and had only ONE last name...Danielson.

...have pictures with names and birthdays on them. The names are confusing and I've earned some take the mother's last name - unlike here (US) taking the father's last name. So... I discovered my great-grandfather Nilsson (Nelson) had siblings that went by either Nilsson (their father) or Larsson (Larson/mother)... and one Nilsson married twin Svenssons, then one of them married another Larsson... but the present day cousins I have contacted have none of those last names!

good luck

at some point to Isaksson, Isacson and then changed to a family name. I just found a marriage cert for a 2nd marriage with another last name so I am close to confirming that I am looking at one person, not two.

My husband will be doing an ancestry DNA and Sweden also has a DNA project to connect families so hopefully that will help to firm info up.

Very confusing to say the least! Also fascinating.

but, for reasons no one now knows, changed to to a different surname.

I have ancestors from 1800's in Sweden. You are right, sons surnames are the father's first name and the suffix "son". Likewise, daughters names are her father's first name and "dotter" suffix. Generally, while in Sweden, women didn't change their names with marriage. That helps when there have been multiple marriages.

In the records I examined, it was helpful to look at a family as a group rather than just singling out one of them. The parish records I looked at had a column indicating when the family came to the parish, what parish they came from, and dates they left and where they went to. Deaths were also indicated with a cross and the death date. You can cross-identify by matching names, birth dates and birth places. That should help determining if you are on the trail of only one person of a similar name.

When the families came to the US, they "Americanized" their names in many cases. That meant that a single surname was selected for all family members and sometimes, even that was "Americanized". Case in point: Gustav Bengtsson had a son who changed his name to Henry Benson. Also, spelling became a fluid thing, depending on who heard it and who wrote it down. My Bengtsson was also Bentzine. Women began to assume husbands' names upon marriage, which was customary in the US.

Here's a website that may be useful for you, if you haven't already used it. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Sweden_Genealogy

I think it requires a sign-in, but there is no cost.

My turning point came when I asked my 96-year old grandmother if she knew the name of the town in Sweden where her parents came from. She Did!!! The genealogy library in Salt Lake City had the parish records from that town on microfilm. In one day, I traced by line back to 1730 in the same town.

Good Luck!

I am using family members and Swedish records of both census and immigration to pin this down. I did notice one church record that showed the 2nd husband moving from one location to the one where this couple was married and also he did not use a patronym so a deeper dive is due.

I am wondering when they Americanized the last name if they also made first name changes. I believe my husband's grandfather was originally named Gustav David and changed it to David Gustav but I am not sure yet.

That's so cool that you were able to confirm all the way back to 1730!

My husband doesn't know much about his family but fortunately my SIL knows a bit more. Neither of them knew about last names and I'm not sure they would be thrilled to learn their ancestors used a different name than the one they are currently using. I find it fascinating as I do with all family research.

I am considering getting a one month subscription to Sweden's ArkivDigital after I have exhausted Ancestry etc.

Thanks again!

A branch of my former husbands family immigrated from Sweden. Their name was Niklasson. After the male immigrant got his journeyman papers (relating to his work) the family name changed to Nordeen. For some reason changing names at that time was the thing to do. So, you could wind up with a name completely unrelated to the original name.

Hope you never thought this was going to be easy! LOL