Kajsa Johannsdotter and Anders Peter Olausson: Marriage Produced "Osterlunds". What?

The Origins of "Osterlund" 
Swedish Naming Customs 

Surname Mystery
And additional recreational findings as we find them.

Odd.

Marry into a Swedish-English family, where people talk little about where they came from; from an Irish gang stemming from the multiple roots that make up Ireland (Scots, English, Scots-Irish, Irish, Norse, Canadian and other transplants) where nobody can keep quiet; and find things very odd.  Nobody questions or talks. Much.

How to put together Swedish roots -- recreational only -- where nobody seems to have looked even half-heartedly into it. People have files of photos and scraps, but all is a jumble. So the methodology is to find contrary and peculiar information from other people trying to do the same thing; then throw up hands and come back another day. Here, we took some of the info to the places mentioned in the Jumble in Sweden, Boxholm, and then around Kinnekula, but this mystery remains, among others:  Swedish naming customs. They don't pan out here. *

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I.  The Mystery of Kajsa Johannsdotter 1834-1922. And her marriage to Anders Peter Olausson 1836-1878. That marriage produced children somehow with the last name of Osterlund. Go, Sherlock.  According to our understanding, the surname of the children would be Andersson for the boys (Anders' son) and Andersdotter for the girls (Anders' daughter).  What is wrong with the name Anderson or Andersson?  Even Ellis Island, if they came in that way, would get that straight. They came over in bits and pieces also.  Did the first one over simply change the family name?

There is a town of Lund - a city, north of Malmo, Skane district - see ://www.planetware.com/sweden/lund-s-skn-lund.htm - but "east Lund" as "oster lund" might be, seems to have no connection. And the custom is parentage, not geography for roots.


So: Is this the answer instead:  somewhere between Kalmar and Vaxjo?

Osterlund was left behind. Swedish roadside.

A.  Kajsa Johannsdotter and Anders Peter Olausson

• Kajsa would be my husband's great-grandmother. Check. 
• She came from Sweden to live with his grandparents, Anna Osterlund Widing and her husband Philip Widing in Philadelphia. Check.

• Kajsa's husband was Anders Peter Olausson 1836-1878.  Check. 
• They had how many children? Go here, ://records.ancestry.com/Anders_Peter_Olausson_records.ashx?pid=81826105; and find the names of 
• John August Osterlund, 1859-1917, the one who is listed at Ancestry.com
• Sophie Osterlund, 
• Frank Osterlund, 
• Lenus Osterlund,
• Anna M. Widing (BINGO -- the married name of Anna M. Osterlund), 
• Selma Elizabet Osterlund, 
• Carolina Osterlund, 
• Otto William Osterlund, and 
• Josephine Osterlund.

12345678-- 9 children. With those names.  Check.

But how did they get the surname "Osterlund" from a marriage of a Johannsdotter and an Olausson.  That marriage should have produced children with the last name taken from the first name of the father, Anders, or "Anderson". The custom is to give sons the suffix to the father's first name; and daughters the suffix to the father's first name as well. Andersson or Andersdotter. How many s's?  Not sure.

Osterlund wants his children back. Swedish roadside.

 B.  The Osterlund name was carried on.

See John August Osterlund's line.  He married Fredeicka Helena Heise 1865-1932, see  ://records.ancestry.com/John_August_Osterlund_3_Nov_1859_records.ashx?pid=64627360&gss=seo/

• John August Osterlund and Fredeicka had how many children?  Same site, find names 
• Otto W. Osterlund, 
• Frank Andrew Osterlund, 
• Laura O. Osterlund, 
• John Lewis Osterlund, 
• Florence Osterlund, 
• Ester J. Charlton (is that a married name?), and 
• Loyal Y. Osterlund

 123456- 7 children.

Still don't know where the name Osterlund came from. Who was Osterlund? It means eastern grove. Eastern land. Ha. Was there a mystery lover from east Sweden? So Kajsa, after 9 children with that one, whoever, said to Anders Petr (where was he all that time?) let's call them all Osterlund? Good joke, and the stern firm picture we have of Kajsa would not brook any monkey business.

Kajsa Johannsdotter's great-great-grandson Dan Widing welcomes Osterlund. Swedish roadside.

Otto W, and Frank. Named after their uncles, ok. Reinforces same line here.

C.  My husband's line is from Anna M. (Osterlund) Widing and we can take it from there.

But we still want to know where this Osterlund monicker came from.  John August's descendants:  call me. There must be an answer. And if you want to know about this branch, here we are. Why are you running?

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*  We think we have found out. 

Looking back at this issue of naming in families, and this is an update January 31, 2011, the New York Times may have our answer to why names don't fit the traditional:  See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/world/europe/01stockholm.html/.  The article notes that for the last 100 years or so, people just got tired of the same names, everybody's ending with -son or -dotter -- leading to multiple s's for ssome. So they chose another.  It may be from the family tree, or just something nice -- thus we seem to have what would have been Anderssons, becoming Osterlund when they arrived in the United States, perhaps even in Sweden.  Thank you, New York Times/

We enjoyed our hunt here, so will keep it just for that. Here is the older post, Osterlund intact, just in case our situation is not just an arbitrary renaming at all.

A relative Britsie Murray, believes that Kajsa Johannsdotter remarried after the death of Anders Petr Olausson's death, and she and the children took the name of the new husband, Osterlund, but we have no paper trail of that yet.

Anna Matilda Osterlund Widing:  Various death notices, including as to the Sjostrom branch -- for whoever may be interested.