Svenska Släktkalendern 2014

Svenska Släktkalendern 2014 ("The Swedish Family Calendar 2014") was published in May this year. The genealogical work is similar to the Svenska Adelskalendern (The Swedish Nobility Book), but "only" covers "commoner" families. I got the opportunity to leaf through it when I visited the Genealogy Convention in Karlstad, Sweden last weekend. I didn't buy it, but might do it later (it will also eventually be added to the book collection of the Norwegian Genealogy Society), as quite a few interesting families were included. 65 family articles are included, of those 22 have been covered earlier, while as many as 43 are new, including Prince Daniel of Sweden's Westling family. 

The families covered in the latest edition are: Ahnlund (from Annefors) (new), Alfvén (from Alunda) (new), Arrhenius (from Målilla), Aschan, Askagården (new), Azar (new), Berggren (from Gävle) (new), Bergman (from Högsby) (new), Bergström (from Jämtland) (new), Berzelius, Billing (from Stockholm) (new), Bjernald (new), Brodell (from Bro) (new), Carlsson (from Burseryd), Cleve, Clewberg (new), Dafgård, Dahlgren (from Norrköping), Djurberg (from Stockholm), Dravins (new), Ekroth (from Ytterselö) (new), Elmgren (from Lessebo) (a new branch added), Eschelsson (new), Esmaeilzadeh (new), Fagræus (new), Fioretos (new), Främby (new), Granit (from Korpo) (new), Hellström (from Björskog) (new), Klackenberg (new), Kraft (from Löderup) (new), Lagberg (from Skänninge) (new), Lagerlöf, Lindman (from Lindrum), Magnuson (the Sandviken family) (new), Meitner (new), Nathhorst, Nathurst; Nessler, Nässler (new), Nilsson (from Grythyttan) (new), Nordenvall (the Värmland family), Persson (from Tullstorp) (new), Plantin (from Umeå) (new), Rahm (from Ramsberg) (new), Ramstedt (the Stockholm family), Rappaport (new), Rosell (from Torpa) (new), Rossander (from Kisa) (new), Rur, Ruhr; Salmoon (new),  Samuelsson (from Spekeröd) (new), Scheele (new), Seddigh (new), Siegbahn, Stecksenius, Stecksén (Daniel Olofsson's family) (new), Svart (from Aspeboda), Svartz (from Leksand), Svedberg (from Edebo) (new), Tegnér (from Tegnaby), Theorell (from Hudene) (new), Wattrangius (I) (new),  Westling (from Hanebo - Prince Danilel's family) (new), Widerström (new), Wiesel (from Vislanda) (new),Wullt (new), Åkerhielm (Filip's branch).

Svenska Släktkalendern (SSK) was published for the first time in 1885, then under the name Svensk Slägtkalendern, from 1889 Svenska Ättartal, before it got its current name in 1912. Since 1885 the calendar has been published with irregular intervals, but the last three editions every second year. The 2014 edition is no. 46.

The calendar covers the basic genealogical-biographical facts about the family members, such as complete name including call name and nickname if given, birth date, profession/title, employment, positions and/or memberships in national organisations, honors (orders, medals), marriage, cohabitaiton or registered partnership as well as address (city, place).

Föreningen Svenska Släktkalendern (The Swedish Family Calendar Society) is behind the publication, and the current editor is Magnus Bäckmark. The 2014 edition costs SEK 730. ISBN10: 9163751151. ISBN13: 9789163751158. Go to the official website for more details.

Prince Daniel's name - more comments

The news that Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland has been officially registered with the name Olof Daniel Westling Bernadotte, as I commented on in my blog article of 22 June 2010, has now reached the major newspapers in Sweden. Expressen.se wrote among others about it in an article on 26 june.

But the first one out was actually the Swedish church newspaper Kyrkans Tidning, who published an article on the subject on Thursday 24 June 2010. The paper seems to have been tipped off by Per Westling, who is a development officer for Svenska kyrkans arbetsgivarorganisation (The Swedish Church Employers' Association) and works on his blog Kyrkoordnaren in his sparetime.

I have followed his blog for some time, and read with interest his article on 26 May 2010, where he asked how Daniel Westling's surname was going to disappear when he got married. The legal challenge was that the current name law did not allow a surname to be taken away. Traditionally the members of the royal family don't have a surname and are listed in Folkbokföringen, the National Register, with an asterisk. After reading the article, I put the question on a list of topics for my blog, but didn't get the time to do anything about it before the Swedish Royal Court finally started to update the official website on 21 June 2010 with Prince Daniel's biography (see my blog articles of 21 and 22 June).

