I'm having a 19th century Swedish surname problem

Question

My 2x great grandfather (Jonsson-2135) was known both as Jonasson and Jonsson.( I'm sure I'm not getting two people mixed up because of the same birthdate, wife, etc). But because his daughter, my great grandmother, used the name Jonsson, her father's name went in as Jonsson, whereas it should have been Jonasson, which was his name at birth. But he was also sometimes known as Jonsson in the Swedish records, because this was the era when Sweden was officially adopting patronymics -- also, I believe he was illiterate, and when household records were collected he wouldn't have been too clear about spelling . What do I do?

Answer 1

I wouldn't worry too much.

I guess what you are saying is that he was born with a patronymic, but lived at the time when patronymics were converted into family names.

So his father was a Jonas, who may well have been Jon in daily use. And if he was illiterate he wouldn't have had much say about spelling. Or cared a lot about it.

As for the name variants of first names, one would think that the longer, more formal name would be in the christening book, the shorter name in the household records and the nickname not appearing at all. But a girl may well be Stina in the birth book, Christina in one of the parishes where she served and Cherstin in her death record. It depends mostly on who was writing, I think.