Tomas Bragesjö

My family tree and family legends

Introduction

Many families has myths, legends and family traditions where rumors are both internal and external. It has also my family.

In about 1996 I became aware of some sort of rumors from a friend in my class. I did not think of it much until I heard of the rumors again when I was a student in Uddevalla in 2001, including the ironical text "Sir Brage" at lower left corner of a lecture slide, that led to that I became interested in heraldry.

But I did now know exactly what the rumor was until several years after that the tree was completed in 2007.

Magnus works as Riddarhusets chief genologist.

Drawing by Magnus Bäckmark who also helped me with the research

Family legends

Legend speaks of Royal House of Bernadotte, and thus Vasa and other houses, at both my mothers fathers side, where rumors speaks of King Gustav VI who stopped drinking alcohol because of a direct orders from his wife the year my mothers father was born, and at my fathers mothers side, where rumors speeks of a descendant of King Oskar II (blixtrar den ene så åskar den andre).

There are some visual similarities as well towards different Bernadotte members, particullary towards me and "V Gurra" (Gustav V) but there are also other cases among my ancestors if one knows how for example Folke Bernadotte looked like (extern link to Wikipedia, there are better pictures to see it clearer but not public published) or Oskar II looked like (extern link to Wikipedia).

There are also some sorts of rumors about some house at my fathers fathers side and some house at my mothers mothers father side and some house at my mothers fathers mothers side. Legend also speeks of Vasa blood from for example ancient noble houses like House Trolle and House Uggla hidden at varios parts of my family tree.

I have also seen a pattern in the names and the legends where my mothers name matches Gustav VI:s wife and my fathers mothers mothers name matches Oskar II:s wife (only other name order in her case).

Note the marks with yellow where names does not match Swedish naming traditions. Also note the red thread on the green with two shields at the same position.

Also note the supporter holding the shield. Only royal and a few high nobilitys coat of arms uses supporters. I dont know exactly why it is a squirrel. I could be a link to a odal riddle from my fathers mothers mother about Frank Fredrik Friis and the old danish noble house Friis coat of arms has squirrels. But it could also be a symbol linked to Svenska Släktkalenderns coat of arms crest that the artist is editor for. Or else is a reference to Norse mythology where the squirrel Ratatosk was messager on the world tree Yggdrasil.

Swedish regions

The shields on my family tree marks where the oldest persons listed at my family tree lived in. At my fathers fathers side Västergötland (Skaraborgs län) then comes Södermanland. At my fathers mothers side Närke and Östergötland at the same shield and after that mainly Södermanland and also Västergötland at one position. At my mothers fathers side Skåne and at my mothers mothers side Västergötland (Älvsborgs län).

Älvsborgs län and Skaraborgs län combined was the core lands of the old kingdom of Västergötland. The kings names are little known but it is still documented that Västergötland had its own kings. Svealand and Västergötland and Östergötland did at some point form a defence allians that became the kingdom of Sweden.

The Swedish kings titles was "Sveriges, Götes and Venders konung" until 1973 when it becamed simply "Sveriges konung". Before Napoleon wars Finland was also part of the title, often as "Storfurste av Finland", and during Swedish-Norwegian Union the title was "Sveriges, Norges, Götes och Venders konung".

Vasa descendants

Per Anderssons excellent book project about Vasa descendants covers some 250 000 Vasa descendants. Its however still far from complete but it is impossible to cover the missing persons. It does not cover Vasa from none Swedish lines nor illegitimate ways unless they where ennobled. The book also does not cover lines where a none Swedish Vasa decendent moved to Sweden. So Swedes (or any other nationality) with a tree similar to mine are not mentioned.

The illegimate lines can be both from kings as well as from nobles or commoners. For example before he became king, Karl X Gustaf of House Pfalz got several illegitimate childs on Öland. And both of the brothers Kron-Kalle (Karl XV) and Oskar II has rumors about 100s of illegitimate childs, it is still unclear exactly what rumors that are true since the Royal Court of Sweden refuses DNA tests. The brothers mother are also one example of one none Swedish Vasa line on female lines that would have been unmentioned if she had married someone else who later moved to Sweden even if was legit descendants.

Official books custom made from elites and Royal House point of view like "Kungar och Drottningar i Sverige" tries to rewrite this by mention false DNA tests and tries to pretend that there was only was one or two rumors and that most of them impossible. The Royal House of Bernadotte never does DNA testing. The book "Kungar och Drottningar i Sverige" has information about Swedish Kings and has images of every Swedish kings from Gustav Vasa and forward except no single images of King Oskar II or King Karl XV and the image of King Gustav V is so bad so one does not even see how he looked like! The book also failed to mention that King Gustav VI stopped drinking alcohol because of a direct orders from his wife the year my mothers father was born (1910).

Also there was some case between 2017 or 2018 in several newpapers when a family claimed and showed some "evidence" that they descended from prince Willhelm some generations back but they did not even get a DNA test despite the "evidence" I also know two local Chess players that also decends from House Bernadotte and I think I read the same course as one other at Mälardalen University.

There are of course also cases where Church books has been burned up making it impossible to go back any further or follow a line regardless of origin.