Ancestry

The roots of this project are from 1980 when my older sister chose to work on genealogy in the mandatory project that everybody made in their last year of high school. She went to archives reading microfilms of old churchbook registers called 'husförhörslängder'. Later she would visit churches in the countryside looking for headstones of relatives long gone. A site like gravar.se would have been a great help. There you can search for and see photos of headstones from cemeteries in Sweden.

The family tree she made usually ended at generation seven or eight with people living in the 18th century. On my father's side they where concentrated in the north-west of Scania and on my mothers side they came from south-east Scania. On my mother's side there was a tradition of smiths but most of the ancestors on both sides where farmers or working on a farm as farmhands or maids. Everything was pretty standard except for one name that stood out among the other names that where part of a long rural tadition with family names ending in 'son' or 'dotter'. There was one Andreas Gabelonskij in generation seven, the son of Carl Petter Jablonski (1749-1821).The name used to fascinate me. It could indicate someone with Polish or possibly Jewish roots.

With the deaths of old relatives a few years ago came old photo albums with unknown faces and trying to figure out their identities, but now with powerful genealogy tools like MyHeritage and Geni. On Geni there was more information on the Jablonski line. The father of Carl Petter was Frans Jablonski (1712-1783) and his father was Joseph Jablonsky (1688-?). Carl and Frans had been 'hejderidare' some sort of ranger that patroled the woods on horse, looking for thieves and poachers. Joseph was born in Krakow, Poland and had worked as lackey, a servant of the Polish king Stanisław I Leszczyński. In Sweden he married Anna Erasmidotter, daughter of the hat maker in Kristianstad. Geni had the name of the hat maker and his father but for Joseph Jablonsky it was a dead end. There was no information about his parents.

I was not the only descendant of Jablonski fascinated by this. In Smĺland there is another descendant Allan Jardén who has written several books about the Jablonskis and their history. The books are mosty fictional with some facts woven into the stories.

Book by Jardén	Wilanow Castle in Warsaw, home of the Polish court	Stanisław I

The politics of the time fit well with Joseph Jablonski's appearance in Kristianstad. This was a time when Sweden was a big power in Europe with land possesions scattered along the Baltic Sea and deeply involved in the conflicts and wars going on. The Swedish warrior king Carl XII had installed Stanisław on the Polish throne and when things did not go so well for Carl XII in the Battle of Poltava (1709) it was the beginning of the end for Sweden as a major power in Europe. Stanisław had no longer support in Poland and was sent into exile with his court. Carl XII arranged for the court to set up headquarters in Kristianstad in 1711.

Carl XII	Battle of Poltava

The search for Jablonski's background and his connection to the Polish court led to some clues that could reveal his parents. The mother of Stanisław the king was Anna Leszczyńska, born as Jabłonowska. Her parents where Stanisław Jabłonowski (1634-1702) (coat of Arms: Prus III) and Marianna Jabłonowska (born Kazanowska) (1643-1687) both from Polish nobility, szlachta. Could this be Joseph's parents. That would make him brother to Anna and the uncle of the king which would explain his position at the Polish court. But the genealogy site claimed that Joseph was born 1688, one year after the death of his potential mother. To bad since Jabłonowski and Jablonski are just two variations of the same family name.

Anna Leszczyńska 1709	Stanisław Jabłonowski	Marianna Jabłonowska in Lviv Jesuit Church

Stanisław Jabłonowski was a succesful military leader, castellan of Krakow and granted a heredetary title as prince from Emperor Leopold I. Stanisław's splendid career started with his father Jan (1600-1647). He was cup-bearer (pouring and serving drinks) for Cecilia Renata, queen to Władisław IV of house Vasa. He rose to the title Grand Swordsman of the Crown, responsible for the arsenal of the king and carrying his sword. By marrying the daughter of Jan Ostrorog he mingled in the highest circles. Jan Jabłonowski became chairman of the proceedings of the extraordinary sejm in 1637 and of the ordinary sejm in 1640.

The family name Jabłonowski derives from the town Jabłonowo in northern Poland whereas Stanisław himself grew up in the south-eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth near another town also called Jabłonow in present day Ukraine. The town was a lively center of Ashkenazi Jewish culture. Many of the jews where named Joseph as can be seen in the site of the Jewish cemetery.

Jablonow means apple tree in Polish so there where many places and families with names of that origin and there is no mention of a Joseph being the son of Stanisław, neither in his post on Geni or his page on Wikipedia or in the Minakowski genealogy database over Polish elite from the Middle Ages to today.

