Mea Culpa
When I first researched my 5th great-grandfather, Johan Duhan, the information just didn't feel right. The pieces of the puzzle weren't quite comfortable. Yet I shared the results in my online family trees and on my web site. That information was copied by other people into their trees. My conclusions were wrong and the errors will likely survive online forever. I apologize to any and all who copied my erroneous conclusions.
When Johan became a sailor in the Swedish Navy, he also received a new surname -- the same military name as the båtsman before him and the one after him. The Duhan (Duån) surname was assigned to the Nybble rote, rather than to the person (see cultural background). This led to the inability to identify the men and relationships within the church records. This post is intended as an apology and also a reference to help prevent cousins (and not cousins) from having to duplicate my work.
When I first completed my research on the Båtsman Johan Duhan, there were three birth years, four wives and four families. Later Swedish records were very exact when recording birth dates, but the records of the 1700s were vague. The parish of Vårdinge has many gaps in the church records and I have not found any pertinent probate records. I was left with missing puzzle pieces. Did one man have four wives or did four men have one wife each? Or was there some other explanation for the discrepancies in the life of Johan Duhan?
The military records were not indexed, so I put them on the bottom of my to do list, where they stayed for over ten years. That was my mistake. In contrast to some sparse Swedish military records, these specific båtsmän lists were a wonderful resource which provided clarity.
For the casual reader, the simple answer was that there were two men and five wives. For cousins, let's dig into several men named Duhan, starting with the man who was my ancestor and ending with a surprise from the records.
Here are quick links to each man:
Why would a 40-year-old family man lie about his age to join the military during a time of war? The Seven Years' War was raging around the world in 1759, but Johan Larsson must have thought that the benefits would outweigh the risks. Johan had suffered the loss of two children, a wife and possibly an unborn child, all within five years. It appears that the piece of land where he farmed at Lilla Bysta was not a great place to raise a family. It was a small piece of land on a shore of Southern Lake Yngern, in Stockholm County, and may have had depleted or poor soil. Johan lived the hard life of a crofter, leasing his small farm through his labor.
Marriage One
There is no known surviving record of Johan's birth or of his marriage to Brita Pehrsdotter. The couple first appeared in the church records of Turinge parish with the birth of a stillborn son in 1750.
- Daughter Anna arrived on 21 June 1751. Her fate is unknown after appearing with her father on the tax list for 1787.
- Baby Catharina followed in 1754 and died at three months old.
Brita Pehrsdotter died in 1755. The cause was childbirth, though a baby was not recorded at the same time, probably dying unborn with Brita.
Marriage Two and Becoming a Båtsman
Johan remarried to Kerstin Olofsdotter on 11 November 1756.
- Baby Anders was born a year later, on 31 October 1757.
In September, 1758, the Nybble båtsman, named Johan Duhan, died while assigned to the Naval facility at Karlskrona. Being a sailor on a Naval vessel was probably safer than being in the Army, so Johan Larsson bravely accepted the vacant position. It is possible that he was related to and recommended by another båtsman who had previously moved between the two parishes.
The Nybble (Nibble/Nyble) båtsman of Vårdinge (alias Våhlinge) served in position 128 of the Första (First) Södermanlands Båtsmanskompani, which was formed from parishes in Stockholm County. The Duhan (Duån) position was an Ordinarie båtsman, as opposed to a reserve båtsman.
Johan moved his wife and two children about seven miles southwest across the parish line and into the Nybble Båtsmans Torp. He was approved by the Navy on 31 March 1759. From that time his name was recorded in the Navy rolls as Jån Larsson Duån and in the church records as Johan Duhan.
The Navy recorded his enlistment age as 36, with a birthplace of Turinge parish. At that time, a new recruit could be no older than 36. If this was an accurate age, his birthdate would have been 1722-1723. He was recorded in the clerical survey of 1760 as born in 1720, which would have made him about 40 years of age, older than in the Navy records. He had no reason to lie to the minister about his age, but certainly had a need to lie to the Navy. A later tax record also listed his birth year as 1720.
Johan spent time training on Naval vessels and may have sailed into battle, as the Swedish Navy sought to maintain dominance during the war. A båtsman was the lowest rank in the Navy. They were somewhat like modern reservists, being rotated in and out of the Karlskrona Navy facility at the southern end of Sweden. The full-time Navy members were skilled, where the båtsmän were unskilled, doing basic tasks on the ship.
If you think about an 18th-century warship, you likely picture several masts, many sails and a multitude of cannon ports along the sides. The web site for a replica of a 1700's ship, Gotheborg of Sweden, has a lovely video made by drone, as well as information on crew assignments. The work of the modern deckhands is similar to that of a båtsman: cleaning, keeping watch, manning the anchor and handling the complex sails and rigging. The båtsmän also might operate the cannons. The records also note that Johan was a wagon maker, or cartwright, and had served at sea for at least six months by the time of his discharge.
