DNA Testing has revealed that this male line belongs to haplogroup "I" (marker M170) which first left Africa 90,000 years ago (as marker M168), moved into the middle east about 45,000 years ago (as marker M89). There 800 generations lived as grassland hunters. Then a small fraction of this group moved north into the balkans about 20,000 years ago. Another 600 generations lived as hunter gatherers, sheltering there during the ice age (becoming marker M170). From there they seem to have spread northward, following the retreating glaciers, until our ancestors ended up in Sweden about 4,000 years ago. Today this group is most common in Scandinavia. (Link to Maps)
The documented origins of the Nelson family of Furuby, Sweden and Parkers Prairie, Minnesota can be traced to Ekeberga parish in the eastern part of that area of southern Sweden that was known in the Middle Ages as Värend and known today as Småland. Even today it is a land of forests, lakes, and swamps, with scattered patches of farmland cleared from the rocky soil. Värend was a disputed borderland during the time that the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden were forming. According to legend, Saint Sigfrid established a bishopric at Växjö in the 1100's although it was not chartered as a city until 1367. The pattern of settlement in Värend was established in the late 1300's after the Black Death had swept through the area. Most of the parishes our ancestors came from were established around that time. Ekeberga parish was founded in 1395. Almost everyone who survived the plague was probably an ancestor of ours.
The earliest records from Ekeberga parish date from 1689. At
that time the parish consisted of about 50 families dispersed
in about 30 clusters of homesteads in an area of 60 square miles.
Judging from the dispersed settlement pattern and other vital
statistics, it was probably one of the poorer parishes in the
area. There was almost no population growth until after 1725 and
the infant mortality rate was high (25% 1689-1735). The people
were prone to periodic epidemics. In 1706, ten out of eleven babies
died. In another case, 1710-1711, 51 adults and older children
died. Another indication of social conditions was the late age
that most marriages occurred. It was not at all uncommon for people
to not marry until their 30's.