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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-05 > 1179971799


From: "Eric Olson" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Swedish research...AAARGGGHHHH
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 18:56:39 -0700


John,

My grandfather was Swedish, said to be from Frykland, Varmland. I presume
that is a Parish?? He was Oscar Olson, and his father was Olaf Olson,
according to records I acquired from an Olson cousin here in America. An
Olson family tree ready-made. My Norwegian grandmother's ancestors were
included back to 1788, thank goodness. So I am very lucky, and consider my
Scandinavian genealogy complete. I don't have to work with these changing
surnames and language barriers..

Eric

> [Original Message]
> From: John Rhodes <>
> To: <>
> Date: 5/23/2007 6:26:05 PM
> Subject: [DNA] Swedish research...AAARGGGHHHH
>
> Anne,
> Hello from another 'half Swede'! My mother's ancestors all were from
Sweden. I've managed to trace all four great-grandparents back quite a
number of generations into the 1600's and a bit earlier in some cases.
BUT...it was not so easy. All that has been written about the Swedish
records is true...when it is true. But the records were kept in churches
until the 20th century in most cases. Churches had a terrible habit of
burning down on occasion and with the fire went the records. Soldier's
names were also my nemisis as my soldiers name was ALL I had to go on and
this name does not identify the family. Then there was my thirty-year
search for my great-grandmother named Mary Swanson (wife of Nels Svensson)
from St. Paul, MN. Humph. The story is much too long to recite here but
suffice it to say she arrived in St. Paul a young widow named Maria
Ledholm. I chased every Ledholm family to the ground with no luck. I
eventually was able to identify her Swedish
> ancestors. Her dead husband was Samuel Magnusson. Her father was
Daniel Svensson. Maria should have been Danielsdotter. She was not. Her
farfar (father's father) was Sven Olofsson Thor. etc. etc. She pulled
"Ledholm" out of the air. I traced her from birth to St. Paul and there
was no Ledholm in her family nor neighborhood.
>
> My sister will receive her mtDNA test results in a couple weeks and
I'll pass them along to you when available. The female side leads back to
Tavelss, Kronoberg into the mid-1700's. I'm working on getting my
grandfather's Y-DNA through a cousin who is a direct descendant. That
would take us to Varmland but that family move north to Varmland from
Smaland at some earlier time in the 1700's.
>
> To be continued.
>
> John M. Rhodes
>
> wrote:
>
> In a message dated 5/23/2007 5:43:01 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> writes:
>
> [...] My cousin translated it into Swedish, and when she emailed
> the man that, he got really interested -- possibly because of
> the rarity of our R1b haplotype. ...
>
> # This is exactly what I would have been interested in myself,
> as a genealogist or not i.e. the frequency and geographic
> distribution of ones haplotype! As a Swede I would not
> immediately make the connection to genealogy as there are so
> many practically complete anagraphic resources to explore
> (for free) in the first rounds of trials and info hunting.
>
> This is also the reason why I *am* interested in mt/Y-DNA :-)
>
>
>
> First, thank you, Johan, for your insightful comments. While I agree that
> the Swedish records are to be envied, I am not convinced, based on my
> discussions with all my cousins and some Swedes with whom I have
corresponded, that
> all Swedes today have enough personal knowledge to utilize the
information --
> because I think not all of them know the names back so many generations.
My
> father father's side of the family could not tell me whether a Per
Nilsson in
> the records was ours or not, because they didn't know who he married. And
> that was a marriage in the mid-1800s.
>
> But on to your interest of your haplotype, if you have posted it or
> Ysearch/mitosearch IDs before, I missed them. Could you please tell me
again? I have
> two different R1b lines from Sweden and a V mtDNA lineage. So I am
> collecting all the data I can find about the distribution of
haplotypes/mitotypes
> within Sweden and where similar ones are located within Europe Western
Asia and
> the Near and Middle East. My research is still in fairly infant stages,
but
> if you would like to see what I have offlist, feel free to contact me
there.
> I would greatly enjoy having other Swedes to work with :). [OK I'm only a
> half-Swede :)]
>
> Anne
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
http://www.aol.com.
>
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