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Family History of Paul Eric Strombeck (Strömbäck)

Using recorded information the family history of the Strömbäck can be traced back to the 17th century as is shown in the Strömbäck genealogy chart. The data was collected by Nils Eric Strömbäck who lives in Kalix, Sweden. The public records are found primarily in churches which recorded the important events of a person's life, such as births confirmations, marriages, and deaths. In addition to the individual's birth and death dates (where available) information was recorded on where one was born and died. The locations can be found on the map of the area in district of Norrbotten where Kalix is located. It is evident from this information that the people of that part of Sweden lived, married and died in a small part of the country.

Is is possible to learn more of the Strömbäck family history from recent technology that examines a person's genetic information. That information can be on a person's Y-chromosome which is passed down through the male descendents. Chromosomal information passed down female descendents is carried on mitochondrial sites. The male chromosomal information shows a person's descendents from about up to10,000 years ago from 60,000 years ago, the time of the first common marker of all non-African men. A "genographic" study done by National Geographic shows the results of genetic markers of the male side of the Strömbäck family. The following results describe the very old ancestry of this family.

Genographic Study

Your Y - chromosome results identify you as a member of haplogroup R1a1
The genetic markers that define your ancestral history reach back roughly 60,000 years to the first common marker of all non-African men, M168, and follow your lineage to present day, ending with M17, the defining marker of haplogroup R1a1.
If you look at the map highlighting your ancestors' route, you will see that members of haplogroup R1a1 carry the following Y-chromosome markers:
M168 > M89 > M9 > M45 > M207 > M173 > M17
Today a large concentration-around 40 percent-of the men living in the Czech Republic across the steppes to Siberia, and south throughout Central Asia are members of haplogroup R1a1. In India, around 35 percent of the men in Hindi-speaking populations belong to this group. The M17 marker is found in only five to ten percent of Middle Eastern men. The marker is also found in relatively high frequency-around 35 percent-among men living on the eastern side of present-day Iran.
What's a haplogroup, and why do geneticists concentrate on the Y chromosome in their search for markers? For that matter, what's a marker?
Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. One exception is the Y chromosome, which is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation. Unchanged, that is unless a mutation-a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change-occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down from the man in whom it occurred to his sons, their sons, and every male in his family for thousands of years.
In some instances there may be more than one mutational event that defines a particular branch on the tree. This means that any of these markers can be used to determine your particular haplogroup, since every individual who has one of these markers also has the others.
When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world.
A haplogroup is defined by a series of markers that are shared by other men who carry the same random mutations. The markers trace the path your ancestors took as they moved out of Africa. It's difficult to know how many men worldwide belong to any particular haplogroup, or even how many haplogroups there are, because scientists simply don't have enough data yet.
One of the goals of the five-year Genographic Project is to build a large enough database of anthropological genetic data to answer some of these questions. To achieve this, project team members are traveling to all corners of the world to collect more than 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations. In addition, we encourage you to contribute your anonymous results to the project database, helping our geneticists reveal more of the answers to our ancient past.
Keep checking these pages; as more information is received, more may be learned about your own genetic history.

Your Ancestral Journey: What We Know Now
M168 : Your Earliest Ancestor

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : Roughly 50,000 years ago
Place of Origin : Africa
Climate : Temporary retreat of Ice Age; Africa moves from drought to warmer temperatures and moister conditions
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Approximately 10,000
Tools and Skills: Stone tools ; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills
Skeletal and archaeological evidence suggest that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and began moving out of Africa to colonize the rest of the world around 60,000 years ago.
The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia , Kenya, or Tanzania, some 31,000 to 79,000 years ago. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.
But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors' exodus out of Africa.
The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. It was around 50,000 years ago that the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.
In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans' intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn't been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids.

M89 : Moving Through the Middle East

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : 45,000 years ago
Place : Northern Africa or the Middle East
Climate: Middle East : Semiarid grass plains
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills : Stone, ivory, wood tools
The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.
The first people to leave Africa likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. Your ancestors followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond, and were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa.
Beginning about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.
While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of buffalo, antelope, woolly mammoths, and other game through what is now modern-day Iran to the vast steppes of Central Asia.
These semiarid grass-covered plains formed an ancient "superhighway" stretching from eastern France to Korea. Your ancestors, having migrated north out of Africa into the Middle East, then traveled both east and west along this Central Asian superhighway. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country.

M9 : The Eurasian Clan Spreads Wide and Far

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : 40,000 years ago
Place : Iran or southern Central Asia
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Tens of thousands
Tools and Skills : Upper Paleolithic
Your next ancestor, a man born around 40,000 years ago in Iran or southern Central Asia, gave rise to a genetic marker known as M9, which marked a new lineage diverging from the M89 Middle Eastern Clan. His descendants, of which you are one, spent the next 30,000 years populating much of the planet.
This large lineage, known as the Eurasian Clan, dispersed gradually over thousands of years. Seasoned hunters followed the herds ever eastward, along the vast super highway of Eurasian steppe. Eventually their path was blocked by the massive mountain ranges of south Central Asia-the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, and the Himalayas.
The three mountain ranges meet in a region known as the "Pamir Knot," located in present-day Tajikistan. Here the tribes of hunters split into two groups. Some moved north into Central Asia, others moved south into what is now Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent.
These different migration routes through the Pamir Knot region gave rise to separate lineages.
Most people native to the Northern Hemisphere trace their roots to the Eurasian Clan. Nearly all North Americans and East Asians are descended from the man described above, as are most Europeans and many Indians.

