How Noble/Nobel Are We?

My mind was just blown away, dynamite involved, I’m sure! When I shared this with my brother Myron, he felt the same way. Both stunned and completely excited!

Our ancestors, Linns, Olofsons, Andersons, Barquists, and many others, are made up of interesting people whom I’m happy to have gotten to know over the past 45 years of research.

Through my research, I’ve found non-parental events (birth out of wedlock), multiple marriages when a divorce or death happened, family members who adopted neighbor or friend’s children when a parent died, and foster children. I look at each of these combinations as OUR family whether the same blood passes through us all or not. The relationships, the care, the sustained love in these “non-traditional” families is what is important. And, as my ancestors become THEIRS, I believe that THEIR ancestors become mine.

Take a look at the following chart: Here, we see John Olausson Linn and his second wife Sarah Svensdotter, one of their 5 daughters Charlotte (Lottie) Linn married to William Rinquist, and their son Roy Oscar Reinquist. Roy is my second cousin, twice removed.

Now that we've seen the ancestral line from John Linn through Charlotte Linn to Roy, let's look at a second chart:

Here we see a Roy Oscar Hagerty, born on the same date, in the same place as our first Roy. But the parents are Harry Hagerty and Thea Josefina Wretling. Thea's parents are Theodore Adrick Wretling and Anna Brita Ersdotter. And Theodore's parents are Carl Wretling and Amalia Nobel.

So, are these two Roy Oscars, the same, or is this just a coincidence? They are the same person. 

You may recall two posts I wrote on 23 May 2021 and 3 July 2021 about the Rinquist boys being given to a Christian home in Nebraska by their parents, Harry and Thea. Roy Oscar was adopted by Charlottte and William Rinquist when he was 10 and raised as a Reinquist.

I had to stop for a moment in my research and ponder the idea that Amalia Nobel might be from THE Nobel family. Inventors, Nobel Prize. Wealthy. But no. Not in our family. 

But readers, family, friends, it's true. Amalia Nobel is the aunt of the very famous dynamite inventor and namesake of the Nobel Prizes, Alfred Nobel. Amalia's brother Immanual Nobel and his wife Andriette Ahshell had 4 sons:

• Robert Nobel, a Swedish businessman, industrialist and investor. He was the founder of Branobel, and a pioneer in the Russian oil industry.
• Ludwig Nobel, was a Swedish-Russian engineer, a noted businessman and a humanitarian. Ludvig Nobel built the largest fortune of any of the Nobel brothers and was one of the world's richest men.
• Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philantropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize, though he also made several important contributions to science, holding 355 patents in his lifetime. Nobel's most famous invention was dynamite. 
• Emil Oscar Nobel, opened a workshop with foundry in St. Petersburg returning to Sweden in 1859 with his youngest sons Emil and Alfred. Emil was the only member of the family to go to college, attending the University of Uppsala. He died in an explosion while experimenting with nitroglycerine. 

And father Immanual Nobel was a Swedish engineer, architect, inventor, and industrialist. He was the inventory of the rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing.

And so, we are related through adoption to the very famous Nobel family!

Of course, this always leads me to new questions. Why did Theodore Wretling and his wife uproot their family with 8 children to come to the US and settle in Texas? What happened to the family wealth, the knowledge, the ability to invent, their philanthropy? 

In the 3 June 2021 post, we do see an award that Roy Oscar received for his charitable works in Florida. A Linn trait perhaps? Or Nobel trait? Raised by giving, loving parents William and Charlotte Linn Rinquist? Always more to research!

Dodringshult For Sale

Dodringshult was the home of my 3 x great grandfather, Olaus Fredericksson and his family, including my great-great grandfather Gustus Olausson Linn. As you can tell from the translated portion, this family was well off, owning over 1,400 acres of land. Olaus was a well-respected farmer.

On tax roles, we see that the family can only farm about 1/8 of the land because much of it was forested. But they managed to have a still to make booze which was also listed in the tax rolls. Olaus was a jury man (namdemannen) which means that one of his roles was to conduct inventories for other families in probate. He was also a Rusthallaren which means that his farm supplied and supported a soldier.

This real estate ad was sent to me several years ago by one of our distant relatives in Sweden. I have been to Dodringshult and walked the farm and out buildings. It's still a very beautiful home and property. While I don't know exactly how old this home is, it was clearly used in 1830 by Olaus Fredericksson and his family.

Translation of the above real estate ad: The property is situated high up, approx. 20 km east of Eksjö and approx. 10 km N of Bruzaholm. On the property there is a 2-story farm building and outbuildings.

Area approx. 572 ha (hectares or 1,413 acres) of which 533 ha is productive forest land. Timber storage in new forestry plan approx. 48,000 m

Well-developed forest road network.

Good hunting opportunities.

We know that, after Olaus died, his family was not allowed to stay on this beautiful farm and were separated by their ability to work on other farms or needing to stay with their mother. Because Gus was the youngest, he lived with his mother down a dirt road for a few years until he was able to work.