English translation
I have noted some interest in my pages about the Seton branch of the family from
people abroad, who were most probably not Swedish-speaking, for they used Google's
translation function to get a hint of what the text meant. Google's automatic translation
of this page is at best awkward, and at places really hilarious. What do you think
of "I know when my sons were born without beating them up..."? I almost fear Google
will give me a bad reputation! Therefore I have taken the time to translate it myself,
and hope my command of English is somewhat better than the Google translator's.
The Seton branch of the family tree
Open genealogy database (Swedish only)
As is often the case with "old" families, Violet's paternal ancestors have been
extensively researched by a number of people through the years. The results published
here are therefore mainly based on secondary sources, except for the last 2 or 3
generations, which have been easy to check and elaborate on using other sources
such as the Swedish Death Register, the Swedish Population Register 1970, the Swedish
Population Register 1980 and the Swedish Censuses for 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1930,
which are all available on the Internet or on CD. To be correct, these are all also
secondary sources, but you feel rather more confident using them than when you have
to rely on a hand-written pedigree without any source references whatsoever.
To some extent the results for the latter generations also rest on living knowledge
- for example I know very certainly when my sons were born without referring to
any birth register! When I make statements on such grounds, I refer to "Private
archive" or "Own statement". If someone should feel that such statements need corroboration,
I can only suggest that you send me a mail.
As you can understand, I will not engage in any extensive research on Violet's ancestors
in the future, but half of my sons' ancestors do belong to that branch, and if they
would desire to carry on the research they will anyway have a good start using this
information. I would like, however, to give some comments on the sources I have
used.
The Setons
The Swedish members of the Seton family are of course registered in our church registers,
but they are not easy to track, because the family also had homes in Scotland where
they went now and then, usually without telling the local parish registrar. In some
difficult cases I have checked the church registers, but mainly I have relied on
secondary sources.
The most ambitious work by far about the Seton family is "A History of
the Family of Seton during Eight Centuries”, printed in Edinburgh 1896
in two heavy volumes. The author was one of the hundreds of George Setons through
history; this one was a lawyer who besides being a genealogist was also interested
in heraldry, and wrote a book on that subject too. His books bear witness about
a serious researcher; they abound with careful reference notes, and he honestly
admits uncertainty without fabricating shaky theories when he doesn't know.
Only when he arrives in his own times towards the end of the 19th century he has
touble finding facts: the family was by then spread over most of the world, and
many branches had forgotten how they got the name of Seton.
There are two modern works about the Seton family from a Swedish perspective, authored
by the family head then, Patrick Seton (1919-1998): "George 1696-1786"
and "George Setons arvingar 1719 - 1940" (George Seton's
descendants 1719-1940). As a matter of fact, I had the honour to interpret and type
a number of old diaries we own to make them available for his research. When telling
about older times Patrick used the work by George Seton just mentioned, but when
he tells about the 20th century generations it is new research he reports. Regrettably,
there are a few mistakes in both books, which must be checked with other sources.
In the 1820's the antiquarian Alexander Seton sued his brother Patrick Seton
of Ekolsund for a share of the inheritance after their father; that family row resulted
in three printed volumes of court pleadings.
In 1945 Dagmar Selling wrote a doctoral thesis about Alexander the antiquarian,
"Alexander Seton som fornforskare" (Alexander Seton as an antiquarian),
which contains rather much family history.
Birgit Flinck has written a bachelor's paper in art history titled "Ekolsund
under familjen Setons tid" (Ekolsund during the time of the Seton
family). It contains information about the Swedish branch of the family during the
period 1785 to 1912, some of which I have not found elsewhere.
In Elgenstierna's "Ättartavlor" (Pedigrees), volume VII (1932)
there is also some information not found in the other works, and the series of "Adelskalendern"
(Peerage calendar) contains current data for each year since the start in 1880.
There is a number of books about Scottish families, for example "Scottish Clan
and Family Encyclopedia" by George Way of Plean and Romilly Squire,
but in these the family histories are of course very briefly sketched, and only
a few of the most famous members mentioned specially.
In addition to this, I have a few original documents in my private archive. The
jewel in this collection is king Gustaf III's receipt for the final payment
for Ekolsund (1786). Otherwise the documents are letters and diaries written by
different Setons in the 19th century. Regrettably, they contain very little family
information, and have not contributed noticeably to my research.
Finally I should mention two books by the British author Beryl Platts: "Scottish
Hazard: The Flemish Nobility and their impact on Scotland", and "Scottish
Hazard: The Flemish Heritage". These books are hardly to be considered
as academic treatises. Mrs. Platts vehemently argues that most Scottish families
came from Flanders, and dismisses much of earlier research as "careless nonsense".
To support her theory she says that the Setons bore the same coat of arms as the
dukes of Boulogne, and therefore cannot descend from a less exalted Norman family
as was thought earlier. However, in my opinion it seems that historians and heralds
(except for Mrs. Platts) agree that heraldry did not emerge until some 50 years
after the Conquest, and therefore I can't accept Mrs. Platt's theory on
the grounds of armorial similarity alone. All said, I find her books no more than
interesting curiosities.
The Braunerhielms
Apart from Elgenstierna and a few volumes of the Adelskalender, I have had access
to two genealogic papers concerning the Braunerhielm family.
From Erik Braunerhielm, 1921 - 2006 (Violet's fathers cousin) I got a machine
typed family tree of unknown origin, "Stamtavla över Braunerhielmarna"
(Family tree of the Braunerhielms). It is updated until the mid-1970's and apart
from a few insignificant mistakes on dates I have found no errors in the facts I
have been able to check against Sveriges dödbok and other modern sources.
Blenda Dahlqvist, neé Braunerhielm, 1901 - 1988 (Violet's grandmother's
cousin) wrote an essay titled "Uppgifter om släkten och om gårdarna genom tiderna"
(Information about the family and the estates through the times). Blenda states
that the information derives from four hand-written pedigrees she and her sisters
found at Lundås and subsequently deposited with the Genealogical Society of Sweden.
The essay agrees in all important aspects with the family tree just mentioned, and
contains many personal memories and details.
Andersson
What little I have been able to collect about Violet's mother's ancestors
comes from church records and modern sources, and of course living knowledge. This
branch is a challenge to genealogists, containing a "father unknown" in
the district of Uppland in 1902, who reappears in the district of Södermanland 40
years later; in the middle of the notoriously hard-researched 20th century. (This
is because Swedish law forbids the disclosure of personal information more recent
than 70 years).
This is all I intend to say here about this half of my sons' ancestors, and
I hope someone might find the material interesting, and maybe even useful.
If you base own research on the information in the database, you must
check it against the original sources!
Open genealogy database (Swedish only)
Uppdated 2009-09-04