When Johan was not away for military duties, he worked the plot of land assigned to him. Satellite views of the Nibble farm, just east of the town of Gnesta, reveal several large fields. It may have been a healthier environment, but the family continued to experience a high death rate:
- Anders, who had been born in 1757, died in 1760, at age 3.
- Another baby named Catharina was born in 1760 and died 4 months later in 1761.
- Johan, born 29 November 1762, grew to adulthood and took the name Johan Wolen (Volen/Volin).
- Eric was born in 1765 and died 7 months later in 1766.
- Stina was born 31 March 1768. Her fate is unknown, but she possibly died young, about 1777.
- Elisabeth was born in 1771 and died in 1776.
Kerstin Olofsdotter died in 1774, again widowing Johan and leaving him with young children.
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| Household survey for Johan Larsson Duhan, with his second wife, some of his children and two lodgers who are blacked out |
Marriage Three
Though the war had ended in 1762, Johan still had military duties and still needed a wife. At about age 55, he married for a third time. On 9 January 1775, he married Catharina Engelbrechtsdotter, who was about half his age. While I wonder at the lack of wisdom, without that marriage, I would not exist. Catharina brought to the marriage her illegitimate daughter, Anna Lisa, born 29 April 1771, in Grangärde parish, Kopparberg/Dalarna county. The couple had several more children:
- Another baby named Catharina was born 28 March 1778. Her fate is unknown.
- Maria was born in 1781 and died about 1781.
- Another baby named Maria was born in 1782 and died 39 weeks later in 1783.
- Anders was born 27 February 1784. He took the name Anders Jånsson and is my 4th great-grandfather.
- Carl was born in 1788 and died in 1790 at age 2.
After 22 years of service, Johan Larsson Duhan was recorded as being too old and frail to fulfill his duties. He was discharged from his båtsman position on 3 February 1781, choosing to retain his military name. He and his family had to move out of the båtsman cottage.
While there should be one or more household survey records showing where the family lived, those records are silent. The family moved to or visited the neighboring parish of Frustuna, where the first baby Maria was christened in 1781.
By the beginning of 1782, they had returned to Vårdinge parish and were living on church property, as reflected in the tax records. The subsequent birth and death records referred to Johan as kyrko vaktaren, church watchman or guard, a title he retained until his death on 15 May 1788. His death record listed his age as 71, which would indicate a birthdate in 1716-1717. While this is a third option for a birthdate, the information was not provided by him, so is the least likely of the possible dates.
There is one record that cannot be reconciled. A one-year-old "son son" or grandson died at the Nybble Båtsmans Torp in 1776. The birth records for 1775 include only one birth, so there is a gap in the records. The child could have been the grandson of a lodger, an illegitimate son of the eldest known son, a son of an unknown older son, or an error in the church books. The tax records do not add clarity.
Johan Larsson Duhan had three wives, fourteen known children and one step-daughter. Three of his children lived to adulthood: Anna (1751-unknown), Johan Wolen (1762-1815) and Anders Jånsson (1784-1846). The fate of two children is unknown: Stina (1768-unknown) and Catharina (1778-unknown).
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| Household survey for Johan Larsson Duhan, with his third wife, some of his children and two later båtsmän, Anders Duhan and Eric Duhan. |
Johan was followed by Anders Ersson Duhan (1746-1783), who served only a short time, dying in Karlskrona in 1783.
The position was taken over by Eric Duhan, whose original name is unknown. Eric was born in 1766 and died in Finland in the 1790s. That death in Finland somehow was recorded in my tree as Johan's birth location, an error which must be ignored.
The death of Johan Gustafsson Duhan vacated the båtsman position for Johan Larsson. The information in both the church records and the Navy records is sparse for Johan Gustafsson Duhan and his family. The records show he was born about 1719 and was approved as the Nybble båtsman in 1748.
Johan Gustafsson married Anna Olofsdotter by 1744. The couple lived at Uhsta, in Vårdinge parish. Three children were born to the couple: Giosta/Gustaf (1744-1824), Kierstin (1746-1789) and Olof (1749-unknown). Anna Olofsdotter died about 1752.
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| Household survey for Johan Gustafsson Duhan, with his first wife and two of his children. |
Johan, with the military name Duhan, married second to Helena Andersdotter on 11 November 1753. She was from Löfsta in neighboring Vagnhärad parish, where banns were also called. Two children were born to the couple: Anders (1754-unknown) and Erik (1757-unknown).
His death is not noted in the church records of Vårdinge, which originally led to my conclusion that Johan Gustafsson Duhan and Johan Larsson Duhan were the same man.
Was there a relationship to earlier men with the name Duhan?
The infant son of båtsman Duhan of Vårdinge parish has been documented as born in 1722, living and becoming one of the båtsman previously discussed. However, the 1722 death record shows clearly that he did not survive. His birth and death records have his father's first name written first as Johan and later written over as Jacob. His mother was named as Ingr Svensdotter. The marriages in the Vårdinge records were puzzling:
Johan Duhan of Nybble Båtsmanstorp married in Vårdinge parish to Inger Svensdotter on 28 December 1718.
