Peter Larsson Fröberg

Peter Larson Fröberg and Carolina (Gustafsson) Fröberg and family, about 1874. Picture courtesy of Gordon Hamilton Lewis.

Peter Larsson Fröberg

Peter Larsson Fröberg's son, Josef Fröberg, and his wife Emmy Thulin. Josef Fröberg studied at Lunds University (he received his exam in 1891) and later worked for the County Administration (Blekinge). Photo from Josef Fröberg's grandson, Peter I:sson Fröberg.

Date: Sunday, November 05, 2006 1:59 PM 

Hello, Evan, Gordon and Leigh! 

How are you? I’ve written before about changes when it comes to the names in the family. Olaus Larsson kept his name but some of his brothers didn’t. Gustav Larsson wasn’t the only in the family who changed name. He had two brothers (Peter and Sven) who also did it. I’ll provide you with some information about the family that you might find interesting. Sven changed his name from Larsson to Freeberg.

Sometimes when people are changing from one name to another its because they want to escape from something, in some cases – the police. To the best of my knowledge this wasn’t the situation when Sven decided to use Freeberg instead of Larsson. But not every one of Sven’s ancestors had followed the law. One of your ancestors Karin became widow (around) 1650. She moved to her daughter Gertrud who lived in Rödeby parish. At that time it was Denmark (since 1658 Rödeby belongs to Sweden), but Gertrud died in 1652. Then Karin decided to move back to Sweden and to the place that she lived before she went to her daughter. She was then accused of smuggling her cattle across the border. I don’t know the verdict, but the relations between Denmark and Sweden was, at the time, pretty complicated. It was peace, but it didn’t change much. Denmark and Sweden were archrivals, seldom allies. But nothing last forever, between 1657 and 1660 Denmark and Sweden fought a war against each other. The border area was hard affected not so much of the regular troops but the paramilitary units. Torsås (where our ancestors lived) was situated at the border to Denmark. People like Karin always had the war threat hanging over them, but still life had to go on. Suddenly the peace could change into war and they had to choose between stay at the farm (and hope for the best) or hide in the forest. It was peace again, between 1660 and 1675, but when Karin died in 1676, there was another war between Denmark and Sweden. When she died she was described as “an old lady”. She was, as far as I am concerned, not a victim of the war, but most likely by old age. But wars weren’t the only problem for our ancestors. Between 1695 and 1697 there was a devastating failure of crops. There was a long and cold winter which stopped the sowing right until midsummer. The rest of the summer became cold and rainy and the night frost came early and ruined the small harvest that they had hoped on. People died on their farms and on the roads. They have estimated that 100 000 people died as a consequence, it was 10 % of the Swedish population. In Finland, which belonged to Sweden from around 1100 to 1809, nearly 1/3 of the population died. The infant mortality was extremely high during the period. It never rains but it pours. In 1700 and to 1718 Sweden was in war, at the same time, with Denmark, Poland and Russia. Between 1710-1711 the plague hit Sweden, and 1716-1718 there was a new failure of crops. The exact figure is impossible to tell, but in 1697 (according to one source) Sweden had 1 363 000 inhabitants and in 1718 1 205 000 inhabitants. Its an reduction of 158 000 people. According to one estimation only the plagued killed 100 000 people; for example 1/3 of the population in Stockholm died. But many of our ancestors and relatives also died because of the plague. A doctor, named Magnus Bromell, suggested people to “mix fresh cow dung with vinegar and then press the sap from it and drink it to some bowls of a spoon”.  

If I shall return to where I started this email, the name Freeberg was probably inspired by the home village Fröbbestorp and Sven’s brother Peter Fröberg. This Peter Fröberg studied at upper secondary school, which at that time was unusual for children whose parents were farmers. Maybe his father wanted to show the rest of the community that he was in cash. Peter Fröberg worked at the county sheriff’s office (and for eleven months as county sheriff), then later at the auctioner’s office, the post office and county secretariat. On November 21, 1868, he became prosecutor in the Swedish navy at one naval base in the city of Karlskrona. At his spare time he was also a barrister. I have attached a picture of Peter Fröberg, which I have received from his great grandson Peter I:sson Fröberg. I don’t know from where Gustav took his name, but there was certainly nothing that had anything to do with his home district in Sweden. Maybe he just “grabbed” a name that happen to pop up in his head. Here its pumpkin time, but we have a Swedish tradition that is much older than Halloween. This weekend is ornamentation of graves. We have been doing this in Sweden for almost 50 yrs, before that the ornamentation took place on Christmas instead. You can see lights placed all over the cemetery. It’s beautiful in the evening. I have found out that it might not have been a coincidence that you served in the military. Our ancestors belonged to the Löf family. One of our ancestors was Hans Larsson Löf. He must have been born around 1510 and was farmer between 1535 and 1575. His widow cultivated the farm in 1578. But as the society looked back then the names of the women were seldom mentioned in the documents, so we don’t know her names. Anyway, a couple of their descendants were soldiers in the Swedish army in the end of 16th century and early 17th century. One (Lars Svensson Löf) was a cavalryman, another (Oluf Svensson Löf) was a foot soldier (armed with a pike). Lars Svensson Löf served in the military between 1618 and 1619, and then in 1624. Oluf Svensson Löf was in the military from 1623 to 1624. Sweden was in the 1620’s engaged in war in the Baltic States. At the time Latvia was a part of Poland-Lithuania. Sweden was successful in the war and in 1629 (the armistice in Altmark, Poland) Latvia became Swedish.  

Best regards, Per

Gustaf Fröberg