"I do not speak or read Swedish though :)"
The vast majority of the people on this board (including myself) are not fluent in Swedish. We still manage to get huge amounts of information from the Swedish records, and if we cannot decipher something, we ask for help on the board. The Swedes are very willing to help out.
There are guidebooks, such as "Cradled in Sweden" and "Your Swedish Roots". They will help you out. In addition, the records are mainly written in a set pattern, and it won't take long before you've learned a few of the most commonly used words.
This person was labeled as a childhouse child (orphanage child). He was clearly labeled so I don't understand why you can't figure out who the orphan was.
-----------------------
Post 1130839
Svensson, Frans Edvin
barnhusbarn = "orphanage" child
b. 1880 i Stockholms allmänna BB (Stockholms stad, Uppland)
s.
Boy (child)
T.Nybygget
Svenarum (Jönköpings län, Småland)
Place of birth (original source): Stockholm län barnbördshem
----------------------------
"I wonder where the Fransson came."
Fransson comes from the fact that Karl Edvin and his brother Johan August were sons of Frans. (Johan August also could have used Fransson in addition to the surname Engvall but he didn't do that in the transcribed records I found.) Fransson literally means Frans' son, son of Frans. Ingela Martenius has written an excellent and very informative article about Swedish naming customs. (She is one of the Swedes who help us.) You need to understand these customs or you will end up researching the wrong lines.
http://web.comhem.se/~u31263678/genealogy/Names.pdfNames were not changed **AT** Ellis Island. That is a very common myth. Google "Ellis Island names changed" and you will find many articles. Here are just a few.
http://genealogy.about.com/od/ellis_island/a/name_change.htmhttp://www.genealogy.com/88_donna.htmlhttp://www.bloodandfrogs.com/2011/05/name-changes-at-ellis-i...http://www.nyarrivals.com/ellis_island_experience.htmlhttp://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/04/no-fa...http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=762and many more...;-)
"My mother's side has been a big mystery (the Engvalls), especially b/c of the maiden name issue."
The Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center might be able to help.
http://researchingswedishroots.blogspot.com/2011/09/swenson-...Look for the marriage record, for example, and also hope that they joined one of the Swedish American churches. The membership records for some denominations (especially Lutheran and Covenant) should provide a full name, full birthdate, and parish of birth in Sweden. Much of the information I know about my Swedes and those who married them (parish of birth; births, marriages, confirmations, funerals in the U.S. until about 1930, etc.) comes from the Swenson Center. It is a fantastic archive!
"A friend of my parents reads and speaks Swedish, so I will try to get help from him for translation."
He will be a good resource, but if he hasn't done genealogical research in Sweden, he might have problems with the archaic words used in these records. (I go every year to the Swedish American Genealogist Workshop in Salt Lake City. One year we had a Swedish relative of one of our "regulars" join the workshop, and that person told us all in the beginning that she would be glad to help out with the records. At the end she told us that she was surprised at all the archaic words. She also said that she was surprised that so many of us knew the archaic words that she didn't know.)
There are sources of help for these archaic words (which even the Swedes have to learn.) For example:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~swewgw/Fact/Dict/facdic02....http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/RG/frameset_rg.asp?De...This tells how to get into the Swedish records on the world version of Ancestry.com.
http://researchingswedishroots.blogspot.com/2011/09/getting-...It is MUCH easier to get information from the Swedish parish records than it is to research in the U.S. and most other countries, even though the language is not English. Most people new to research in Swedish records think it will be difficult but it really is not. Be grateful that you have Swedish ancestors. You will learn much more (and more quickly) than other people without Swedish ancestors. I went years ago (before online Swedish records) to Salt Lake City's Family History Library with a genealogy friend with Polish ancestry. I found far more information in just one hour than she did in the week we were there. I think she was a bit jealous as I kept getting up to copy one page after another after another. Just make sure you keep up with the sourcing (where the records came from, etc.) and entering of the information in a genealogical program on your computer. You will get so much information so quickly that you will soon forget what you've found and where you found it if you don't keep up with the boring bits such as recording the information and the sources.
Judy