Who was the father of Robert Albin Abrahamson?

Talk about a "BRICK WALL" in Family History? A New Year's Resolution.

Not long ago, through DNA, it was confirmed that our great grandfather, Robert Albin Abrahamson was NOT one of the many many illegitimate children of Oscar II Bernadotte of Sweden. What a disappointment for all of us descendants of Albin! Albin's children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren had repeatedly told and found great pleasure in our family "legend" for over 150 years. I think Albin himself most likely bought his mother's Charlotta's claim. Sounds a bit crazy now but yeah, we truly believed the family legend you can read HERE. Well, I guess I am now over the disappointment (pretty much anyway) and my New Years family history resolution is to attempt to..

BREAK DOWN THAT "BRICK WALL" 

AND FIND GREAT GRANDPA ALBIN'S FATHER

Okay, so I have no clue (yet, but I will) how I am going to do this or where or how to even begin my research. See the above photo of Great Grandpa Albin? He looks like a determined, stick to it, never say die sort of a fellow doesn't he? Maybe he is the ancestor I inherited that from.

For the love of great great grandma Charlotta Majholm

I have blogged in the past that due to the information I found on great great grandmother, Charlotta, I had some serious doubts that Robert Albin was the offspring of Oscar II, future king of Sweden and Norway. That family legend had persisted for 150 years and I think many if not most of the family, now numbering in the hundreds, believed it. Charlotta said so, didn't she, and why would she lie? My brother told me of a cousin of my Dad's who actually had a framed portrait of Oscar in his living room. Another cousin collected Oscar memorabilia.

Admittedly I too was more than a little bit bummed when DNA proved absolutely that Oscar was not my great great grandfather. I have spent the last few days on the "Robert Albin Abrahamson Legacy" family tree on Ancestry.com erasing one by one the relations of Oscar who now were no longer mine.

This proved tougher than I thought. Along with being a genealogy nut I also am somewhat of a Western European history buff (yes I AM a nerd and not even ashamed any more).  I loved the idea, however remote, of having not only famous but royal relatives. Why oh why Charlotta would you lie to us? On thinking it over I now have two main thoughts..

The Death of the Family Legend - King Oscar II

With the advance of DNA in genealogy it was inevitable that sooner or later we could prove the truth of our proposed royal ancestry. Generations of those of us descended from Robert Albin Abrahamsson, the adopted son of Edvard Julius Abrahamsson, have told the family story of his, and therefore our, royal ancestry. I wrote about it in an earlier blog titled  TRUTH or family legend?  Edvard Julius Abrahamsson clearly stated that he was the adoptive father of Robert Albin. We don't know who initiated the story, perhaps Robert Albin's mother Charlotte herself did. We only know she refused to speak of it again and all of her children believed it to be the truth that Oscar Bernadotte, future King of Sweden and Norway, was his biological father. They proudly passed the information on to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. That story persisted for 150 years. Although I did not think it logical I must admit I am more than a bit disappointed to learn definitively that

King Oscar II of Sweden was NOT my great great grandfather

For those in our family not familiar with DNA here is a brief description of why he is not our ancestor. Males have one Y chromosome and one X chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes.  All men pass their Y chromosome unchanged unto their sons but not their daughters. Therefore Oscar's male descendants, generation after generation, would have the same Y chromosome as he.

There are many people throughout the Western world who claim relationship to Oscar and a company in Sweden has capitalized on that. THE BERNADOTTE FALK COMPANY for a price (and a hefty one at that) will test a man's Y DNA against the DNA of Jan Bernadotte, a proven cousin of the royal family. If the man is truly a descendant of Oscar his Y chromosome will match that of Jan Bernadotte. Our family in Sweden sent a DNA sample from a grandson of Robert Albin who descended through the male line. His Y chromosome indicated he was NOT a descendant of the Bernadotte line.

Our family legend is just that..... a legend. We will most likely never know who the biological father of Robert Albin was or why for that matter Charlotta chose to say it was Oscar II. Nor will we judge her because after all; we're here aren't we?  I for one am pretty proud to be one of the many descendants of Robert Albin and Anna Karolina Abrahamson.

I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more 

concerned to know what his grandson will be.

-Abraham Lincoln

Should you be interested in reading the actual DNA report? 

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 CLICK HERE

2019  Update - The Bernadotte Falk company is no longer is business, therefore the above link is no longer in service. 

APRIL FOOL! or not?

If the family story is true. If Robert Albin Abrahamson is your great grandfather (as he is mine) Oscar II Bernadotte is your Great x2 grandfather AND we are among the royal.

