Sweden & Norway - Brief History, Language and Geography

This page is quite long but it has many interesting graphics, maps and audio (including me speaking Swedish). For example, I will teach you some Swedish and Norwegian words, including how to say Söderling properly in Swedish. There is a detailed section on where each of our recent Swedish/Norwegian ancestors came from, including maps. Also, photos and stories about the cuisine and Christmas traditions of Sweden and Norway, including some pictures at Grandma Wally's. If you're not interested in a very brief history or language lesson you should scroll down about 2/3 of the page to find maps, family trees, lists and more about the geographical location of each of our recent Scandinavian ancestors. Finally, at the bottom of the page I have included two popular Swedish songs when I was in Sweden in 1982 - "Två av Oss" if you want to hear a Swedish pop ballad, and a more familiar "Honey, Honey" by ABBA in Swedish.

Very Brief Swedish/Norwegian History

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland are known as the "Nordic Countries" or Northern countries. The five countries have been closely aligned and some have even been merged as one at different times over their history. Nordic and Scandinavian are sometimes used as synonyms, however, depending on who you ask they may not be. Most Swedes and Norwegians consider Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland as "Scandinavia" because they are very similar in culture and language, while the Finnish language is entirely different and not even part of the Indo-European language tree (see graphic below). The Finnish culture is much more aligned to the Scandinavian countries however, so it is not a simple answer as to whether they are Scandinavian, most people outside of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland consider all five countries as Scandinavia.

Early Scandinavian history is mostly known for the Viking era (@800-1100) where the Swedish Vikings pillaged much of Eastern Europe, while the Norwegian Vikings concentrated more on Britain and Northwest Europe, even reaching North America. Erik the Red began in Norway and eventually reached  L'Anse Aux Meadows in what is today Newfoundland, Canada. The Vikings didn't just pillage, they built small villages as part of their trade route and had a big influence on Europe and even left remnants of their stay in Newfoundland (see the photo below). The Viking era ended with the Norwegian loss to the English in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

In 1387, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark united into the Kalmar Union led by Queen Margaret of Denmark. Sweden left the Union and under King Gustav Vasa became a very large military power in Northern Europe during the 1600s. Vasa broke with the Catholic Church and Sweden, along with most of Scandinavia, became Lutheran. The Lutheran Church had much power in Scandinavia and was responsible for most of the record-keeping in Sweden and certain parts of Norway. Sweden had conquered most of Finland, parts of Norway, Denmark, the Baltic nations and even Northern Germany during the height of the Swedish empire. In 1700, Sweden had much of the land taken back when it lost the Great Northern War against Germany, Russia and Denmark.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden sided with Napoleon and with his defeat the Swedes lost Finland to Russia in 1809, but took Norway in 1814. Norway remained part of Sweden until 1905 when they were granted independence on June 7th, 1905. Parts of Finland still speak Swedish and are much more aligned with the Swedish culture and language than Finnish - learn more below under languages.

During most of the 18th through 20th centuries, Scandinavia was quite poor and primarily agrarian. The Lutheran Church was very powerful and collected taxes and controlled migration. One could not move without permission of, or at least notifying, the pastor. Since the Church kept track of all the people and their movements, we have excellent records, particularly, in Sweden. Beginning in the mid-20th Century, Sweden became a strong industrial country and much wealthier than Norway, or the other Scandinavian countries. During WWII, Sweden remained "neutral" and was not occupied by Germany as Norway, Finland and Denmark were. The Norwegians, Finns and Danes resented Sweden's "neutrality," they would argue Sweden indeed did not remain neutral because they let Germany move supplies and troops across Sweden from Norway to Finland under an agreement King Gustav V signed with Hitler. When I visited Norway in 1982, there was still strong resentment from the Norwegians to the Swedes. Part of the hard feelings came from Sweden's tremendous economic growth during and especially after the War. Sweden's industry was not bombed during the War, so it was able to produce large quantities of goods to sell to all of war-devastated Europe in the late-1940s and into the 50s.

Another part of the Norwegian dislike of the Swedes goes way back to the Swedish union from 1814-1905 and before when Sweden annexed Norway. Many of us remember Grandma Ackerman reciting a line from a Norwegian poem: "ten thousand Swedes ran through the weeds chased by one Norwegian." She learned that saying from Nana who left Norway shortly after its independence in 1905. Anna's son Carl was born in Sweden (Östersund) and there was, and still is, free movement between the two countries.

Parts of Norway remained quite poor right up until the 1980s; in fact, Nana and Grandma Ackerman used to send care packages to the relatives in Northern Norway, where Anna was from, right up until Nana's death in 1963. I visited Anna's oldest son Carl Normann's son Arne for Christmas in 1981 and during Spring break in 1982 while I was living in Sweden for grad school. He lived in a small town in Southern Norway called Mesnali, which was just up the mountain from Lillehammer where they held the 1994 Winter Olympics. They couldn't have been nicer to me. That side of the family was quite well off because Carl had learned photography and created a company that did postcards and photography work (here is a link to a short bio on him and an award he received, be sure to select English at the top when you first get to the page). Read more about Carl and his family on the Normann Page.

Beginning in the 1980s, Norway's economy took off with the drilling of oil in the North Sea and today is on par with Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries' robust economies. Norway is the most scenic and beautiful country I've seen in my life. The fjords are absolutely breathtaking.

Patronymic vs. Surname

Swedes and Norwegians used the patronymic naming system right up until the late-1800s. The system is easy, simply take your father's first name as your last name and add son or daughter. Example: Anders Jansson (b. 1744 in Lisa Berggren's line) had a son and a daughter - Johan and Margaretta. Their names became Johan Andersson and Margaretta Andersdotter. Johan's son became Johan Johansson or Jansson since those names (Johan and Jan) are often interchanged. The most common name in Sweden for years was Anders, so there are a lot of Anderssons. Many dropped one of the "s" when they came to the U.S. or threw the "son" out all together in America. Example: Eric Christoffersson became Eric Christopher. Grandma Wally loved to say, 'Eric threw a son out in the ocean.'

