Are Maja Jansdotter and Maria Johansdotter the same person? [closed]

Question

I am about to include sources of Maria Johansdotter (no profile) in the current profile of Maja Jansdotter. Before I'll do this I would appreciate if you can encourage this or bring forward a second opinion.

There are a few problems with this proposed merge: The age of mother Britta (age 22 in 1793) does not compute well into a birth year of 1766. The name of father appears to change between Jaen/Johan/Jan. And of course Maja vs. Maria.

So far, I have not found any sources that excludes Maja/Maria from being the same person. Rather, the sources fill in each others gaps.

Is the better option to add a profile of Maria Johansdotter and then propose a merge?

Answer 1

Well, just to say:
Maja and Maria are forms of the same name
Jan, Jaen and Johan are forms of the name Johannes.

Name forms are used very interchangeably in these old records - they certainly did not have the modern ideas of standardization.

Also, when household records give ages instead of birth years, these are a lot less reliable; I suppose the same goes if the age of a mother is given in the birth record of a child. Actually, one comes to expect all sorts of date errors in the household records - even though they are reliable most of the time. One does need to tread carefully with all the name similarities in patronymic Sweden. And it did happen that a widower married a woman with the same name as his first wife...

But, in this case (without looking at the sources) I do believe there is only one person. Please do not make a duplicate just because you are not sure: it is more WikiTree-economic to stick with one profile and make note of your doubts in this profile; then follow her carefully from beginning to end - and IF it should turn out to be two different persons, THEN you divide them up.

Comments

I agree there is only one person. The only certainty is she was born Maja and her Mother's first name was Britta. Looks like she spent her entire life in Skjurskvarn. Her birth record says her father was Jaen, so her name at birth would be Maja Jaensdotter if you strictly adhere to a patronymic naming system. If she adopts his last name, it would be Jönsson.

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She would be Jaensdotter if you strictly adhere to the WikiTree advice of always prioritizing the spellings in the birth record.

Since her father seems to have been variously Johan, Jaen and Jan in the records, all the names Johansdotter, Jaensdotter and Jansdotter are correct patronymics for her.

Since she already has a profile, the spelling variants could go in the Other Last Names field.

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Her marriage record calls her Maja Jaensdotter, her daughter's birth record calls her Maja Jansdotter and her death record calls her Maria Johansdotter. Too bad we can't ask her.

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Great! :-)

Thank you all very much!