Christoffer Larsson, who took the name Norstedt, was born at Bergsmansgården The hill outside Falun in 1672. He was the great-great-grandson of Nils Olsson, my agnatic ancestor who in 1635 bought a share in the farm which is one of the oldest documented at Kopparberget. Christoffer had several children, of which I am descended from the son Lars.
I myself live in Örnsköldsvik far from Falun and it is more than 120 years since my great-grandfather moved from Dalarna to the sawmill community Norrbyskär on the Västerbotten coast. I didn't know much about the origin from Höjen and I certainly didn't feel any strong connection to it. But somehow it has still been in the back of my mind that the roots should be there.
About a year ago I ordered my first DNA test (a bit about how it is done can be found here) and when the Y result came I was confused. What was this? So many Finns and Norwegians? Am I really related to them? And my closest match is a Scotsman! How did he come into the picture? Am I actually from Scotland? The match with the Scots was so strong that I could very well have roots there as late as the 16th century and I got no clear answers.
There were many questions and eventually a plan matured as to how I was to proceed. I would secure the DNA connection to my ancestors as far back in time as possible. I had my family tree that my father drew a long time ago with Nils Olsson from Höjen at the top. But how would I go about it? My DNA test didn't really say anything about the connection to the real family tree.
I soon realized that I needed to find more branches up to the present from one of my ancestors, as far up the tree as possible. The tree we had was largely sourced from Forsslund's description of Höjen from the 1930s and therefore limited to the branches that lived there. The tree needed to be broadened and to do so required traditional genealogy. I started looking at which Norstedts are now alive and what origin they could conceivably have. Pretty soon I found a man whose name matched the family tradition. I looked back and he turned out to be very much descended from another son of my ancestor Christoffer, namely Eggert Norstedt. If I could show a Y-DNA sample from him that matched mine, it would ensure that we both had unbroken paternal lines to Christoffer, the one who took the name Norstedt.
I wrote a letter to my unknown distant relative (hereinafter referred to as B), explained the situation and waited anxiously for an answer. A couple of weeks went by and I heard nothing. Then I wrote another letter and soon I actually got a call. B didn't mind being DNA tested at all so I ordered a test kit addressed to him from FamilyTreeDNA and waited.
The sample I ordered was the cheapest The Y12 test, 12 markers for $49 + postage. It felt unnecessary to pay for an expensive test when I hardly knew if we were related. It was so uncertain. With 12 markers I would get a clear message. I thought.
A couple of months had passed when in mid-October 2013 I received a confusing answer. We matched each other 10/12 (2 markers out of 12 wrong), i.e. pretty good but difference was too great to secure a common ancestor born as late as 1672. But mutations are random and unusual things happen after all sometimes.
It became necessary to continue the experiments. I upgraded the test to 37 markers thinking that if I was lucky the difference would decrease. But when I got the results a month later, I was still just as confused. We matched each other 30/37 (7 markers out of 37 fouled), which was basically the same difference as before. Not so fun, but shame on the one who gives in.
In the meantime I had SNP tested myself (SNP tests are more difficult and give more reliable information) and established that I belonged to the small subgroup of the I1 haplogroup I1-L1302. We who belong to L1302 have a common ancestor around the time of the Vikings. As I became so uncertain about the result from B, it became necessary to test him also for L1302. Another month passed and the answer came. Yes, he belongs to the same group. Now it was definitely decided that we had a common ancestor in the not too distant future. But the Y markers were still so far apart that it felt like something might not be right. There was no choice but to upgrade to 111 markers.
The time went by and at the end of January 2014 the answer came which was significantly better. We matched each other 100/111 and my relative was now finally my closest Y-match. Still quite a few markers wrong but I could conclude that we were quite closely related. Despite this, I wanted to further secure the result.
Christoffer Larsson had no more sons with male lines to the present but both B and I had close relatives who could also be tested to provide new information. I decided to ask C, a cousin of dad's. At the same time, I sought out D, another very distant relative who is a triplet of B's father, and wrote him a letter.
C's results came first. He turned out to match me 37/37, ie exactly. It's what you'd expect for such a close relative.
D's results were tense. He matches me (A) and C 35/37, ie 2 markers differ. This is quite normal considering that D is 14 ranks away from me. What is surprising, however, is that B and D match each other 30/37, i.e. a deviation of 7 markers in just 7 links.
This is how the deviations look between the different branches:
The conclusion is that it is beyond reasonable doubt that A, C and D have Christoffer Larsson Norstedt as their common ancestor. That B belongs there cannot be ruled out, even if the deviation is undeniably very large. Like A, C and D, B belongs to the small L1302 group and he originates from Falun, which means that the genealogy is correct. Future SNP tests may provide clearer answers to what happened.
Jakob Norstedt-Moberg
Email: jakob@hoijen.se
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