Here is a trick to distinguish between a Swede and Norwegian (Dane): Swedes use "son" to spell son and the Norwegian/Danish use "sen" as son. So, a Swede would be Andersson, and a Norwegian Anderssen. The Swedish word for daughter is "dotter" and Norwegian is "datter" Again, another distinction. Example: Sivert Larsen, where is he from? Norway - "...sen." Now, many American record keepers simply recorded either version as "son," so it is not uncommon to see Larsen listed as Larson in the American census or other records. You will notice if you read Sivert and Anna's biographies the local paper (The Acorn) referred to them as "Larson."

Brief Lesson on Swedish (Svenska) and Norwegian (Norsk) Language

First, let's look at the five Nordic Countries and see how they spell and pronounce their country's name in their native languages:

Sweden = "Sverige"

Norway = "Norge"

Denmark = "Danmark"

Iceland - "Ísland"

Finland = "Suomi"

As I pointed out above, Finnish isn't even an Indo-European language. That is why Finland is gray on the map below when distinguishing language groupings. The best guess is that it comes from the Ural Mountains in Russia - it is a Uralic language, specifically Finno-Ugric. You can identify Finnish pretty quickly because of their use of double vowels and sometimes consonants. Examples: "Mitä kuuluu?" = How are you? "Hyvää yötä" = Good night. According to DNA analysis on several sites, we have some Finnish DNA (see DNA page), in fact, as much as 8% by some measures. I have traced some relatives back to the Swedish parts of Finland (along the coast - see the red parts of Finland on the map below). Only 5.3% of Finns speak Swedish as their mother tongue according to recent surveys, back when I was in Sweden in 1981-82 it was thought to be closer to 8%. Swedish is still an official language of Finland, however, if you want to get a cold shoulder try speaking Swedish to a Finn. I know from firsthand experience. Much like many of the Canadians don't like having to learn French, or English depending on the part of the country, the Finns don't appreciate having to learn Swedish as part of the remnants of the Swedish control of Finland so many years ago. By the way, almost all Finns are fluent in English, just like the Swedes and Norwegians and most of Western Europe. It's fun to think about had we grown up in Finland what would life be like - I got glimpse when I visited Helsinki in March 1982:

Story on the above picture: The Laplanders (Sami in Finnish) live in Northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia following the reindeer (called caribou in the Western Hemisphere) moving freely across borders. They come to the cities in the spring/summer months to sell their products they made from reindeer. One of the Lapps threw this hat on me, and my friend Rob snapped the photo. No, I didn't buy the hat, although it is a good look on me, especially now that I don't have any hair.

The Swedish and Norwegian languages are somewhat close to English in that they are Germanic languages based on pretty much the same alphabet as English with a few differences. See the map below for the three main language groups in Europe. Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can understand each other both in the spoken and the written language. Danish and Norwegian are much closer to each other than Swedish because Norway and Denmark were in that union I wrote about above from 1537-1814. The problem with researching both the Swedish and Norwegian written languages is there was no singular agreed-upon national language or spelling until around 1900, so different regions spelled the words differently, or used entirely different words that meant the same thing. Even today, the Norwegian language is divided between Bokmål or Nynorsk. About 80% of the Norwegians use Bokmål, this most likely what Nana, Sivert and Anna spoke and wrote.

I never became fluent in Swedish, or even close, because almost all the Swedes could speak some English and it was just too easy to slip into English. The conversations usually started with me trying to speak my broken Swedish and them responding in English and scratching their heads as to what I was trying to say (plus, my courses were taught in English except for a mandatory Swedish language class in the morning). I had taken one year of Norwegian at the University of Michigan before I went to Sweden, but that turned out to be more of a hinderance in some ways. When I first got to Sweden, I would say something in really bad Norwegian and they would say "I can understand Norwegian, but I don't have a clue what you're saying."

I would guess about 50-60% of the vocabulary between Swedish and Norwegian is the same with minor spelling variations - like the English word "family" - Swedish: "familj" Norwegian: "familie." The biggest difference is in pronunciation, the Norwegians are famous for their singsong pronunciation, as with many languages the change in tone can make a difference in which meaning of a word is meant. Americans are famous for flat tones, especially "r's" Swedes can always tell right away if you're an American even if you're fluent in their language because our "r's" are so flat.

So, without trying to spend much time teaching you Swedish and Norwegian words I am going to point out a few tricks and words that might be helpful if you endeavor to read any of the millions of Swedish or Norwegian records that are available online, or I have included in this website. Don't be scared but I have an example of a Swedish record and a mini-quiz below.

First, there are three extra Swedish letters - all vowels - ä, å, ö and the corresponding Norwegian extra vowels - æ, å, ø. Often the two dots in Swedish are handwritten as just a line or mark over the "a" or "o." We don't have these vowels in English, so the immigrants to the U.S. simply converted them to "a" or "o," which actually changed the pronunciation of many words or names. Here are the three vowels spoken in Swedish and how we say them in English: Swedish = "ä, å, ö" - in English = a, a, o:

Norwegian "æ, å, ø" - in English a, a, o:

Any of you who have talked to me about our relatives, the Söderlings/Soderlings, may have noticed I pronounce Söderling different than we are used to hearing. The ö is pronounced like a "ur" together. When Knut came to the U.S., he simply used "Soderling" as the spelling of his last name since we don't have the ö. This changed the pronunciation of his last name Söderling. Here are the three different pronunciations - first me in Swedish using farmorfar (great grandfather on father's mother's side) to make the distinction between Swedish and English, then two English variations (phonetically "soda-erling" and "sod-erling"), the second audio is how a Swede would pronounce "Söderling" and then the voice pronouncing "Soderling" as said in English - notice my flat "r" compared to hers in Swedish but we are quite similar when pronouncing Soderling in English:

By the way, Söderling means 'southerner' in Swedish. It was not uncommon for Swedes to take a directional or farm name when they switched from the patronymic system to a common surname passed down from generation to generation. In this case, it was Johan, born in 1750, who first took the last name Söderling, which is actually quite early to replace the patronymic system with a common surname.

