We have returned to Öregrund to carry on looking at the local archives and meeting people that we had a lot of contact with last year, mainly in the library, Ann & Peder and my sixth cousin Anita Söderman! In the intervening year or so, mainly thanks to being in touch with genealogist and distant relative Ove Renger, I have read up on the bruks and their Walloon history. It still seems amazing that the iron & steel connection in our family happened so long ago. The website of the association of Swedish Descendants of the Walloons is fascinating, and there are many people who look after each of the names of many families from Belgium who came to support King Gustaf's wish for the greater industrialisation of the Swedish iron trade in the 1620s. The chasing back has revealed several people with online family trees-in-common, and the provenance appears to be Liège, where the Bovin family came from. Johan Ersson Söderman (1686-1740) married Elizabet Bovin (1692-17710, and they had Thussin (1723-1772, my great-great-great-great-grandfather) as one of the children. They also had Johan, who came to be called "Jean" and who is recorded in the visible & public evidence of the Södermans living in Forsmark. (Regarding Walloons, there was a lot of intermarriage between the twenty or so families that were imported to Sweden; Thussin married a Blank, Jean married a Sporrong.) The quirky thing is that we, all four of us, visiting Forsmark last year might have noticed the artefacts, but not known what the links were. Now we have traced them, it is gratifying to see that the public records illustrate the lives of our direct ancestors, on maps, in lists, in books and in the ground of Forsmark, Valö and Borstil. Forsmark Bruk: "Jean" Söderman (1726-1795) The origin of the Södermans is the iron foundry and the land. The maritime side of the family is a separate strand, and although it results in the Cardiff-bound Antony, the family was a feature in the Uppland region, albeit not particularly significant to start with. I believe the resulting generations have been more notable, and it seems that, once we reach the history of the side of the family written by Anita Söderman, there is an actual and cultural imprint on the area. But we still don't where the first Söderman entered the picture; we can only surmise that he was someone from 'the south'... the name meaning 'man from the south...' of wherever. someone said it might just be the next village south, to distinguish a Johan from another Johan. their father was Johan Errson Söderman - Erik's son.... from the south? Jean Söderman was a gujaren, a coalman in the bruk of Forsmark. His job was vitally important as he fed the forges. His family was bound up in the industry, he and his immediate family were all employed by the ironworks, in whatever capacity they could be, and his descendants have spread out from there. His father was a smith, his mother was from a Belgian smith's lineage, his brother Thussin worked initially as a "scrivener" - someone who did the writing for the community, later becoming a "tracteur", or traiteur, ie. a chef. And so it was we found details of their habitation in the bruk, in a hand painted map and list of names in the bruk's museum. We can only surmise that the whole family lived in the house & gardens of number 25 in this main street of the bruk, and that he might even be in one of the photographs in the museum. Valö & Borstil When I was searching for 'my' Antony in Öregrund originally, I was aware that both of these villages feature many times in the records for the Södermans. Visiting the area now I see that they are very near to each other, and to Forsmark. An hour's journey by horse maybe, which of course translates into about 15 minutes by car. The churches for both places are really pretty - Borstil is larger, and in both the graveyards surround the church. We have a few marriages in the churches, and some burials, as well as Södermans buried in Forsmark. However after many centuries, graves have been re-used and the only one to have a stone is for Inspector JA Söderman, in Borstil. Anita says that there are a couple more of our people in the grave, with him on top! |
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AuthorJan, retired, but squeezing in gardening on a slope, some French dancing, permaculture, more gardening, in between the family history late nights and travels to significant places in UK, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland! Archives
June 2021
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