The roots of the Borg family are not known. J. R. Aspelin suggests that its progenitor was a lieutenant named Karl who served in Viborg during the time of Karl XII and took his name from the city’s fortress.
Despite its military origins, the family was known in the 1800s primarily for its priests and civil servants. Its most notable members at that time included the uncle of Sibelius’s mother, the dean and doctor of theology Aron Gustav Borg, whose descendants included, among others, the opera singer Kim Borg. For the composer himself, perhaps the most interesting relative was his mother’s cousin, the famous fennoman Carl Gustav Borg.
Karl Borg, lieutenant
died in the 1720s
Son:
Karl Karlsson Borg
b. 5 April 1716 in Tobolsk, d. 26 March 1797 in Ylikannus. District bailiff in Pyhäjoki and parish clerk.
Spouse: Katarina Ruuth, married on 12 November 1745
Son:
Gabriel Karlsson Borg
b. 10 August 1758 in Pyhäjoki, d. 24 October 1824 in Laihela. Pastor in Brahestad, Salois, and Laihela.
Spouses:
1st: Maria Gustava Chydenius
2nd: Maria Katarina Lindblad
3rd: Eva Katarina Österbladh
Sons:
Karl Jakob Borg
1788–1853
Whose son: Carl Gustav Borg
1823–1895
Gabriel Borg
Sibelius’s maternal grandfather
1797–1855
Whose daughter: Maria Charlotta Borg
Sibelius’s mother
1841–1897
Aron Gustav Borg
1810–1883
Carl Gustav Karlsson Borg
b. 23 October 1823 in Vihanti, d. 23 February 1895 in Helsinki. Unmarried. Lecturer in Finnish at the Imperial University of Helsinki from 1854. Member of the Swedish-Finnish Dictionary Committee 1852–53. Acting curator of the Historical-Philosophical Faculty from 1854, official curator 1856–58, translator into Finnish and interpreter in the Senate from 1857. Finnish teacher at Helsinki Lyceum and girls’ school from 1855. Secretary of the Finnish Literature Society 1861–62 and treasurer 1865–75. In 1862, a member of a committee that issued a statement on the suitability of the Finnish language as an official language. Director of Finland’s State Treasury 1875–80. Extensive publishing activity, including Finnish translation Sadut, 10 booklets, Helsinki 1848–50 and Swedish translations Kullervo, an Episode from Kalevala Helsinki 1850, Translations from the Second Edition of Kalevala Helsinki 1851, and Lemminkäinen, a Song Cycle from Kalevala Helsinki 1852.
At the home of Gabriel’s widow, Katarina Juliana Borg, Sibelius heard others read Swedish literature and also read it himself. It is quite possible that the composer already became familiar with his mother’s cousin’s Kalevala translations during his school years, even though he never mentioned it.
Gabriel Gabrielsson Borg (Sibelius’s maternal grandfather)
b. 23 October 1797 in Vihanti, d. 13 December 1855 in Pyhäjoki.
Master of Philosophy, 1823. Class and Russian teacher at Oulu’s Trivial School from 1824. Rector of the Trivial School in Hämeenlinna from 1828 to 1838. Rector of the Turku Trivial School from 1838 to 1844. Ordained as a priest in 1844. Vicar in Nykarleby from 1845 to 1850. Vicar in Pyhäjoki from 1850 to 1855.
Spouse:
1st: Johanna Ulrika Hedberg, married 12 February 1830 in Turku, b. 1804, d. 1835
2nd: Katarina Juliana Haartman, married 9 August 1838 at Terdis estate in Sääksmäki, b. 20 November 1812 in Sääksmäki, d. 4 December 1892 in Hämeenlinna.
Katarina Juliana Borg (1812-92)
Children from the 1st marriage: 3, died as minors. From the 2nd marriage:
Tekla Helena Adelinda Borg
b. 30 August 1839 in Turku, d. 26 January 1912 in Hämeenlinna. Unmarried.
Maria Charlotta Sibelius (née Borg), Sibelius’s mother
Gustav Julius Borg
b. 17 July 1843 in Turku. Student, d. 7 October 1858 in Hämeenlinna.
Axel Borg (1845-1903)
Axel Gabriel Borg
b. 16 November 1845 in Nykarleby. Principal of the Lyceum in St. Michel, d. 2 July 1903 in Savonlinna. Unmarried.
Oskar Fredrik Borg
b. 28 December 1847 in Nykarleby. Director of Kymölä Seminary, d. 28 April 1907. Spouse: Ida Agata Savonius, married 30 December 1874.
Anna Juliana Borg
b. 24 February 1850 in Pyhäjoki. Teacher, d. 30 January 1909 in Hämeenlinna. Unmarried.
Otto Rudolf Borg
b. 24 February 1850 in Pyhäjoki. Lecturer at the Tampere Lyceum, d. 18 January 1898 in Tampere. Spouse: Hilma Maria Wegelius, married 8 October 1885 in Tampere.
Lydia Johanna Borg
b. 1 August 1852 in Pyhäjoki, d. 12 October 1852 in Pyhäjoki.
Maria Charlotta Sibelius f. Borg (Sibelius mor)
Children:
Linda Maria 1863–1932
Johan Christian (Kristian) Julius (Janne, “Jean”) 1865–1957
Christian (Kristian) 1869–1922
Sibelius’s mother was born in Turku on August 18, 1841, as the child of the rector of the local trivial school. She was baptized Maria Charlotta and was the second child in the family. Her father, Gabriel Borg, was in his second marriage. His first wife had died more than twenty years earlier, as did the three children born in that marriage. Maria’s mother, Katarina Juliana, was born Haartman from the Terdis estate in Sääksmäki.
Gabriel Borg was ordained in Turku in 1844 and became the assistant to the vicar in Kokkola. The family moved to Ostrobothnia. By then, Maria had an older sister, Tekla, and a younger brother, Gustav Julius, who later died as a teenager in Hämeenlinna. In Ostrobothnia, the family had more sons, Axel and Oskar, twins Juliana (Julia, “Lula”) and Otto, and Lydia, who only lived for a couple of months.
Dean Gabriel Borg died at the age of 58 in 1855. The widow Katarina moved with her children to Hämeenlinna, near her own relatives. According to the custom of the time, the family’s sons attended the lyceum and enrolled in university. Daughters were not prioritized for education.
Maria was only 20 years old when she married the town physician, Christian Gustaf Sibelius, in March 1862. He was already approaching middle age. Their differences apparently complemented each other, for the marriage was happy but short. Christian Gustaf died of typhus in the summer of 1868. The widow was left with two children, Linda and Johan (Janne), and an estate in liquidation. Christian, the family’s third child, was born in March 1869 (See Life Story).
Maria was deeply religious and, like her two sisters, had a tendency towards melancholy, but she was a good mother. With modest means and support from relatives, she educated her three children. Sibelius’s brother Christian became a prominent physician, and his sister Linda became a teacher.
Among the children, the daughter Linda Maria was closest to her. The relationship with the future composer was somewhat more superficial. Throughout his life, Sibelius was grateful to his mother for all the care and attention he had received, but he felt something was missing: “I have always longed for someone to caress me. At home, I was the only one who did so,” wrote the composer to his future wife on January 2, 1891. On an intellectual level, the son later felt his mother had become alien to him. In December 1896, Sibelius wrote a private note: “At mom’s. Oh, holy simplicity. Oh, simplicitas.”
In the 1890s, Maria Sibelius lived in Tampere for several years and shared a household with her daughter. Linda and Maria’s brother Otto were teachers in Tampere. Maria died unexpectedly on December 29, 1897. Her daughter Linda never fully recovered from this blow.