They have the three extra vowels but that is partly because they don't pronounce their other vowels like we do. I am not going to go into the details because I am trying to make this short, I know failed - ha. I just wanted to point out a story about Nana's pronunciation that mom often told. They don't distinguish between "v" and "w" for the most part, in fact the "w" is pronounced "double v" when you're listing the alphabet. When Nana was traveling with Mom and Aunt Patty as they were looking for motels she would often say 'there is no "wacancy" there girls.' Mom used to get a kick out of that, and it stuck with her all those years as she would tell me that story often. Nana had an accent for sure, but not as thick as Anna's. Nana came to America and had to learn English at 16, Anna was 43 years old.

One thing that makes Swedish and Norwegian a bit of a challenge at times is how they deal with the articles ("a", "an" and "the"). Non-possessive singular "a" and "an" are pretty easy, use either "en" or "ett." Which one depends on the word and a Swede or Norwegian just must remember which article goes with which word, unlike English where we have a rule: if the noun starts with a vowel we use "an" and a consonant we use "a," with a couple of exceptions. The possessive article "the" goes on the end of the word in Swedish and Norwegian* and sometimes makes it hard to figure out the word, especially if it's plural. The trick is to just focus on the root word. Examples: "a worker" = "en arbetare" and "the worker" = "arbetaren" - "a hospital" = "ett sjukhus" and "the hospital" = "sjukhuset" Just to throw you a curve let's do "the workers" = "arbetarna" Once again, if we focus on the root word "arbeta..." we can pretty much figure out they are talking about workers. Last point, to make a word plural they usually just change the last vowel and add an "r" at the end - "read" = "läsa" - "he reads" = "hon läser" - "street" = "gata" "streets" = "gator"

*Note: this explains why many Swedes and Norwegians drop the article "the" when learning English - "I go to store" rather than "I go to the store."

Just a few words (27) in each language that pertain to genealogy (audio below is Swedish than Norwegian if different):

Sweden = Sverige and Norway = Norge

Sverige

Norge

English "Swedish" = Swedish "Svenska" when saying language - "Svensk" when saying the people of Sweden

English "Norwegian" = Norwegian "Norsk" both people and language

English "I" and "me" = Swedish "jag" & "meg" (pronounced "ya" & "may") Norwegian "jeg" & "meg" (pronounced "yi" & "may")

English "he" or "him" = Swedish & Norwegian "han"

English "she" or "her" = Swedish & Norwegian "hon" ("hers" = "hennes")

English "reads" = Swedish "läser" & Norwegian "leser"

English "good" = Swedish & Norwegian "god" or "bra" (pronounced "gud" & "bra")

English "some" = Swedish "någon" & Norwegian "noen" (pronounced "noon")

English "yes" = Swedish & Norwegian "ja" (pronounced "ya")

English "no" = Swedish "nej" & Norwegian "nei"

English "name" = Swedish "namn" & Norwegian "navn"

English "born" = Swedish "född" & Norwegian "født"

English "born illegitimate" = Swedish "född oäkta" or "o.ä." Norwegian "født uekte"

English more polite "unknown father" = Swedish "ökand" Norwegian "ukjent"

English "died" = Swedish "död" & Norwegian "døde"

English "birthday" = Swedish "födelsedag" & Norwegian "fødselsdag"

English "year" = Swedish & Norwegian "år" (pronounced "or")

English "church" = Swedish "kyrka" & Norwegian "kirke"

English "city" = Swedish "stad" & Norwegian "by"

English "house" = Swedish & Norwegian "hus"

English articles "a" or "an" = Swedish "en" or "ett" & Norwegian "en" or "et"

English article "the" = Swedish added to end of word "huset"

Example "a house" = "ett hus" "the house" = "huset" or "the station" = "stationen"

English "move" = Swedish "flyttad" &Norwegian "flyttet"

English "servant" = Swedish "piga" or "tjänare" & Norwegian "hushjelp" or "tjener"

English "worker" and "peasant" = Swedish "arbetare" and "dräng" and Norwegian "arbeider" and "bonde"

English "marriage" = Swedish "åktenskap" and Norwegian "ekteskap"

English "married" = Swedish & Norwegian "gift" (pronounced "yift")

English "wife" = Swedish "fru" or "hustru" and Norwegian "fru" or "kone"

English "husband" = Swedish "man" or "make" & Norwegian "ektemann" or "mann"

English "children" = Swedish & Norwegian "barn"

English "girl" = Swedish "flicka" or "tjej" & Norwegian "pike" or "jente"

English "boy" = Swedish "pojke" or "kille" & Norwegian "gutt"

English "father" = Swedish & Norwegian = "far" or "pappa"

English "mother" = Swedish & Norwegian = "mor" or "mamma"

I love the way they identify their grandparents. We either use paternal or maternal, or more often say specifically which set of grandparents we are referring to. In Sweden and Norway, grandparents are identified by which side of the family they belong. So, your mother's mother is "mormor" Your mother's father is "morfar" Your father's mother is "farmor" and your father's father is "farfar" Pretty simple and once you get used to it a very nice way to make the distinction between grandparents. Of course, you can just call them "bästamor" or "bästafar" in Swedish or "bestemor" or "bestefar" in Norwegian. You guessed it, "best mother" and "best father"

Christmas

One last thing about language and culture, What about Christmas? In Norway and Sweden, they call Christmas "Jul" (pronounced "yule"). It's tradition to dress in costumes and dance around the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve (Julaften in Norway and Julafton in Sweden). They decorate their trees with strings of national flags, popcorn and candles. Each of the five Nordic countries has a cross on its flag to symbolize their conversion to Christianity centuries ago. Each flag has unique colors that are considered the national colors of those countries. The children put treats in the barn for their Santa (jultomten in Sweden and julnissen in Norway). If they are good, he will bring them presents on Christmas Eve. I thought it was cool when I learned that the Swedes and Norwegians open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve just like we did as children. As with all countries, some celebrate a more religious holiday, and others treat it more secular.

