My heritage through coins.

Recently I decided to trace my father's family back through time. I knew that he was part Welsh and Dutch but I was surprised to find out that part of my family came from Sweden. I traced them back to 16th century Sweden from a town called Gävle. They immigrated to the states in the 1880's through New Orleans, from there an ancestor named Oscar worked as a farm hand in the Mississippi delta.
In honor of this strange revelation I have decided to buy a lot of Swedish coins from the period.
I will have a giveaway for coins of this lot I do not want later this summer.
Any assistance with these coins would be grateful.

A picture of Sweden during the 1600's.

 

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That is always fun to find out your heritage.

My wife and Kids got me one of those DNA Ancestry Kits for my birthday. I am still awaiting results...

This would look about right for me...




Amphipolis Makedonon Philip V - Perseus - lost empire to Romans - Tetrobol

 

@Alegandron Yeah you are right!
I was surprised though, I knew I was part Welsh and Dutch but never expected Swedish to pop up.
Funny how things work.

 

LOL, maybe it was a Viking...

 

Lol.
My great great grandfather named Albert Harlen immigrated from the Netherlands to the states (also through New Orleans) in the late 1880's. He was reportedly over 6 foot 2 inch and had red hair (talk about a barbarian). He married a Cajun and lived in Vicksburg. Sadly he died in the late 1890's during a yellow fever epidemic but not after he had my great grandfather!

 

So he was raiding FAR from Europe! Really evil Viking!!!

 

her's a Swedish coin i don't get to post very often, nice large coin with a cool edge...

 

+1 Chris

 

@Magnus Maximus, what a small world. Just had lunch in Gavle two weeks ago while leading a tour to Sweden and Norway. Nice One skilling!
Steve

 

Nice Sweden coins. I like the large bronze coins too, and have been eyeing into getting a few Russian ones. Haven't collected any coins from my ancestry yet, I'm too caught up in the Greek and Roman coins.

 

My father was full-blooded Swede and both his parents came to the US in the 1880's. My father died in 2005 and in 2014 my two brothers and I spent 8 days in Sweden, including two days at Gavle researching the archives.

 

Well, with my ancestors being Spaniards, I've always had a soft spot for the first Spanish Emperor.



And here I am in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain a few years back



Oh, and since I showed a Trajan coin, here I am in Italy with Trajan's column in the background.

 

@Stevearino Very interesting!! You are correct what a small world we live in, I wish to visit that town one day, it would be nice to travel the earth that my ancestors did.

@ancientnut Swedish descendants unite! Sorry to hear about your father though, I pray that he is in Valhalla with the Valkyries!

@Sallent I was born in Valencia Espana, my mother's family is from the area though she is half Italian. My grandfather was from Naples and his father was a Sicilian farmer. I swear he is a decendent of Cato the Elder!

 

Man I wish I knew more about my family line. All I know for sure is that comes from Colombia (I was born here in the USA). And I am pretty confident that I have Spanish ancestors, but from where exactly in Spain I dont know (my father's last name-and mine by default- is Catalonian in origin, and my mother's family name is Basque in origin). Furthest I can trace my line is to my great-great grandparents on my father's side, (don't know if they were born and raised in Colombia, but I'm guessing they were) and great grandparents on my mother's side (they were Colombian for sure).

 

I have letters from my maternal grandfather's cousins in Sabadell, Spain, and also from other relatives in Spain to my maternal great-grandfather. I also have copies of the birth records of my maternal grandmother, which lists both her parents' birthplace as the Canary Islands. From the paternal side of my family, I still have the copies of different records of my great-grandparents, which list birth places in Northern and central Spain for their parents, except for one who was born in Spain himself.

I owe the survival of all of that to my mother who was into genealogy when she was younger and gathered all those documents up.

I'd love to have a DNA test and see if I have any Italian, or Northern or Eastern European in me, or Middle Eastern, or anything else. All I know is the history of my family going back 4-5 generations...and where in Spain they originated, but other than that I have no idea. There could be some interesting surprises further back in time. Only a DNA test would reveal that.

 

I like the Canary Islands. Spent a few days there.

 

Both my wife and I did the Ancestry DNA tests last year. There were more surprises for my wife than me. For her, proof that the Vikings must have brought back slaves from the British Isles. Very interesting and worth the $100 each (I see ads for a $79 special occasionally).
Steve

 

My father, who was 3/4 Norwegian and 1/4 Swedish told me when I was young that the only thing better than being Norwegian or Swedish was to be both. Thanks to Mom I've had German and Polish added to the mix. My wife adds Scotch, Norwegian, Irish, French and English. My grandkids are all of the above plus Finnish. True American mutts. That would be almost a world coin collection.
Steve

 

I hear you @Stevearino. I like to think of myself as Stillicho, half barbarian and half Roman. I have ancestors who were farmers from Sicily to Sweden to the Mississippi delta! My search through my family lines has had an impact on me though; we are a single species who have been amazing since we put our feet to the ground some 500,000 years ago.