Another example on the reuse of names is Stanisław. His father's full name was Jan Stanisław. His own full name was Stanisław Jan and he gave one of his sons the name Jan Stanisław.

Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski jr.	Jabłonowski Palace in Warsaw built for Jan Stanisław jr.'s grandson Antoni Jabłonowski	Antoni Jabłonowski

Stanisław Jabłonowski was Grand Guardian of the Crown, Voivode of Ruthenia and finally Great Crown Hetman translating to supreme commander. The armies he fought where Swedes, Tatars ant Ottomans. The Swedes where fought under the Deluge, which is the name given to the Swedish onslaught by Gustavus Adolphus which was the worst ever in Polish history. His greatest achievement was in the Battle of Vienna (1683) when the city was besieged by the Ottoman Empire. The battle was fought together with the Holy Roman Empire. Both armies were under the command of the Polish king John III Sobieski. The battle marked the turning point of Ottoman expansion and John III was hailed as "The Saviour of Western Christendom" by the pope. Stanisław had been a strong supporter of John III in the campaign for his election in 1674 but later became an opponent. The king was in poor health during much of his later years. He was obese, had gout, sinusitis and kidney stone. From France he had imported syphilis for which he was treated with mercury which had many bad side effects. After the king's demise Stanisław competed for the crown and the hand of the queen.

John Sobieski	Battle of Vienna	John III	Victory message to the pope

If Marianna Jabłonowska wasn't the mother of Joseph Jablonsky (assuming Stanisław was the father) who could it be? While looking for information on Stanisław I stumbled upon a website Prusowie.pl on Prussian history and genealogy. Translate it to English and search for 1687 in the text and you find: "In 1687, during the illness of John III, Queen Maria Casimire hinted that after having become a widow, she would marry the hetman" The hetman was Stanisław, his wife Marianna had died the same year and Joseph was allegedly born the next year. Could it be that Stanisław and the queen had an illegitimate child. Marie Casimire had no less than 17 pregnancies.

Marie Casimire (1641-1716) came from lower French nobility. Her father Henri de La Grange became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic church when his daughter was queen of Poland and her husband had saved Western Christendom from Islamic conquest. Many royal marriages of the time where arranged to create alliances and manage power politics but Marie's and John's relation was a love affair that resulted in thirteen children but only four reached adulthood. One reason for this was the syphilis that Marie was infected with from an earlier marriage.

Marie Casimire was never popular in Poland, being foreign and described as self-centered. Her support of absolute monarchy was unpopular among Polish nobility and too interested in power and politics for many who preferred a more family oriented role for the queen. She ruled together with the king and took care of business when he was away. More information on the king and queen can be found on the website of the museum of the Wilanów palace. In many ways she was a Polish version of Queen Christina from Sweden.

Marie Casimire	Marie and John III Sobieski with their family	Marie with children

Stanisław whose wife had died in 1687 was the supreme commander of the army and competing for the throne. It's easy to imagine that if Marie lost her king she would loose all influence and the beautiful palace and that she might plan for a way to stay in power by befriending Stanisław when the king was seriously ill.

The case for an illegitimate son between the supreme commander and the queen was very circumstantial and I had pretty much given up on reaching a conclusion when a friend of mine got interested and looked for Joseph in another genealogy site, FamilySearch of 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'.

Genealogical databases are not always trustworthy. For instance if you look at William the Conqueror in the Geni database and go through the paternal ancestral line you will end up with mythical figures from fairytales, King Snow, then Frost and Wind and finally, Fornjot, an actual giant. Not much better if you start from the last King of Judah, Zedekiah, a historical figure and go backwards. You will reach King Salomon and King David but keep going and you get the patriarchs and Abraham and then you will reach Noah at 2704 BC and Methusaleh (-3703 → -2104) and finally Adam of Eden (-3760 → -2830), occupation gardener. His spouse is Eve of Eden with occupation "Mother of Humankind". Their parents are not given.

The information in the FamilySearch database on Joseph Jablonsky however makes perfect sense. The birth year 1688 found in other databases could be a misreading of 1678 in old handwritten documents. Joseph's birth in 1678 would make Stanisław and Marianna 44 and 35 years instead of 54 and dead as they where in 1688. It would also make Joseph's age 26 → 31 when he was working for the King during his reign (1704-1709) instead of 10 years younger. With Stanisław and Marianna as his parents he would also be the uncle of the king since his older sister Anna (1660-1727) would marry Rafał Leszczyński and they would get a son that would become King Stanisław I Leszczyński (1677-1766).