In Sweden and Norway, December 13th is St. Lucia's Day or the festival of lights. As songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucia carry cookies and saffron buns in a procession in the streets or in the church. They symbolize bringing the Light of Christ into a dark world. Boys will participate in the procession also, but people notice the girls who wear a ring of lit candles around their head. Today, they use battery-operated lights and not candles for safety's sake.

Here are some photos I took of Arne, Randi, Carl, Nina, Ragnar and Ingrid dancing around their Christmas Tree on Julaften 1981 in Mesnali, Norway. The photo of the St. Lucia girl is from the web. See below under Swedish Cuisine to see photos and video of Grandma Wally's Christmas.

Mini-Quiz on Swedish Records

Let's see what you've learned. Here is a Church household record (or census) for Eric Bernhard Christopher. What year was he born? Year and day? Who was his father? Is either Eric or Johanna married? What year did Johanna move to this place (Domnarvets - Domnarf in the record)? Can either of them read? What about Johanna's brother - can you read his name and his wife's name? What year were they born? Are their children girls or boys? What kind of work does her brother do?

Answers: Eric was born April 22, 1866 (look under Födelse- column). Note: Europeans generally list the day, month, and then year, (22-4-1866) while we list month, day, and year (4-22-1866) - definitely worth knowing if you do genealogical research for any European country. Eric is "o.ä" which means father unknown. Neither Johanna nor Eric were married during this time period, we find this answer under "Åtenskap" and column "Gift." Both are blank. Johanna moved to Domnarvets in 1865 (look under Flyttad). Eric is too young to read because this listing is from 1861-1869 (the pastor visited the parishioners once per year to keep the records, so he visited Eric from birth to when he was about three years-old). Johanna is an adult and she cannot read ('n' under all the columns of Läser). Johanna's brother is named August Lundberg listed on line 1, he was born November 13, 1837. His "fru" Clara Borg was born January 1, 1815. I didn't ask but they, along with Johanna, were born in Säfsnäs, which is another parish in Dalarna (see map below). August and Clara have three daughters (D. before each name listed, if they were sons, they would have S.). If you remember from above "arbetare" is a "worker," the pastor included the work of each person who was working in almost all records. "Arbetare" means the same as "dräng," a manual laborer. Last point of interest from this record, August and Clara moved here on December 20, 1864. Every person had to report to the pastor whenever they moved in or out of a parish, often even within the parish from one neighborhood to another. Makes great records for genealogists but was a part of a pretty oppressive regime that was a part of the reason many Swedes left Sweden for North America. If you're wondering it reads "hennes" above Eric's name - that means "hers," it is used to distinguish a child when one of the parents is not the biological father or mother.

See below for much more on where our ancestors came from.

OK, I know you want to hear me speak Swedish so here goes:

Now, here is how it should sound if I was truly speaking Swedish with the right tones and pace:

Do you have any idea what we said?

In Swedish "Jag heter Laurence Christopher och jag bor i Portage, Michigan. Min far är Warren Christopher och min mor är Karen Ackerman. Jag älskar Sverige och Norge. Tack för att du besöker den här webbplatsen. Jag hoppas att du tycker att min webbplats är informativ och rolig. Hej då, ta det lugnt" translated "My name is Laurence Christopher and I live in Portage, Michigan. My father is Warren Christopher and my mother is Karen Ackerman. I love Sweden and Norway. Thank you for visiting this website. I hope you find my site informative and entertaining. Goodbye, take it easy."

So, as you figured out "Jag prata ganska dålig svenska" in other words: "I speak really poor Swedish," no wonder all the Swedes wanted to switch to English when I tried to carry on a conversation - :).

Two quick stories: My friend Rob and I were driving around Sweden and Norway in a car his friend let him borrow (a brand-new Saab). We were right before the beginning of the tourist season and at one cottage site in rural Norway the owner couldn't speak a word of English, his help had not arrived yet. I was able to use my broken Norwegian mixed with poor Swedish to secure us a room and carry on a 30-minute conversation with him explaining where my relatives were from... it was an awesome moment, and he was super impressed that I could speak some "Norsk." Rob was bored and wanted to get the keys to our cabin, or I would have gone on longer. On the other hand, there were two women I wanted to date, and they couldn't speak English and it went horribly! Wish it could have been the other way around.

The other language story I have is cute. When I was staying with Arne Normann and his family, his granddaughter Ranghild was only three years old, and she hated when we would speak in English. On the third day, she came to me and sat on my lap with a book and started pointing at the pictures and telling me what the word was in Norwegian -"dette er en hest" - "this is a horse"... It was so funny, everyone laughed because she decided she was going to teach me Norwegian so we would quit speaking English.

Brief Swedish and Norwegian Geography - (where did our people come from? And, how do we find them?)

Sweden

Sweden is divided into 21 län or counties, governmental units. There used to be 24 counties before they reorganized the county system and combined four together called Västergötland (sometimes listed as Väster Götland) in 1997 & '98. This impacts us because some of our ancestors were born in the formerly named Skaraborg and Älvsborg counties that became Västergötland county. Also, as mentioned below, Kopparberg County became Dalarna County. The name of the county is important because that is how most of the genealogical records are listed. Within each county are "hundreds" which can be thought of as our townships. Within the townships are parishes. This is the basic unit for genealogical research and very important information to have.

