Post by s***@gmail.comHi all,
In the months since I last posted to this thread I've conducted some
further genealogical research to help determine whether or not I
descend in the direct male line from Johan Docke and his father
Carsten, both of whom apparently used burgher arms. I want to share
the preliminary results of this research here. I hope you find all of
this as interesting as I did!
My paternal great-grandfather Sante August Nelson immigrated to the US
from Sweden, and I've collected copies of his marriage and death
certificates here in California, as well as his ship passenger arrival
records from the US National Archives and his alien registration file
from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. From these records
I've been able to obtain his birth date, birth location, his parents'
names, the date his left Sweden and the city he left from. I thought
it would be a good idea to hire a genealogist since I cannot read
Swedish, am ignorant of Swedish genealogy, and because I wanted the
opinion of a dispassionate party, so I presented all of these details
to the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center. The Swenson
Center is located on the campus of Augustana College (a liberal arts
college in Rock Island, Illinois that was founded by Swedish
immigrants in the nineteenth century) and offers genealogical research
services.
The Swenson Center assigned my case to Ingrid Nilsson, a genealogist
who specializes in records from the Swedish province of Skåne. I am
happy to report that her research indicates that I do indeed descend
in the direct male line from Johan and his father Carsten. Below are
links to two pdf documents detailing her findings. The first is a
pedigree chart showing Sante's ancestors, and the second displays this
information in an Ahnentafel-style genealogical numbering system. The
third link provides some information about the abbreviations and
sources Ingrid used in her research.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8b7mmasgp62wcqb/Nelson1.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1guz5wasdnp4d2/Nelson2.pdf
http://heraldryjunkyard.tumblr.com/post/80378986713/sources-please-observe-that-dates-from-the-birth
Post by s***@gmail.comBased on her research, I thought it might be helpful to see if genetic
testing could help confirm these findings. Luckily I discovered a
Swedish toxicologist named Lennart Dock online. His late father
Carl-Gösta Dock was a genealogist who researched the Dock family in
detail. Carl-Gösta self published a history of the Dock family in
1992 titled "Docka-släkten och dess rötter," or "The Dock Family and
it´s roots" which, incidentally, is where I first saw Carsten's and
Johan's armorial seals (when I stumbled across an electronic copy
online). Based on his and Ingrid's research, Lennart is my sixth
cousin once removed. Furthermore, we seem to be agnatic cousins.
Lennart descends from Johan's son Olaus, while I apparently descent
from Johan's other son Bengt Henric.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/42234ed372305d459b058ee26887076e/tumblr_n2uoukwBdP1rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
Post by s***@gmail.comLennart kindly provided me with an Excel Spreadsheet which outlines
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbdhk2bvt5i3qhu/DockTree.xlsx
He also kindly agreed to take a DNA test with me. We both recently
took 37 marker Y chromosome DNA tests administered by Family Tree DNA.
The test results indicate that we share 35 out of 37 markers. If I
understand the test results correctly, there is a greater than seventy
percent chance that my and Lennart's most recent common ancestor in
the direct male line lived sometime within the past eight generations
https://24.media.tumblr.com/c1c86d79235e30c9c8466be9cca3dd58/tumblr_n2uogukeA51rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
https://24.media.tumblr.com/acc1dc3a4aace7bacf917ae7bf8f2211/tumblr_n2uoi4dg121rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
Post by s***@gmail.comInterestingly, Lennart's family appears to have retained the Dock
surname down through the generations. My branch apparently dropped it
in favor of patronymic surnames sometime during the nineteenth
century, and then it became fixed and anglicized as Nelson when my
great-grandfather immigrated to the US. I wonder if this first
change was a product of downward social mobility (according to
Ingrid's research my great-great-great-great grandfather Olof Dock was
a deaf beggar).