One reason that he is not documeneted as a son of Stanisław and Marianna in many sources could be that he is the last one and born seven years after their previous child and all the other children were born in Lviv the home region of Stanisław Jabłonowski whereas Joseph was born in Krakow where Stanisław would later become castellan. I will assume the information in the FamilySearch database is correct and use the Geni database to construct his Polish family tree which would be a tiny branch of my own and trace different lineages back through time. This work can be seen by following Ancestry in the main menu.

The Geni website has a service for finding links between persons in their network but I did not use this. It's more fun to do the work manually and dig down generation by generation to find people of historical importance. Some historical figures I could connect to with direct ancestry as far as you can trust the records in the database where:

The first rulers of Poland in the Piast dynasty like Siemowit (845-891) and Miezko I (930-992).
The first rulers of Hungary, among them Almos Arpad (820-895) and Vazul the Bald (975-1035).
The first kings of Lithuania, Algirdas (1296-1377) and Gedminas (1275-1341).
The first kings of Sweden and Denmark with viking roots to characters like Harald Bluetooth (935-985).
The first rulers of Russia, Rurik the viking (830-879) and his Rurikid dynasty.
Charlemagne (747-814) and Arnulf, Bishop of Metz (582-640), my 42nd generation ancestor.

These lineages where found on Stanislaw's side. From Marianna's side there where lineages going to:

John VI Kantakouzenos (1260-1316), a Byzantine emperor.
Vlad II Dracul (1395-1447), father of Vlad III the Impaler, a.k.a Count Dracula.

Mieszko	Bluetooth	Rurik	Charlemagne	John VI	Dracula

Tracing a lineage back to Charlemagne might seem impressive but in fact everybody with European roots is a descendant of Charlemagne and every European of that time is either an ancestor to all Europeans or to none, if their tree of descendants happened to go extinct after a few generations like the Merovingian dynasty probably did. Why this is so can be studied in this article by Joseph Chang or in this less technical video from UsefulCharts. If you want to find your own royal roots you should look at this video.

The longest tracable human lineage with high degree of credibility is probably the descendants of Chinese philosopher Confucius (c. -551→ -479). A 79th generation descendant in a direct father-to-son chain is Kung Tsui-chang. How far back Confucius ancestry can be traced is more uncertain.

By giving up on names for individuals and going further back we reach the roots of humans as a species and for timespans of millions and billions of years we wil reach the origin of life on Earth. All life forms are related. Take any two individuals, say a person and a specific flower and trace their parents and you will at some point reach a common ancestor. The time of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all humans living today is uncertain. It depends on for how long groups of people have been living in total isolation from the rest of humanity like the Aboriginal Tasmanians who were separated from the Australian mainland by rising sea levels some 8000 years ago. The last person of solely Aboriginal Tasmanian descent died in the 1860's so the Tasmanian isolation has no impact on the time of the current MRCA. Another isolated group that is not extinct is the Sentinelese on North Sentinel Island. Their island is not so distant from other populated islands so they are probably not the determining factor for the time of MRCA.

The time of MRCA is hard to estimate since it can't be traced genetically. The DNA of most ancestors is completely lost after 50 - 100 generations. Some estimates puts it as recent the 1st or 2nd millenium BC, but it could just as well be in the 6th millenium BC. There are two other types of common ancestors that do have genetical impact over long timespans, matrilineal MRCA or "Mitochondrial Eve" (mt-MRCA) and the paternal version "Y-chromosomal Adam" (Y-MRCA).

The mitocondrial genome is inherited completely from the mother's genome and the Y-chromosome comes in its entirety from the father. This makes these parts of the genome unaltered all the way down to the matrilineal/patrilineal ancestors, with minor variations due to mutations. The time of mt-MRCA and Y-MRCA can be estimated with genetic methods. The Y-MRCA, most recent male from whome all living humans are descended through their male ancestors is estimated to have lived 0.2 to 0.3 Myears ago. Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived 0.15 Myears ago.

A very good book on evolution is Richard Dawkin's "The Ancestors Tale" which traces common ancestors back through the ages for ever larger groups of organisms all the way back to the emergence of life and the split between the three domains of life which are: bacteria, archaea and eukarya. The eukaryotes have a cell nucleus and most often sexual reproduction. Life begins 3.5 Gyears ago and the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) could be 1-2 Gyears ago.