I'll use Eric Bernhard Christoffersson as an example: He was born in Kopparberg (now Dalarna County), in the parish of Stora Tuna on April 22, 1866, as we learned above. Stora Tuna is a very large parish so it would take you many hours to find him listed in the Church census (Husförhörslängder) books because there are seven volumes (up to 500 pages each) just for the census from 1861-1869 during which time he was born and first listed. The parishes are divided up into small neighborhoods or villages. If you know the neighborhood, you have a very good chance of finding the person you're looking for provided the record still exists and the vast majority have been preserved and photocopied. So, Eric was born in Domnarvets neighborhood, or part of a village, in Stora Tuna. This is very helpful because we can now go through any census in Stora Tuna and see if he is still in that part of the parish. At the beginning of each household census book, there is a listing of the neighborhoods and what pages they are on if they are in that book. So, knowing he is in Domnarvets is so helpful because there are only a handful of pages for that neighborhood.

A couple quick other notes about genealogy work in Sweden. There are many books that the pastor kept. There is a book of just people moving in (inflyttnings) and out (utflyttnings) of the parish. There are also books with just births and christenings (födelse- och dop- bok ), and deaths (dödbok) by parish which makes it much easier to find the person if you know the date of a birth or death. Once you locate these valuable records it will list where the parents are living at the time of the birth and then you can go to the household records book to find out much more about the person. That is if you can read the pastor's handwriting. Keep in mind they were using quill pens with ink wells, and many were very sloppy in their penmanship, and I mentioned earlier there wasn't uniform vocabulary or spelling between parishes. Pre-1800 is very, very hard to read, it doesn't take me long to give up.

Where did our people come from in Sweden?

The Swedish Side:

Dalarna, Sweden (Christopher - Lundberg - Berggrens)

Dalarna Birth Locations (see map above - click to enlarge): Eric Christoffersson (Stora Tuna), Caroline Berggren (Säter), Johanna Lundberg (Säfsnäs), Johan Berggren (Säter), Elizabeth (Lisa) Andersdotter (Gustafs). See each person's biography to learn more.

Dalarna was a particularly poor part of Sweden, mostly rural and hilly. All of the Christophers and Berggrens come from southern Dalarna. The county was officially Kopparbergs Län (county) from the 1600s through 1990s, even though it was known as Dalarna for centuries. In 1997, the county's official name became Dalarna. The two names are often used interchangeably, and one needs to be aware of that when searching through records.

South Central Sweden (Söderlings - Allards)

Östergötland, Västergötland*, & Södermanland

South Central Birth Locations: Knut Söderling (Malmköping, Södermanland), Gerda Allard (Motala, Östergötland), Gustav Söderling (Motala, Östergötland), Inga Maria Östman (Fägre, Skaraborg - *now Västergötland), Gustaf Allard (Kvillinge, Östergötland), Brita Johansdottar (Varnum, Älvsborg - *now Västergötland)

These three counties were geographically right next to each other, and it was common to move across the three searching for work, or a better place to live. The main feature of Östergötland and Västergötland are Sweden's two largest lakes (Vänern and Vättern) kind of splitting the two counties. You can see that Gerda Allard (Grandma Söderling) and Knut's father (Gustav) were both born in Motala right on Lake Vättern.

Sweden to America

It wasn't just Dalarna that was poor, most of the Swedes lived in poverty. Over one-third (one million) of the Swedes immigrated to the United States and Canada from the mid-1800s through to the 1910s. Dad's grandparents all came from Sweden and immigrated to the United States in 1886 (Eric), 1887 (Caroline), 1905 (Knut) and 1907 (Gerda). Most Swedes and Norwegians came over to North America on the Scandinavian America Line. It sailed ships from Denmark, Sweden and Oslo. Some of our relatives came here aboard the Hellig Olav ship - click to see photos of the ship. The Swedes, like almost all immigrants, moved to parts of the United States where their relatives had already established residency - mostly Chicago and the Midwest. From there they spread out to Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and especially Minnesota.

There was a Swedish community on the near Northside of Chicago, called Andersonville north of Lake View and Wrigley Field where Eric had settled. They had their own Swedish language newspapers (Bladet among others) and many Swedish shops. Eric used to advertise in the Bladet - see an ad for Cyclone Wheel, Eric's bicycle company. There was a very popular Swedish bakery (closed in 2017) and there still is the Swedish-American Museum on Clark Street in Andersonville but the Swedes have dispersed throughout the city and the Midwest.

Swedish Cuisine

You may remember some of Grandma Wally's fantastic Christmas dishes (see photos and video below). These are a good sampling of the Swedes' favorite foods. Swedes eat more meat than Norwegians, but they still eat plenty of fish. Swedish love salmon (lax) and pickled herring (inlagd sill). They eat blood pudding (blodpudding), meatballs (köttbullar), potato dumplings filled with meat (kroppkaker), mashed potatoes (potatismos), pea soup with ham (ärtsoppa med skinka) hard bread (knäckebröd), lingonberries, and for dessert gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor), rice pudding (risgrynsgröt) and assorted other cookies (småkakor).

Wally's Christmas Feast - Julafton

Norway

Norway was part of Denmark and Sweden for centuries and was influenced by both countries, yet always held an independent streak. At the end of the Napleonic Wars, Norway declared independence from Denmark on May 17, 1814. However, as mentioned above, Norway was forced into union with Sweden. They were given their independence from Sweden on June 7, 1905; yet, they still celebrate May 17th as their independence day. I happened to be traveling cross-country from Bergen to Lillehammer on May 17, 1982, and I've never seen so many flags in my life. We were stopped in almost every little village to wait for the parade down the only street through town. The Norwegians were all dressed in their native costumes for the celebration. I snapped a few pictures:

Here are some photos I snapped when I traveled through parts of Norway to Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo in 1982:

To see more of my Norway, Sweden and other photos from my year in Sweden check out my Scandinavian Photos Page coming soon.

