The Pettersson

Family

The Pettersson family originates from a place called Helgum in the county of Västernorrland (province of Ångermanland). The map below shows Västernorrland County (Län) in Sweden with Sollefteå town. Västernorrland is in mid Sweden and Sollefteå is located about 550 km north of Stockholm. Helgum is located 30 - 40 km west of Sollefteå. Population in Helgum: 147 (2005). The county code of Västernorrland is "Y". For example Helgum (Y).

The Pettersson Name

In Sweden we began using family names at the end of the 1800-hundreds, that is children inherited the same surname as their father. In the year 1901 a law was passed stating that we had to use family names. Before that we used patronymic names. That means that the children were given a last name ending with -son or -dotter (daughter) and started with the father's first name. For example, if a man called Anders Nilsson had a son named Peter and a daughter named Anna, the children’s full name would be: Peter Andersson and Anna Anderssdotter. That is Peter son of Anders and Anna daughter of Anders. If Peter had a son called Nils, then Nils's full name would be Nils Petersson. Normally the "-son" surnames are spelt with two "s". These ways of giving surnames (patronymic) are still used on Iceland. At the end of the 1800's when people started to change their patronymic surnames to family names they often took a family name with a local association to nature, farm name, village name etc. But most people kept their "-son" name as a family name. The patronymics were mostly used in the rural areas. Among nobility, clergy, the military, etc they started much earlier with family names. Priests often spelt their names in Latin way, for example Laurentius Hornaues (Lars from Horn). The different groups had different patterns of names. See map of Helgum to the right. A more detailed map

What about the Pettersson name?

There are many Pettersson families in Sweden that is not related and this is the story of "my" Pettersson family. We have to go back to the beginning of the 1800's. My mother's mother's father's father Pehr Pettersson (1819-1887), was born in a parish called Älvdalen, Dalarna province (W) and died in Helgum parish, Ångermanland province. His children adopted their father's surname as their family name. His son, master house painter Lars Abraham Pettersson is the first generation who carried the name Pattersson as a family name. If we go another two generations back in time of the Pettersson family we have Trapp Pehr Ersson. He was born 1753, farmer in the village Åsen in Älvdalen, Dalarna. His wife was Anna, Pehrsdotter, born 1759. There is an interesting story concerning him. In 1984, a Swedish family, Erik and Karin Hedman, visited some relatives in the US. The relatives were cousins of Erik and they lived in the northern parts of Minnesota. The Hedman's made a visit to a local history museum and at the museum they found several items related to the province of Dalarna in Sweden. One item was a wooden stick with the year 1780 and the initials JPD engraved in the stick. There were also a sentence written with runic characters, characters that still were in use in Älvdalen around 1780. Älvdalen was the only place in Sweden using runic characters as late as the 1780's. The stick was a so called "kassasticka", a stick that was used in former days in the head of the cradle ("kassen") when the child was baptized, preventing the quilt getting too close to the child's face. The museum didn't have any information on these items other then that they belonged to the P. O. Fryklund's collection. Karin copied the characters on the stick and back in Sweden she started to translate the text. The information on the stick was: • JPD den 13 november 1780 (JPD, November 13th 1780) • APD är född år 1785 den 12 april (APD, born in April 12, 1785) • NPS är född den 10 november 1787 (NPS, born in November 10, 1787) • EPS (EPS, there were no room for further text on the stick) The information turned out to be about Trapp Pehr Ersson's family. The initials on the stick are the initials of his children. JPD = , Justina PehrsDotter, APD = Anna PehrsDotter, NPS = Nils PehrsSson and EPS = Eric PehrSson. The dates were the birth dates of the children. What Karin didn't figure out was how the stick ended up in the US? No member of the Trapp Pehr Ersson's family emigrated to USA. All of the siblings were married locally. Neither has anyone of the part of the family that moved to Helgum emigrated. This information about the "kassasticka" is from an article written by Karin Hedman Larsson, published in the magazine Skansvakten. In 2006 I got a mail from Anna Larsson, a relative to P. O. Fryklund, with the following information: "P. O. Fryklund's family emigrated from Lima in northern Dalarna to USA. An aunt (moster) of P. O. Fryklund stayed behind in Sweden and she was continuously sending items from Sweden to his museum in Minnesota. Also many of his relatives in Sweden went over to the US to visit him and probably they also brought items to his museum." This is probably how this "kassticka" ended up in a museum in Minnesota. Anna also told me that P. O. Fryklund, together with his parents, immigrated to the US in 1882. They settled down in Roseau County, MN, which also is the location of the museum.

