The Norby’s af Uggerslev, Claudelin’s, and Hederstedt’s started as explorers, military commanders, governors, and builders of Baltic trading houses, and later became social reformers.

On the maternal side, our family are descendants of Soren Norby, born c. 1470 AD, and a member of the Danish nobility.

Soren Norby was Lord of Iceland between 1515 to 1517, and tasked to find the north-west route to America through Greenland and the Canadian Coast. In the late 1510’s he was drawn into a conflict between Sweden and Denmark, and was the Admiral in command of all naval powers of Denmark. He was granted Lordship of Oland and Gotland, courted the former Queen of Sweden Christina Gyllenstierna, held the island of Gotland against the forces of two Nordic kings, and was the only person of non-royal family to mint his own coins. He was granted the castle Haraldsborg in Denmark and Borringe Priory in Skane, Sweden. Norby conquered Finland and Norrbotten for his King and ruled Gotland from Visborg.

He kept command of his fleet and was later granted Kalmar Castle. He successfully fought pirates in the Netherlands, was imprisoned by the Tsar of Moscow and freed due to the intervention of the Spanish-Habsburg Emperor, who led the world’s first global empire. He attended the coronation of the Spanish-Habsburg Emperor Charles V in Bologna in 1530, participated in the siege of Florence as a military expert and commander in 1530 where he died from a cannon ball injury.

The siege resulted in a Habsburg victory and the restoration of the Medici family as rulers of Florence. Below see the coronation of Charles V and the siege of Florence.

Above is a present day picture of the ancient city of Visby, Gotland.

His descendants, the Claudelin’s and Hederstedt’s, also blood relatives of the Almqvist family, controlled the Baltic trade through two trading houses both based on the island of Gotland, one in the city of Visby for the Western Baltic trade to Sweden, Denmark and Western Europe, and one in the city of Ljugarn for the trade with Finland, Russia, Germany and the Baltic states.

Johan Hederstedt reformed the veterinary corps of Sweden, raising the standards and status of veterinary doctors and the service they provide improving the health and conditions of farming and domestic animals, and his grandson became the supreme commander of the armed forces of Sweden (army, navy and airforce).

Carin Margareta Christina Almqvist, of Norby, Claudelin and Hederstedt descent, reformed household services in Sweden (‘hushållsnära tjänster’, also known as ‘rutavdrag’), for which she received recognition from the former Prime Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt.

The long roots in trade, commerce and social reform centered around the island of Gotland out of Visby and Ljugarn is celebrated in the Almqvist family to this day.