Much like Sweden, Norway is divided into 15 counties (fylke), or administrative regions (see graphic below). Like Sweden, there have been several changes to the names and boundaries of the counties over the centuries. Just in 2017, there was an attempt to reorganize the counties into 11 but it was met with such resistance that those changes were mostly abandoned.

Norway is nicknamed the "land of the midnight sun," because during the summer solstice in June the sun never sets over Northern Norway, and in the rest of the country it only sets for about 2 hours. Mid-Summer Eve (Sankthansaften) is celebrated between June 23-24 every year throughout the country. The Norwegian make large bonfires and dress in traditional costumes, like Christmas and May 17th, and dance and celebrate all night long. By the way, "Midsommarsafton" is celebrated just as heartily in Sweden. I was in Stockholm during the celebration in 1982 and the sun only went down for about 2 hours that night, I was in bed long before that :).

Norway is a long narrow country with absolutely beautiful fjords all along the coast. Norway's coast is the second longest in the world, after Canada. If you stretched it out it could circle the world 2.5 times. The Norwegians are very dependent on the sea for both their food (fish) and livelihood. A typical Norwegian eats fish six a week. The Norwegians are known as excellent sailors and many Norwegians have spent their young adulthood on the sea, including some of our relatives. It's been passed down through an oral history of the family that Sivert was a merchant marine who went to Africa as a seaman to consider moving there but instead chose North America. Anna's grandson Arne, Carl's son, and Arne's son Carl were in the Norwegian merchant marine. Arne fell sick in 1933 while in port in the United States and came to Harbert for Anna and Nana to nurse him back to health. It used to be almost a rite of passage for young Norwegian men to go to sea in their late teens. Arne and Carl became sailors when they were 16 and 17.

Northern Norway had no industry and was entirely dependent on fishing and the sea until tourism became a big part of their economy in the late-1900s. It is a harsh barren land in spots and then a beautiful village will sprout up along the coast. As mentioned above, most Norwegians were poor and lived a hard subsistence living off of the sea or farming, this was particularly true in Northern Norway. Farms in Northern Norway are often on rocky, rough hills or mountains and rather than raise cows they raise sheep and goats and drink goats milk and make goat cheese (geitost).

Where did our people come from in Norway?

Troms (Jørgensdatter, Jørgensen, Ellingsdatter)

Troms Birth Locations: Anna Jørgensdatter (Ibestad), Jørgen Jørgensen (Dryøy), Ingeborg Ellingsdatter (Keiprød). All of Anna's ancestors come from the various islands and villages in Southwestern Troms.

Troms, formerly Tromsø, is located above the Artic Circle and therefore is very cold in the winter with no sunlight for about a month and 24-hour sun in parts of the summer (midsommars). It was the poorest part of Norway for centuries relying entirely on the sea, as mentioned earlier. It is sparsely populated with small villages dotting a very rugged coastline. Because of the harsh winters and mostly barren land Norwegians from this area were quite hardened and like their fellow northern Swedish and Finnish neighbors had a ruddy skin tone as noted in Anna's description at Ellis Island as she was entering the country. They also note that Anna is partly blind in one eye. See below - click to enlarge. To see the full record of their immigration at Ellis Island click here or visit Anna or Rose's page.

Sør-Trøndelag (Rose Larsen)

Trondheim Birth Locations: Rose Larsen (Trondheim)

Trondheim is the largest city in Central Norway. It is a large seaport that sits inside the Trondheim Fjord. There is an old large fort (Kristiansten Fortress) which was built in the late-1600s and much of it still stands today (see below). One of the other noticeable features of Trondheim is the colorful row of wharves, warehouses and boathouses that fill the wharf (Photo below is mine taken in 1982, today they have repainted all the buildings - see photo next to mine publish by the tourist bureau - you'll know the difference - a filter helps too - ha).

Sivert and Anna were married in Trondheim where he worked as a shoemaker. Alice, Rose, Lydia and Norm were all born in Trondheim. I have a photo I took of their home (it is part of a row of block houses on a cobblestone street) when I was there in 1982. Next to that photo below is a reflection of me in the window of Anna/Nana's former house taken in May 1982. They had a nice living with live-in help and comforts of a middle-class family; however, Sivert had the wanderlust, like so many of our relatives, lucky for us, I guess. He first sailed to Africa (according to family oral history) and then on to Chicago in 1906. He found what he was looking for in the U.S. and sent for Anna, Alice, Rose, Lydia and Norm in 1907, Carl stayed behind. They came to New York aboard the Scandinavian American ship Hellig Olav - click to see photos of the ship. They had taken a train from Trondheim to Kristiania (which was what Oslo was named when they traveled). The Capital was renamed Oslo in 1925 (they went back to its medieval name).

Møre og Romsdal (Larsen, Andersen, Olsdatter)

Møre og Romsdal Birth Locations: Sivert (Grytten), Lars Andersen (Grytten), Brit Olsdatter (Veøy). Sivert's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all born in Grytten. They adopted the last name Dahle (means lived in a valley). Norwegians and Swedes often took the name of the farm or a description of the geography where they lived as they started to adopt surnames rather than the patronymic system of taking your father's first name as your last name (Sivert Larssen).. Both Sivert's father and grandfather went by their father's first name and Dahle. They list Lars in one census as living in Nedre Dahle (the lower valley). Many Norwegians didn't own land but rather worked for someone who did. Usually, they are listed in the census or church records as a gårdsmann/dreng (farmhand or worker) for males and pige/tjener (maid or servant) for females.

