Week 14 Begins with a Vowel. Chances are there is someone in your family tree whose name begins with a vowel... or lived in a place that begins with a vowel... or had an occupation that begins with a vowel.... You get the idea 😉 Have fun with this week's prompt! 

This week we will dive into the Swedish ancestry of my husband and the naming traditions of Sweden. In Sweden until around the 1890s males took their surname from the fathers first name so Olaf Swensson would have been the son of Swen. Females did the same but with replaced the son with dotter at the end. Matilda Larsdotter – daughter of Lars.  My focus for Starts with a vowel is Emanuel Otto Josua Alfred Olsson. Below you will see his birth record listing his parents as Olaf Swensson and Marie Pehrsdotter as well as a church record book. 

According to the tradition Emanuel’s son should have the surname of Emanuelson but alas Otto immigrated to the US with the surname Olson. Below is his birth record and after that is his church record in Rhode Island where you can see the surname change from Emanuelson to Olson.