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Jonas Bronck
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==Origin== Different theories account for Bronck's origin.<ref name="Evjen"/> The official historian of the Bronx, [[Lloyd Ultan (historian)|Lloyd Ultan]], has adopted the theory that Bronck came from [[Sweden]].<ref>{{cite book| first= Lloyd |last= Ultan |author-link= Lloyd Ultan (historian) | year= 1993 | title= The Bronx In The Frontier Era. From the Beginning to 1696 |publisher= Kendall / Hunt Publishing Company |location=Dubuque, Iowa}}</ref> [[The Bronx County Historical Society]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Jonas Bronx |work=Bronx Notables |publisher=Bronx historical Society |url=http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/notebx.html |access-date=January 20, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509163707/http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/notebx.html |archive-date=May 9, 2008 }}</ref> and other publications followed suit.<ref>{{citation | last1 = Mattice | first1 = Shelby | last2 = Dorpfeld | first2 = David | title = Jonas and Pieter Bronck | newspaper = Register-Star | date = January 18, 2012 | url = http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2012/01/18/columnists/windows_through_time/doc4f16c47926618435762519.txt | access-date = February 18, 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120909182011/http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2012/01/18/columnists/windows_through_time/doc4f16c47926618435762519.txt | archive-date = September 9, 2012 }} </ref><ref> {{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zSQKQ53SZ_gC&q=Jonas+Bronck+Sweden&pg=PA50 |title= Neue Vielfalt in der urbanen Stadtgesellschaft [A new Diversity in Urban Society] |language= de |first= Birgit |last= Mattausch-Yildiz |chapter= Stadt als Transitraum: Ein Blick hinter den Bronx-Mythos [The City as a transitional Space: investigating the Bronx Myth] |editor-first= Wolf-Dietrich |editor-last= Bukow |editor2-first= Gerda |editor2-last= Heck |editor3-first= Erika |editor3-last= Schulze |editor4-first= Erol |editor4-last= Yildiz |publisher= VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften |year= 2011 |isbn= 978-3-531-17754-0 |quote= Der Name The Bronx geht auf den ersten Siedler 1639, den Schweden Jonas Bronck und dessen Familie ('the Broncks') zurück – so lautet zumindest die landläufige Erklärung für den Artikel in Namen. [The name The Bronx relates to the first settler from 1639, the Swede Jonas Bronck and his family ('the Broncks') – that at least is the common explanation for the article in that name.] }} </ref> A number of sources published in the early 20th century identify Bronck as Swedish,<ref>{{Citation | last = Van Rensselaer | first = Mariana Griswold | title = History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century | place = New York | publisher = The Macmillan Company | year = 1909 | volume = 1 | page = 161 |quote= Here Jonas Bronck, another Swede who came in company with Kuyter, was the pioneer settler. | oclc = 649654938 }}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Anderson| first = R.| title = Bronck, Bronx Discoverer, Not a Dutchman but a Swede| newspaper = The New York Times | date = March 31, 1912 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/03/31/100358410.pdf | access-date = February 20, 2012 }}</ref> an idea espoused by A. J. F. van Laer,<ref>{{Cite journal | last = van Laer | first = A. J. F.|title= Reviews of Books: Scandinavian Immigrants in New York |journal = [[The American Historical Review]] | location = Chicago | publisher = The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Historical Association | year = 1916 | volume = 22 |issue= 1| pages = 164–166 | jstor = 1836219 |quote = … Jonas Bronck was a Swede…}}</ref> archivist at the [[New York State Library]].<ref>{{Citation | last = New York State Library | title = archivist A. J. F. van Laer: Bibliographic Note | url = http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/pr/sc15317.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110707061956/http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/pr/sc15317.pdf | archive-date = July 7, 2011 }}</ref> ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]'', winner of the 1999 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]], also parenthetically claims Bronck as a Dane.<ref name=Burrows>{{Cite book | last1 = Burrows | first1 = Edwin G. | last2 = Wallace | first2 = Mike (Michael L.) | title = Gotham, A History of New York City to 1898 | location = Oxford, New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1999 | volume = 1 | pages = 30–37 | isbn = 0-19-511634-8 |quote= …many of these colonists, perhaps as many as half of them, represented the same broad mixture of nationalities as New Amsterdam itself. Among them were Swedes, Germans, French, Belgians, Africans, and Danes (such as a certain Jonas Bronck)...