M45 : The Journey Through Central Asia

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : 35,000
Place of Origin : Central Asia
Climate : Glaciers expanding over much of Europe
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills : Upper Paleolithic
The next marker of your genetic heritage, M45, arose around 35,000 years ago, in a man born in Central Asia. He was part of the M9 Eurasian Clan that had moved to the north of the mountainous Hindu Kush and onto the game-rich steppes of present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and southern Siberia.
Although big game was plentiful, the environment on the Eurasian steppes became increasing hostile as the glaciers of the Ice Age began to expand once again. The reduction in rainfall may have induced desert-like conditions on the southern steppes, forcing your ancestors to follow the herds of game north.
To exist in such harsh conditions, they learned to build portable animal-skin shelters and to create weaponry and hunting techniques that would prove successful against the much larger animals they encountered in the colder climates. They compensated for the lack of stone they traditionally used to make weapons by developing smaller points and blades-microliths-that could be mounted to bone or wood handles and used effectively. Their tool kit also included bone needles for sewing animal-skin clothing that would both keep them warm and allow them the range of movement needed to hunt the reindeer and mammoth that kept them fed.
Your ancestors' resourcefulness and ability to adapt was critical to survival during the last ice age in Siberia, a region where no other hominid species is known to have lived.
The M45 Central Asian Clan gave rise to many more; the man who was its source is the common ancestor of most Europeans and nearly all Native American men.

M207 : Leaving Central Asia

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : 30,000
Place of Origin : Central Asia
Climate : Glaciers expanding over much of Europe and western Eurasia
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills : Upper Paleolithic
After spending considerable time in Central Asia, refining skills to survive in harsh new conditions and exploit new resources, a group from the Central Asian Clan began to head west towards the European subcontinent.
An individual in this clan carried the new M207 mutation on his Y chromosome. His descendants ultimately split into two distinct groups, with one continuing onto the European subcontinent, and the other group turning south and eventually making it as far as India.
Your lineage falls within the first haplogroup, R1, and gave rise to the first modern humans to move into Europe and eventually colonize the continent.

M173 : Colonizing Europe - The First Modern Europeans

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : Around 30,000 years ago
Place : Central Asia
Climate : Ice Age
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : Approximately 100,000
Tools and Skills : Upper Paleolithic
As your ancestors continued to move west, a man born around 30,000 years ago in Central Asia gave rise to a lineage defined by the genetic marker M173. His descendants were part of the first large wave of humans to reach Europe.
During this period, the Eurasian steppelands extended from present-day Germany, and possibly France, to Korea and China. The climate fostered a land rich in resources and opened a window into Europe.
Your ancestors' arrival in Europe heralded the end of the era of the Neandertals, a hominid species that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 29,000 to 230,000 years ago. Better communication skills, weapons, and resourcefulness probably enabled your ancestors to outcompete Neandertals for scarce resources.
This wave of migration into Western Europe marked the appearance and spread of what archaeologists call the Aurignacian culture. The culture is distinguished by significant innovations in methods of manufacturing tools, more standardization of tools, and a broader set of tool types, such as end-scrapers for preparing animal skins and tools for woodworking.
In addition to stone, the first modern humans to reach Europe used bone, ivory, antler, and shells as part of their tool kit. Bracelets and pendants made of shells, teeth, ivory, and carved bone appear at many sites. Jewelry, often an indication of status, suggests a more complex social organization was beginning to develop.
The large number of archaeological sites found in Europe from around 30,000 years ago indicates that there was an increase in population size.
Around 20,000 years ago, the climate window shut again, and expanding ice sheets forced your ancestors to move south to Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. As the ice retreated and temperatures became warmer, beginning about 12,000 years ago, many descendants of M173 moved north again to repopulate places that had become inhospitable during the Ice Age.
Not surprisingly, today the number of descendants of the man who gave rise to marker M173 remains very high in Western Europe. It is particularly concentrated in northern France and the British Isles where it was carried by ancestors who had weathered the Ice Age in Spain.

