Marttinen, Martensson, Mortonson or something else?

+3 votes
377 views

John Morton is a one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. He has Finnish roots, as you can read from Wikipedia. The problem is the family name, which has changed many times and the original name is quite unclear as well.

Morton's great grandfather was born in Finland, which was at time under Swedish rule. Most of the priests were Swedish and names in the church records were often in Swedish, even if the people themselves used the Finnish variants. Morton's great grandfather in Finnish literature is Martti Marttinen, but I've also seen variations such as Morton Mortonson, Morton Mortensen and Martin Martinson. My ancestors from Marttinen family were recorded as Martin.

Does anyone know which name should be used for Martti Marttinen? There are at least two different profiles for the same person in WikiTree as well (Marttinen, Mortonson).

Edit: Found also Mårten Mårtenson and Mortenson Morton.

WikiTree profile: Martti Marttinen
in Genealogy Help by Teemu Väisänen G2G Crew (510 points)
edited by Teemu Väisänen

1 Answer

+2 votes

Hei Teemu!

The Swedish Colonial Society uses Mårten Mårtensson as his name. What last name at birth would have been used in Rautalampl, Pohjanmaa, Finland?  Is it possible that records could exist for him there?

Mårtensson-75 is a duplicate profile.  I found yours' by working back from John Morton.

If you can edit this question, would you kindly add the tags Sweden, New_Sweden, and Finland so those following could lend a hand?  There are duplicates for his Swedish born kids and I'm not sure which surnames to use.

Thank you,
Heather

by H Husted G2G6 Mach 8 (83.8k points)
Hi Heather! (and Teemu, if you are still around).

This is just an opinion: I think the first man in this line should be Martti Marttinen at birth, because he was born in Finland (even if the priest or taxman was Swedish and wrote the name down in Swedish or Latin). About the existence or nonexistence of birth records in Finland in the first decades of the 1600s I know nothing.

His namesake son should be Mårten Mårtensson at birth, because he was born in Sweden (in the province of Värmland, presumably, because the Finns that went on the Eagle in 1654 were recruited from Värmland). Then they should probably both have their names in all the three languages somewhere in their profiles.

"The Swedish Colonial Society uses Mårten Mårtensson" - and, I suppose that Swedish genealogy does the same, because Swedish genealogy in general will rather use the principle of having standardized/agreed-upon names for individuals and families (often stating the principle for standardization in the intro to a given work) than the WikiTree principle of basing profiles on their Last Name at Birth.

About the existence of early birth records in Värmland I do know something: there aren't any. There are very few parishes in Sweden where there are birth records for, say, the first half of the 1600s - which is, of course, unfortunate for all the emigrants to New Sweden. You need to be a real specialist/historian to know what other types of sources there may be and how to find them :-(
Mårten Mårtensson (Martti Marttinen) born Rautalampi Kuopio Finland Dead 31.5. 1706 New Castle Delaware Usa. He was married 3 times Margaret Eskilsson b 1624 Rautalampi Finland

I have the finish genealogy for this.

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