Comments on: Sebelius and Sibelius

By: Sara Sebelius

Sara Sebelius — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:02:39 +0000

There is only one familly Sibelius/Sebelius. In the 17:th century there was a priest (Nils Christiansson SIBELIUS) in Sibbarp in Sweden that took the name Sibelius. One of his children spelled his name with an e instead of an i and that is why there are two different spellings of one familly name. Accordinly, Kansas Governer Kathleen Sebelius is related to the composer Jean Sibelius.
See also webpage:
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1115051&id=I1952

Sincerely, Sara Sebelius

By: Alan Schulman

Alan Schulman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:50:54 +0000

Greetings from Finland. Fascinating to follow this thread. I would just emphasize the difference between being an “ethnic” Swede and speaking Swedish as a mother tongue: it’s like calling English-speaking Americans “ethnically English”! The Swedish speakers of Finland don’t see themselves as Swedes but as Finns, though they share something together. You might say, at most, that they are ethnically Swedish-speaking-Finns. In any case, Sibelius was a key contributor of the Finnish national awakening and cultural Golden Age and his music is seen as capturing a uniquely Finnish spirit.

By: B Heideman

B Heideman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:03:58 +0000

I am also related to
Anders Sebelius born 1712 (6th g grandfather)
Jacobn 1742
Anders 1775
Olaf 1802
Isak 1848
Frederik 1883
Graham 1920
My surname changed to Heideman when Olaf took his wifes name she was Brita Christina Heideman

I would also like to know if there is any connection with the composer

By: jesse everett sibelius

jesse everett sibelius — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:58:13 +0000

well i am related to him he is my great great great uncle my grand father was telling me about it today thought it was interesting

By: Dan Nilsson

Dan Nilsson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:56:58 +0000

Hi, I see that my comments have generated some responses. I found Jean Sibelius genealogy on the swedish genealogy site http://www.genealogi.se, and it was there that i found the references to Sibbe in Kappelby parish Jean’s grandfather who was born in that place was a member of the council of Loviisa so I suppose the place Kappelby is close in the municipality Lapinjärvi (called Lappträsk i swedish). This is in the south of Finland. Sibelius actually have very few swedishborn ancestors, though most of the have swedish names – people changed to more finnish sounding names in the national romantic era, they Finnicized their swedish names.
I suppose that Sibbe isn’t more than a farm since the parish Kappelby is hard to find.

By: Val Mansfield

Val Mansfield — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:16:54 +0000

I got onto this thread also wondering if the Governor and composer were related. I found everything quite interesting and was just wondering about that Sibbe, Kappelby Parish which Dan Nillson said he presumed was in Finland. I know Finland quite well and was not familiar at all with anything very close to this. A Google search asked me if I didn’t mean Karleby, which is the Swedish name for the Finnish city of Kokkola on the west coast of Finland. This city is in an area with a large number of Swedish-speaking Finns. I don’t know if this is the same place, however.

By: Anders Albjörn

Anders Albjörn — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:33:23 +0000

Hi,
As far as I know there is no connection to the composer Sibelius.
I have tracked the Sebelus family far back in time.
They are related to one of Denmarks oldest noble families Kjerulf.
My great great great grandmother was born Sebelius 1795. It’s correct that they where named after the little village Sebbarp in Halland Sweden. The named is constructed as for most clergy names in Sweden at that time. First the place and than the ending (el)ius so it’s sound like latin. Former was the family called Laholmius after the Town Laholm. A rural dean had such a bad character so his sons changed name after a indeacent song was created in his name.

All of theis and much more will be posted on my website during the spring.

Anders Albjorn, Stockholm Sweden

By: Marion Miller(Sebelius)

Marion Miller(Sebelius) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:18:35 +0000

I was just reading your article.The artilce from Dan Nilson caught my eye.I am also a descendant of Anders Sebelius. He was my 6th great grandfather.
Anders 1712-1780
Jacob 1742-1800
Anders 1775-1842
Nils P. 1821-1886
Andrew N. 1849-1903
Arthur 1883-1942
Orvel H. 1914-1985
Marion Miller(Sebelius) 1940
This could get really interesting.

By: Dan Nilsson

Dan Nilsson — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:00:02 +0000

Hi, I live in Sweden and I am actually a descendant of the mentioned Anders Sebelius. I agree that theres a possibility that there could be a connection between the two families, but it is two different families. If there’s a connection it is very vague and a lot further back than the 1700’s.
Jean Sibelius great grandfather was called Johan Mattsson, and was born in 1757 Sibbe, Kappelby parish. I suppose that it is in Finland. The Swedish family Sebelius is descended from a Christian Nilsson Lacander (d. 1694), his son, who was a cantor, took the name Sibelius after the village Sibbarp in Halland County in Sweden. It was actually Denmark a couple of decades earlier. His great grandson Anders changed the spelling to Sebelius. Sweden didn’t have any laws about names at that stage and spelling could vary. All descendants spell the name with an e. I suppose that Keith is actually a distant relative of mine. I don’t know which Christian is Keiths great grandfather, it’s actually quite a common name in the family.

By: Michael Kaulkin

Michael Kaulkin — Sat, 20 May 2006 16:28:51 +0000

Yeah. That would settle it then. Thanks for filling in the gaps.