M17 : The Indo - Europeans of the Steppes of Asia

Fast Facts
Time of Emergence : 10,000 to 15,000 years ago
Place of Birth : Ukraine or southern Russia
Climate : Glaciers are retreating
Estimated Number of Homo sapiens : A few million
Tools and Skills : Possibly the first people to domesticate the horse
Your genetic trail ends with a marker that arose between 10,000 to 15,000 years ago when a man of European origin was born on the grassy steppes in the region of present-day Ukraine or southern Russia.
His descendents became the nomadic steppe dwellers who eventually spread as far afield as India and Iceland. Archaeologists speculate that these people were the first to domesticate the horse, which would have eased their distant migrations.
In addition to genetic and archaeological evidence, the spread of languages can also be used to trace prehistoric migration patterns. Your ancestors, descendants of the Indo-European clan, may be responsible for the birth and spread of Indo-European languages. The world's most widely spoken language family, Indo-European tongues include English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, several Indian languages such as Bengali and Hindi, and numerous others. Many of the Indo-European languages share similar words for animals, plants, tools, and weapons.
Some linguists believe that the Kurgans, nomadic horsemen roaming the steppes of southern Russia and the Ukraine, were the first to speak and spread a Proto-Indo-European language, some 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. Genetic data and the distribution of Indo-European speakers suggest the Kurgans, named after their distinctive burial mounds, may have been descendents of M17.
Today a large concentration-around 40 percent-of the men living from the Czech Republic across the steppes to Siberia, and south throughout Central Asia are descendants of this clan. In India, around 35 percent of the men in Hindi-speaking populations carry the M17 marker, whereas the frequency in neighboring communities of Dravidian speakers is only about ten percent. This distribution adds weight to linguistic and archaeological evidence suggesting that a large migration from the Asian steppes into India occurred within the last 10,000 years.
The M17 marker is found in only five to ten percent of Middle Eastern men. This is true even in Iranian populations where Farsi, a major Indo-European language, is spoken. Despite the low frequency, the distribution of men carrying the M17 marker in Iran provides a striking example of how climate conditions, the spread of language, and the ability to identify specific markers can combine to tell the story of the migration patterns of individual genetic lineages. In the western part of the country, descendants of the Indo-European Clan are few, encompassing perhaps five to ten percent of the men. However, on the eastern side, around 35 percent of the men carry the M17 marker. This distribution suggests that the great Iranian deserts presented a formidable barrier and prevented much interaction between the two groups.
This is where your genetic trail, as we know it today, ends.

    The M17 genetic marker tells where we were until about 10,000 BC, in west central Asia. The above map shows migrations of the many other haplogroups through that region at that time. From that time to the present genetic links as well as historical, cultural, and linguistic information give us some insights into the migration of peoples who finally settled Sweden and the remainder of the Scandinavian peninsula. Some of these people appear to come from as far away as far East Asia. The migrations to Sweden did not begin until about 8000 BC when the glaciers retreated from most of Scandinavia. With the migrations including people (with their horses and cultural traditions) from Asia, some Scandinavians have genetic links that are not European, but which connect to the Caucasus Mountain and Central Asian regions. Historical, linguistic, anthropologic and archaeologic data support these migrations. For example, some people from Asia seem to be largely indistinguishable from Scandinavians of today. People who had arrived (migrated to?)in the Tarim Basin (adjacent to Mongolia and China) about 2000 BC resemble Europeans rather than having Mongoloid features.  Their mummies show males that were up to 6 foot 6 inches in height, and 6 feet tall in women; and they had plaited reddish brown hair. On walls of nearby caves their art shows men with blue or green eyes with red or blond hair and beards; and they dressed in a manner similar to the Sassanians (people of the extensive Persian Empire of Iran and a number of surrounding countries during the early AD centuries..

    Early migrations from Asia included Scythians, described as nomads and fierce warriors who lived in Central Asia as early as the ninth century BC. Their culture spread westward to southern Russia and Ukraine, and even into Germany, before gradually disappearing early in the Christian era. Archeological remains (kurgansburial mounds) show Scythians were early dwellers near the Black Sea around the 4th Century BC. Genetic evidence also reveals that horses from Mongolia also were brought to Scandinavia by the migrants. Around 800 AD the descendants of these settlers were the Vikings.

    Other migration groups included the Huns who are recorded in histories of many areas including as far east as China. They may have populated Asia to the extent that they pushed out the Scythians. Migrating westward after being driven out of China they appeared in Europe. It is believed that the large confederation of steppe warriors (such as the Scythians, Xiongnu, Huns, Avars, Khazars, Cumans, Mongols, etc.) were not ethnically homogeneous, but rather unions of multiple ethnicities of Asian peoples.

    During the Roman Age (1st to 4th Centuries AD) the Swedes (called the Svears) with their royal seat at Old Uppsala, populated the provinces of Vastergotland, Ostergotland, and West Gotar. Around 44 BC some Scandinavians including the Goths (who became the historical Ostrogoths and Visigoths) and Vandals ( from northern reaches of  Svear lands), began to move south to the Continent. After the fall of the Roman Empire about 420 D, mass migrations of people moved across Europe, largely from east to west but this migration affected Scandinavia little. Archaeological finds show influences of  Scythians (Siberian tribal peoples from south central Asia for whom the horses were important). In addition tradition has passed down beliefs that the ancestors of the Swedish are the Ases (Asir), a Turkic Asian people from east of the River Don, who lived south of the Ural Mountains and possibly at Chasgar in the Caucasus Mountains during Roman Times, in a city called Asgaard. Mythology holds that Odin (their leader, king or God) and some of his people left to move north to Sweden. The Hunnic Empire stretched from the steppes of Central Asia into modern Germany, and from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea as shown is the map on the right (from Wikipedia). The star is suggested to be Atilla's capitol.

