Norwegian names

[Guest guest]

Dr. Ray,

What a coincidence! I am a Pile it High and Deep too.

And my maiden name is sen, and my mother's maiden name is Siljestrom.

So I am both Norwegian and Swedish, and I think all of the Europeans

followed the same pattern of changing their names when they came to the

US.

I was going to make this just a private email, but since Bill is also

interested I'll put it on the forum for now. Who knows, maybe there are

more Scandahoovians on the list.

My Swedish Siljestrom side has been pretty well documented in the US

since my ggrampa was a minister and married into a family in Boone, Iowa,

and a genealogy person in that family found my cousins and me. But we all

get lost in Sweden, because, according to family lore, his name was

there, and he changed the surname on becoming a minister.

According to what I read on the NorwayHeritage site, his name probably

was a patronymic such as Jonsson, and then he took a surname based on the

place he came from, maybe a farm or area, Siljestrom, perhaps based on

the river Silja

OK that's the Swede. Now I go to the Norwegian side, which is sen in

the USA. But family scuttlebut says that ggrampa was a sea captain, named

Meyer and he changed to sen in the US. So I'm looking for

sen all over Chicago and can't find a likely one, all though there

are plenty. Then on the same NorwayHeritage website there is a list of

ship journeys throughout the years, and I found listed a captain Mhyre in

1873. HaHa says I. That's how he spelled it! So the best I can do is

write to Norway and see what they have about the captain. And here I

thought the family scuttlebutt was wrong, as usual, and that he had been

a sea swabby and jumped ship in Canada. So I think his name was Jon, or

Peder,( as my father claimed) his patronymic was Jonssen, his place name

was Mhyre, and, unlike the Swede, he went for the patronymic, probably to

avoid prosecution.

Do you see why it gives me a headache?

So I sympathize with anyone else who is trying to decipher the old ones,

but it can be engrossing enough to get your mind off of MSA and Chuck's

cardiac ultrasound he will have today and how awful he looks and feels

and sounds.

Bless us all. Someone, please.

Barbara