I'm posting here because I think this is off-topic as it's about Norway, not Finland, but I'm hoping the naming conventions we similar enough that someone here can help, or at least direct me to a resource.
A Norwegian family intermarried with my Finnish/German family in Washington state. The immigrant progenitor of that family in the US was known as Ole Eric Erstad after immigrating. I've received this information from a descendant from that family:
"Ole's father was Erik Olsen Smistad and his mother was Gjertrud Ingebrigtsdatter Smistad (born Erstad) Nov 10 1823 - 1902. ... After the marriage, they used Erstadstranden as a last name also."
From that I think I understand that:
- Erik was the son of Ole, and was from a farm named Smistad
- His wife was the daughter of Ingebrigt, and was from the farm Erstad
- They settled on his farm?
- They later adopted a surname based on her farm name?
Does this make sense? Are Smistad and Erstad actually farm names? What does Erstadstranden mean?
Any help would be welcome.
Terry Reigel
A Norwegian family intermarried with my Finnish/German family in Washington state. The immigrant progenitor of that family in the US was known as Ole Eric Erstad after immigrating. I've received this information from a descendant from that family:
"Ole's father was Erik Olsen Smistad and his mother was Gjertrud Ingebrigtsdatter Smistad (born Erstad) Nov 10 1823 - 1902. ... After the marriage, they used Erstadstranden as a last name also."
From that I think I understand that:
- Erik was the son of Ole, and was from a farm named Smistad
- His wife was the daughter of Ingebrigt, and was from the farm Erstad
- They settled on his farm?
- They later adopted a surname based on her farm name?
Does this make sense? Are Smistad and Erstad actually farm names? What does Erstadstranden mean?
Any help would be welcome.
Terry Reigel
Comment