    A Scandinavia group with roots in Sweden came to reside as far east as the Don River creating an interface between peoples of very different origins. The Goths migrated from southern Sweden. The Scythian Sarmatians were there with some moving from the East. Later the Huns were in the area with the Vandals close by.  It appears that as the Goths reached the Black Sea, and occupied the area between the Danube and the Don, absorbing the cultural practices of the Scythians (e.g., reliance on the horse). By 230 AD the Goths had moved far south to the shores of the Black Sea to the lands formerly occupied by the Scythians (who disappear as a distinct entity at this time). By 305 the Goths had divided into Ostrogoths in the east, and Visigoths in the west with the Vandals moving further north and west. The Ostrogothic Empire stretched from southern Sweden in a corridor south on both sides of the River Wista in Poland to the Crimea on the Black Sea and east to the Don River. These descendants of the Swedish Goths had adopted the horse centered lifestyle of their neighbors, and thus were culturally indistinguishable from the Asiatics. In his history of the Gothic Wars Procopius wrote that sometime prior to 494AD a contingent of the Herul Goths (likely mixed with, or led by Alanic/Hunnish elements) went to Illeria (Balkan Peninsula) where they suffered defeat and many were killed by the Romans; however, before this the bulk of the people were led by members of the Royal Family back to Thule  (Scandinavia).

   Asiatic Turkish speaking Huns appear in history in the 3d cent. B.C., when part of the Great Wall of China was erected to exclude them from China. Called Hsiung-nu by the Chinese, the Huns occupied North China until 121 BC. 55 BC. when China defeated the the Huns. The Huns then migrated westward across Asia, reaching the Volga River and the Aral Sea where they remained. They invaded the lower Volga valley about 372  AD. and advanced westward, pushing the Germanic Ostrogoths and Visigoths before them and thus precipitating the great waves of migrations that destroyed the Roman Empire and changed the face of Europe. In 395 AD they crossed the Caucasus Mountains and laid waste to Armenia, penetrating as far as Edessa in Syria. By 406 the Huns were in control of the former territory of the Alans south to Azerbaijan.They crossed the Danube, penetrated deep into the Eastern Empire, and forced (432) Emperor Theodosius to pay them tribute. Attila, their greatest king, had his palace in Hungary. Most of the territories that now constitute European Russia, Poland, and Germany were subject to him; he received tribute as a Roman general. When Rome refused (450 AD.) further tribute, the Huns invaded Italy and Gaul and were defeated (451 AD.) by Aetius, but they ravaged Italy before withdrawing after Attilas death (453 AD.).
     The Hun Uygurs tribe to which Atilla belonged are considered to be the descendants of the people represented by the Tarim Basin Mummies of Xinjiang Province in China. The Uygurs were the probable founders of the Huns, and the Huns continued on after the death of Atilla by merging with the Avars and Bulgars. 

    Thor Heyerall explored the Caucasus Mountains in the south of Russia and found a legend of people who in ancient times had emigrated to northern Europe and led by a Hun leader. He also found that people in Azerbaijan today consider themselves descendants of the same people, part of whom migrated to Scandinavia long before. Their leader was a Hun chieftan before Atilla who was called Uldin, from which Odin is proposed to be derived. Some believe that Uldin / Odin appears in Sweden a few years later with his Hun Alan followers and remnants of the Ostrogoths. Legends tell us that the men from Asia (Huns) became the aristocrats of Sweden beginning their dynasties around 450 AD. The Royal Family in Scandinavia in the 6th Century (548 AD) had roots among the migrants northward a century previous. This is supported by linguistic, archaeological and historical evidence.

Genetic Trails of M17
The ancestor of R1a1 had a mutation (a deletion of one base pair) thousands of years ago at a genetic site known as M17. People with this marker in Sweden represent a small percentage of the population, and is attributable to being a descendent of the Vikings. Figure 2 shows the Viking archeological sites in northern Sweden (Norrbotten). A major site is in the most northern part near the Finnish border that represents the area around the Kalix river. This is a site (Figure 3) that people visit where Viking longboat remains have been found.

Figure 2. Map of Sweden showing areas of Viking and

       Saami settlements. Source: Noel D. Broadbent.¹

         Figure 3. Viking archeological site in Norrbotten, near Kalix, visited by Don Strombeck and Swedish relatives in summer 1955. Viking boat remains plus other artifacts were found here.

From about 800 AD, some 300 years after the migrants from the eastern Europe/western Asia came to Sweden and formed the early kingdom, through the 16th century (during the Middle Ages), Norrbotten was considered to be a no mans land. This northern area belonged to no country or kingdom and was sparsely populated by Saami, Vikings and different tribes/people related to the Finns. From the end of the Middle Ages on, the Swedish kings tried hard to colonize and Christianize this area. People living south of Norrland began to move northward and push the present inhabitants out. This took time, however; even today, there are Finnish and Sami minorities living in the area, who have maintained their own culture and customs. The culture of Norrbotten County has remained in many ways different from the rest of Sweden, with the different cultures of the Saami and the Finns (Tournedalians). Many of the old Swedish and Finnish dialects have survived  and are spoken by a great number of people. The people in Norrbotten County have a saying: "I am not a Swede; I am a Norrbothnian". The inhabitants of Norrbotten are therefore heir to the Sami, Finns, Vikings, and Swedish immigrants from the South.