I guess most newspaper commentators etc., if they ever thought carefully about the subject, had expected that the established customary law would triumph over the name law. Personally I imagined that a loophole could be found somehow. After re-reading Per Westberg's blog article and then Metro's article of 12 March 2010, which Westberg gave me a link to, I realized that no loophole existed - it was not possible for Prince Daniel to get rid of his surname, which is why he is now the only member of the royal house with a surname.

It is interesting to note that while the king's lawyer, Axel Calissendorf, insists that the royal family has no surname, the Tax Agency, which is responsible for the National Register, is of the opinion that they have, but just don't use it. I find the agency's view to be somewhat self-contradictory, as it has allowed the royals to be registered with an asterisk instead of a surname.

What will happen in the future, then? Kyrkans Tidning mentions that Princess Madeleine was the last member of the royal family to be registered with an asterisk, as she was born under the previous name law. The article refers to konstitutionell praxis (constitutional practice/custom, or perhaps customary law is a better expression) at the time. This could explain why, if I understand the article correctly, also Queen Silvia, whose maiden name was Sommerlath, and Princess Lilian, whose surname when she married in 1976 was Craig, are listed with an asterisk instead of a legal surname. It seems that royals born under the new name law will have to be registered with a surname, which most certainly will be Bernadotte, but I guess we have to wait and see what happens, as the newspaper article didn't comment on it explicitly. As I have said earlier, I think it would be appropriate if all the royals were registered with a surname, as the name law makes it compulsory, but is is probably not a pressing matter.

Let's now wait and see if Norwegian journalists will use their imagination and start examining what the situation is in Norway. The members of the Norwegian Royal Family don't use a surname, with the exception of Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid. I have been told that the royals are registered with their title in Folkeregisteret (the National Register) instead of a surname. As the Norwegian name law applies to every citizen, I see no reason why they should be excepted, even if customary law has prevailed so far. According to Dagens Medisin 9 October 2003, the royals' don't even have a personnummer (official reference number) in the National Register. Obviously enough to ponder about!

Updated on Tuesday 25 January 2011 at 08.30 (minor language errors).

Prince Daniel's name

1. In yesterday's blog article about the royal wedding in Stockholm last weekend, section 2, I commented on the fact that the Swedish Royal Court at the official website in connection with the updating of the Royal Family section to include the biography of Prince Daniel had switched his given names (Daniel Olof instead of Olof Daniel). A minor mistake, but still worth pointing out. The mistake was fortunately corrected today.

In my blog article yesterday I also asked what was going to happen with Prince Daniel's surname, as a legal expert at the Swedish Tax Agency had made clear that according to the Swedish name law there was no possibility to legally "take away" one's surname. The King's lawyer, Axel Calissendorff, had stressed, however, that the royal family had no surname (by customary law, I presume).

The question about the then Daniel Westling's surname was described as "mycket känslig" ("very sensitive"). No conclusion about the surname had been reached when Metro published its article in March 2010.

Today it seems that Prince Daniel will not only keep his legal surname, but that he has also got a new one, Bernadotte. Yesterday he was in the biography presented as "Daniel Olof (sic!), Prins av Sverige, Hertig av Västergötland" (unfortunately I didn't take a screen picture yesterday, but also others had witnessed the wrong name order). According to the biography (see screen capture above), Prince Daniel is now listed as "Olof Daniel Westling Bernadotte, Prins av Sverige, Hertig av Västergötland". For all practical purposes he will of course only be referred to as "Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland", but it is interesting to note that Prince Daniel is the only member of the royal house who has a legal surname. I am quite certain that today's update by the royal court was made with reference to the earlier debate. Still I wonder what happened in 1976 when Silvia Sommerlath became Queen of Sweden. Was the name law at the time different than the current one, or did no-one bother to question the legality of dropping Silvia's surname?

I wouldn't mind if the royal court made one step further and registered Bernadotte as a surname for all the members of the royal house, as the name law then would apply to every Swedish citizen, whether royal or not, but the need of a surname is probably not a pressing matter...

By the way, in the English version of Prince Daniel's biography, he is today presented as Olof Daniel, Prince of Sweden in the first entry, but if you click on the biography link, his full name appears.

2. Over to another, not related subject: It didn't take long for the Swedish tabloids to figure out where Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel had gone on their honeymoon. I am not going to write an independent blog article about this (and I won't bother to give links either), but I would like to add how sad I think it is that the couple couldn't be left alone for a few weeks. They certainly deserve some time out of the limelight. I really wonder what is going on in the mind of these people who feel the need to call the media whenever a celebrity (or a royal, as in this instance) turns up somewhere. Some people are obviously more greedy than others...