Question for our Swedish speakers - f vs s

Question

Hi all, I'm going back and forth with which is the proper LNAB for a family line, Olufsson or Olsson.  

Once I started pulling the kid's birth records I kept seeing over and over again that the father's name was Oluf Svensson so I went with Olufsson and Olufsdotter for the whole family.  But now for a few of the earlier children I see that his name is listed as Ola and even on his own birth record has him as Ola.

So I have two questions: first, how do you pronounce Oluf.  Does it sound like Oh-luff?  compared to to "Oh-lah" for Ola?  Or do they both sound about the same?

Second question, I see in many of the records the use of "fs" instead of "ss."  I have also seen this in English, in our own founding documents from the mid 18th century I've often seen Congrefs instead of Congress.  So I am wondering, was there a time when Olufsson became Olufson and then was just read ad Olsson?  

Either way, I'm second guessing my choice in using Olufsson because the family knew themselves as Olsson and it morphed to Olson when they came to America.

Thanks in advance for any answers or perspectives you all can give.

Comments

Nothing actually says "Congrefs". It says "Congress" with a "long s", which looks much like an "f" but without the crossbar.

Answer 1

I can't speak to the Swedish questions, but in older English documents, the "fs" you're referring to is actually a long s - an older, alternate form of a lowercase "s" that we don't really use any more.

Comments

Yes, we have the long s for the first s in a double-s in old Swedish records as well.

Answer 2

Well, don't ask me about pronounciation. We have dialects, and I'm not competent in the sound of Blekinge (or the south in general).

I have done a simple search in the ArkivDigital household record index 1820-1947 for "ol* svensson" born 1802 in Blekinge - and the hits are exclusively for men named Ola Svensson; yours and two or three others. So it seems Ola was the form in use in Blekinge at that time.

As for Oluf, I think you must have originally gotten that spelling from records transcribed by someone who did not speak Swedish. To my mind it is a very old form of the name. I made a search in Folkräkningar  1880 for Oluf and got 19 hits - many, perhaps most, were women from southern Sweden. A corresponding search for Olof yielded 96 828 hits.

Comments

Thanks Eva.  I'm learning all sorts of new things.  All of the spellings of Oluf I got from the primary records:

He seems to be spelled that way about 1/2 the time.

1802 birth record: Ola
1823 daughter's birth: Oluf
1776 marriage: Oluf
1825 sons births: Oluf
1828 daughter's birth: Oluf
1830 daughter's birth: Oluf
1833 daughter's birth: Oluf
1834 household examination: Ola
1835 examination: Ola
1835 daughter's birth: Oluf
1837 daughter's birth: Oluf
1840 daughter's birth: Oluf
1840 examination: Ola
1842 son's birth: Ola
1844 daughter's birth: Ola
1845 son's birth: Ola
1846 examination: Ola
1851 examination: Ola
1852 son's birth: Ola
1856 examination: Ola

After typing all of that I started to notice that the Oluf spelling were only on birth notices and only from 1823 to 1840 and looking again, they all seem to be in the same handwriting.  So I'm guessing that their local priest at their parish wrote it Oluf and just kept it that way until he retired or they changed churches.

Looking at the examinations it is interesting to see that the daughters are marked Olasdotter but the boys are recorded Olsson (less the "a").