}}</ref> A 1908 publication portrays Bronck as a [[Mennonite]] who fled the Netherlands to Sweden because of religious persecution.<ref name="NJCook">{{cite book|title = The Borough of the Bronx, 1639–1913: Its marvelous Development and Historical Surroundings |first1= Harry Tecumseh |last1= Cook |first2= Nathan Julius |last2= Kaplan |year= 1913 |page= 10 |url= https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Jonas+Bronck#q=Jonas+Bronck&hl=en&tbm=bks&ei=kNY-T6z-CcyP4gTP3ozGCA&start=10&sa=N&fp=1&biw=1280&bih=618&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&cad=b |quote= The 'Magazine of American History', January, 1908, tells us that Jonas Bronck 'was one of those worthy but unfortunate Mennonites who were driven from their homes in Holland to Sweden by religious persecution.'}}</ref> In a 1977 pamphlet commemorating the founding of the borough a publication of the Bronx County Bar Association states that it "is widely accepted that Bronck came from Sweden, but claims have also been made by the Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast and by a small town in Germany".<ref>{{cite journal|title= The first Bronxite |journal= The Advocate |publisher= Bronx County Bar Association |year= 1977 |quote= It is widely accepted that Bronck came from Sweden, but claims have also been made by the Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast and by a small town in Germany. |page= 59 |volume= 24 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Qo6mAAAAIAAJ&q=Jonas+Bronck+Frisia}}</ref> In 1981, the Manx-Svenska Publishing Co. released a now out-of-print 19-page pamphlet, ''The Founder of the Bronx'', authored G. V. C. Young [[Order of the British Empire|O.B.E.]], after he had conducted research in the [[Netherlands]], [[Sweden]], and [[New York (state)|New York]]. Young reported that he examined crucial references: Bronck's [[betrothal]] certificate dated June 18, 1638, and Bronck's document of guarantee from April 30, 1639. The theories of Bronck's Swedish origin fundamentally rely on Young's interpretations of three key words found in these [[Dutch-language]] documents and that Jonas Bronck's relative Pieter Bronck was born in 1616 in Jönköping, Sweden. In conjunction with John Davidson of Tórshavn in the [[Faroe Islands]] and Eva Brylla from the [[Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore|Ortnamnsarkiv]] in [[Uppsala]], Sweden, the archival texts were transcribed from their traditional script. Young states that Bronck's middle name Jonsson means that his father's first name was Jonas (excluding the Faroe reverend Morten Bronck) and further that the words referring to Bronck's birthplace and spelled "Coonstay" and "Smolach" speaks for that it is most likely that "Coonstay" was [[Komstad]] in [[Jönköping]] county and that "Smolach" was a misrecording of [[Småland]], the province in which Jönköping is located. Young concludes Jonas Bronck was born circa 1600 in Komstad, Småland, a historic province of Sweden. This farm or small village was at this time inhabited by Jon Nilsson and his wife Marit Brunk who could be Jonas Bronck's parents or other relatives.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4851486W/The_Founder_of_the_Bronx |last= Young |first= G. V. C. |year= 1981 |title= The Founder of The Bronx |publisher= The Mansk-Swedish Publishing Co. Ltd. |location= Peel, Isle of Man}}</ref><ref name=Andersson>{{cite journal|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUDmStlV7QEC&q=Jonas+Bronck+Sweden&pg=PA41 |pages= 36–41 |title= The Bronx, a Swedish Connection |first= Brian G. |last= Andersson |journal= [[Ancestry Magazine]] |volume= 16 |issue= 4 |year= 1998}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 = Nilsson | first1 = Elna | last2 = Gumaelous | first2 = Malin | title = Komstad, Småland, Sverige Jonas Bronck Bronx, New York, America | url = http://www.savsjo.se/download/18.6547303a118108d74dc80006599/Jonas+Brunck.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212622/http://www.savsjo.se/download/18.6547303a118108d74dc80006599/Jonas%2BBrunck.pdf | archive-date = March 3, 2016 }}</ref><ref name = Komstad>{{cite web | last = Nilsson | first = Elna | title =Jonas Jonsson Brunk - Från Komstad till Bronx |language=sv | year = 2007 | url = http://www.komstadkvarn.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Jonas-Jonsson-Brunck-av-Elna-Nilsson.pdf | access-date = February 18, 2012 }}</ref> [[The New York Times]] cites [[Sävsjö]] the seat of [[Sävsjö Municipality]] in Jönköping County, Sweden,<ref>{{cite news | last = Robertsaug | first = Robert | title = A Bronck in the Bronx Gives a Swedish Town a Reason to Cheer | work = The New York Times | date = August 19, 2014 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/nyregion/from-bronck-to-the-bronx-a-name-and-a-swedish-heritage-to-celebrate.html?_r=0 | access-date = November 1, 2015}}</ref> of which Komstad was part.
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