Rembrandt

What has anything of all that has been said so far to do with Rembrandt?

Durig my search for information on Joseph's father I found a website by Marcin Łątka. He is from southern Poland with a passion for art history. On his blog he presents convincing arguments that the famous painting 'A Polish Nobleman' from 1637 by Rembrandt depicts non other than Josephs grandfather Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski (1600-1647).

The extraordinary sejm of 1637 was an extraordinary event of the type that would often be commemorated with a commisioned portrait by a painter of Rembrandt's caliber. Jan Stanisław was the marshal of the Sejm in 1637. As a marshal he had a long rod of the type seen in the portrait to keep order among the delegates. The man in portrait wears a fur hat of a shape typical of Ruthenian nobility. The costume and jewelry in the portrait is also of the type seen in portraits of Ruthenian princes. Jan Stanisław's home was in the region of Lviv, a part of Ruthenia, the East Slavic part of the Commonwealth. The pearl earring was a trend from France as shown in these paintings. Jan had travelled in France, building alliances was very important in times of war. France was a leading power both as a military force and in fashion.

The painting was kept for over 100 years at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It has had several owners, one being Catherine II the Great. The painting is now hanging in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The identity of the person in the painting is often said to be unclear, with several different views among scholars. Some claim it to be an idealized self-portrait.

Since there is no other picture of Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski it's hard to say what he looked like but there are pictures of his son Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski and there is a definite resemblance between the son and the man in Rembrandt's painting. Images of Rembrandt, the painting and Stanisław can be seen here for comparison.

Sources & Background Information

[1]	www.gravar.se	Tombs on Swedish cemeteries
[2]	www.myheritage.se	Genealogy site MyHeritage
[3]	www.Geni.com	Genealogy site Geni
[4]	www.Geni.com/...	Joseph Jablonsky on Geni
[5]	Wikipedia...	Stanisław Leszcyński
[6]	Novel by Allan Jardén	Ryttarna Jablonsky
[7]	Book by Allan Jardén	Hejderidarna Jablonsky
[8]	Book by Allan Jardén	Johan Joseph Jablonsky
[9]	Wikipedia...	Carl XII
[10]	Wikipedia...	Battle of Poltava
[11]	Wikipedia...	Anna Lezcsyńska
[12]	Wikipedia...	Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski (1634-1702)
[13]	Wikipedia...	Polish nobility, szlachta
[14]	Wikipedia...	Polish heraldry
[15]	Wikipedia...	List of Polish coats of arms
[16]	Wikipedia...	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
[17]	Minakowski genealogy site	Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski (1634-1702)
[18]	Wikipedia...	Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski (1600-1647)
[19]	Wikipedia...	Jan Stanisław Jabłonowski (1669-1731)
[20]	Wikipedia...	The Deluge
[21]	Wikipedia...	Gustavus Adolphus
[22]	Wikipedia...	Battle of Vienna
[23]	Wikipedia...	John III Sobieski
[24]	Prusowie, ancient Prussia website	John III Sobieski
[25]	Prusowie, ancient Prussia website	Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski
[26]	Wikipedia...	Marie Casimire
[27]	Museum of the Wilanów palace	Home page
[28]	Museum of the Wilanów palace	John III Sobieski
[29]	Museum of the Wilanów palace	Marie Casimire
[30]	Wikipedia...	Queen Christina of Sweden
[31]	familysearch.org - Genealogy site of	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
[32]	Article by Joseph T. Chang	Recent common ancestors of present-day individuals
[33]	Youtube - UsefulCharts	Are all Europeans descendants of Charlemagne?
[34]	Youtube - UsefulCharts	Finding your royal roots using the Geni website
[35]	Reddit	Longest tracable human lineage
[35]	Wikipedia...	Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA)
[37]	Wikipedia...	Aboriginal Tasmanians
[38]	Wikipedia...	Sentinelese
[39]	International Society of Genetic Genealogy	Time estimate of MRCA
[40]	Wikipedia...	Mitochondrial Eve
[41]	Wikipedia...	Y-chromosomal Adam
[42]	Book by Richard Dawkins	The Ancestor's Tale
[43]	Wikipedia...	Three Domain System
[44]	Wikipedia...	Bacteria
[45]	Wikipedia...	Archaea
[46]	Wikipedia...	Eukarya
[47]	Wikipedia...	Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA)
[48]	Art history blog by Marcin Łątka	Forgotten portraits