   It is not very reliable to determine a Norrbothnian's ancestry with cultural, historical, and language comparisons. Genetic information is more reliable to predict whether the Str?b?k family can trace any roots to the Vikings, Saami, the Finns or the Swedish people who migrated northward from Germany into Sweden. Saami genetic history has been of great interest because of their large genetic distance from other European populations, maybe because the Saami were isolated for many years. There is considerable genetic variation between the different Saami groups, but they all share a common ancestry. The genetic data show that the Sami have no close relatives including their closest linguistic relatives but are in general more closely related to Europeans than people of other continents. The closest of the distant genetic relatives are Finnish people, but this is probably due to immigration of Finnish people into the Saami areas and the assimilation of the Saami people into the Finnish population. Genetic testing shows that Finns and Saami are phenotypically and genetically typical Europeans. Finns are more closely related to the Germans, English, and Italians than to the Saami, and thus they probably came to Finland from the south, not the east. The Saami and the Finns are most related through their language. The Finns speak Finnish and the Saami speak many different languages but they all belong to the Finno-Ugric or Uralic language group. In contrast the Swedish and Germanic languages are Indo-European languages which agrees with the Swedish people migrating northward from Germany at an early time. The Saami maintained their Uralic language even in areas that had been taken over by Indo-Europeans migrating from Germany into Sweden. Thus, the Saami remain distinct from the Swedes through their language. The Saami in Sweden also belong to significantly different haplogroups than Swedes showing that they have remained distinct in not having intermarried with people, but married primarily with Saami.

    Four major haplogroups (I1a, R1b3, R1a1 and N3) of Y-DNA account for 80% of the Swedish male lineages. The most common haplogroup is I1a, to which 37% of the male lineages belong. I1a is the most common haplogroup in nearly all regions in Sweden, but more frequently in Southern Sweden. Chromosomal analysis shows that the Northern Swedes have a significantly different distribution of haplogroups than those throughout regions in Southern and Central Sweden. In Northern Sweden Haplogroup R1a1 represents about 10% of the population.

    Y-DNA studies of Finland's male gene pool point to two founding populations an Asiatic population whose ancestors moved west across the Ural Mountains in what is now western Russia and a European population whose ancestors retreated to Iberia during the Ice Age and afterward migrated northeast into the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, and Finland. The descendants of the Asiatic population, who carry the Y-DNA N3 haplotype (also called Tat and M46), account for 59% or more of the current male gene pool in Finland. The descendants of the Iberian population, who carry the Y-DNA I1a haplotype (also called M253), account for about 29% of the current male gene pool in Finland. The I1a and N3 haplotypes are not uniformly distributed across Finland, nor are they the only haplotypes represented. In western Finland about 40% of the male population carry I1a and about 41% carry N3. In eastern Finland about 19% carry I1a and about 71% carry N3. Two other haplotypes -- R1a1 and R1b -- are represented at 7% and 4% respectively. Finland has relatively few haplotypes compared to other European countries. This is the result of Finland's geographic and cultural isolation as well as centuries of intermarriage.

    In summary, there is little evidence that the R1a1, M17 genetic marker shows descent from the Southern Swedes migrating north from Germany, the Finnish people, or the Saami (Laplanders). The marker may indicate a Viking heritage as mentioned earlier. During the early part of the 16th century until the 17th century when the Strömbäck genealogical records began, little is known from historical records. Christian churches kept records from an early date (Christianity moved into Northern Sweden when the kings promoted colonization of the region) but an unknown number of wooden churches burned and with them their records were lost. So our records begin as shown by the genealogical chart (prepared by Nils Eric Strömbäck, Kalix Sweden) that has the earliest entry in the 17th century. The Swedish Government has been encouraging settlement of Northern Sweden for centuries, including the 20th century. The Strömbäck genealogy shows, however, that the ancestry of its lineage has lived in the relatively small enclave in Norrbotten for centuries. The Strömbäck Geographic Map shows where the ancestry lived and died. The genealogical chart can give the name of each person's village of birth in some cases and of death in many more instances. These villages are underlined in red.

    Paul Eric Strombeck's father was Nils Olof Strömbäck who was born on April 18, 1851 in Rian, NederKalix and died in Kalix on April 7, 1921. Nils Olaf's home was in Backgärdan, Rian and is marked on the geographic map with the number 1. His mother was Sofia Louisa Nilsdotter who was born on March 6, 1855 in Rian and died on December 26, 1932 in Kalix. She died the day before her grandson, son of Paul Eric Strombeck, Richard H. Strombeck was born in Evanston, Illinois. Sofia's home, marked on the map with number 2, was Wennberg, Rian. Nils Olaf worked as a hired hand at the Wennberg farm of Sofia's parents before they were married. After marriage they lived in Stråkanäs (in Innanbäcken), marked on the map with number 3, where their children were born.

           

                                

                                                                                                                                  

Sofia Louisa Nilsdotter

Nils Olof Strömbäck

      

    Photographs from left: Home of Nils Olof Strömbäck, in Backgärdan in the village of Rian. This house is about one km from the Wennbergs home. Nils Olof was born here. Next is the Wennberg house (taken recently by Nisse) in Rian. Sofia was born here. Next is another photograph of the Wennberg house taken in 1955. Last photograph on the lower left is another building next to the Wennberg house that is used for baking and where the family lived in the summer.

        

    Photograph below on left taken in 1955 shows that there is a village or town with the family surname. The translation of Strömbäck is Ström means swiftly flowing water and bäck means brook. The tradition of surnames being derived from a person's father is understood. But at a certain time people began to adopt a surname from the place from where they came from. The older tradition for the Strömbäck family name was dropped in about 1816 and the current name of Strömbäck began to be used. This began when the family involved in adopting the new name loved in Rian, a village on the Kalix river. So the name  Strömbäck may have described the family's homesite. If you examine the genealogy chart on the maternal site, one can see that the traditional way of developing surnames was abandoned even earlier by the people who adopted the name Bäckström which means the same as Strömbäck. In the center below is an old photo of the home in Stråkanäs (in Innanbäcken) belonging to Nils Olof and Sofia where their children were born and raised. The person to the right is Anna the first born child, born in 1875. She is sitting at a natural spring, which provided them with fresh water. The house was a few feet from the Kalix river; it was "pulled down" in the 1940s. The location "Stråkanäs (in Innanbäcken)" consists of a name Stråkanäs which is not found in the Swedish dictionary and the word Innanbäcken, which can be defined as Innan=before and bäck=brook.

Road sign near Kalix

Family home on Kalix river in home in Stråkanäs

Site of Family home on Kalix river in home in Stråkanäs in 1955

                           

Site of Family home on Kalix river in home in Stråkanäs in 1955

Site of Family home on Kalix river in home in Stråkanäs in 1955

Site of Family home on Kalix river in home in Stråkanäs in 1955

 Photographs taken in 1955 of Strömbäck homesite in Stråkanäs . Photos show site of house and the remains of its foundation on the Kalix river. Amanda Strömbäck Ekman is seen walking away from the camera, showing a view of some outbuildings with a view of Kalix river in the left background.

Kalix from across the Kalix River

Kalix Church

Old School House

Photographs taken in 1955 of the city of Kalix as seen from across the river at the Strömbäck homesite in Stråkanäs . The Kalix Church is the most prominent landmark seen and the photograph in the center shows a closer view of the church. Photograph on the left taken recently shows the school-house in which the Strömbäck children attended school dating back to the 1880's and 1890's. The building in now used by the villagers for social purposes. They gather here before the elk-hunt starts in September as well as a meeting place for other social activities.

          

A photograph taken in the early 1900s of Kalix boys in foreign costumes. Paul Strömbäck is at the far right.

Photograph on left: Paul Eric Strömbäck is seated on the right. His younger brother August is standing in the middle. Identity of boy on the left is unknown.

                                                                         

         Photograph above: As young adults the Strömbäck celebrating at the Forest Preserve near Chicago. At the far left are Agnes Strombeck wife of Paul who is next to her. Lena Strombeck is next in line. At far right is Agnes Strombeck. Identities of the others is uncertain. 

    The Strombeck families in America spoke Swedish almost always when they were together. The family members from Kalix often spoke a dialect from that region, to some extent when they were joking with each other. This dialect was difficult to understand by other Swedes, maybe even by their Swedish spouses if they were not from Norrbotten.The dialect was probably based on a number of loanwords from Menkieli,  dialect, most likely with a lot of the nearby Torne Valley speech mixed in with it. Menkieli (lit. "our language") is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in the most northern parts of Sweden, around the valley of the Torne River. From a linguistic point of view Menkieli is a mutually intelligible dialect of Finnish, but for political and historical reasons it has the status of a minority language in Sweden. In Swedish nowadays the language is usually referred to as Menkieli by the authorities; a common, and older, name is tornedalsfinska which literally means "Torne Valley Finnish".

    Sweden did not offer much for the future to citizens like Paul Strombeck. He worked for what was equivalent to Western Union. If he stayed in Sweden he probably would have advanced little beyond that. Paul had an older brother Manne (Emanuel) who came to the United States about three times to work, and after making some money he returned to Sweden. Paul began and owned a tuck pointing business in the 1920s and he may have had Manne work for him in that business.

 

Paul E. Strombeck is listed in the United States immigration records as a passenger on the Stockholm (a ship built for Holland-America Line, Dutch flag, in 1900 and named Potsdam, Rotterdam-New York service. Sold to Swedish American Line, in 1915 and renamed Stockholm.), departing from Gothenburg, Sweden and arriving at the Port of New York on August 18, 1916. Below are photos of part of the records. His final destination was Kenilworth, Illinois to his sister Lina's place. She worked there, probably as a cook-housekeeper. The records show that he had a ticket to Lina's place and she had paid for it. It also shows that he had only $25 in his possession. Paul Strombeck Jr. told me that Paul Sr. stayed in the East for one day where he worked on canal boat. He reportedly got into a fight with an Irishman resulting in both of them being fired. I remember that on traveling to Chicago he ate roast beef sandwiches, the only item he could read and understand on a menu. Paul was 17 years old when he arrived in America. His descendents know very little of his early years here. Unfortunately, no one tried to document any of his experiences.

 

The pictures that were taken during the early days in America were primarily of family members during their Sunday outings. The photographs are mostly of Paul and Agnes Strombeck. There are also photographs of other family members who came from Sweden. They include Paul's brothers Manuel (Manne) and August; and children of Paul's older sister Amanda: Titus, Pauline and Sten Ekman. Paul's sisters Lena and Agnes are seen in several pictures. Other pictures may show Lena's husband Ernest Carlson, Pauline's husband Hilding Nielson, and Henny Ekman (Titus' wife). Unfortunately, there are some who I cannot identify. If someone can identify them, please let me know. If I have identified anyone incorrectly, please let me know.

Titus is on far left, August in the middle and Paul on the far right

The following catalogs contain pictures from the life of Paul and Agnes' family. The larger pictures have navigational controls: previous and next to move to the next larger image; and index to move back to the catalog of smaller preview images.

 

Catalog1

August & Agnes	Pauline, Sten, Paul, Agnes	Titus holding Agnes	Agnes	Paul	Paul, Agnes, Sten, Pauline
The group	Hilding, Pauline, Titus, Agnes, Paul	Agnes & Pauline	Paul and Agnes	Agnes and Paul	Pauline, Hilding, Agnes, Paul
Agnes, Manne, Paul	Agnes in summertime	Paul holding Agnes	Agnes and friends	Mostly family	Paul without boat
Paul & Agnes, Sten & Pauline	Unknown couple & Agnes	Titus, Agnes, Paul, Sten	Pauline with Agnes	Agnes, Lena Carlson, Agnes Peterson	Paul & Agnes on Sunday outing
Family with Manne on left	Pauline with the crank	They were young too	Happy days	Paul, Agnes, & others with Manne	Paul, Sten, August
The young couple	In the woods	The young Pauline	Unknown friends	Times of joy	Family in Harms woods
Unknown man & Agnes	Pauline in springtime	Paul dressed up	Paul as cowboy	Paul as soldier	Unknown couple
Titus	Agnes in fur coat	Unknown people	Hilding and Agnes	Paul embracing Agnes	Agnes Peterson
Agnes with friend	Agnes with 2 men	Agnes & Paul	Paul on ship	Paul with friends	August and Ruth
Paul and friend	Paul at old people's home	Family including Manne	Paul in Sunday attire	Agnes in springtime	Paul and Agnes in fun

Then Paul and Agnes married

 

Paul Strombeck

Agnes Jonsson

The following pictures were taken of Paul and Agnes's family of Paul jr., Donald, and Richard. Most photographs show the children when they were young and living in Evanston. All pictures are from possessions of Agnes upon her death in 1994. Paul and Agnes were married in Chicago on September 13, 1926. They moved to 3122 Hartzell Street in the north side of Evanston, Illinois within the next year or so. Paul told me that the house they bought had been condemned because it was judged to be unsuitable for anyone to live in. He restored it to a liveable condition and they lived there until the fall of 1939 when the family moved to Zion, Illinois. In the 1920s Paul developed a successful tuckpointing business. The term tuckpoint is hardly known at this time but it refers to the business of cleaning and repairing the mortar on brick buildings; most buildings were constructed with brick exteriors in those days. The depression began about 1930 and construction work ceased. With no more work as a tuckpointer, Paul sold his truck(s) and bought a truck for delivering milk. He bought milk from Santi Bros. dairy in Highland park and brought it to Evanston for sale. There were many Swedish immigrants living in Evanston as well as on the north side of Chicago. When I was young and with him in downtown Evanston it seemed that he knew everyone on the street. With that wealth of countrymen friends it is easy to see how he could quickly develop a following of customers buying milk. When we children were young he would often let one of us go with him for a day on his milk route.

The families that came from Kalix Sweden and lived in the Chicagoland area included those included in the above photographs and their spouses and children. Besides Paul and Agnes Strombeck families they included Lena (Strombeck) Carlson and her husband Ernest who lived on Langely Avenue or Street in Chicago; Agnes (Strombeck) Petersen with her husband Carl and their two children Carl Henry and Louise (a first daughter died in childbirth); August Strombeck and his wife whom he married later in life, and having no children; Titus Ekman with his wife Henny and two children Marlene and Barbara who lived in Evanston in the 1930s; Pauline (Ekman) Nielson with her husband Hilding and their one son Eric who lived in Chicago; and Sten Ekman. As I remember all these people were together for holidays such as Christmas; this was their social circle.

 

The following catalogs contains pictures from the life of Paul and Agnes' family. Move into the catalog and back and forth between pictures by double clicking on the small preview photos to view larger pictures. The larger pictures have navigational controls: arrows to the next and previous larger image; and and a square open box to move back to the catalog of smaller preview images.

Catalog2

Paul, Dick, Agnes, Don in Evanston	Paul, Paul Roy, Don	Agnes with Children	Paul and Don	Paul holding Dick
Paul Roy, Paul, Don	Paul Roy Strombeck	Paul, Agnes, Don	Don and Paul	Paul, Don, Agnes
Dick, Paul, Don at Peninsula State Park	Paul, Don, Paul	unknown, Paul, Don	Paul, Paul Roy, Agnes	Paul with Dick, Paul, Don at Lincoln Park Zoo

Don, father Paul, Dick and Paul jr.

 

Catalog3

Paul as infant	Paul as young child	Paul in school	Paul and friend made paper	Paul still in school	Don, Paul Eric, Dick with boy
Dick and Paul at Akerman Park	Paul, Mark Hanson, Don	Paul in Zion	Paul at home in Zion	Paul with Sandy	Paul
Paul in Zion	Paul without tie	Paul in college	Keeping beer cold	Don, Dick, Titus, Paul at Paulines	Paul at college
Paul & college buddies	Paul & Janie's wedding	Janie-Hand-Strombeck	Paulie, Paul,Wendy, Janie	Wendy, Paul,Paulie, Janie	Paul

 

The following catalog contains pictures from the life of Paul and Agnes' family. Move into the catalog and back and forth between pictures by double clicking on the small preview photos to view larger pictures. The larger pictures have navigational controls (previous and next to move to the next larger image; and index to move back to the catalog of smaller preview images-these controls look differently than for the previous catalog) to view any of the images. For the last group go back to the first section to return to the main page.

 

 

Don as Nookie called by Paul trying to say Snookums

Catalog4

Don in Evanston	Dick and Don in Evanston	Don, Paul, Eric Nielson, Dick and friend	Don in Zion	Don gets older
Zion home in 1948	Don and Dick in Zion	Dick and Don in Zion	Ready to travel	Don's Sandy
Don with show Cocker	Don high school graduation	Mom, Dad and Don in 1948	Family and old friends in Zion	DVM class in 1950
DVM class outside	Don about 1950	Don in1954	Don college graduation	Don in Practice

Catalog5

 

Dick in Evanston	Dick dressed up	Dick and Paul	Dick in school	Home in Zion
Dick with Sandy	Dick with friends	Dick in Zion	A happy Dick	Dick as teenager
High School graduation	Dick in paint business	Dick, Janet, Chris, Karen, Tom	Home in Door County

 

 

Martha Jane Hand

Paul and Janie's wedding photo: Paul and Agnes on the left, Janie's mother next with Don and Dick on right

 

 

 

The following slides in Catalog 8 were taken in 1955 on a trip to Sweden
when Don was Stationed in Wurzberg, Germany

Catalog8

Midnight sun	To Stromback	Road sign	Kalix	Kalix Church
Viking mound	Viking site	Barn on homesite	Sun never sets	The clan
Paul Ekman	All relatives	Greta and Don	School	Greta and Don
At Island	Cabin on Island	Nisse fishing	Cabin	Family at cabin
The marksman	Nisse in Stockholm	Lake in woods	In Haparanda	Relatives
Don with Borje & son	View from top	Haparanda dam	Wennberg farm	Wennbergs
Wennberg home	More beauty	Scene Haparanda	Sophia's home	Sun now rising
Family homesite	Rock in river	Amanda at homesite	Homesite on river	Paul Ekman & wife

The 132 pictures in Catalog 10 were taken in 1979 on a trip to Sweden
 by Dick and Janet Strombeck and Don and Elizabeth Strombeck

The following catalog contains pictures from a trip to Swede. Move into the catalog and back and forth between pictures by double clicking on the small preview photos to view larger pictures. The larger pictures have navigational controls (previous and next to move to the next larger image; and index to move back to the catalog of smaller preview images  to view any of the images. For the last group go back to the first section to return to the main page.

Catalog10
1-50 | 51-100 | 101-132
 

Kalix river	Kalix Church	Kalix Church	Kalix Church	Kalix Church
Church interior	Altar	Carvings	Pulpit	Stephan
Maria reading	Don reading	Nisse instructing	Nisse in church	Family
Karin	Family group	Family group	Kalix cemetery	Cemetery
Family grave	Nisse's home	Nisse's home	Johan's boat	Countryside
Wennberg farm	Wennberg	Greta & Dick	Wennberg building	Greta & a Wennberg
A Wennberg	The visitors	Outbuilding	Barn	A Wennberg & Dick
Summer dwelling	Hay barn	Borje	Stephan	Stephan & Johan
?????	Elizabeth	Liz & Borje's son	Maria & Leonard	The party
More party	Nisse plannning	Party at Nisse's	Don	Party all day

 

The Swedish Connection

Below: A family reunion of the Strömbäcks in Korpika, Sweden in 1994 at the old family house

 

1. Inga Brit Strömbäck, Stig's widow 2. Carl Strömbäck, son of Inga Brit 3. Anne-Marie, Carl's wife 4. Carl-Filip, son of Carl & Anne-Marie 5. Charlotte, daughter of Carl & Anne-Marie 6. Karin Agren, daughter of Inga Brit 7. Per Henrik Agren, Karin's husband 8. Gustav, son of Karin and Per  Henrik

9. Frederik, son of Karin and Per Henrik 10. Ingrid Strömbäck, Paul's widow 11. Nils-Goran, son of Ingrid and Paul 12. Irene, Nils Goran's wife 13. Asa, daughter of Nils-Goran and Irene 14. Noa, daughter of Nils-Goran and Irene 15. Jan, daughter of Nils-Goran and Irene 16. Stefan, Asa's boyfriend

17. Anna Fabricius, daughter of Ingrid & Paul 18. Mats Fabricius, Anna's husband 19. John, son of Anna and Mats 20. Karl, son of Anna and Mats 21. Maja, daughter of Anna & Mats 22. Anna Olsson, widow of Lennart 23. Anna-Lena Berglund, daughter of Anna & Lennart 24. Maria Strömbäck, widow of Osten

25. Nils Erik (Nisse) Strömbäck 26. Ingrid Strömbäck, Nisse's wife 27. Staffan, son of Nisse and Ingrid 28. Eva Strömbäck, Staffan's wife 29. Sofia, daughter of Staffan & Eva 30. Maria, daughter of Staffan & Eva 31. Johan, son of Staffan & Eva 32. Katarina, daughter of Staffan & Eva

 

References

1. http://www.nrf.is/Publications/The%20Resilient%20North/Plenary%203/3rd%20NRF_plenary%203_Broadbent_final.pdf