Møre og Romsdal is just south of Trondheim's county, Sør-Trøndelag. Like so many of the Norwegian counties it is very influenced by the sea. However, in Central and Southern Norway there were more fertile fields and many Norwegians who didn't live on the coast were farmers, or farmhands. Sivert's folks were tenant farmers (worked the land and shared the profits with the owner). His older brother is listed as a tailor in one census. I suspect that is where Sivert learned his craft of making shoes, a shoemaker (skomaker). His experience growing up on a farm certainly influenced his decision to buy two different farms in Michigan.

The Norwegian records aren't as plentiful as the Swedish records are, but still, they have many records available to help trace our family roots. They did three major censuses in 1865, 1875 and 1891 before conducting regular censuses in the 1900s. There are other church records, but they are a bit spotty from one parish to another. Most do have birth, marriage and death records. They aren't as well-indexed as the Swedish records.

Both Sweden and Norway have free access to many archive records online. Here is a link to Sivert's confirmation in the Norwegian Lutheran Church in 1876 - it is in the right column #6, his twin brother Lars is right above on #5. It lists their parents and confirmation date along with birthdates (25-8-1861). On the Swedish side here is a link to Johanna, Eric and August in the Stora Tuna Census from 1880 using the free Swedish government archive site. These sites are free; however, they are not as well-indexed and searchable as the Church of Latter Day Saints records are. The LDS bought a copy of all the Swedish records in the 1950s and have been digitizing them over the last 20 years or so. They have a couple of genealogy websites that if you pay to belong allow you to search those records.

Norway to America

The Norwegians flocked to the United States in significant numbers also. There were (and are) far fewer Norwegians so their communities tended to be smaller and often right next to the Swedish and Danish neighborhoods, but not always. Both the Swedes and the Norwegians were drawn to Chicago and the Midwest. The Upper Peninsula in Michigan attracted many Norwegians, Swedes and Finns. In fact, the remnants of the Finnish and Norwegian immigration could be felt until very recently. There was a Finnish college, called Suomi College originally, and then Finlandia University toward the end. It is no longer accepting students and closed its doors at the end of the 2023-24 school year. It started as a community college and grew, bringing many Finns to the U.P. from 1896 until 2022.

There is a village in the Upper Peninsula called Norway. They have a nice Norwegian nicknack and souvenir shop there on the main street through town - U.S. 2 in the Western U.P. The Finns, Norwegians, along with many other ethnicities, worked the mines of the Western U.P. (Copper Country). When the mines closed the large cities like Calumet and many others saw people emigrating out of the U.P. to other states. Most of the Norwegians ending up in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

There is a really cool Stave Church (stavkirke) replica in Moorehead, Minnesota. Stavkirke are old churches made of wood and pre-date Christianity coming to Norway, they go back as far as 1150 in parts of Norway. There used to be over 1,000 stavkirke in Norway but many were lost or destroyed and there are only 28 left in Norway today. Some of them are quite large. Notice the dragons on the edge of the roofs, those were part of their Pagan worship, and they just kept them when they converted to Christianity and added the crosses and steeples. Here is a photo I took of the stavkirke in Lillehammer at their outdoor museum in December 1981. Also, I have included a copy of the most famous of them all, Borgund's stavkirke in Lærdal and the Moorehead one in Minnesota on the border with North Dakota.

Norwegian Cuisine

Norwegians eat a lot of fish. It is natural given it is such a long, narrow country with thousands of miles of coastline. Like the Swedes, they eat smoked salmon (røkelaks), pickled herring and cod. The way they prepare their cod is particularly well known and it has a really strong taste because it is cured in lye. It is called "lutefisk." Swedes will eat this also, Grandma Wally loved it. See the t-shirt below, I have one just like that but it doesn't fit me - ha. Everytime I see that t-shirt I laugh because that is exactly how I felt about lutefisk. Norwegians also eat meats that aren't as common in the United States, like: lamb (lam), reindeer (reinsdyr) and moose (elg). Because the soil in Norway is not as conducive for growing vegetables in much of central and northern Norway, "grønnsaker" are sparser and tend to be root in variety. In southern Norway, they have an abundance of vegetables and cattle (Norwegian Reds - bred in 1961) due to much better soil. They do eat cheese, bread and potatoes as well. Norwegian cheeses are very good and fairly popular, even in the United States - goat cheese (geitost) and Jarlsberg cheese are available thoughout the U.S.

I spent about two weeks with Arne's family at Christmas 1981 and again in May 1982. I will never forget the experience. It was wonderful and they treated me so well. It was a culture shock however to experience their food and eating habits. For breakfast they ate cereal or something light. I had a bowl of sugar smacks. In the early afternoon, they eat what they call "middag." I was so excited to see what a big meal "lunch" was. We had fish, potatoes, bread and some other side dishes. I thought I can't wait for dinner :). I was sitting there with my stomach growling and constantly checking the clock until around 8 p.m. That is when Randi said, "shall we have tea?" and she brought out a few cookies and tea. I was like "what? Did I fall asleep and miss dinner?" She could tell by the look on my face how surprised I was. They explained to me the Norwegian diet and it is pretty light compared to Americans.

Their big meal is middag - in fact, it translates to mid-day literally, but actually is used as the word "dinner." Until the 1970s, Norwegian shops and businesses would close around 2 p.m. and everyone would eat middag and take a short nap and go back to work. Today, they don't close down their towns for middag.

