Anders Hackzell

Childhood

In 1705, Anders was born in Nederlulea, Norrbotten, Sweden. Anders was one of the seven children – six sons and a daughter – born to Marten Andersson Hackzell (1674–1725) from Holm in Uppland, Sweden, and Anna Nilsdotter Plantin (1663–1741) from Gammelstad in Lulea, Sweden.

The father of Anders Hackzell, Marten, worked as a commander and the chief enforcement officer (Swedish: kronofogde) for the Swedish crown. Marten was the only child of the Uppland clergyman Andreas Hackzelius (1630-1681) and Brita Martensdotter Horling (1649–1710) from Stockholm, in Uppland.

Marriage and career

Anders married to Anna Catharina Plantin (1728–1807) from Lovanger, Vasterbotten, Sweden. The couple had five children, of which three were sons (one died at birth) and two were daughters.

Following in the footsteps of his father Marten, Andreas chose to work in the service of the Swedish crown. Andreas became the chief enforcement officer (Swedish: kronofogde) for the Swedish crown and a cartographer and a mapper (Swedish: lantmatare). Among his accomplishments in cartography, Anders Hackzell mapped the area of Kiruna, Sweden, in 1736. Anders gave the mountains of the area the Swedish language names Fredriks berg (Finnish: Kiirunavaara) and Berget Ulrika Eleonora (Finnish: Luossavaara), after the King of Sweden Fredrik I and his wife Ulrika Eleonora.

Anders died two weeks before the sixth birthday of his eldest son, Zacharias Hackzell (1751-1804). Like his grandfather Marten and father Anders, Zacharias too landed in a career in service of the Swedish crown. Zacharias became the chief of police (Swedish: kronolansman) for the Swedish crown in Tornio, Finland.

Alleged member of the Bure family kinship

The Hackzell family name derives from the Hacksta family estate, located in Hacksta, Uppland in Sweden. Through Marten Hackzell - the only child of the Uppland clergyman Andreas Hackzelius - and through Marten's children, including Anders Hackzell, the Hackzell family spread to Norrland and Finland. Among the best-known 20th century members of the Hackzell family is the World-War-II-period Prime Minister of Finland Antti Hackzell (1881–1946).

Both Marten and his son Anders Hackzell married to women from the culturally important and well-documented Scandinavian Bure kinship (Swedish: Bureatten) in Norrland. Accordingly, not only Anders but even more his son Zacharias Hackzell was an epitome of the Bure kinship genotype in the 18th century.

Both Anders and his wife Anna Catharina Plantin descended from separate children of the married couple of Anders Persson Grubb (1468-1543) and Mariet Margareta Jakobsdotter Bure (1473-1529). Mr. Grubb and his wife Mariet too were both Bure kinship members and second cousins to each other, both descending from Olof "Gamle Olof" Hersesson Bure (1380-1460). Furthermore, the Head of Congregation (Swedish: "kyrkoherde") Nicolaus Olai Plantin (1629-1685), a maternal great-grandfather of Zacharias, was also a Bure kinship descendant through both of his parents.

Viking Age Bure lineages

During the Viking Age, spanning from the 8th century to the late 11th century, influential Bure family members were born in the important trading centers of Sigtuna and Birka in Uppland, a part of the modern-day central Sweden. Based on primary sources, Uppland's Bure kinship members included the Viking Prince ("herse") Herse Bure (born in c. 940); his son the Viking Chieftain ("stor hovding", "storman") Tord I Byr (born in 975 in Byr, Sko, Sigtuna, Uppland); and his son King ("herse, kung") Gunnar Haursi (Herse / Bure), a Viking merchant (born in 1010 Skokloster, Sko, Sigtuna, Uppland / died in Birka, Bjorko, Malaren, Uppland).

According to speculation based on a the rhimestone Nolbystenen, the Bure kinship also inhabited during the late Viking Age some coastal areas in what today is the Province of Medelpad, by the Gulf of Bothnia, in the south-central part of Norrland, north of the historical province of Uppland. The areas with a significant Bure kinship presence there included the community named 'Bure' in the township of Selanger in the modern-day area of Sundsvall, where Thord Jerker Bure (born in c. 1035, Birka, Uppland), a son of King Gunnar Haursi, died in the return of the 11th century. Thord's son Erik Thordsson Bure was born in Bure in 1060 and Erik's son Herser Eriksson Bure in 1085.

Herser's son, Justice of the Peace ("landsdomare") Fale Hin Gamle Bure, was also born in the modern-day area of Sundsvall, in Byrestad (modern-day "Birsta") in the township of Skon ("Skons socken") in 1115. He died in May 16, 1161, in Fale Bro, Uppsala, Uppland. The following seven generations of the direct male lineage descendants, the offspring of Fale Hin Gamle Bure, were also all born in Byrestad, in the area of the modern-day City of Sundsvall. The town was chartered in 1621, and the first urban plan for Sundsvall is believed to have been created by Olof Bure in 1642, less likely in 1623.

From the latter half of the 14th century onward, the center of gravity of the recorded Bure kinship began shifting northbound, to the area today known as the Province of Vasterbotten in northern Sweden. In the late Middle Ages, the epicenter of the Bure kinship there was located in the area of Skelleftea (historically known as "Heletti" in Finnish), and particularly in the community of Burea there.

The Bure family lineages can be confirmed from various sources and by much evidence fairly reliably from the end of the 15th century onward, although already long before the modern critical approach the family lineages were extended and recorded also all the way back to the Viking Age. From the late 12th century on the Bure family is well documented.

Bure kinship genealogical records

The earliest known extensive Bure family genealogy was written in the beginning of the 17th century by Johannes Bureus, in his manuscript Om Bura namn och att. In his study, Bureus included all the family ancestors and descendants, whether male or female and regardless of what social standing or legitimacy each family member might have represented, thus making it possible for many modern-day families to trace their ancestry back to the Bure kinship. The manuscript Om Bura namn och att is located at Riksarkivet ("State Archives"), and also at the Uppsala University Library (numbers X36 and X37).

The history of the Bure kinship is complemented by the studies of Nils Burman (1705–1750), who wrote about the Bure family history until the middle of the 18th century. Some Bure family lines and individuals have acquired the names Bure, Burman and Burenskold. Some Bure family lines - as well as individuals from other family lines - are noble.

The cultural importance of the Bure family genealogy in Sweden is demonstrated e.g. by the novel The Knight Templar trilogy by Jan Guillou, which in part compares with the early Bure family ancestry. The trilogy features fictional events fitted upon the framework of the Bure kinship.