My Maternal Grandmother’s

Parents, The Pettersson’s in

Helgum

A short presentation to my mother's mother's parents. Lars Abraham Pettersson, born on April 5th 1862 in Västergransjö Helgum, dead June 19,1926 in Mellangranjsö, Helgum parish. He is getting married on February 2, 1890 in Helgum to Margareta Jonsson, born April 20, 1861 in Västergransjö Helgum, dead July 21,1932 in Mellangransjö, Helgum. The image to the right shows Lars Abraham Pettersson with his wife Margareta. Children: 1. Johan Fabian (1891 - 1960), Helgum 2. Per Viktor (1893 - 1939), Helgum 3. Lars (1894 - 1896), Helgum 4. Anna Margareta (1897 - 1966), Helgum (my grandmother) 5. Ville (1899 - 1922), Helgum Helgum parish is the place of birth for all the children. Lars Abraham's parents were Pehr Ersson, born March 3, 1819 in Älvdalen, province of Dalarna, dead May 6, 1887 in Västergransjö, Helgum and Margareta Andersdotter, born October 10, 1820, dead February 11, 1911 in Västergransjö Helgum. Margaretas Jonsson's parents were Per Jonsson (1830-1886), tanner in Nora parish (Y) and Margareta Lindgren (1835-1919). My maternal Grandfather was Erik Albert Strindberg, born January 1, 1891 in Sollefteå He died on September 21, 1963 in Sollefteå (Y).

My maternal Grandmother, Anna

Strindberg (nee Pettersson)

Anna Pettersson married Albert Strindberg and moved from Helgum to Sollefteå. Erik Albert Strindberg (see above). Anna was born May 11, 1897 in Mellangransjö, Helgum parish (Y) and died May 12, 1966 in Sollefteå. Albert and Anna had a farm, Kläpparna, just south of Sollefteå. The image to the right shows Anna Strindberg (maiden name Pettersson).

My Grandmother’s Siblings

Fabian Pettersson

Master house painter Fabian Pettersson was born June 6, 1891. In 1934 Fabian and his family moved to Hälleforsnäs, province of Södermanland, where his brother Viktor lived. Fabian was a house painter and succeeded his bother as the owner of Viktor's House painting Company when Viktor died in 1939. In 1928 Fabian married Anna Söderström. She was born on March 21st 1894 and died on June 7th 1983. Fabian died on February 26 1960. Fabian and Anna got 4 children.

Viktor Pettersson

Master house painter Viktor Pettersson was born March 22, 1893. He moved from Helgum to Hälleforsnäs, province of Södermanland (D) where he founded a house painting company. The name of the company today is Hälleforsnäs Måleri AB. He died in September 1939, cause of death was pneumonia. Viktor married Elin Englund. They got three children. The picture is a photo of the Pettersson house in Helgum (Y). The house is no longer within the Family.

Links

• Descendant chart Lars Abraham Pettersson • Ancestor chart Anna Strindberg • Relationship to Anna Strindberg • Relations to King Karl IX:s son Duke Karl Filip? • Photo Gallery the Pettersson family (Y) The charts are in Swedish but are easy to understand. Click on "s * " in the charts to navigate. • Descendant charts are family charts beginning with an ancestor back in times, a progenitor, and shows all descendants down to present times. • Ancestor charts are family charts beginning with a person in present times and show ancestors back in times. Top of page

A short dictionary for the charts: