Having farmers and laborers for ancestors gives me great
pride. Hard-working people who sacrificed a great deal, braved elements, served
their country, attended church, and were overall good and generous people.
It is only when I come in contact with other family
historians and genealogists when the discussion turns to the famous, the
infamous, the rich, the scoundrels that I have to admit that I have none. I’ve
been told that “you just haven’t found them yet,” which is difficult to hear as
I’ve been working diligently on family history for over 40 years. Slow.
Deliberate. As accurate as I can be.
If you’ve been reading this blog, you learned about my
“find” on the Linn side of our family when Amund Persson married Catharina
Margaretha Strahle. She died in childbirth and I thought that was the end of
that. But I learned recently and wrote on March 29, 2021, that Amund and
Catharina had another son, born 2 years earlier, who survived, making us
related to all of the well-connected, titled people who were ancestors of
Catharina.
Could there be more? For those of you who enjoy joining the
conversation about the famous or well-connected ancestors, and are descended
from the Olofsons and Rasks, I can now report that you had some very important
people in your line. But as usual, there’s a twist.
Let’s start with a look at the ancestors involved in
this line:
Anton Christiani von Sternfeldt married Katarina Elisabeth von Ceurmen
Johan Conrad von Sternfelt with Brita Nilsdotter, later married to Catharina von Scheffer
Johan Johansson Starnfelt married to Marget Jonsdotter
Lena Starenfelt never married
Stina Lindberg married to Olof Rask
Olof Rask (their son) married Sophia Margarite Kjellander
Olivia Rask married William Edward Olofson
William and Olivia Olofson had 3 children: Lee Verne (Vernie) Olofson, Lilly Olofson, and Maude Olofson.
It is Olivia Rask’s ancestors who give us the famous ancestors. Surprised?
Given what we know about Olivia’s parents, Olof Rask and Sophia Margarite Kjellander,
I’m stunned. This family was poor. Olof’s parents were poor. Olof’s
grandmother, a single mother, died in the poor house. So how do we go from
nobility to having an ancestor die in the poorhouse? It took just 3 generations
to go from one end of the socio-economic spectrum to the other.
Anton Christiani von Sternfeldt and his wife were both born in Latvia in the mid 1600's. Latvia, at that time, was a part of the vast Swedish empire.
You can see above that Riga, in Latvia or Livania/Livland as it was known then, was a part of the Swedish empire. Our having ancestors born in that area doesn't seem to change any of our DNA, at least not in that of family members I have access to.
Livland was a part of Latvia at the time of Johan's birth. It was taken by Sweden and later by Russia:
Sweden retained these territories for almost a century, defending them from both Poland (Polish-Swedish War, 1654-60) and Russia (Russo-Swedish War, 1654-61). In 1721, however, after the Great Northern War, Sweden ceded them to Russia (Treaty of Nystad)
This area also bordered German and, as you might guess, language, culture, and titles were similar then. The title "von" was often used to show a noble status originally designed to show land holdings. The family surname was the land you held. Thus von Ceurmen was "from Ceurmen". "Von" is a low-tier nobility title, but nevertheless, showed a level of wealth and land, and perhaps other rights and privileges in society.
Anton Christiani Sternfeldt and Katarina Elisabeth von Ceurmen's son Johan was born in Riga in 1684. As an adult, Johan Conrad von Sternfelt was a captain and an artillery man, commissioned in Sweden, primarily in the Stockholm and Jamtland counties.
From various Swedish books and articles that I've slowly done my best to translate, Johan Conrad met a married woman, Brita Nilsdotter, and conceived a child out of wedlock. Their son Johan Johansson Starnfelt was born in 1731 in Rodon, Jamtland Sweden.
When Johan's father, Johan Conrad von Sternfelt was 48 years old, he then married a titled woman, Catharina von Scheffer. It appears that they had no children. There are also accounts showing that Johan Conrad von Sternfelt and his wife Catharina von Scheffer provided for Johan's son and for Brita Nilsdotter.
But as you can see, the title was not passed on to the illegitimate son, Johan Johansson Starnfelt. This is where the breakdown in nobility status happened. Johan Conrad had to go before the church and confess his sin and take responsibility. Johan Conrad von Sternfelt also was involved in a criminal case and accused of murder in the spring of 1732. He was transported to Stockholm where he was acquitted.
Johan Conrad von Sternfelt sounds like quite an ancestor. Titled but wild. Involved in criminal cases including a murder. But his illegitimate son Johan seemed to be a different man. Johan was a ferryman (farjeman), a hard-working man with no land; he married Marget Jonsdotter, and together they had 5 children, the youngest being my 4th great-grandmother Lena Starenfelt. The family of 7 seems to move residences from one side of a river to another in the Rodon area as the ferry work might have demanded.
Lena, or Helena Starenfelt was born in 1767 in Jamtland, never married but had one daughter, Stina (Christina) Lindberg. It's not clear where the last name was from, perhaps the farm she lived on or even from her father. Lena was sent to the Poor Farm in Heden in 1843 and died there in 1847.
Stina, my 3rd great grandmother, was born in 1795 and married a "defenseless, but honest and of good chararcter" Olof Rask in 1814 in Heden.
So, are we nobility? I would say so. Land owners, captains, artillery men, ancestors with prestige in the community. But how quickly this all changed when the illegitimate son was not given the title or access to any of the land or prestige of his father.
I've found two books thus far written exclusively about the Starenfeldt's. One in Swedish. The other in German. I'm hoping to have some of these translated to gain a deeper understanding of their achievements and lives.
It's another fascinating story in our family history. Instead of rags to riches, it's riches to rags.
