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Our Other New Sweden Forefathers

Due to the endogamous nature of the New Sweden colony, that is, the practice of marrying within a specific social group, caste or ethnic group, many descendants of Timen Stiddem are also descendants of at least one, if not several other New Sweden forefathers. Most of them are either Swedes or Finns, although some are of Dutch, German or English stock who had settled among the Swedes and took their spouses from the available colonists in the settlement.

From Jack Stidham’s The Descendants of Dr. Timothy Stidham, Volume 1 (2001), and forefather profiles published in the Swedish Colonial Society’s Swedish Colonial News, authored by Dr. Peter S. Craig, we have identified a number of New Sweden immigrants with ties to the Stiddem family through marriage. Therefore, the descendants of these unions have New Sweden forefathers in addition to their relationship with Dr. Timen Stiddem.

To begin our journey of discovery into who these forefathers were and how they each claim a branch in the Stidham* family tree, we will present them in the order they were published in the Swedish Colonial News. Those without a profile in that publication will be gleaned from Dr. Craig’s book, The 1693 Census of the Swedes on the Delaware (1993) and presented in Part IX, the finale to this series.

Where appropriate, they will be grouped into extended family units and appear together, as in our first two forefathers, Johan Andersson StåIcop and Carl Jönsson. Interestingly, they are the only profiles not written by Dr. Craig. The StåIcop history was written by Larry S. Stallcup and appeared in Volume 1, Number 4, from Fall 1991.


—Richard L. Steadham

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Cover image courtesy Special Collections and Museums, University of Delaware, Gift of Mrs. Joseph S. Wilson, 1967

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