How much do you know of your heritage?

[Eric]

What and how much do you know about your ancestors? My sister is an anthropologist and I've always found things like this very interesting. The lineage of the ruling royal family of Sweden intersects with the deposed Victorian royal family. King Carl Gustaf has some German and English blood as well. Also, modern Swedes are not exactly pure Swedes. Since the Geats, predecessors of the Goths, lost their identity long ago due to excessive inter-mingling, both the cultures blended to form the race known in modern times as the Swedes. In my language, the ancient Swedes, who were of the original Norse stock are known as 'Svears'. Modern Swedes are known as 'Svensk', indicating the difference. The Geats are known as 'Götars'. Families of Geatish stock have lent many kings to the country in the course of time. Swedish kings are still known as 'svears och götars konung'. Anyways, other than Swedish-Geatish heritage, I have English and German blood too. My paternal great-grandfather was English and my mother is of German composition. There are many Germans who have been in refuge for centuries in the southern coast of Sweden, and that is where she hails from.
The original Indo-European people of Germanic ethnicity themselves originated in the northern Scandinavian peninsula...

[Jax]

I actually don't know that much about my ancestors. But as far as a know I'm all Swede. And yes, I do actually have blond hair and blue eyes, just like all the lovely girls in Sweden. =)

By the way, the Swedish royal family Bernadotte is derived from France. Jean Baptiste Bernadotte who was a marshal in the French army became king of Sweden in 1818. He changed his name to Karl XIV Johan.

Karl XIV Johan 1818 - 1844
Oskar I 1844 - 1859
Karl XV 1859 - 1872
Oskar II 1872 - 1907
Gustav V 1907 - 1950
Gustav VI Adolf 1950 - 1973
Carl XVI Gustaf 1973 -
(Crown princess Victoria)

Wow, look at that, a small Swedish history lesson.

[Eric]

Well, I knew about the Bernadotte lineage, but as I hate the French, I intentionally excluded mentioning them. I should have done it though, as Charles XIV/Karl XIV Johan was an upstanding ruler, and he was a general of Napoleon as well, the only French historic leader worthy of respect, IMO. What I wanted to say was, the lineage started to branch off from the beginning of the 19th century onwards, after admixture with English/German blood due to matrimonies between the Swedish/Norwegian kings and various princesses from the House of Hanover/Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Were Napoleon and John Baptiste protestants!?!?
I have natural blonde hair too, but my eyes are not blue.

PS: I like to believe that the French seed in the bloodstream of the members of the royal family has diminished, because most, if not all subsequent male rulers wed with Swedish, German and English women.

[Jax]

Respect for Napoleon? He did the same mistake as Karl XII while attacking Russia. Isn't that rather stupid? But hey, Hitler did it again so at least there is someone more stupid.

There is an old Russian saying: "do as the Swede in Poltava". That means you screwed up pretty badly. Napoleon and Hitler obviously didn't know about it.

Back to the Swedish history lesson (försöker inte lära dig Eric, du verkar ha bra koll ). Yesterday it was Sweden's national day (6/6). In 1523 a guy called Gustav Eriksson became king of Sweden. Before that we had been ruled by the Danish king.

[Eric]

Napoleon's ill-planned tactics resulted in his downfall, much like Hitler, but I respect them for their distinct qualities of leadership.
Napoleon's troops marched into battle with the Russians, but they were not adequately equipped to survive the cold.
There was an old Swedish king however who successfully defeated the Ukranians in the western part of the country after ravaging through the rest of Europe, yet his name escapes me...

[Jax]

The lack of equipment isn't the soldiers fault, it's the leaders who are to blame. To continue the attack even when the Russians destroys all their villages and just retreats ain't that clever if you can't equip your own soldiers.

The name of the king...hm. I'm not that good at old kings but Karl XII expanded the kingdom rather much before Poltava.

[Eric]

Yes, you're right. Lack of proper equipment was due to Napoleon's overconfidence. It was pretty obvious so I decided against being too specific.

[Randy]

Oh my god - I have to look away from this thread. My mother is a genealogist (for fun) and has so much interesting information about our family history and heritage that I don't know if I can find the time to talk about it, but I'll save this space just in case I find time later on.

[Eric]

Okay, from whatever I can assume about you:
i) You're Indo-European; Judging from your name.
ii) Most probably have English blood somewhere inbetween.
iii) You're mostly a composite of Germanic mixture.
lol, I try.

[Andylkl]

I'm guessing that my ancestors come from the the Fukien Province in Southern China, near Taiwan, where most people of Hokkien heritage come from the same area.

That's all I know!