Some Background About Sweden
A note about the Swedish language
There are no “j” sound in the Swedish language. Words spelled with a “j” are
pronounced “y” as in “yeah”. The “w” is pronounced “v” and is not a special
letter or sound of its own. If “k” comes before an “n” it is sounded. There
are three extra letters after Z in the Swedish alphabet - å, ä, and ö. The ö
is pronounced similar to our short o (ŏ) but with the mouth a little wider
open. Try it with the word “hot”. Now substitute a “y” for “j” and you can
say Jöns in Swedish.
The patronymic system of naming was used in Sweden, especially by those
living in rural areas and those of the laboring class. This was the practice
by which a child’s last name was that of his or her father. A boy named Ole
whose father was Swan was Ole, Swan’s son, or Ole Swansson. A girl named
Olga was Olga, Swan’s dotter (daughter, in English) or Olga Swansdotter.
This birth name was hers for life because women did not change their name at
the time of marriage. The practice of taking a permanent surname was not
started until 1860, beginning in the urban areas and gradually spreading
into the rural areas. Unfortunately for those doing family history research,
not everyone in a family chose to take a permanent surname at the same
time.
Some persons were identified by their occupation or the place where they
lived rather than by who their father was. A boy who lived on a farm called
Rosvold might be called Ole Rosvold. Someone who emigrated to the United
States from a Scandinavian country might take a permanent name here this
way. Just think, instead of being Andersons, we could have been Karstads or
Damhusets.
Land divisions in past and present Sweden
Where did this family come from in Sweden? Notes in the ELA Papers say the
Andersons came from Skony. But no map of the country contains that name.
Finally the mystery was solved by the leader of
a workshop on Scandinavian
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research who immediately understood that the word pronounced (skō’-nē) is actually spelled Skåne. It is one of the historic Landskaps or Provinces in Sweden and is located on the southern tip of the country. There are 25 Provinces which form natural, cultural, geographical divisions of the country but are not political subdivisions.
For governmental purposes the country
is divided into 24 Läns or Counties. These counties are divided into
districts. There are about 300 districts, each made up of from two
to twenty parishes.
David Anderson came from Osterslof
Parish in the Lund Diocese. Lund was organized before the
reformation and covers the Provinces of Skåne and Blekinge.
Osterslof Parish is located in Willand District in the county or län
of Kristianstad
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See Skåne here on the southern tip of the country? |
Why did they immigrate?
According to scholars who have researched this question, the following are
seen as reasons for immigration from Sweden.
1) Economic – Jobs, land. Prospects were fading in Sweden as opportunities
arose in the United States.
2) Decline in infant mortality which resulted in the appearance of
overpopulation.
3) Technological unemployment.
4) Inheritance patterns – Primogeniture, the eldest inherits all the land,
was not followed in Sweden. Landed estates were divided so many times they
became too small to provide a living.
5) Religion – The Lutheran Church was very orthodox, conservative and
powerful, and it levied a heavy tax. Conservative immigrants formed or
joined Augustana Lutheran churches in the United States. More liberal Swedes
became Methodists or Mission (Swedish) Covenants.
6) Draft dodging
7) “America Fever”
8) Chain migration – One family member left to be followed by others.
There were several phases of Swedish emigration. During the first phase,
from the mid-1840’s to the mid-1850’s, about 15,000 persons come to this
country from Sweden. They were religious dissenters and farm families. In
the second major phase, from 1863-1873, more than 100,000 Swedes arrived.
There were major crop failures in 1867 and 1868. People were attracted by
the Homestead Act and by railroad propaganda advertising land. These were
mostly people with an agricultural background.
An economic depression in the U. S. followed by drought and grasshoppers in
the Midwest caused the flow of Swedish emigrants to slow to a trickle for
about six years. Then the third phase began in 1879 and lasted until 1893.
In this fourteen-year period nearly 500,000 people came from Sweden for a
variety of reasons. There was a crisis in Swedish timber and iron
industries. Agricultural competition from this country and Russian grain
production adversely affected the Swedish agricultural economy. There was an
increase in the number of emigrants from the Swedish industrial sector
during this phase. They were attracted by better wages and working
conditions here. More individuals as opposed to groups immigrated during
this phase.
In the period from the turn of the century to about 1914 there were
increasing numbers of urban, young, single adults coming to the United
States. They were attracted by the labor market in this country so they
settled mostly on the east and west coast. The same was true during the
final phase of immigration in the 1920’s.
(Information from lecture, Swedish Immigration
by Dr. Fred Leubke, history professor (now retired) at the University of
Nebraska/Lincoln, speaker for the Nebraska Committee for the Humanities, May
26, 1994)
ANDERSON
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