sjölin = 'sea-flax'

for those reading this that know me, and have no idea what the significance of Sjölin is, and for those who speak swedish but do not know me, i will now explain. This is the story as it was told to me for almost two decades by my late grandfather:
There was once a young man, (your great-great grandfather) who lived with his family on a farm in Sweden. his name was Karl Sjölin and his family grew flax and lived near the sea. (now, in the swedish language, sjö means "sea" or "large lake", and lin means "flax"; so Sjölin literally means "seaflax".) as he grew older, Karl began to doubt whether he wanted to continue the family tradition of flax-farming. seeking out a more adventurous life, Karl left his family home, took a job working on a ship, and travelled the world. It is said that his father died of a broken heart not long after Karl left. after a time, Karl found himself in the U.S. and decided to settle down and marry. he found that people had extreme difficulty pronouncing his name correctly, so he asked a friend, who was a teacher, how better to spell it. That friend suggested the current spelling (which i have omitted since this will be viewed on the internets) . so that is the story of our swedish heritage and how our name came to be spelled the way it is today.
what i would like to point out is that people still have a hell of a time trying to pronounce my name, and i wish to say to that teacher, thanks for nothing.
truth be told, i wish the name had not been changed, and have even considered changing it back for the sake of preserving whatever i can of my geneological heritage.
as our culture becomes more homogenized, having those types of things to hold onto that have not been sterilized by past 'americanization' takes on great significance .