To finish my story about eating at the Normann's, every night Randi would fix me a little something when they had their tea. They were so hospitable. The last day I saw Arne that first visit he came up and put his arm around me and said "let me give you some advice from an old man - walk more and eat less" I laughed so hard and still do to this day when I think about it. The Norwegians are some of the fittest humans on earth because they are very active all the time, even in the winter. Cross country skiing is a religion for them. Arne taught me to ski when I was there in the winter. They don't watch TV very much at all. Things have changed with the advent of cable and satellite, but they only had one TV station in all of Norway when I was there. Same was true with Sweden, they had two stations when I was there in 1981-82.

One other note about their diet, I hate fish, well, I tolerate tuna and I like shellfish. Every day we had fish and I got so hungry I learned to eat it. I will never forget the fourth day I was there and they said "we're having moose" for middag. Normally, I would be like "I'll pass," I had never even had venison before. This day I was so excited though because it was red meat! It tasted really good. Here is a photo Arne took of me cross-country skiing.

Swedish Songs:

This first song is my favorite. I love the haunting melody and the play on words. One difference between English and Swedish is we generally only have one word for "you" and its quite informal and it can be used both as a personal pronoun or an object pronoun. Here is the personal pronoun: "You have beautiful eyes." Here it is as an object pronoun: "Can I help you?" or "I love you" We also use "you" in the plural: "You should all come over to my place" or, when I was addressing my class: "In today's lesson, I am going to teach you to read some Swedish words." We always use "you" in the informal sense. An example of a formal use of "you" would be "thou," but we haven't used that word for centuries.

In terms of formal versus informal, the Swedes have long used the informal "you." However, the Swedes have very specific words for "you" depending on which form they are using (by the way, so do most languages). Du = the personal pronoun you. Example: "Du har vackra ögon." "You have beautiful eyes." They use "dig" for the object pronoun form of you. Examples: "Kan jag hjälpa dig" = "Can I help you?" or "Jag äslkar dig" = "I love you" If they want to use a plural form of you, they would use "er" Example: the clerk telling a group of friends that he will help them in a few minutes "Jag hjälper er om några minuter" Or, using my last example above "I dagens lektion ska jag lära er att läsa några svenska ord" - "In today's lesson, I am going to teach you to read some Swedish words."

What does this all have to do with the song? Good question, the song invokes both forms of you as a personal pronoun and an object pronoun to give the catchy chorus/refrain of going from the object to the personal in each case: "Det finns bara en av mig och det är jag, Det finns bara en av dig och de är du, Det finns bara två av oss och det är vi." "There is only one of me and that is I, there is only one of you and that is you, and there is only two of us and that is we" - without the object form of you, "dig," it really wouldn't work. Long way to explain the song - I hope you enjoy it (translation below).

X-models
"Två Av Oss"

Translation:

You
There is something I want to tell you.
It's dark now
and you have gone to bed
And I am lying here next to you
And I want you to see
Oh, I hope you can read my mind.

You
You probably wonder at some point like me
Is there anyone else
who can make you weak
But we are like a puzzle game
Which fits with each part
Oh, I hope you can read my mind

There is only one of me and that is I
There is only one of you and that is you
there's only two of us and that is we.

Time I hope is enough
Oh that it lasts
As long as I want
oh if you hold my hand tightly
Although we become strangers sometimes
Oh, I hope you can read my mind

There is only one of me and that is I
There is only one of you and that is you
there's only two of us and that is we.

There is only one of me and that is I
There is only one of you and that is you
there's only two of us and that is we.

Breathe in my ear (breathe in my ear)
yes listening I want to hear (yes listening I want to hear)
when I got closer (when I got closer)
give me, give me warmth (give me warmth)

Repeat chorus...

For the second song I have the well-known ABBA hit "Honey, Honey" sung in Swedish. Of course, ABBA was a Swedish group but all their hits were in English even though they recorded songs in their native Swedish language (Frieda was Norwegian and couldn't speak English so she sang phonetically).

ABBA
Honey Honey

Honey, honey, underbara, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, söta rara, aha, honey honey
De viskar så söta ord
Du är deras allt på jord
Det där ska du inte tro, bara ta det med ro
Sånt är bara smicker

Honey, honey, inte illa, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, flicka lilla, aha, honey honey
Den kvarnen som mal är tom
Och det är en ynkedom
Nej, killar som snackar så litar ingen på

Det brukar va' de som sviker, som ivrigast hållit me'
Men vet man det bara så kan man nog klara det
Tro inte på önskesmicker, och passa dig vad du gör
Och håll dig med benen på jorden, ja, vad du än hör

Honey, honey, viskar alla, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, lätt att falla, aha, honey honey
Men tro bara det du vill
Och lägg inte märke till
Det söta du alltid hör, som så många gör

Tro inte på smicker, nej, passa dej vad du gör
Ja, håll dig med benen på jorden, ja, vad du än hör

Honey, honey, underbara, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, söta rara, aha, honey honey
Men socker är inte allt
Så ta't me' en nypa salt
Och är du förståndig sen, tar du inte en
Nej, de' tar du med..

Translation:

Honey, honey, wonderful, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, sweet and rare, aha, honey honey
They whisper such sweet words
You are their everything on earth
You shouldn't believe that, just take it easy
That's just flattery

Honey, honey, not bad, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, little girl, aha, honey honey
The mill that grinds is empty
And it is a pity
No, guys who talk like that no one trusts

It's usually the ones who fail, who stuck with me the most
But if you just know it, you can probably handle it
Don't believe in wishful thinking, and be careful what you do
And keep your feet on the ground, yes, whatever you hear

Honey, honey, everyone whispers, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, easy to fall, aha, honey honey
But believe only what you want
And don't notice
The sweet you always hear, as so many do

Don't believe in flattery, no, be careful what you do
Yes, keep your feet on the ground, yes, whatever you hear

Honey, honey, wonderful, aha, honey honey
Honey, honey, sweet and rare, aha, honey honey
But sugar is not everything
So take it with a grain of salt
And if you're sane, don't take one
No, you take them with you..

Chorus repeat.

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