I just want to share the link with you all for the Legacy Family Tree Webinar that I presented this week. It will be available to view for free until Wednesday, 3 April. It was a great experience, and I hope to present with this group again. Which Hans Jensen Read more…
I have quite a few research goals for myself this year. One of them is very over-due. I’ve been wanting to be part of the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series. For those who don’t know much about this great offering, let me fill you in. Legacy Family Tree Webinars is Read more…
This week I’m going to discuss the idea of alternate surnames. This might sounds confusing, but it actually works to prevent confusion. Our Scandinavian ancestors used a small number of given names in high repetition, and with patronymics, it gets even more confusing because first and last names are similar. Read more…
The final linking pattern for Scandinavian research is based on social class. I call it societal linking. The idea behind this rule is that our ancestors lived within the same social class their entire lives. “Rags to Riches” stories, or the reverse, are simply not true. If your family was Read more…
The next linking pattern is related to our previous one of geography. This time we will discuss property linkage. We talked about our ancestors living out their lives in a small geographic region. They also had ties to the farms and villages where they were born. Property claims were passed Read more…
The fourth linking pattern is based on geography. For this one it helps to remember the rule that “The past is a foreign country,” because our ancestors lived in the same basic area their entire lives. In fact, they often stayed in the same small area for generations. This is Read more…
The third linking pattern we will discuss is one of the biggest—chronology. I also like to refer to this as “common sense.” And yet, it surprises me how often this gets thrown out the window for the sake of a convenient match. I’m a big proponent of using timelines for Read more…
The next level of linking patterns we will discuss are Sibling Links. The big key to the sibling links relates to the names of the children. When children are born today, many new parents select a name for the child based solely on personal preference. The same does not hold Read more…
The first major linking pattern to understand in Scandinavian genealogy is Nominal Linking. This refers to an individual’s surname. There are a few types of surnames used in Scandinavia. The most common surname type is Patronymics. Patronymics in Scandinavia refers to the practice of using the father’s given name and Read more…
Research in Scandinavia has a few unique challenges. The biggest challenge is keeping everyone organized into the correct families because the names are all so similar! Our ancestors had a small number of given names for men and for women that were in extremely high rotation. Combined with patronymics, it Read more…