George W. Bush – brought to you by Sweden!
(Note: I first published this post yesterday morning, with the disclaimer that it might be an April Fools joke gone bad, then took it dow a few minutes later. Swedish newspaper published the news yesterday, on April 3 – but since the Old Country newsies are pushing the story for a second day in a row, I’m going to make the assumption that the Colonial Swedes Society, the alleged source, is standing behind its reported findings, so I’m republishing this post.)
George W. Bush is from Sweden.
Sort of.
Maybe.
It is the “Swedish Colonial Society” that claims that President George W. Bush’s oldest known European-American heritage can be traced to a Måns Andersson who left his (and my) Old Country in 1639 to join Sweden’s little colony in Delaware (cleverly known as New Sweden).
Mr. Andersson became a tobacco farmer and named his little plantation Silleryd, possibly after a small town in Värmland in western Sweden (it’ll thrill you to no end to learn that part of my family is from that same province, although I identify far more strongly with another Swedish tribe).
Like any good American colonist, Mr. Andersson accused his governor of being dictatorial and was forced to move to Maryland. Eventually he ended up in a Dutch colony before returning to New Sweden after a new governor was installed. He sold his old farm to the new governor and was appointed “tobacco inspector.”
Mr. Andersson’s son Christopher had a daughter called Ann Mounts who married a Robert Mercer, the previously oldest known ancestor of President Bush.
Geez, I hope this isn’t an ill-timed April Fools joke, which it really, really does sound like.
