Glen Staflund

Introduction to Staflund Family History

Compilation of the Staflund Family History (and Staflund Family Tree) is a project that I started in the mid-1960s. I don't remember what motivated me to do it. My parents (Anton & Nina) were still alive at that time, as were several of my aunts and uncles. They were able to provide much useful information. At that time I lived in Ottawa, but I made a trip to Saskatchewan almost every summer, so I was able to talk to these family members in person.

My first step was to put down on paper (in tree form), everything I knew about the Staflund family tree. My second step was to add to it, information that I got from my relatives. Particularly helpful were my aunts Anna and Martha, and my uncle Gus who lived in Langley, B.C. at the time. I communicated with him by regular mail.

My third step was to look for Staflunds in Sweden. I suspected that there were some Staflunds there, but I didn't know whom or where. So I went to the Swedish Embassy in Ottawa and asked them if they had a telephone directory of Sweden. It turned out that they had all of the telephone directories of Sweden (about a dozen of them). They let me take these directories home to look through, and I found about 30 Staflunds (complete with addresses).

Fourthly, I sent each one of these Staflunds a copy of my family tree (as it existed in incomplete form at that time), and requested information. Most of them turned out not to be relatives at all, but many of them sent me photographs and complete charts that they had sketched out of their families. They were very interested to hear from some stranger across the ocean with the same name as theirs.

The name Staflund is uncommon even in Sweden. And I don't think that the various Staflund families in Sweden knew anything about each other.

The Staflunds in Falkenberg turned out to be my relatives. They provided much information and numerous photographs, and I have kept in touch with them (Inger and Greta) over the years.

The biggest surprise came in a letter from my uncle Gus. He said that there is another Staflund whom I should know about, and that he is my half brother Gunnar who lives in Hallen, in central Sweden. I knew nothing about Gunnar, but later I learned that most of my family did. I wrote a letter to him, but received no reply. A few years later my sister Lucille found out about Gunnar, jumped on the next plane to Sweden, and paid him a visit. She received a very warm welcome.

Fifthly, my uncle Gus suggested that I write to the parish at Grums and ask someone to search the records back in time. This I did, and for $20.00 they went back to the year 1693, to the birth of Jon Olsson. It is interesting to note that the naming system at that time was to take the first name (in this case Jon), and if a son were born, to name him Jonsson with a new first name (Nils). If a daughter were born she would be named Jonsdotter, and given a new first name.

I heard that the name Staflund began when Anders Jonsson was in the army. There were too many Jonssons in his regiment, so the army gave all the Jonssons a new name.  Anders received the name Staflund after his birthplace Stavnas.

In the beginning I included only relatives bearing the name Staflund, plus their spouses. At the beginning of the 2000s something happened to motivate me to extend this project to include all blood relatives, and to turn it into a family history by adding biographical information. A relative on my mother's side of the family (Noreen Markusson) was working on the Markusson family history, and this gave me added incentive. And in 2001, I acquired a personal computer. The computer allowed me to set up the family history in a neat presentation, and to make corrections and updates without having to type everything over again with each update. The computer also allowed me to use color coding to identify the different generations. And the computer provided me with rapid communication by means of email, and a capability to do name searching.

Over the years I have collected a wealth of family photographs. In the 1990s I put some of them together into a composite to hang on the wall. This worked so well that I put together a total of five composites, which still hang on my wall. As step number six, I decided to include photographs of these composites with my family history. Names of family members who are not Staflunds are shown in brackets on the composites.

 "Under the system of naming that is used today there are only four family members to carry on the Staflund name. They are Eric, Darryl, Jeffrey, and Kevin. Of these four, it appears the only one who may carry on the Staflund family name will be Kevin." 

This has been a fascinating project.  I hope that the results will interest some other family member to continue the project and keep the Staflund Family History updated.

Anton Glen Staflund

(February 25, 2003)

Lucille             

Kevin & Kim

Jeff

Glen/Lucille/Abbie

Darryl

Kevin & Maria

Otto & Anton

Helen

STAFLUND FAMILY TREE 

The following diagram shows my early findings.  I have expanded it quite a bit since that time.

STAFLUND FAMILY PICTURES

DESCENDANTS OF TED LINDSKOOG

EARLY STAFLUNDS