The work we are doing on the Söderman family tree last September has generated much excitement within the immediate family, and some outside it too.
Gradually the picture has been building, the tree has been spreading, and the more historic bits of information around the family, onwards from 1627, have been fascinating!
Since September 2013 I have found that:
Gradually the picture has been building, the tree has been spreading, and the more historic bits of information around the family, onwards from 1627, have been fascinating!
Since September 2013 I have found that:
- Anton Söderman's father Thuffe's first name was actually Thussin! This came about because of a 'brick wall' when there seemed to be no way of finding out how to go upwards from the 1723 that we had for his birth, as the name appeared not to exist in the SVAR archives, nor anywhere else. Anita's researches show masses of information about many branches of the family, but she had an abiding question "what happened to Anders and Anton, the twins?".
- I naturally seek information through the SVAR.se archives, and through ArkivDigital (AD) subscriptions, assuming that all will be there. By now I have got used to working with the SVAR arkiv, especially on the pages that are available in English too. I discovered the Inventory of Land records, which is essentially the Wills & Probate section. And through this, I saw that someone called Tousin Söderman had died in Forsmark in the 'right' year and that his wife was Caisa Elisabet Schiwert. Anita's version, which I had copied into the family tree was Thuffin and Caisa E Stinwa.... it seemed too close a coincidence.
- By reading the name 'Tousin' out loud I realised that it sounded like "toussaint", All Saints Day in French. Both of these led me back to the digital record of Thuffin's birth in AD - sure enough, given this clue, the first 'f' looked like an 's' and the second 'f' was just like the English old way of making an 's' when it's a double s! So Thuffin became Thussin. I went back to other records with this name in - household census/catecheticals, and yes, if you look at them again, it's mainly bloody obvious that it's Thussin!
- When I eventually explain to Anita that the old-fashioned way of writing the letters in a 'double S' had led us both to mispronouncing his name, she understands and is able to change her records.
- A 'wild card' trick that seems to work when all else fails is to put names into the Google search engine. I guess it works so well, that it could be a first 'port of call'. By putting all the variations of Tousin into it, I found many more - Thussin Giers, especially, who was one of the "Bruk" families who brought iron smelting to the Forsmark region in the 1600, from the Walloon, or French, part of Belgium. This really sealed the notion that I was now on the right track!
- Thussin's father is Johan Ersson Söderman. In the birth record above (11 January 1723) there is no mention of a mother. Checking through all the birth records in this book at this time, reveals there never is a mother's name mentioned! The witnesses are: ?Johan Mattzson, Per Ersson, Jungfru Barbro Bovin, and Anna Martinelle. Eventually, and through another 'wild card' experience (see the next Post) I find Thussin's mother is Elisabet Bovin, a direct link to the Walloon iron-smelters invited to Sweden by King Gustav from 1627.