Painter - House or Portrait?

[Kristina Brown]

My gggrandfather is listed as a Painter. His name was Anders Hedlund and arrived to Norra Börringe 1878 3/2 from Svedala. What type of a Painter would he have been? A house painter, such as someone who painted the inside walls of a home and or the outside of a house or building? What would a person who painted Portraits be called?
 
Why would Anders take the name of Hedland when his father's name was Andersson ?
Please see following information:
 
Anders, born 1849 15/5 in Svenstorp N. 2, Svedala parish. (N.2=Number 2).
 
Parents: Gifta drängen (=Married farmhand) Jöns Andersson och Bengta Svensdotter i Svenstorp N. 2.
   
Drängen Jöns Andersson, born 1819 6/6 in Gustav.
Hustru Bengta Svensdotter, born 1821 15/8 in Svedala.
 
Thank you for any help you may provide.
With kind regards,
Kristina Brown

[Carin Arbman]

Hello Kristina!
A målare or målarmästare is a generally a painter of walls, houses, etc. Unless a person is listed as porträttmålare = portrait painter, or landskapsmålare = landscape painter. A female painter målarinna is almost always an artist (maybe there is a gender issue here??!) Konstnär is an artist, the female counterpart is konstnärinna.

[Heikki Särkkä]

Your gggrandfather's name Andersson is a patronym indicating that his father's first name was Anders. Artisans normally adopted permanent last names on obtaining a qualification in a given trade, sometimes earlier.  
 
Did your ancestor carry an English document giving his trade as 'painter'? If so, look at the exact meaning of the term in the Oxford English Dictionary.  
 
One (Swedish) designation for a person making portraits is 'konterfejare'.
 
Hope this helps
 
HeikkI Särkkä

[Bo Johansson]

Notice that Anders Hedlund's father was named Jöns Andersson, so Anders Hedlund was probably known as Anders Jönsson before he took the name Hedlund.
 
// Bo Johansson

[Anna-Carin Betzén]

The record of Anders Hedlund's marriage to the widow Johanna Ahlqvist in 1878 states his title as f.d. hussar - i.e. ex-hussar (source: marriage records database at www.ddss.nu). It is very likely that he had received the name Hedlund in the military, as men with patronymic names were regularly given other names when entering the military. In the Military Names section of this page you can read more about military names in Sweden. My own gggrandfather got the very name Hedlund in this way (though in Kville parish in Bohuslän county). In his case, the name alluded to the fact that the small house he was allotted as a soldier was named Hede. And, before him, his predecessor, who'd lived in the same house, had got the same name.

[Kristina Brown]

Thank you all very much for your kind help.
One question often leads to more questions. I have not been able to find any death information for Anders Hedlund. Would Anders have kept the Hedlund name until his death? When he died would he be listed as Jönsson or Hedlund? What name would his chidren have?  
 
My thanks for your help.
Kristina

[Erik Holmlund]

Kristina> Hi, I see you have got some suggestions of what type of painter your ancestor was. I will give you another one. I have an ancestor who was  listed as 'målare' (=painter) and in my modern ears I first assumed he was either a house painter or portrait painter. None of that was true. He was a 'allmoge målare', a kind of furniture and decoration painter. It was very common in Sweden to have the furniture painted.
regards.
Erik, Skellefteå

[Eva Dahlberg]

Kristina, to find out what name your ancestor kept and what name his descendants chose to use is impossible to know or guess without knowing the family. In the early 1900s name practices changed (when the patronymic system was abandoned) and children of the same family sometimes ended up using different last names.
 
It would be recorded in the church books. If you have followed them in the clerical surveys until these end as microfilm around 1895 (different end year from parish to parish) you need to follow them further, either via the parish office or via the Regional Archives in Lund (if the books have been handed over to the Archives, only some parishes in that area have done so). You find the contact information for the parish at www.svenskakyrkan.se and the Regional Archives through www.ra.se .
 
The church books were kept until 1991 as a registration of the Swedish population, so even if they may not be filmed yet, they do exist. Through them you also will find his death date.
 
 
Regards,
Eva