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Re: origin & meaning of the Swedish surname Turnblad
Hi Tracy,

The original spelling of your last name is Törnblad (törn in Swedish is pronounced like turn in English). It means "thorn" + "leaf".

Regards, Satu
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The name was an "immigrant" name, made up by one family in the 1800"s as they arrived from Sweden. There were three brothers, all settled originally in Minnesota. The one brother Peter had several children, the one brother Swan (Swen) had only a daughter, the third brother Magnus had only one son. All Turnblads in the US are probably descended from this family and related--except for the made up Hairspray characters. As a member of that family, I would be interested in hearing from any others. I have a lot of family history.
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