Guys, I might have a Good reason to re-open this old thread ...
The other day I was contacted, right out of the blue, by a Mikhail Somov, a Russian reader of
BirdForum, who'd seen this thread, and who had read it with great interest. This as his great-grandfather (Mikhail Pavlovich Somov) was a colleague of "our" G. G. Gadd, "in the direction of tsarist Ministry of Agriculture" (and I think that they also had studied together in Germany, if I understood it all correctly).
According to the same mail he confirmed that we've got the proper G. G. Gadd, and most of what we've already had found about him. On top of this I was also informed the following about Gadd [my
blue and bolds]:
So far I have not been able to find out the origin of our hero, but with a high probability he is the son of Georg Ludwig Fredrikson Gadd, the father is Finnish Swedish, the mother is St. Petersburg German, among the relatives are the highest officers of the Russian service. This family is on geni dot com. There are photos and brief biographies. Members of the Gadd family who remained in SPb died in the blockade, descendants are unknown to me.
He studied at an elite school in St. Petersburg - Karl May Gymnasium (there is a virtual museum on the Internet), and most likely graduated from the university in Kharkov.
Bibliography
- Gadd G.G. Several observations on Crimean cicadas / G. Gadd. - [St. Petersburg, 1908]. - 7 p. ; 25 cm
- Gadd G. On the protection of the fish population of our reservoirs // Bulletin of the KHOLP, 1916, No. 3-4, pp. 43-54.
- Gadd G. Brochure. Carp pond farming. publication of the magazine "Economy" (South Russian Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Rural Industry). Kiev Partnership "Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev" 1917.
In the original
- Гадд Г.Г. Несколько наблюдений над крымскими цикадами / Г. Гадд. - [Санкт-Петербург, 1908]. - 7 с. ; 25 см
- Гадд Г. Об охране рыбного населения наших водоемов // Бюллетени ХОЛП, 1916, № 3-4, с. 43-54.
- Гадд Г. Брошюра. Карповое трудовое хозяйство. издание журнала "Хозяйство" (Южно-Русское ОбществоПоощрения Земледелия и Сельской Промышленности). Киев Товарищество "Печатня С.П. Яковлева" 1917г
In the collections of Kharkiv University there are samples collected by him. In the nursery where he bred fish fry, the memory of him is alive.
Since December 1916, he has been in charge of the Nikolsky Fish Hatchery. In May 1918, while fishing for trout, G.G.Gadd broke down by lifting a heavy bucket ... and soon he died at the age of 42.
(Also compare with the first part of Laurent's comment in post #4) ...
What can one say? But thank you, Mikhail!
I also received yet another mail (equally rich in info) from the same Mikhail Somov, where he adds even more info, and a link, see the following:
[...]
The name of our hero is known only in Russian. Our middle name is taken from the father, but this family had a peculiarity. At birth and as a child, their father's name was Ludwig (the first of three names Georg Ludvig Fredriksson according to the Lutheran tradition), respectively, he studied at school as Georgy Ludvigovich. Sisters Sophia, Natalia, Maria, Magdalene, Margerita were Ludwigovna, and brothers Alexander and Julius were Ludwigovich, but from 1910 to 1916 Ludwig was replaced by George. Perhaps this is an echo of the war with Germany, but this is an assumption. The sisters died in the blockade, with the second name Georgievna. This feature made identification difficult. In my opinion, the correct name is exactly Georgiy Georgievich Gadd
As soon as his metric birth certificate appears, we will find out the name in the Lutheran tradition. But this name is not used anywhere.
According to the brief records in the history of the school - was born in 1876, plus/minus a year. From the context of the description of his death, we are talking about a few days or weeks, the date of death is May 1918.
Studied at St. Petersburg University (there is a file in the archive)
[...] Here is the link where everything is Georgiy Georgievich Gadd's Family Tree The site is international, there should be no problems with Cyrillic.
🧩
Thus, with all this extra info, and now with his probable/plausible Father's name suddenly known, it might be far, far easier to find out more about Mr Gadd, like his exact Birth place (as well as an exact month/date), once and for all we might be able to close the old topic/question whether he was 'Finnish' (alt. Finnish-Russian), or just simply Russian.
If so, the supposed Father ought to be, alt. might/could possibly be,
this guy; "Georg Ludvig Fredrik
sson Gadd" (1829–1895), a guy born in Helsinki (
Helsingfors), Finland. Also note that the Surname/s of this/his supposed Father on
Geni is written as "Fredrik
sson Gadd" (
i.e. the Swedish way, with double-s, equal of an English Fredric's Son).
Anyone with full access to Geni feeling like having a go ... ?
Maybe something is told in any of those alleged "brief biographies", who knows?
Unfortunately I don't have time to dig any further in this particular topic (simply too busy with other Etymologies, and other Eponyms), as Mr Gadd isn't included my MS (of Swedish Common/Vernacular Bird names). Too much to do, too little time.
In any case, in my own view, on my behalf, I think we can now conclude that Mr Gadd (at least) wasn't "Swedish", which was the sole reason, or original suspicion, that made me start this thread, back in 2015, when we only knew of him as nothing but "G. G. Gadd". Even if it clearly looks like he in some way (somehow/somewhere, at some stage, way back) indeed was of Swedish/Finnish (and German) Heritage. That far my ponderings wasn't all uncalled for.
Either way, now I think it's pretty safe to delete him from my lists of "possible Swedes" ...
If he truly was "Finnish" as claimed in the
Key, or even all "Russian" (as if possibly born in Saint Petersburg!?) is a different thing, and it remains to be seen. And even so, either way, I assume "Russian" (or maybe Finnish-Russian) ought to, or could be, a more appropriate nationality for "our guy", as Finland belonged to Russia when (alt. wherever) he was born.
Also note that in Finland, who was still under strong Swedish influence, in those days, they normally didn't use any Russian Patronymics (the way of adding the Fathers name to his). If found in an official Finnish (Lutheran) Birth/Church record his name might/could possibly (or even most likely) be written somewhat different to its Russian equivalent "Georgiy Georgievich Gadd".
In a strict "Finnish" context I would expect him to be more of a Georg (whatever) Gadd, but also note that
Örjan,
Göran or even
Jörgen are Swedish names that could have been used in Finland in the same Era, alt. their Finnish versions;
Yrjö, Jori, Jyri or
Jyrki, all names that (also) would/could be equal of a Russian
Georgiy (alt. its many different, similar versions, also of
Juri).
Well, that's it, enough is enough!
To anyone trying to find the exact details of his Birth: Good luck!
And once again: Mikhail Somov, thank you, for sharing the information above!
Björn
