What to use for LNAB when child is Oäkta

+3 votes
455 views
What is the best practice for LNAB when it is unknown? Should a child not be entered into WikiTree until they are older and a patronymic or family name is first used?
WikiTree profile: Pehr Olof Lundberg
in Genealogy Help by Kathy Pelletier G2G6 (6.5k points)
I don't understand the question. You entered a LNAB. It is Oäkta

Diter, according to a comment on the profile:

The family name currently used in this profile literally means "Illegitimate".
posted 8 hours ago by J Rau

If the LNAB is really unknown according to the WikiTree rules the PM should use "Unknown" as LNAB.

But since the mother is known, it should be checked what was the custom in the country of birth at the time to name illegitimate children. Mother's surname?
I have answered this question here: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1591107/translation-help-please - including a reminder that if the LNAB is really unknown, the policy is to use Unknown.

Now, the custom in Sweden for illegitimate children of mothers who carry a family surname is to use the surname of the mother; like in probably most other countries.

But since Sweden used the patronymic naming system for so long, we get into the situation where children carry a last name based on the given name of their father, even when the parents never married. Sometimes you can find the full name of the father somewhere in the records, but often you don't.
No surname.  Mother would have a patronymic name.  Possibly the child could use a matronymic instead, if there is no father listed in the books.

I think this is a case for the great folk of the Sweden project.
With Swedish patronymics, the most common thing I have found for an illegitimate child is to have a patronymic based on their father's first name (remember that the father was usually known by the mother and child even if the parents did not marry) or to use the same one that their mother used. I have very rarely seen a matronymic, perhaps because this would have made it very obvious to anyone that the person was illegitimate.

Since children were usually only recorded by first name until they left home, I track them forward until I find a last name before I create their Wikitree profiles. If I can't find a last name (for example, if they died in childhood) I will assume that it would be the same as what their siblings used. -Elisa

1 Answer

+4 votes
My Swedish 2nd Great grandmother had two illegitimate daughters in the early 1820s, who are listed in parish records with the last name "Carlsdotter." I haven't been able to identify which of many Carls in that parish would be their father.
She later had a son (my Great grandfather) by my 2nd Great grandfather. Since this son was born before they married, would probably have been Nilsson, but as they married shortly after he was born, assumed his father's surname Zetterberg.
by Julie Zetterberg Sardo G2G Crew (320 points)

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