Welcome

A great interest of mine is genealogy. In my research I have tried to find my Bjorling ancestors, and during this work I've come across a lot of Bjorlings. Obviously there are several Bjorling families. In the old days in Sweden it was a custom to change the family name whenever they left their farm and become an official, priest, craftsman, or a soldier. If someone in a later generation would go back to farming, they usually went back to the custom of adding the -son or -dotter (daughter) suffix to the fathers first name.

I would really appreciate your help to connect all the "loose" Bjorlings to each other. If you can help me, please go to the Wanted page. If you have any tips, please e-mail them to me at .

Unfortunately all the other pages are in Swedish only, but if you recognize any of the names anywhere on the site, please contact me, and I'll translate anything you need. Please note that there is a special section for American Bjorlings at the bottom of the Wanted page.

Please e-mail me information if you have any Bjorlings in your family, even if you don't recognize any of the Bjorlings on this site. Perhaps I will be able to connect them to other Bjorlings.

Observe that most of the data on this site comes from second hand sources. Please check the original sources if you are going to use the material.

A Little Swedish Lesson

First of all, it's important to note that Swedish dates may be formatted i three ways. Two of them are used in texts; 24 december 2015 or 24/12 2015 (old letters may use the form 24/12 15). The third form is the ISO 8601 standard (adopted by Sweden in 1972); 2015-12-24.

Swedish termEnglish description
begrshort for "begravd" (see below)
begravdburied
brorbrother
byvillage
dshort for "död" (see below)
dotterdaughter
döddeceased
döptbaptized, christened
fshort for "född" (see below), also short for "father"
farfather
farbrorpaternal uncle
farfarpaternal grandfather
farmorpaternal grandmother
fasterpaternal aunt
ffshort for "farfar" (see above)
fmshort for "farmor" (see above)
fruwife
föddborn
gshort for "gift" (see below)
giftmarried
gift medmarried to
gmshort for "gift med" (see above)
gårdfarm, estate
hustruwife
iin
kommunmunicipality, town (urban) or rural district (each "län" is divided into several administrative districts, called "kommun")
landcountry or land
landskapprovince (Sweden is divided into 25 provinces called "landskap". Historically the people in these provinces felt an affinity and kinship to each other. They had the same dialect and they had a common conception of justice.)
läncounty (Sweden is divided into 21 administrative counties called "län")
mshort for "med" (see below), also short for "mother"
makawife
makehusband
manhusband or man
medto
mfshort for "morfar" (see below)
mmshort for "mormor" (see below)
mormother
morbrormaternal uncle
morfarmaternal grandfather
mormormaternal grandmother
mostermaternal aunt
namnname
ochand
släktfamily, relatives
släktforskninggenealogical research
släktingrelative
släktnamnfamily name, surname
snshort for "socken" (see below)
sockenparish (each "kommun" is divided into several parishes)
sonson
stadcity, town
stugacottage
syskonbrothers and sisters, siblings
systersister
torpcrofter's holding, croft
äkta makarhusband and wife
änkawidow
änklingwidower

Capital letters within parenthesis signifies a part of Sweden. Read more about Swedish provinces here.

An example: Gunborg Björling, f 1921-08-15 i Maria Magdalena (AB), d 1998-11-12 i Gävle Maria (X), änka 1995-06-01 efter Sten Björling, f 1909-01-07 i Skellefteå (AC), d i Gävle Maria (X), gifta 1946-01-13.

Means: Gunborg Björling, born August 15, 1921, in Maria Magdalena parish (Stockholms län), deceased November 12, 1998, in Gävle Maria parish (Gävleborgs län), widow June 1, 1995, after Sten Björling, born January 7, 1909, in Skellefteå (Västerbottens län), deceased in Gävle Maria parish (Gävleborgs län), married January 13, 1946.

And last, but not least, the Swedish letters:

Å, å A long sound as in "more", "fore", and a short sound as in "long", "song"
Ä, ä A long sound as in "pair", "glare", and a short sound as in "best", "test"
Ö, ö A long sound as in "her", "stir", and a short sound as in "a book", "a tree"