Carl XVI Gustav Bernadotte (The current King of Sweden)   b. 1946
your half third cousin

Henry VIII Tudor  (of 6 wives fame)  b.1491
your 15th great uncle

Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor (Prince of Wales heir to the English throne)   b. 1948
your 8th cousin

Harald V Glücksburg  (The current King of Norway)  b. 1937
your half second cousin once removed

Ferdinand V of Spain (He and wife Isabella financed Columbus' journey) b. 1451
your 5th cousin 17 times removed

Nicholas II Alexandrovich Romanov (The last Tsar of Russia) b. 1868
your 5th cousin 17 times removed

But if the family story is indeed just legend

APRIL FOOL !

you and I are again merely peasants.

Have a gloriously royal weekend!

your cousin HRH Princess of Illinois 

Great great grandson of the King of Sweden?

Just for fun I present to you the great grandson of Robert Albin Abrahamsson

(also named Robert by the way)

And the fellow in the middle? King Oscar of Norway, Sweden and sardine fame

Do you note a resemblance?

Robert                                Oscar                               Robert Albin

Royal heredity? Hummmmmmm

"If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."

 - George Bernard Shaw

and Thank you cousin Robert! for pointing out your Kingly attributes and letting me post your royal photo

TRUTH or Family legend?

Every family has stories or legends about their ancestors. The family is descended from an Indian princess or related to someone famous, or better yet infamous. Our family story has persisted and been repeated for over 150 years .

My Dad loved a good laugh and loved to tease us kids. "Why is your teachers name Mrs. White, her hair is black, her name should be Mrs. Black?" It seems, and is, silly now but you have no idea how crazy this made me in the first grade. We kids had a great way, or so we thought, to tease him back. Shopping in the grocery store we would hold up a red can of King Oscar Norway sardines. "Hey look Dad, its grandpa!" This would irritate him so. He was really mad at my mother for telling us the family "secret". He told us never to mention it to grandma Lydia because she was ashamed. He told us that Edvard Julius Abrahamsson was the adoptive father of Lydia's father, Robert Albin.  When Edvard Julius Abrahamsson married Charlotta Majholm she was already at that time pregnant with another mans child. That man, said Charlotta, was Oscar Frederik Bernadotte. Robert Albin was truly the illegitimate son of the King of Sweden, Oscar II. 

One of the first questions I was asked by a second cousin in Sweden who had just been introduced to me through email was "Tell me the story of our great grandfather as you heard it". So I told him the story my father had told me. Claiming Oscar was almost proof of being related to the family! The ticket, so to say, to the Abrahamsson clan. One of my cousins collects pictures of Oscar. Several descendants claimed that an article from one of Oscars palaces had been a family possession. Oddly, no one knew where those items are now. Hmmm.

                                                                               
Looking at Oscar (left) and Robert Albin (right) I have to say there is a resemblance. Then again I have a brother in law who you would swear was the twin of Chevy Chase. I looked again at the documentation that I had found on our family. I studied up on Oscar a bit. He did get around with the ladies it seemed. Bottom line was that the story of Oscar did not seem logical to my "get the source and citation" mind of a genealogist. I proudly, and a little arrogantly, presented my theory of non-relationship to a cousin. I sensed by his reply........... he did NOT want to hear that. I had to get over myself and do some serious thinking. After all, I could not prove he was our ancestor but I could not prove he wasn't either.

Statistically we should carry about 6.25% DNA from a great x2 grandfather, but human genetics doesn't work that way. It is also possible that we have no DNA from a great x2 grandfather. I read on the internet (and we know of course that everything on the internet is true) that worldwide it is only 85% certain that your mothers husband was indeed your father. I have my family tree documented back to the mid 1600's. Do I know for a fact there were no "non-paternal" events in my family? Were there no adoptions? And if there were does that mean that those involved are not a part of my family? Heck no! Every one of our ancestors has a story, a story that contributed to the greater story of our family, what our family stood for, believed, was, and is today........what I am.

The story of the Abrahamsson family includes the story of Oscar. Whether it is fact or fiction really doesn't matter. What matters is that we believed it for 150 years and it shaped how we felt about ourselves. We were a little more special, a little more royal. Although the descendants of Robert Albins nine children are scattered across Scandinavia and North America, the story also brought us together again. Does it really matter anymore if we truly have Oscars DNA or if we in effect have adopted Oscar? The Story of Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, paramour of Charlotta, and father of Robert Albin which has persisted for 5 and 6 generations is part of the Abrahamsson family story. 

It is part of who we are. And that is the TRUTH.

'There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his." 

                                                                                                                     --- Helen Keller

your cousin, princess

WE ARE ROYAL NO MORE!

CHECK OUT THE UPDATE: 2016 →  DEATH OF THE FAMILY LEGEND