To be Swedes or not to be? That is the question!
My husband Martin grew up with the family story, that the Stepeks, although for centuries living in Poland, originated in Sweden.
The name Stepek is an uncommon one, even in Poland, until the 20th century being confined to the far south-east, predominantly in the small town of Haczow. The meaning of the name could be one of a couple of possibilities. Historically people had moved into what is Poland from the east from the Steppes - the name could be derived from that. Or the -ek suffix means 'little' or even 'son of', so could be something like 'Little Steve or Steph' or son of Steve/Steph.
Our research has the Stepek line going back to the mid 1700s, all in the same town of Haczow, but were they always there or did they come from elsewhere?
So is there any evidence for the family story that the Stepeks came from Sweden??
Martin's Aunt Danka (Danuta Stepek) said that her father had told her that most of the people in Haczow where he grew up had blonde or fair hair, which was unusual for Polish people, especially those in the south of the country. Not evidence that would hold up in court! However, the Swedes were in Poland in the 1600s fighting Poland in two wars. Another part of the family story is that a group of Swedish nobles were captured but then allowed to settle in the far south of Poland. Whilst we do not know if Haczow was populated by such a group, there is evidence that groups of Swedish soldiers did remain in Poland after the wars and settle there.
There is another story related to all this - Martin's brother Richard was in Copenhagen, Denmark many years ago and visited an art gallery/museum there. To his astonishment he came across a portrait of someone who looked remarkably like his father! Denmark is not Sweden though, but who knows if the portrait was of a Dane or a Swede??
All that is all very well, but there is no paper trail going back to Scandinavia. So what about DNA? Is there any sign of Swedish DNA in the family members that have tested?
Martin has had his Y-DNA tested - the DNA that is passed on down the male line from father to son. If his 5 x great grandfather was a Swede maybe there would be some sign there from his matches? But no, nothing yet, though perhaps further Y DNA testing at a higher level might show up something.
As far as autosomal DNA testing goes, although DNA assigned to Baltic regions and Denmark appear in the immediate family's ethnicity estimates, there is nothing as yet pointing to Sweden as the origin of the blonde haired Haczow settlers. However ... looking at this map of the Swedish-Poland War Settlements, you can see that parts of today's Denmark and the Baltics were ruled by Sweden.
DNA companies assign ethnicities using what they call 'reference populations'. @Ancestry states: "The ancestral region reference panel is made up of people whose families have long-standing, documented roots in a specific area. We compare your DNA to this reference panel to determine your possible ancestry from hundreds up to a thousand years ago."
The story of 'Swedes' is therefore bound up with its Scandinavian and Baltic neighbours. So the family story, although unproven, has not quite been dismissed totally as yet!
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