Johan Duhan of Jordsberg [Jordberg] in Vagnhärad married in Vårdinge parish to Ingeborg Månsdotter on 8 November 1724.
The Vårdinge records between 1718 and 1725 confused Jacob Duhan of Vårdinge parish with Johan Duhan of Vagnhärad parish. The parish of Vagnhärad is just south of Vårdinge, but is in Södermanland County, rather than Stockholm County. The Naval company is different, so there was not a risk of duplicate surnames within a single company. The rote name was Husby (Und. Fredriksdal) and the position was number 119 in Andra (other) Södermanlands Båtsmans-Kompani.
Johan Johansson was born in Roslagen (Uppland) in 1698, and assumed the båtsman position in 1720, at age 21. He was shown in most church records as living at Duhanstorp. He had served 20 years by 1740, and was not listed on a 1744 muster roll. The position was filled by someone else in 1747.
Johan Duhan of Jordsberg [Jordberg] in Vagnhärad parish married in Vårdinge parish to Ingeborg Månsdotter on 8 November 1724. She was the widow of båtsman Anders Olofsson Nyman of Mölnebo.
Johan Johansson Duhan died at the age of 61, on 17 March 1759. No children were found.
Jacob Jånsson Duhan (1697-1744)
He was married twice, but the first marriage record is under the name of Johan, as he was confused with båtsman Johan Johansson Duhan, from Vagnhärad parish. The record states that Johan [sic] Duhan of Nybble Båtsmanstorp married in Vårdinge parish to Inger Svensdotter on 28 December 1718.
With Ingrid Svensdotter, three children were born, with only one daughter known to survive.
Son Johan was born 11 May 1722 at Nybble Båtsmans stugan and died in late June. In both records the father's name was written as Johan, but written over as Jacob.
Daughter Anna (Annika) was born in 1723 and disappeared from the church records between 1734 and 1735. It is likely that she died.
Daughter Maria (Maja) was born on 4 November 1726. She left the household between 1742 and 1744, based on the examination records.
- Ingrid Svensdotter died 28 December 1739 at age 56.
A Scandalous Death at Nybble Båtsmanstorp
The widowed Jacob married Elisabet (Lisken) Laxberg on 19 October 1740. The marriage was documented at Maria Magdelena in Stockholm City.
In late 1744, Lisken killed Jacob. Their last communion was noted as 30 November 1744, followed by the Latin notation in the communion records:
"ab uxore sua trucidatus"
"murdered by his wife"
The Navy muster roll of 8 February 1745, documents that Jacob Duhan had served 28 years. There is a final note:
"Ihjälslagen af thes hustru förledet åhr, Roten vacant"
"Killed by his wife last year, the position vacant"
The kind person at Anbytarforum who translated this comment stated that "Ihjälslagen" can also be used in the more narrow meaning "beaten to death".
The mantals tax record for 1746 notes: "man and wife dead" and "vacant". This implies that Lisken had died or was executed by the time the tax list was created in late 1745. Court records, if they still exist, would reveal more details.
Daughter Maria Jacobsdotter Duhan married in Vårdinge on 23 September 1759, to a church organist from Nyköping named Carl Moberg. Maria used several surnames throughout her adult life, including the Duhan military name. The couple lived in several parishes before her death in Hölö parish in 1781. Her probate listed four minor sons.
Research Notes
Some of the military records are hard to read. If you are a Duhan descendant who is good at reading 18th-century Swedish handwriting, please check the records for hints that I missed.
There are many minor gaps in the Vårdinge parish records, as well as sporadic entries in the household examinations. Major gaps include:
- Death records: 1742-1757
- Birth records: 1701-1703
- Marriage records: no large gaps
- Household examinations: 1719-1725,1754-1759,1765-1780
Orientation
The Vårdinge parish church is about 40 miles southwest of the city of Stockholm, near the city of Gnesta, in the purple area of the map.
Johan Larsson Duhan is marked in my grandfather's tree with the star.
Sources
Mantals tax records: Turinge, Vårdinge
Church records:
Stockholm county and city: Turinge, Vårdinge, Ytterjärna, Överjärna, Klara, Värmdö, Nacka, Danvik-Sicklaö, Maria Magdalena
Södermanland county: Hölö, Vagnhärad, Frustuna, Kattnäs, Björnlunda, Nyköpings Alla Helgona
Kopparberg/Dalarna county: Grangärde, Vika
Navy records:
Flottans arkiv, Amiralitetskollegium, sjömilitiekontoret. 2.0
Rullor flottan 1635-1915
Lieutenant Colonel Claes Grill, Statistiskt sammandrag af svenska indelningsverket (Statistical Summary of the Swedish Allotment System)
Lantmateriet.se Historical Maps
Google Translate
Google Maps
Wikipedia articles on the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
Email from Hans Högman clarifying age ranges for military service
Web site for sailing ship Gotheborg of Sweden
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