Tag: Swanstrom

Kruse Connections

Kruse Connections

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’ve mentioned several times lately that the Swanstroms have a yDNA connection to a German Kruse family. And I’ve thrown out a few thoughts, but no real details. Today, just a quick note about what I’m really thinking.

The soldier Petter Jönsson Cavat, born about 1732, lived in Gärdserum parish, He’s the earliest provable Swanstrom ancestor.

In nearby Vist parish there was a man named Petter Kruse. According to Rötters Anbytarforum, this Petter Kruse married 9 December 1720 to the maid Sara Olofsdotter.

This seems a promising lead. Petter Cavat cannot have been a son of Petter Kruse. Cavat had the patronymic Jönsson so his father must have been Jonas.

And Petter Cavat cannot have been a grandson of Petter Kruse and Sara Olofsdotter. They were married only 12 years before he was born.

But Petter Kruse might have had an earlier marriage and a son named Jonas. Or Petter Kruse might have had other relatives in the area.

I intend to follow up. As soon as I find a research strategy. I’ve been saying that for two years now but haven’t thought of anything. Now I’m putting it out in the world in case someone else wants to scoop me.

Curly Bear

Curly Bear

by Justin Durand

A bit of silliness tonight.

We know from yDNA testing the Swanstroms might descend from a German Kruse family settled in Sweden. They, the Svanströms, lived relatively near a noble family named Crusebjörn. The Crusebjörn family’s original name was Kruse. They came from Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein to Sweden. When they were ennobled their name was changed from Kruse to Crusebjörn because there were already two Swedish noble families named Kruse.

The usual etymology given for Kruse is that it was “a descriptive German surname meaning ‘with curly hair,’ from the Middle High German krus, meaning ‘curly.'”

And björn of course is “bear.”

So, curly bear.

I’m in love with that image. I could have the etymology wrong, or I could have the translation wrong, and anyway there is no particular reason so far to imagine the Swanstroms are any more likely to be descended from the Crusebjörn family than any other Swedish Kruse family.

Still.

I had a polar bear fetish hanging from my rear view mirror. Now it’s hanging on the door to the balcony. I think I’ll keep an eye out for something a little more curly.

More Information

  • “Kraus Surname” by Kimberly Powell, at ThoughtCo <www.thoughtco.com/>, updated March 4, 2018, retrieved May 4, 2020.
  • “Kruse Surname” at Forbears <forebears.io/>, retrieved May 4, 2020. No pun intended.
  • “Peter Kruse“, at Svenskt biografiskt lexikon <sok.riksarkivet.se/>, retrieved May 5, 2020.
Bure Tree Redrawn

Bure Tree Redrawn

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’m surprised we don’t hear more DNA stories like this, particularly in Scandinavia where the widespread use of patronymics would channel research along these lines.

The Bure family in Sweden, a prominent family since medieval times, has a project devoted to using yDNA to investigate the early origins of their patrilineage.

They recently found a match whose accumulated mutations show he must belong to a branch that separated from their line in historic lines but would not be descended from their earliest known ancestor.

Every genealogist’s dream, but it takes work. And a bit of luck.

We have a similar situation with the Svanström connection to the Briese family but we haven’t attracted the same level of attention a prominent family like the Bures does.

The yDNA suggests the common ancestor of the Svanströms and Brieses lived within historic times. Maybe in the 1600s or 1700s. And now we have a closer connection to the Kruse family. The Briese family has a formal project. We’re tagged along with them.

Our earliest proven ancestor was Peter Jönsson Cavat (1732-1759). His son Jonas adopted the name Svanström. Some descendants exchanged Svanström for Ögrim and Øgrim.

Because of the geographic distribution of our closest yDNA matches, it now seems clear Peter Cavat’s paternal ancestor, not so far back, came to Sweden from what is now Germany. Perhaps from in or near Lütjenburg in Schleswig-Holstein, up near the Danish border. That’s where our Kruse cousins originated. (My sisters might perk up here: this is the same town where Grandma Place and the Gottschs originated.)

Both Peter Cavat and Jonas Svanström were connected through their wives to the German merchant community. There are several Kruse families in Sweden. The ones I’ve been able to track have been from Germany. That makes sense; Kruse is a German name that means curly. Some were even in Östergötland and Kalmar, near the Svanström family.

My guess is that we’ll turn out to be a branch of one of those families, but we need more testing of Swedish Kruses to make it work. Testing will help both by including and excluding possible connections.

More Information

Blizzard of ’49

Blizzard of ’49

by Justin Durand

From time to time Mom mentions a memorable blizzard sometime during her childhood. Her parents took in the Dack family. Ray and Marjorie Dack, with sons Bud and Douglas, were a local family who lived north of the Swanstroms. They were stranded on the highway and couldn’t get home. For a week, the two families ate and slept in shifts. Grandpa had to tie a rope to himself when he went out to feed the cattle, so he could find his way back to the house.

I’ve been curious to find when it was, and tonight I came across it by accident, while listening to a YouTube piece from Wyoming PBS about the Lincoln Highway. It was January 2-5, 1949. Mom would have been 12.

Then, as if that wasn’t a jackpot sufficient for one day, I came across another video about wildlife migrations around Pinedale, Wyoming, where the Swanstroms lived and near where the Luces lived in Big Piney.

I’m pretty sure the word Wyoming is etched on my forehead right now. I attribute it to getting a Wyoming cowboy sticker from Mom last week and putting on my laptop yesterday. 

Now I want to find something about the Blizzard of ’63, the big one I remember from my childhood; and the Blizzard of ’82, when Missey and I were stranded in Denver and coulnd’t get home to Salt Lake City; and maybe the Blizzard of 1887 that changed Wyoming forever.

Revised to add names of the Dack family.