Fresh from the printers I have received a copy of Ted Rosvall’s new book Bernadotte-ättlingar – The Bernadotte Descendants, which is an updated and expanded edition of the book which was first published eighteen years ago.A leading Swedish genealogist and editor of the periodical Royalty Digest Quarterly, Rosvall has collected as much genealogical information as it has been possible to find on the descendants of King Carl XIV Johan and Queen Desideria of Sweden and Norway. The book has 144 pages, is in A4 size and is written in a mix of Swedish and English.
As I have contributed some information and am mentioned in the acknowledgements I am of course not in a position to review this book, but I must be allowed to say that it is a solid and impressive work Rosvall now presents.
Not only has he gathered information on the Bernadotte descendants, but he also gives the names and dates for the parents and grandparents of most of their spouses. At the end of the book there are also tables showing the ancestors of King Carl Johan and Queen Desideria as well as of 23 selects persons who have married their descendants, including all Swedish consorts up to Queen Silvia and Prince Daniel.
The difference from the previous edition is that the book now includes photos of most of the descendants, even many of the most obscure ones. There are some hitherto unpublished photos of interest, such as one showing Elsa Cedergren, the youngest daughter of Prince Oscar Bernadotte, on her 100th birthday surrounded by her closest relatives and members of the royal family. Many Bernadottes have lived to a great age, but Mrs Cedergren is so far the only one to reach her centenary – she died two weeks before her 103rd birthday.
There is a small handful of mistakes or omissions, but this is of course unavoidable with such a vast amount of very detailed information. The book is remarkably up to date and includes not only the death of Countess Ruth of Rosenborg and the birth of Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg’s son at the end of July, but even the birth of Count Maximilian Bernadotte af Wisborg on 10 August and that of his cousin Eric a week later as well as the wedding of Prince Nikolaós of Greece and Tatiana Blatnik on 25 August. Some illegitimate descendants are also included in this edition.
While the biographical data of the royal descendants are easily available, the many non-royal descendants (and their in-laws) are of course harder to trace. But Ted Rosvall has succeeded brilliantly in this and there will be much new information to be found in this book. One may for example learn that the first great-great-grandchild of the late Lennart Bernadotte was born last year or that Erica Patzek, the woman for whom Prince Sigvard gave up his succession rights, died in Berlin on 30 July 2007 – the last sign of life from her had otherwise been the letter of condolence she sent his third wife upon his death in 2002.
Do you know if Erica Patzek remarried after her divorce with prince Sigvard?
ReplyDeleteTrond, I provided the details of Erika's death to Ted, as I was able to obtain the details from the Standesamt. It does not appear that she remarried.
ReplyDeleteI remember there was one "E Patzek" listed in the Berlin telephone directory some year ago. She did send her condolences to Marianne Bernadotte when her ex-husband passed away in 2002 and I have been told that Sigvard, on the urging of his third wife, had lunch with his first wife once when he was in Berlin on a business trip.
ReplyDeleteI saw many websites wrote that Erika Patzek died on 20 July 2007. Those are
ReplyDelete1. Online Gotha by Paul Theroff
2. Wikipedia (Sigvard Bernadotte)
3. the Peerage.com (http://thepeerage.com/p10338.htm)
So this makes me quite confused but I am sure the information provided by Marlene to Ted Rosvall is truly correct.
For my own part I have no information to challenge the date which Ted Rosvall gives in his book. The year 2007 was even before Rosvall's book was published given as the year of Erica Patzek's death at German Wikipedia, but has since been removed from there.
ReplyDeletePS. Please note that comments should be signed - preferably by a name, but an initial or a nick will also be accepted.