Can anyone help parse a Swedish partronymic?

Question

I have a name given as Albertina Lövendal Ersson Andersdotter .  She is married to a Lovendahl in US records. It is not clear where or when the marriage took place and birth records say both Kansas and Sweden.  Question for now is Ersson Andersdotter a two part last name or a middle name- Errsson and a last name as a patronymic Andersdotter?

Answer 1

It sounds to me like an American misunderstanding of a Swedish patronymic name. She may be the daughter of an Anders Ersson - or for that matter an Erik Andersson. Things can get pretty mixed up across the language/culture border. It's hard to tell without a few sources to look at.

Comments

Eva,

The source is "Sweden, Emigrants Registered in Church Books, 1783-1991". Both Albertina and her husband are immigrants.

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This is a database at ancestry.com, unfortunately without images. The record is:

Name:	Albertina Lövendal Ersson Andersdotter
Gender:	Kvinna (Female)
Birth Date:	16 maj 1864 (16 May 1864)
Birth Place:	Billingsfors, Älvsborg (Västra Götaland)
Departure Date:	21 maj 1869 (21 May 1869)
Departure Place:	Eda, Värmland
Arrival Place:	Nordamerika
Occupation or Relation:	Hemmadotter
Marital status:	Unmarried (Single)
Notes:	Travels with family
Page:	31
Original Page:	646
Household Members:	Name Anders Lövendal Ersson Maja Lisa Ersson Lövendal Svart Carl Axel Lövendal Ersson Andersson Albertina Lövendal Ersson Andersdotter Christina Emelia Lövendal Ersson Andersdotter

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Ah, yes. I found her easily in Arkiv Digital.

Her father is Anders Ersson, who adopted the surname Löfvendal at some point. The family seems to have emigrated before the children were in the books with a surname.

The  Ersson Andersdotter etc seems to be the idea of an American indexer.

I suppose she would be considered as born Andersdotter if she had stayed in Sweden. But I should check how far back the Löfvendal name goes. I wouldn't use Ersson for the kids, unless there is a record where you can see in an image that it is actually used for them.

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Nice find, C-H!

So it looks like they gave Albertina her the father’s patronymic last name at birth and his current last name and then tacked on her patronymic at birth, which was Andersdotter.

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Well, her dad is Anders Ericsson Löfvendal in the household record from the time when Albertina was born. Ericsson being his patronymic, she will not have used it in Sweden - and since they emigrated when she was five she didn't really use a patronymic -dotter name either.

Eda kyrkoarkiv, Husförhörslängder, SE/VA/13091/A I/21 (1861-1865), bildid: A0021220_00377, sida 370 https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0021220_00377

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I found another source: U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Swedish American Church Records, 1800-1947 , that shows the handling given by the folks in the US who are presumably knowledgeable as to the normal handling of this situation.  Formatting is funky but I can't figure out how to fix it.

Name

Albertina Löfvendahl 

Gender Female

Event Type              Member List

Birth Date

16 May 1864

Birth Place

Billings Fors Elfsborgs Lan Sverige

Departure Place

Eda Forsand Werml L Sverige

Arrival Date

1869

Relation to Head

Daughter

Church

Zion Brantford Lutheran Church

Mother

Maja Lisa Löfvendahl

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Hello John,

Do you need more help finding her? And does she have a profile yet? We do not know what sources you have for her.

I will look in Billingsfors, Älvsborg, Sweden for her birth record.

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John and Eva,

Her birth record does not have the second last name of her father, Anders Eriksson. So we would think that he did not have it or was not using it when she was born. So she was born Albertina Andersdotter.

Source: Billingsfors,C/4 (1861-1872), bildid: A0019895_00011, page 15 (# 12) https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0019895_00011

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Anders Eriksson, born -36 19/9 was in the household of smelter Petrus Byström in Billingsfors from November 1862.

Billingsfors kyrkoarkiv, Husförhörslängder, SE/GLA/13025/A I/12 (1861-1865), bildid: C0043001_00024, sida 15  https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0043001_00024

Then in November 1863 he transferred to another master, Magnus Warg. There he is Anders Eriksson Löfvendahl. (His entry is squeezed in above Joh. Salomon Warg)

Billingsfors kyrkoarkiv, Husförhörslängder, SE/GLA/13025/A I/12 (1861-1865), bildid: C0043001_00019, sida 10  https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0043001_00019

That is before Albertina's birth.
I think one should look at the whole picture. These craftsman's names, particulary when new, were often treated a little carelessly.

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Thanks for your help.  It is much appreciated.

Answer 2

Do you have a link to the profile?

Comments

No profile yet in WikiTree.  I am planning to use the name "Albertina Lofvendahl" when I do the profile.

John Kessler

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I would use Löfvendahl, with the Swedish ö.

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Thanks for your help.  It is much appreciated.

John Kessler

Answer 3

Where is her name given like that? That looks like someone has just stacked all names they could find after each other. It is possible she has been called both Andersdotter and Ersson at different times, but not together, and as for "middle name" that is a concept that just didn't exist if she was born in Sweden.

If both Andersdotter and Ersson have been correct the story is probably that her father was an Anders Ersson, so she was Anders's daughter ("Andersdotter"), but later she (and maybe her siblings) started to treat their father's patronymic as an inherited family name and called themselves Ersson as well. That is possible, but to see if that is true in this case you have to follow these persons of course.

Comments

I agree with the stacking.  Probably the most interesting information is the middle name or lack there of in Sweden.  My mothers line is Norwegian occasionally listed as Sweden which we assume are pre-independence references.  

Thanks for your assistance.