Which surname do I use on an immigrant from Sweden to United States?

Question

I have an immigrant who was born in Sweden as Fredrik Magnusson.

His name is listed as Fredrik Magnusson in the Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1859-1947.

In the Sweden, Emigrants Registered in Church Books, 1783-1991 he is listed as Fredrik Persson.  He left Skaraborg (Västra Götaland), Amnehärad in 1888 and came to America.

In the Web: Minnesota, U.S., Marriages from the Minnesota Official Marriage System, 1850-2019 he is listed as Fred Peerson.

He is listed as Fred Peerson on the 1950 U.S. Census.

His death certificate has Fred Peerson.

His gravestone has Fred Peerson.
 

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So how does the name change from Magnusson to Peerson?

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Edited:  added link to newly created profile for Fredrik Persson

Answer 1

You evidently cannot trust surnames in the Sweden Indexed Birth Records.

Fredrik was born in Amnehärad, Skaraborgs län 1871-01-11. His father was Per Gustav Magnusson - that's where Magnusson comes from. However, these people were still using the patronymic naming system. That is why Fredrik was Persson - that was his Last Name at Birth and also his name when he emigrated.

There is some problem with the images at Riksarkivet at the moment, or I would provide some sources (will try to remember later).

The second half of the 19th century - when so many people emigrated - was pretty chaotic namewise in Sweden. It was during this time that people who didn't already have a family name made the transition from the patronymic system to a system with inheritable family names. You never know where in the process of transition a particular person would be, without checking the sources - and American indexes of Swedish birth records (where a last name of the child is rarely mentioned) tend to make this error of assigning the patronymic of the father as the surname of the child. This could be true in some cases, but in the majority of cases it won't be.

Comments

Still just a black screen instead of images at Riksarkivet, but it struck me that the household record I was looking at in ArkivDigital is within the range used by FamilySearch (color, but lower quality than the AD originals). The record is Amnehärad (R) AI:20 (1886-1890) p. 13. Here it is at FamilySearch:

"Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1880-1930", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLPN-7C1S : 3 November 2022), Fredrik Persson, 1890. - Image

Fredrik (born -71 11/1) appears on line 5 in the household of his father. Then he appears a second time on line 20 of the same page as dr(ängen) Fredrik Persson (born -71 11/1). He has been off working elsewhere, but returned to his home village before leaving for America in -88 (which you can see to the far right.

These Swedish Household Examination books differ from a census in being used for several years, changes in a household entered in the book as they happen, which is why Fredrik appears twice on the same page in spite of being a single person.

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The father is listed as

• Pehr Gust Magnusson
• Per Gust Magnusson
• Per Gustaf Magnusson

Why the difference in the first two names? Is the father's LNAB Magnusson?

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Fredrik's place of birth is listed as :

• in the Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1859-1947:  Lyrestad, Skaraborg (Västra Götaland), Sverige (Sweden)
• in the Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys, 1880-1893:  Amnehärad, Skaraborg (Västra Götaland), Sverige (Sweden)

Which is the correct place of birth?

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Only two spelling variants for Per?

You can get Per, Pehr, Pär, Peter and Petter and more as name variants for the same person.

Gust is not a Swedish name variant of Gustaf, as far as I know. It should be taken as an abbreviation. Oh yes, there is a dot after Gust. in that record, but it could as well have been missing. While Swedish record keepers were somewhat obsessive about always entering all given names for a person in the records, they didn't shy away from abbreviations, sometimes even using initials.

Per Gustaf Magnusson was born in Amnehärad 9 May 1828 to Magnus Zachrisson and his wife Sara Andersdotter. So yes, his LNAB was the patronymic Magnusson.
Amnehärad (R) C:5 (1822-1860) Bild 18. (Still no luck with Riksarkivet).

Magnus Zachrisson was born in Amnehärad 6 October 1790 to Sachris Larsson and his wife Cathrina Magnusdotter. So I guess his LNAB would have to be Sachrisson with Zachrisson as CLN.

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Fredrik was born in Amnehärad.

Amnehärad (R) C:7 (1861-1877) Bild 95

Lyrestad was in the same hundred, Vadsbo härad, but so were almost 50 other parishes. I'm not amused by the indexes you are using.

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Expecting names to consistently have the same spelling at that time is almost like expecting them to always be printed with the same typeface!

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OK, I added a birth record and two household records to Fredrik's profile. I get to the images at Riksarkivet this morning, but it's extremely slow, so something is still wrong. They had scheduled downtime for some major overhaul last weekend, so it may be related.

Answer 2

The birth registration is the primary document and that name is what is considered the LNAB. It should be recorded as Magnusson as that is what happened. Recording the changes that happened to a LNAB can be explained in the bio. And in the information boxes above you can record the name (Peerson) in the "Current Last Name" box as being the version they were using when they died, with previous versions/spellings in "Other Last Names".

Then when someone reads the bio they can see the progression. A documented history of the LNAB.

Comments

I'm sorry, but you are recommending the wrong LNAB - do take a peek at my answer for an explanation.

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Thank you Eva, that explains things. That must make tracing Swedish families very difficult! My standard LNAB formula obviously does not work in this situation!

The Swedish birth index recorded the name as Magnusson and so I took that to be correct. (at least the government felt it was?)

I have now done some reading on the naming system. Even that is confusing depending on the source. I checked a couple of Swedish sources which said 1901 was when the change to a consistent surname was made law. Another source says it was only encouraged in 1901, and was not abolished in Sweden until 1963.

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Actually tracing Swedish families is much easier than families almost anywhere else. The index referred to in the question is certainly not something from "the government", but an index made by some foreign company.