Names of Foreign Places

 Hello all,

Last year, Michael Dindinger made an excellent post on place names. Mostly, the rules he cites are valid for foreign and domestic places. That post may be reviewed, here. Later in the year, Steve Averill made a presentation on place names. That post is here - the slides discussing place are 14 through 34. During the presentation, Diane Carter made the excellent point that different lineage societies have different requirements about how to record place names. Notes and detail comments can accommodate these differing requirements without confusing people looking at the family history.

Today, we take a look at a specific example of foreign place names - in this case, Sweden. The same principles would apply to Czech or English or Norwegian place names. In particular, I look at the case of Anna Eleonora Eriksdotter (American name was Anna Elenora Erickson and later, Anna Norland).

To start with, major genealogical sites refer to Anna's birthplace in different ways

• Findagrave Swedish Birthplace
• Hammerdal, Strömsunds kommun, Jämtlands län, Sweden
• Ancestry Example for the same place
• Hammerdal, Jämtland, Sweden
• MyHeritage Example for the same place
• Hammerdal, Jämtlands, Jämtland, Sweden

To get clarity for my own records, I put together a summary of the thought process guiding Swedish place references. Mostly, these follow the guidance given by Michael and FamilySearch, but, as may be seen, there are deviations in the interest of brevity and reduced redundancy in citations.

Starting Out

• RootsMagic “Rule”

Put below the third level into “Place details (address, hospital, cemetery, etc.)”

• RootsMagic Citations

All my Swedish sources take the form of “Sweden, …” – as a result, including “Sweden” in the citation itself is redundant since it is in the source name. As a result, there up to 3 levels of location for many things that will also be listed under that source without specifying “Sweden” anywhere (if the village or farm is known)

• RootsMagic "Country Rule"

Since the bulk of my references are in the United States, I do not specify the country involved UNLESS it is somewhere outside the US. Similarly, in the interest of brevity, I do not normally specify "County" unless it is the lowest level being referenced. As an example, Los Angeles City would be "Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California." For added detail within Los Angeles City, that'd be an added RootsMagic detail (mostly cemeteries or addresses). A location in the county where the city isn't known or is unincorporated would be "Los Angeles County, California." If the location were simply California, the reference would be "California." There are many differences of opinion as to whether "County" or "Township" should be listed. Personally, I only do so if it results in less likelihood of confusion. For example, "Overlea, Baltimore, Maryland" is a neighborhood in the City of Baltimore while "Overlea, Baltimore County, Maryland" probably refers to a census-designated place outside of the City of Baltimore. Whew!

Swedish Naming

The discussion below goes from largest to smallest. In citations, one should go from smallest to largest. However, we can't understand the little places unless we understand the big ones first.

Counties and Provinces

Swedish Counties and Provinces - from Wikipedia
English     Swedish

In Sweden, Counties (län) superseded historical provinces (landskap) as the administrative units starting in 1634. However, provinces still retain an important cultural element and many people still identify with their landskap more than their län. For this genealogy, since almost all of the information is after 1634, län will be used exclusively, with references to landskap being flagged where necessary to avoid confusion, using län in the identification of the location only if no lower division is known. Likewise, in many cases, an “s” is added to the end of the county name if län follows (compare the English versus Swedish versions of the counties link). This convention will be used wherever possible. Likewise, some counties have changed their name or made boundary adjustments over the years. Some of these are fairly recent. For example, Kopparberg County became Dalarna County in 1997. Since most emigration predated the change, Dalarna will only be used when citing things like Findagrave which uses the modern place rather than the historically accurate one.

Municipalities and Parishes

Hammerdal in today's
Strömsund Municipality
From Wikipedia
English     Swedish

Rural Areas

The first local government acts were implemented on January 1, 1863. There were two acts, one for the cities and one for the countryside. The total number of municipalities was about 2,500. The rural municipalities were based on the country-side civil parishes or administrative parishes (socknar), often formed in the Middle Ages around a church, and the then 89 cities/towns (städer) (which is the same in Swedish) that were based on the old chartered cities. In 1952, the number was dramatically reduced, and there are now 290 of them. Municipalities are normally referred to as “kommun,” though “kommuner” is common, and is plural. Findagrave uses "Strömsunds kommun" even though the person in question was born a full century before that jurisdiction was created and though she was actually buried in Minnesota. That being said, at least until the early 20th Century, records were collected by the church at the parish level, which later mostly became synonymous with the administrative kommuner. In some cases, städer kommuner were used for city folk. In the case of parishes in Jämtlands län, it gets a little complicated as a result of proliferation and then consolidation. During the municipal reform of 1862, the responsibility for the ecclesiastical issues was transferred to Hammerdal parish, and for administrative issues to Hammerdal county municipality. Similar approaches were used in places such as England as the local churches were separated from the State. In 1893, Gåxsjö parish was formed, consisting of Gåxsjö parish and Gåxsjö county municipality, which later returned in 1952. The county municipality became part of Strömsund in 1974. In all, there are upwards of a half dozen parishes in Strömsund, including 2 of particular interest to the Erickson family history. These are Gåxsjö and Hammerdal. In any event, while the parish identification locates the place of interest pretty accurately within Jämtland, including Strömsund.

On 1 January 2016, the Hammerdal district was established, with the same scope as the parish had in 1999/2000. For purposes of the RootsMagic ID, adding Strömsund in a note is a good idea, but since it was created in 1974, not many records will do so. In addition, while the municipality is in Jämtlands län, it contains some areas that are in other historical provinces, so clarity does get added in some cases. In any event, the municipalities are roughly somewhat akin to American Counties, with the Swedish Counties being more like American States. As in England, there are many records that list both the ecclesiastical and the civil name for these locales.

Most of the records of interest are oriented toward local parishes and rural locales. At most, there would be a village or farm delineated within the parish. Accordingly, at the top level, if Sweden is not included due to the source name, the village or farm as a detail, parish, municipality, and county. In the case of the event, the municipality could be omitted since that information is readily available and changes from time to time.

Urban Centers

Gothenburg (Göteborg) is a major Swedish locale that differs. In that case, it is a major urban area and so is somewhat akin to Saint Louis or San Francisco in that regard. It is also notable because many Swedish emigrants left from there and there are good passenger lists. In the case of Gothenburg, information other than “Göteborg” will only be used if a suburb or other area outside the main city is being referred to. Most of Gothenburg is in Västra Götalands län, but as in the case of Portland, Oregon, there are outlying areas in other counties.

My Solution - Your Mileage May Vary!

Accordingly, for Church records relating to Hammerdal, I decided the place in the example will be referred to as Hammerdal, Jämtland, Sweden. For someone from Gåxsjö, the most accurate description of the record would be Gåxsjö, Hammerdal, Jämtland, Sweden if in the period between 1862 and 1893. In any event, since Strömsunds kommun was only created in 1974, it should be referred to in a note or detail research comments to clarify where the location is today or if including a Findagrave citation. There are LOTS of parishes in Jämtlands län. A map and list from FamilySearch may be seen below. Similar maps are available on FamilySearch (and other places) for all Swedish Provinces, and, indeed, for similar geographical places in various places around the world.

Parishes of Jämtland (earlier, Jemtland)
from FamilySearch - English Only