Ancestry/Genealogy

My mother's paternal grandfather kept his Swedish military name after his service, as was fairly common. His siblings were all Olssons, this being in the 1870-1880's - the use of Olsdotter was disappearing in Sweden. Because there were so many common last names and the military tends to give orders containing only the last name, they assigned military names that were more varied. Family legend has it that he was offered a promotion if he would take the retiring sargent's name, but likely it was just assigned.

My dad's paternal grandfather, and his brothers, decided to take their grandfathers last name and lose the patronymic ending in a way. They were also born Olssons (no connection, but shows why the military assigned names). The story goes after they reached their homesteads and got things started, they went into town and asked if there was any mail for them. After going through several sacks of "Olsson" letters and finding nothing for them, they decided that their grandfather's name was less common and a good choice. To make it even less common, they took out the "s" in the ending. As far as I know, everyone with that same last name is a relative to the three brothers that came to the USA from Sweden.

My maternal grand mothers were Norwegian and my maternal grandfather's maother was also Norwegian, so I am more Norwegian than Swedish. I have a Great grandmother who was born in Sweden to Finnish immigrants, so DNA lists me as a eighth Finnish.