This is a lot of information, but since I am thinking about publicly
using ancestral arms it only seems right and proper to share my
reasons for doing so. In fact, the primary reason I have for sharing
all of this information is to renew my plea for heraldic advice. I
can't decide whether to continue using the same arms I've been using
for the past twenty years, or to abandon them in favor of the Dock
arms, or to perhaps marshal the different designs together into a new
coat. I'm not sure if names and arms necessarily go together in
Swedish heraldic tradition like it does in Scotland. If a
prerequisite of registering Dock arms with one of the Swedish
societies would be to first use the name Dock, then I would probably
keep my current arms (since I don't think I would ever legally change
my Nelson surname).
One complication is that Johan Docke's arms and his father Carsten's
arms are only known from surviving seal impressions in the Malmö
Stadsarkiv, so there is no information about tinctures. Here are some
http://25.media.tumblr.com/663d83cf4da5eeb413e3ffd2d36e64af/tumblr_mog3t09goe1rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/f371e3b653b3e483dc46eed367180800/tumblr_mog3h0S33a1rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/3fa9681c8dfcf9b4ded122254b42527e/tumblr_mop9spYC7l1rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/3415650011020fd3a79b04db932af95e/tumblr_mopa1ucIqa1rq2fm7o1_1280.jpg
Post by s***@gmail.comThe designs are hard to see, but luckily black and white drawings of
them were published by Einar Bager in 1939 in a book called
"Kronomagasinet." To make this more confusing, both father and son
used different arms. I have no idea if it was common in eighteenth
century Sweden for burgher arms to change so radically in a single
generation. And, if the arms aren't being used in an hereditary
fashion, does it even fit the definition of heraldry? Sometimes I
wonder how your typical eighteenth century Swedish merchant or officer
went about obtaining an armorial seal. Perhaps he would commission an
engraver for a specific design, or maybe it was as simple as going to
a local jeweler and picking out one from a number of ready-made seals,
each with its own particular arms already engraved.
I think the next prudent step would be to research whether or not any
of Carsten's and Johan's other descendants used burgher arms during
the eighteenth century or later. Perhaps one of these two designs was
used with greater frequency by more members of the Dock family. Even
if I could narrow down the design, however, I'm still stuck with the
initial question of what to do. As always, any and all comments are
greatly appreciated!
What a glorious story. I must congratulate you and your researcher on
getting this far.
Now for a few thoughts. First you live in California, USA; in this land
of the free you may all freely bear arms without let or law or
hindrance. So you may do what you like and everyone must clap in
celebration of their freedom.
Your next option is to join a club with rules, even if the membership is
a mere one. Your club may start by being totally unique with your rules
precisely and you then hope a few others might wish to collaborate in
some manner. Or you could join an existing club, perhaps one based in
your free land or perhaps one based in Sweden; make sure you are happy
with their rules before going down any such path too far.
This is where I can come in as I have mostly decided to accept the
English rules, save where it is inconvenient or prohibitively expensive.
But some of the English rules are relevant:
1. You may change you arms totally. I have seen this done by personal
choice, by a regrant from the heralds and by the massive expense of a
royal licence.
2. Once you have adopted your new arms, you may quarter all the arms
previously held by your male line ancestors. This is a very well
established custom in England and is particularly exemplified by some
Nevill displays.
3. Having started up a display of arms, usually arranged as quarterings
of some pattern (remember that the Scots do thing rather differently),
you stagger upon the strange practice of recognising heraldic heiresses,
whose father's lines have died out in the male lines and any armigers
with them. So you add the heiresses to your display to ensure such
ancestors and armigers and arms live for evermore.
4. Add in a few exotics such as the occasional inheritance of arms by a
female only line of heiresses (I only found the first one of these a
week ago).
This should give you enough work for at least another couple of years
and then you can come back to us with a display for us all to marvel at.
And it is open to you to claim all arms born by all ancestors, male and
female and have no truck with this heiress business.
--
Tim Powys-Lybbe ***@powys.org
for a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org/
