Spinnel Anna of North Sweden

High School Foreign Languages (North Germanic, East Scandinavian, Swedish)

I. Objectives (The student will:)

II. Overview

Assume you have learned that one of your grandparents was a Swede and that a part of his/her ancestry is recorded in a book. Although parts of the book are in Swedish you have just found a copy of an English translation of the first chapter. You first note that the unfamiliar letters (Åå, Ää, and Öö) are very common even in the translation. Since this documents the family before the 1800's, several differences from our modern life are quickly apparent. One such difference is that the second (last) name is not a family name (surname), but rather often seems to indicate parentage. Thus Tomas Hansson's father was Hans. His son might be Hans Tomasson. This is known as a patronymic naming system.

Although the family information is there, it isn't organized in a manner most conducive to entry into a genealogy program. Thus, while reading the stories, you will extract family relationships which will enable you will complete an ancestry chart. There is a 4-generation ancestor chart at the end for assembling what you find. Ancestors are usually numbered (Kekule's system) with the father being twice the child and the mother being one more than that. Thus the ancestor Anders Ersson is at the left as number 1 and his 8 great-grandparents should be entered on the right as numbers 8-15 with his parents (2, 3) and grandparents (4-7) in between. The father always goes above the mother on these charts.

Swedish Grandparent, 1964 Swedish Grandparent with mother Great-Grandmother with siblings

Pictured above are your teacher's family in 1964 with your teacher on the left of his grandfather; the grandfather with his mother; and the great-grandmother with her siblings. Anders Ersson in the table below was the teacher's great-grandmother's great-grandfather.

III. Procedure

  1. Print out this web page ( http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/webtexts/spinnelz.htm). There is a 4-generation ancestor chart at the end for assembling what you find. Some data may not be available on-line, thus some boxes have been shaded. Ancestor numbering is described above.

  2. Go to http://mysticplanet.com/SWEDEN.HTM and listen to the National Anthem of Sweden.

  3. Go to http://www.travelfile.com/go/UMEA+SWEDEN.html, view a map of the region, and read the general information about Scandinavia.

  4. Go to http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/genealog/spinnela noting especially the table of contents. This file is the English translation of chapter one of the book Spinnel Anna Släkt. You will find here the information necessary to complete in the ancestor chart. The table of contents may save you time exploring the various family relationships, (once you've determined Spinnel Anna was Anders Errson's mother).

  5. http://www.spinnelanna.se (this "web hotel" has been intermittant) contains some of the same information as chapter one.

  6. When completed, turn in your ancestor chart, then discuss the bear story with a classmate.

  7. For extra credit, include birth/marriage/death dates/locations below each name in the ancestor chart.

  8. For additional extra credit, download the genealogical software Brother's Keeper from http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Brothers_Keeper/, enter this ancestor information, export it in GEDCOM format, then load it into the Rootsweb World Connect project at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/. Happy hunting!

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1. Anders Ersson
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See: http://nadeducation.adventist.org/futures/curric/study/912.html for relevant standards.