From: andersa@Riga.DoCS.UU.SE (Anders Andersson)
Newsgroups: rec.heraldry
Subject: Re: Swedish Heraldry
Date: 12 Sep 1992 22:18:11 GMT
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden
NNTP-Posting-Host: riga.docs.uu.se

In article <1992Sep11.131317.13518@sics.se>, uddeborg@sisu.se (Goeran Uddeborg) writes:
> In article <DANDERSO.92Sep10121107@dante.nmsu.edu> danderso@nmsu.edu (David Anderson) writes:
> >I am studying my family history and would like to know whether my
> >branch of the Andersson family (from the region near Varmland) was
> >armigerious or not.  How would I find out since once I go farther back
> >than the early 1700s the surname of my family changes with each
> >generation?   Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> You could always ask

> "Riddarhuset" would if translated, it's a name really, be something
> like "House of Knights".  They have some kind of genealogy department,
> keeping track of the noble families in Sweden.
> 
> Don't put to much hope in it though.  In case you don't already know,
> Anderson is one of the most common names in Sweden, and the nobility
> tend to have more, ah, interesting, names.

I hope you aren't implying that the practice of displaying crests is
limited to the nobility.  As you say, Riddarhuset does keep track
of noble families in Sweden, and I think providing the crest of the
family has always been a formal requirement for introduction in the
nobility, so Riddarhuset should have records of all of them.  That's
also the reason they are better known than those of commoners, which
are known since early 14th century and were common (:-) in the 17th
and 18th centuries (according to _Heraldiska vapen i Sverige_, see
below).

However, I don't think David's phrasing above is complete, and talking
about 'the Andersson family' is surely misleading in an 18th century
context, as 'Andersson' was generally only a patronymic name in those
days.  It may very well be that somebody in David's paternal line of
ancestors had a coat of arms, but it may be difficult to find out due
to lack of a noble name.  _Skandinavisk vapenrulla_ is the name of a
periodical that was first issued in 1963, and which so far has published
approximately 400 different coats of arms from the Nordic countries,
though I believe this is for newly composed ones (I haven't checked it
out myself, so I don't know for sure).

I have identified most of my ancestors back to early 19th century, and
many further back than that.  They are almost exclusively peasants
with patronymic names, and I don't know whether any of them had
arms.  I'd believe they didn't, but how do you tell for sure?

The Swedish National Encyclopaedia informs us that the Swedish
nobility today numbers some 20-30,000 people (out of a population
of 8.5 million) belonging to some 600 families (I think the article
gives more accurate numbers, but I don't have it at hand right now).
Since the 1970's, Riddarhuset is a private corporation handling its
own affairs, and members of the nobility have no special legal
position (I don't know what the law said before that, and the
four-house parliament, with a single house claimed by the
nobility, was abolished already in 1866).

According to Per Andersson's _Heraldiska vapen i Sverige_, printed
in 1989, crests are known for more than 1,200 families of medieval
times in Sweden, and while many of those are now extinct, at least
1,000 families (noble and common together) have crests today.
--
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University
Paper Mail: Box 325, S-751 05 UPPSALA, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170   EMail: andersa@DoCS.UU.SE
Newsgroups: rec.heraldry