I'm back!

I know I've been away for quite sometime but I've been busy. But the good news is that I'm back! I just got back into doing my family tree (I like to take a break from it every few months) and I recently (well, more like yesterday) found out that I'm not just Swedish, I'm also Finnish. I always knew I was Swedish but I didn't have enough information on that side of my family. So I started looking at my gg grandmother's side of the family more and dug around a bit. After digging a bit and putting some pieces together I figured it out and opened a big can of worms. I went back to the 1600's and to my 10th great grandfather who was born in Finland. From doing some research, Finland was part of Sweden back then, so it makes sense. I get find any information on my gg grandfather, who happens to be Swedish as well but that's ok for now.

It all starts with Emma Wictor. Now, Wictor isn't a common last name in Sweden. Actually, from doing research on that last name, it's not a last name in Sweden, more like a first name. So I came to the conclusion that she changed it when she came over here. I was thinking it was Viktor, Victor, Vikstrom, etc. But none of those people that I looked up matched her birth date which is now 1863 (I thought it was 1864 but when she died she never had her next birthday). Eventually I came across the last name "Wikstrom". I used that as her last name, with her birth year being 1863, and found an Emma Carolina Wikstrom born in December of 1863. I figured it had to be correct because she never had her next birthday when she died and she obviously changed her last name when she came over here. So I took it and ran with it.

Then I came into a little snag. Her mother was apparently born/baptized in Stockholm, which isn't where Emma, her father, and siblings are born. They were born in Kopparberg. Stockholm and Kopparberg aren't that close to each other either. So I figured that she was just born there/baptized there and her parents moved back to Kopparberg. I mean it's possible right? If her parents were traveling, they had her there probably, then decided to baptize her there, and move/travel back to Kopparberg. She's an only child, so I don't have any siblings to base this on. If I found the right mother (I believe I did because her middle name is Carolina and that's Emma's middle name as well) her parents were born on Kopparberg and so was the rest of the family.

Anyway, I continued researching and found my 10th great grandfather, Pal Larsson Turpoinen born in 1600 in Finland. I've been reading some of the notes on him and his family, including my 9th great grandfather, and Finnish/Swedish doesn't translate very well into English. It's like reading broken English and it makes absolutely no sense. But from what I can understand it's kind of funny.

The names and last names are so confusing and I think this has to be the most tedious family tree yet. I mean my trees are but now as I think about it, it's nothing compared to this. The children don't have the same last name as the father and they all have the same names basically.

That's it for now. Have a nice day!