En Väl Bevarad Hemlighet:
a well kept secret
SECRET HISTORY Original article by Linda Carlsson 18/7/2014, Tydning Osthammer
http://unt.se/uppland/osthammar/en-val-bevarad-hemlighet-3258132.aspx
Öregrund descendant Jan Mulreany lives in Brighton, England. She is 64 years old and with her husband Michael has found the answer to the riddle around the Swedish sailor Antony who came to England in the early 1800s. He was her great-grandfather, whose history nobody knew. The family Söderman has moved to Finland and taken a Finnish variant of the surname - Sotamaa. Anita Söderman, Granbo Farm in Norrskedika and Jan Mulreany are sixth cousins.
Broken hearts, war, and a missing sailor. So, Jan Mulreany’s ancestor came to Britain and she herself came to Öregrund, in search of Antony Sederman. Jan Mulreany and her husband Michael, from Brighton in England, are staying like many others at the campsite in Öregrund for a few days. But they are not ordinary tourists, they are here to find the lost pieces of a story that began in Forsmark and Öregrund in the 1600s.
- My great grandfather was from Sweden, he was named Antony Sederman and was a sailor. More than that he never told anyone, the silence aroused my curiosity and so it was the search began, says Jan Mulreany.
First she found Antony Sederman's name written with archaic handwriting on a document in the British National Archives. It also said that he was born in 1833 in Öregrund. But in Öregrund’s local archives was no Sederman. She tested for Swedish name to Anton Söderman, but still she could not find him.
- Then we got a tip about Anita Söderman, she has the same surname, comes from here and has done some genealogy research. And in her family tree there was a branch that ended with two missing boys.
A probate document showed that the parents of the boys came from Forsmark and worked in the ironworks. But they died early, so the siblings were split up and had new families. One of the foster families was involved in shipping in Öregrund. And it was here Jan Mulreany began to approach the tracks of the family's mysterious sailor Antony. The next clue was a surprise.
- My grandmother's father Antony Sederman, was not born in Sweden. He was born in Finland in Kokkola, says Jan.
And maybe he was there because of a broken heart, says Michael.
- There is a note preserved, in which a young woman declares that she never was engaged to the young man who later became Antony's father. And that was when she got married to another man, the young bereft sailor set off.
A few years later, in 1833, across the Baltic Sea, was born Anton Söderman.
But why he asserted himself as being born in Öregrund when he came to England as a 21 year old? Jan Mulreany did not understand how it all worked. But Öregrund’s naval historian Björn Lindström had an explanation.
- He told me that many boats from Kokkola went with goods to England. The dates indicate that Anton Söderman worked in shipping, as the Crimean War broke out. Finland and Britain became enemies, Finnish sailors who came to England would have been thrown into prison and the war made it impossible for them to return home.
Here lies the explanation for the silence around Jan Mulreany’s great grandfather. Finnish-born Anton Söderman came to England as an enemy and saved himself with a false identity. He became Antony Sederman from Swedish Öregrund. A secret kept for one hundred and sixty years.
http://unt.se/uppland/osthammar/en-val-bevarad-hemlighet-3258132.aspx
Öregrund descendant Jan Mulreany lives in Brighton, England. She is 64 years old and with her husband Michael has found the answer to the riddle around the Swedish sailor Antony who came to England in the early 1800s. He was her great-grandfather, whose history nobody knew. The family Söderman has moved to Finland and taken a Finnish variant of the surname - Sotamaa. Anita Söderman, Granbo Farm in Norrskedika and Jan Mulreany are sixth cousins.
Broken hearts, war, and a missing sailor. So, Jan Mulreany’s ancestor came to Britain and she herself came to Öregrund, in search of Antony Sederman. Jan Mulreany and her husband Michael, from Brighton in England, are staying like many others at the campsite in Öregrund for a few days. But they are not ordinary tourists, they are here to find the lost pieces of a story that began in Forsmark and Öregrund in the 1600s.
- My great grandfather was from Sweden, he was named Antony Sederman and was a sailor. More than that he never told anyone, the silence aroused my curiosity and so it was the search began, says Jan Mulreany.
First she found Antony Sederman's name written with archaic handwriting on a document in the British National Archives. It also said that he was born in 1833 in Öregrund. But in Öregrund’s local archives was no Sederman. She tested for Swedish name to Anton Söderman, but still she could not find him.
- Then we got a tip about Anita Söderman, she has the same surname, comes from here and has done some genealogy research. And in her family tree there was a branch that ended with two missing boys.
A probate document showed that the parents of the boys came from Forsmark and worked in the ironworks. But they died early, so the siblings were split up and had new families. One of the foster families was involved in shipping in Öregrund. And it was here Jan Mulreany began to approach the tracks of the family's mysterious sailor Antony. The next clue was a surprise.
- My grandmother's father Antony Sederman, was not born in Sweden. He was born in Finland in Kokkola, says Jan.
And maybe he was there because of a broken heart, says Michael.
- There is a note preserved, in which a young woman declares that she never was engaged to the young man who later became Antony's father. And that was when she got married to another man, the young bereft sailor set off.
A few years later, in 1833, across the Baltic Sea, was born Anton Söderman.
But why he asserted himself as being born in Öregrund when he came to England as a 21 year old? Jan Mulreany did not understand how it all worked. But Öregrund’s naval historian Björn Lindström had an explanation.
- He told me that many boats from Kokkola went with goods to England. The dates indicate that Anton Söderman worked in shipping, as the Crimean War broke out. Finland and Britain became enemies, Finnish sailors who came to England would have been thrown into prison and the war made it impossible for them to return home.
Here lies the explanation for the silence around Jan Mulreany’s great grandfather. Finnish-born Anton Söderman came to England as an enemy and saved himself with a false identity. He became Antony Sederman from Swedish Öregrund. A secret kept for one hundred and sixty years.