A New Branch
Sometimes it's the little things that please me in all of this research. Today I was talking to a very nice Swedish friend of mine (who's currently looking for a place to live, so if you know someone with an apartment in Helsingborg, let me know) who's going down to the public library tomorrow to look up some stuff for me on the Swansons. He mentioned that "Swanson" is an assimilated name, and that the original was most like Svensson. So, I asked him what a name like Nygren might be like, pre-assimilation.
"Oh, that's not an assimilated name," he tells me. "It's directly translated as New Branch. Nature names were very popular in the mid-19th century in Sweden."
And to think that little bit of history has gone unnoticed in our family for so long. Here are a bunch of people, setting out to the new world, separating themselves from a community of people where every other person was a cousin. What more fitting label could they call themselves but New Branch?
Now, I've moved my family across country before in the name of pursuing new employment, but can't comprehend setting out for a completely new country -- or even just to leave the house -- without a clear and concise goal. It's either a testament to the bravery or stubborn pride of immigrants like these that they could set off on a months-long voyage across the sea and set up shop in a place they'd never seen before.
I'd like to point out that Charles Swanson came to this country in 1888, and 2 years later he's noted in the Wilkes-Barre yellow pages as a Shoe maker. I can just hear the discussion back in Sweden now between Charles and Clara: "But, honey, I can make shoes anywhere. It might as well be in America."
"Oh, that's not an assimilated name," he tells me. "It's directly translated as New Branch. Nature names were very popular in the mid-19th century in Sweden."
And to think that little bit of history has gone unnoticed in our family for so long. Here are a bunch of people, setting out to the new world, separating themselves from a community of people where every other person was a cousin. What more fitting label could they call themselves but New Branch?
Now, I've moved my family across country before in the name of pursuing new employment, but can't comprehend setting out for a completely new country -- or even just to leave the house -- without a clear and concise goal. It's either a testament to the bravery or stubborn pride of immigrants like these that they could set off on a months-long voyage across the sea and set up shop in a place they'd never seen before.
I'd like to point out that Charles Swanson came to this country in 1888, and 2 years later he's noted in the Wilkes-Barre yellow pages as a Shoe maker. I can just hear the discussion back in Sweden now between Charles and Clara: "But, honey, I can make shoes anywhere. It might as well be in America."
posted by Thomas | 1:07 PM
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