Comments on: Sebelius and Sibelius

By: Marja

Marja — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:11:05 +0000

About Jean Sibelius’ family roots, please read this:
http://www.sibelius.fi/suomi/suku_perhe/suku_sibelius.htm
His surname seems to come from his farmer ancestors in Southern Finland.

A general fact is that for centuries we’ve had Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland. I don’t know what has been the main language of Sibelius’ paternal ancestors, throughout centuries. – Both Finnish and Swedish are official languages in Finland.

About Sebelius, in HisKi database of genealogia.fi I found just two babies babtized with the father named Sebelius. In the old records of St Petersburg Finnish Parish.

By: Douglas Sand

Douglas Sand — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:56:17 +0000

A simple investigation on the internet tells us this: The Sibelius family name of the composer, Jean Sibelius, was really Sibbe. This is the Finnish name they carried for generations before he was born. The family surname was purposely changed by Jean’s grandfather to the more Latinesque Sibelius only in an attempt to appear more erudite. Jean Sibelius is not related in any way to any American family with that name anywhere. The name was an invention by his grandfather, just as was his own invention of his French first name — He had been christened “Janne.”

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.