Norwegian farm names - what field do you use?

[Kurt Cowling]

I'm wondering where to input the farm name of a Norwegian ancestor? Anne Klemetsdatter Nyborg for example. Where should the "Nyborg" go? Suffix Title? Also, what about the changing farm names through their lifetime? Just record it in the notes? Finally digging deep into my Norway line after many years elsewhere. Thanks!

[BarryAbrahamsen]

Well, Kurt, since no one else more knowledgeable has anything to suggest. I have some thoughts. You are right, when one of my male ancestors moved to a new farm, they are referred to by the new farm name, in addition to their patronymic. But the farm name (Grostøl in my case) was usually added as a reference. I've read what the Reunion help files say about entering names, and it is worth reading to decide what to do with farm names. (With name changes you enter them as "[Olsen] Grostøl if the person started out as Olsen, but later changed his name to Grostøl, or Olsen [Grostøl] if he spent most of his life as Olsen, but then switched to Grostøl." This isn't quite the same as switching farm names, but perhaps we could enclose farm names in braces { and } in a similar fashion.

I thought of using italics but realized that would probably not be carried through an export to GEDCOM.

I have no other use for name suffixes or prefixes so I could use either field, but that just separates the farm name and doesn't deal with farm name changes.

Ugh.

[Kurt Cowling]

Thanks for pointing me to the section of the help file regarding entering names. It raises the question, are those designations really names? Or are they more like an address/residence, which is really an event I guess? Or should I just use the patronymic and explain the farm name and farm name changes in the notes? Maybe I'll raise this question on the Norway forum on FamilySearch. If there is an agreed upon standard they would know. Thanks!

[BarryAbrahamsen]

Please post what you find out and decide here.

[Kurt Cowling]

I've already received one reply from a Nordic expert on FamilySearch. He said that he uses the suffix field. He also said that there is no definitive standard but that some people get "really mad" if you use the last name field. Also, it seems that suffix is maybe more of a standard field than I expected. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry have it when adding names to a tree. I had never looked for it before.

[Kurt Cowling]

This article on FamilySearch says don’t put the farm name in any name field, but instead include it as the first part of the place name for each recorded event.

https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-to-enter-scandinavian-names-into-family-tree

[BarryAbrahamsen]

Well I can't agree with FamilySearch. The farm name is part of a person's identity, it's not solely a place where events happened. I've asked my cousin to check with the Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening for an opinion.

[Kurt Cowling]

Yeah, that article got some blowback on FamilySearch too. If you're interested in hearing some thoughtful opinions on the subject here is the url:

https://community.familysearch.org/s/question/0D74V000008DkgB/detail?language=en_US&s1oid=00D30000001b00H&s1nid=0DB30000000TNLA&emkind=chatterCommentNotification&s1uid=0054V00000BvUFx&emtm=1611761833111&fromEmail=1&s1ext=0

I haven't made a final decision yet on how to handle things.

[Herb]

Following this. I've asked the same question, except in my case it is Finnish names, on both the Reunion and MacFamily Tree FB pages. So far, no one really has a good answer.

In my case, the farm name is Naatus, and I've used that as the surname for any of my ancestors who immigrated to to the US, since all of them used that name after they arrived here. But that leaves a lot of ancestors who did not emigrate and I wonder what surname to use in Reunion.

[dfilpus]

Following this. I've asked the same question, except in my case it is Finnish names, on both the Reunion and MacFamily Tree FB pages. So far, no one really has a good answer.

In my case, the farm name is Naatus, and I've used that as the surname for any of my ancestors who immigrated to to the US, since all of them used that name after they arrived here. But that leaves a lot of ancestors who did not emigrate and I wonder what surname to use in Reunion.

I have thousands of Finnish entries in my family file. Since farm names are used in records exactly like non-farm names, I treat them as changing surnames. I enter the farm name at birth in the Surname field. If a farm name is different at marriage, I enter it in the Married Name fact. Other name changes are entered in the notes. Finland went through a period of eliminating farm names and converting them to surnames. My own surname FIlpus was a professional name. All the rest of my ancestral surnames were farm names: Kaskinen, Hannula, Marttila, Louhelainen, Lemponen, and many more.

[BarryAbrahamsen]

Here is a little more to complicate the naming convention in Norway:

https://www.norwaydna.no/gedcoms-and-genealogy/norwegian-names-en/

I'm not sure how this fits in with the usual name information that's entered into Reunion, or any other software I've looked at. There is probably no one, inarguably correct, way to record names before the 20th century.

= Barry