Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Anders Hackzelius

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. Kirill Lokshin 01:42, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Anders Hackzelius

This unreferenced article is very close to being a hoax. There really was a 17th century Anders Hackzelius who was a parish vicar in the Katarina parish in Stockholm, and later in Holm parish in Uppland, and who can be found in a couple of genealogy pages on the web (e.g. here).

The article, however, attempts to give the impression that this Anders Hackzelius was somebody more important: "Anders Hackzelius was a priest, a Church master and the Curator of Sweden-Finland during the most influential time of the superpower period of the Swedish Empire in the late 1600's." I don't know what Swedish title "Curator of Sweden-Finland" is meant to translate, but the fact is that Hackzelius can not be found in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (the Swedish Dictionary of Biography), Nordisk familjebok or Nationalencyklopedin. A person of some significance would have been found in one of these reference works.

It also claims that "[t]he Hackzelius family was an influential family of political and spiritual leaders as well as warriors and cavalry men.". Well, no other members of the Hackzelius family can be found in any of these standard Swedish reference works either - how influential could they possibly be? (Finnish prime minister Antti Hackzell may well be a descendant, but he lived centuries later.)

The article continues: "The name Hackzelius refers to the brave and fiercely fighting Finnish Hakkapeliitta cavalry men, knights [...]" 17th century cavalrymen were not knights, but that may be excused as just a bad translation. The statement on the name is unsourced, as everything else, but anyone with some knowledge of how Swedish family names were created in that period will find it much more likely that the name is derived from Hackzelius's birthplace: Hacksta.

The short article also throws in an implicit reference to a long-debunked genealogical myth about a never-existing ancestor of President of the Continental Congress John Hanson, see comment by Viper Daimao at Talk:Hakkapeliitta. This doesn't strengthen the credibility of the article.

I can only insist on deletion of this article. Uppland 22:28, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

• Comment I find the argument for deletion confusing. Uppland, if the article contains unverified material, or overstates some claims, is there any reason to not simply edit the article? Jkelly
• Delete -- Jkelly, because it's a hoax, and at best the article would get edited down to "Anders Hackzelius was a vicar in 17th-century Finland", which is up there with listing every other citizen of 17th-century Finland and the rest of the world. I can't verify Uppland's references myself but it's his area of expertise. (A bit strongly argued, but that's the best-supported deletion argument I've seen in some time.) — mendel ☎ 01:27, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Oh. Well, in that case, delete. Jkelly 03:19, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Sorry for being confusing. I couldn't think of any way to explain more briefly or simply what is wrong with this article, but Mendel summarizes it well, except for the Finland part. (As far as I can see, the real Hackzelius was born in Uppland in Sweden and worked there and in Stockholm. It is possible that he served with the Finnish hakkapeliitta, but it is in any case not very significant. There were thousands of clergymen following the Swedish(-Finnish) troops during the 17th century.) The article not only lacks references, but the general character of the article makes it impossible to put any trust in any parts of it. Uppland 07:12, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
• Delete Good research, Uppland. We need to get rid of hoaxes like this one. Sam Vimes 09:56, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.