grandson for the location of the graves, because there is no notation on the photo itself, and find a gave and billion graves have been less than helpful.

The Belvidere Cemetery has lots of the Totz family, but not, so far as I can discover, Axel and Ida.

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No, they could just as well be buried somewhere in Chicago.

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I know that a number of the family are buried at Arlington Heights (not that find a grave or billion graves has them, either), but am having no luck with Axel and Ida. Or their daughter.

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Sorry, can't help you with that from here.

I think I'll do some of Axel's siblings tomorrow.

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Found it!  Start adding stuff to FS "profiles" (in this case daughter, Margaret's) and FS eventually kicks out new sources that simply did not exist 5 minutes ago no matter what search terms were used.  Chicago cemetery, indeed. Irving Park Cemetery, Chicago.  Now I just need to add that info to Ida and Axel.

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Yes, I have learned that about FS recently, that it often pays to look at every source from the perspective of every family member mentioned in hopes of something fresh popping up as related.

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OK: I did Thure Fritiof Haraldsson and Ida Alfrida Harald today. The Swedish naming system was seriously in flux at this time.

It seems Ture did not bring his family to the US. It also looks like he initially hadn't meant to stay in Sweden. He is not in sequence in the moving-in book. He is listed among people who left the parish in September (when his brother left, but as a visitor he wasn't registered), but I think the scribble in the date column for Ture says mars. The thing is, his wife had a new baby in November - and I only read the bit on the household record saying that he returned in July. Now I see that there is an explanatory note further to the right saying he had returned during the spring. So he probably had planned to go back to the US but changed his mind with the beby on its way.

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I would never have been able to figure all that out. 

I'm having enough trouble sorting out the Totz family .. and that's not even the German part!

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Profiles for Alfred Emil Haraldsson and Karl Filip Haraldsson done.