In September 2013 I fulfilled a long-held dream to go to Sweden to find "our ancestors". This tale is for my relatives, primarily, and for friends and others if they are interested. My thanks go to my brother, Chris, whose 60th birthday was the catalyst to "get it done now", to match his dedicated work on the other side of the family. It also felt the right time to get this into a family tree for the newest Bushell and Chris's first grandchild, Freddie, born only just before we went. Thanks also go to the cousins who were rooting for it to happen, and who have also done family history work, deep and inspirational. And to my husband Michael, who for a short while gave up his own family history searches, and applied his knowledge and skill in the archives to seeking out and solving the illegible, the incomprehensible, the smudged, over-written and cut-off pages that make up the Swedish parish archives, written in many hands by many priests over many years!
Charles Antony Sederman was born in Sweden, we thought. This was corroborated when I found his Mates' certificates applications in the national archives at Kew, UK. It said Öregrund as his place of birth, which is on the Baltic Sea coast above Stockholm. It's a seaside town, a holiday home place, charming with wooden painted houses, calm waters, sailing boats, summer trade, and well-preserved despite having been burnt down by the Russians at one stage, and possibly the Finns too. Much merchant marine trade between Sweden and the other Baltic states, Britain, America, Australia: timber, fish, fur, iron ore and pig iron, Öregrund's the best quality, going to Sheffield for knives and forks. Searching in the ancestry-engines of the UK and USA got us nowhere fast over the 2 years or so of preparation that I had been doing. We had some artefacts including his marriage certificate from London in 1869 and although we did not know it, some old photos of him and his wife amongst the family snaps. We knew he was on a ship in London in the 1871 census. Sedermans abound in the USA and a sprinkling in other places; not many in the UK though, and we knew there was none left from our Cardiff family group.
In the summer of 2012, the London Olympics at its height, cousin Jean was astonished to find a letter from a Derek Sederman in the local evening Echo, talking about the man that we knew as Uncle Charlie (I think) who had been in the London Olympic Games of 1908. There was his photo - the same as we had. There were his medals, which we had not seen, and Derek the writer was recounting the story of his Olympian grandfather, asking if anyone remembered the "Sedermans of Splott". We were intrigued... we Googled and found him! We contacted him! There was a whole new family to take on board, and - more than that - he had written about members of the family, from his knowledge and his research, his father's effects, mementoes and memories. He mentioned us - briefly!
My search was back on... already gearing myself up to go to Sweden in 2013, to attempt to finish the Swedish family tree, I absorbed this new information, and got back into it, going online and in person to Kew, and online in Sweden's SVAR records on their 'free access' weekend. Michael too - we were hooked and ready to go!
What happened next was...
Jan Mulreany, or Bushell, or Sederman or Söderman October 2013
Charles Antony Sederman was born in Sweden, we thought. This was corroborated when I found his Mates' certificates applications in the national archives at Kew, UK. It said Öregrund as his place of birth, which is on the Baltic Sea coast above Stockholm. It's a seaside town, a holiday home place, charming with wooden painted houses, calm waters, sailing boats, summer trade, and well-preserved despite having been burnt down by the Russians at one stage, and possibly the Finns too. Much merchant marine trade between Sweden and the other Baltic states, Britain, America, Australia: timber, fish, fur, iron ore and pig iron, Öregrund's the best quality, going to Sheffield for knives and forks. Searching in the ancestry-engines of the UK and USA got us nowhere fast over the 2 years or so of preparation that I had been doing. We had some artefacts including his marriage certificate from London in 1869 and although we did not know it, some old photos of him and his wife amongst the family snaps. We knew he was on a ship in London in the 1871 census. Sedermans abound in the USA and a sprinkling in other places; not many in the UK though, and we knew there was none left from our Cardiff family group.
In the summer of 2012, the London Olympics at its height, cousin Jean was astonished to find a letter from a Derek Sederman in the local evening Echo, talking about the man that we knew as Uncle Charlie (I think) who had been in the London Olympic Games of 1908. There was his photo - the same as we had. There were his medals, which we had not seen, and Derek the writer was recounting the story of his Olympian grandfather, asking if anyone remembered the "Sedermans of Splott". We were intrigued... we Googled and found him! We contacted him! There was a whole new family to take on board, and - more than that - he had written about members of the family, from his knowledge and his research, his father's effects, mementoes and memories. He mentioned us - briefly!
My search was back on... already gearing myself up to go to Sweden in 2013, to attempt to finish the Swedish family tree, I absorbed this new information, and got back into it, going online and in person to Kew, and online in Sweden's SVAR records on their 'free access' weekend. Michael too - we were hooked and ready to go!
What happened next was...
Jan Mulreany, or Bushell, or Sederman or Söderman October 2013