Norin/Noren Surname Project

[Bill Norin]

Dear Sirs and Madam,
 
 
I am writing to you regarding the Norin/Noren DNA project, which is
being conducted for genealogical research.
 
 
Our genealogy research has left many unanswered questions.  Many of us
have been researching our Norin/Noren ancestors, and we often hit brick
walls.  These brick walls are where, regardless of our efforts, we don't
make any progress taking our research back another generation.  In
addition, questions still remain unanswered:
 
 
Are all the Norin/Noren related?
 
 
Do all Norin/Noren originate from Halsingland, Sweden?
 
 
To solve these questions, and to determine who is related to whom, the
Norin/Noren DNA project was established.   Our objective is to test one
direct descent male from each Line, to determine who is related.  A Line
is all those who can trace their family tree to one distant ancestor.
 
 
The DNA test only works on males of direct descent.  Scientists have
discovered that a small portion of the Y chromosome is passed from
father to son, unchanged, except for a mutation about every 500
generations.  By looking at this small portion of the Y chromosome, a
lab test can determine if two males had a common ancestor, and are
therefore related.    
 
 
We need your help.   We need a direct descent male volunteer from each
Norin/Noren Line.  It is extremely important to the project.  If you are
interested, and don't know your family history, we will help you figure
it out.  The criteria is that you are a direct descent male, ie. your
father was a Norin/Noren, his father was a Norin/Noren, etc.  Please
contact me if you are interested in participating, have questions, or
would like to learn more about this new field of the application of
science to genealogy.  There is a nominal lab fee for participating in
the project.
 
 
The Project web site is:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~norin/norinproject.html
 
 
I look forward to hearing from you.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Bill Norin
appleglo@cyberg8t.com
909-626-0602

[Jonas Kuschner (Jonas)]

Norin and Norén are not infrequent surnames of a fairly common Swedish type, in most cases presumably derived from some geographical name beginning in Nor- or Nord-.
 
As most Swedish surnames are of recent origin (19th century or thereabout), I am sure that in the majority of cases it would be quite easy to determine from historical sources and with normal genealogical research methods whether one family of this name is related to another one or not. Relatively common names like these were assumed by many people in many different places, independently of one another and at different points in time. DNA tests might be useful to determine the common origin of, for instance, English families sharing the same surname and with a history going back to the Middle ages, before available historical records begin. For Swedish genealogical research it is definitely overkill, except in the few cases where sources are lacking and you may have some other reason to suspect a common origin.
 
I don't know have much you have so far worked with Swedish church and court records and other sources concerning your Norins, but I would suggest that that is where your priorities should be, including getting a good reading knowledge of the Swedish language, if you haven't done that yet.

[Glen Johnson]

Hello Jonas,
 
I did a quick search here on the name Norin and found a number of references to early 18th century Norins, in Hälsingland.  I also went through the Emigranten CD to try to find Bill's people, but there weren't any Norins emigrating who were of the correct age, nothing even close.  While I was searching the CD, I noticed that the majority of Norins were emigrating from Hälsingland.
 
The Norin surname is not such a common name, actually -- only 1,011 Norins in the entire Gula Sidorna phone listings for Sweden, for example. Given Bill's almost total lack of historical data and the relative scarcity of the Norin surname, the testing that Bill is proposing is perhaps not such an off-the-wall idea.

[Elisabeth Thorsell]

According to the name statistics of the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 1870 living persons using the Norin surname, and 5970 using the Norén surname.
 
It would probably be best if Bill did some digging in American sources and could find out the birth date and emigration date for his Swedes, as that might make it possible to trace them the ordinary way.
 
I know of at least one Norén family from Småland, and the surname could be constructed from any of the places called Nora or starting with Nor-

[Eva Dahlberg]

I searched for the name Norin on DISBYT (www.dis.se). It is only researcher-submitted information which may result in regionally biased information. Also there is several different posts for the same person (a total of 5,3 million posts), but ca 1/7 of the population born between 1750-1900 is supposed to be in the database by now.
 
There are over 500 posts with the name Norin from all over the country and over 1000 Noréns.
 
If you choose the time frame 1700-1800 you end up with 124 posts of Norin from 10 counties all over Sweden (Gävleborg, Västmanland, Älvsborg, Örebro, Södermanland, Uppsala, Kopparberg (Dalarna), Östergötland, Göteborg och Bohus län and Värmland).  
The same time period gives 52 posts with the name Norén (and one Norén) in the following  
11 counties Skaraborg, Älvsborg, Västmanland, Östergötland, Västernorrland, Kalmar, Värmland, Göteborgs- och Bohus län, Örebro, Kopparberg (Dalarna) and Norrbotten.
 
Some come from parishes like Norrala, Norrbärke, Nora, Norra Vånga, Nårunga, Norrköping.
 
Best regards,
Eva Dahlberg

[Kjell Croné]

The name Norén is often spellt Noreen, Nor?en in the church records.
You will find lots of Noréns in the book Släkten Noreen från Värmland (584 pages, Uppsala 1917) by Arvid Noreen.  
I havn't seen the book myself, but these Noréns are descendants of Erlandus Gudmundi from Nor in Värmland. Here you will find the names Norenius, Norenia, Norelius, Norelia too.
 
Regards, Kjell

[Glen Johnson]

Hello Elizabeth,
 
Anders Norin was born in 1854 and he emigrated to the US in 1869. He lived in San Francisco and all vital records pertaining to him were destroyed in the earthquake/fire of 1906.  The little that is known about him came from the 1900 federal census.
 
Since I cannot find him in the Emigranten CD, I thought maybe he could be found in the Denmark or Norway emigration databases.  I don't have experience with those.  Do you know the URLs for them?

[Elisabeth Thorsell]

Glen, if he emigrated in 1869, he was only 15 and might have emigrated with his parents. Have you checked the 1870 and 1880 US Censuses? When did he come to San Francisco? Naturalization records?
When did he die? Obituaries?
 
The Emigranten does start in 1869, but is not complete, and all other ports than Göteborg are missing.

[Anders Andersson]

Could it be that Andrew and his father waited until their emigration before adopting the name Norin? In that case they may not be known in Swedish church records (or by Swedish genealogists) under that name.  However, there are quite a few Anders Johansson born 1854 in DISBYT already, and obviously a lot more of them not in any searchable database.
 
While DNA Y-line analysis may prove helpful in cases like this, I'm worried that people prematurely discard numerous potential leads by limiting themselves to a specific surname.  I suspect that on average, the male part of the Swedish population have changed surnames more often than Y chromosome signatures... ;-)
 
With all those registration projects going on, is anybody seriously considering compiling a database of emigration notes from Swedish church records? Don't ask me how to go about such a task though...