MyHeritage — the official sponsor of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 — is all about bringing people together. And sometimes that means looking way into your past and discovering connections you never knew existed. In recent months they’ve been giving Eurovision stars the opportunity to discover their own family history through their DNA test kits. And now Charlotte Perrelli, the Swedish songstress who took the Eurovision crown in 1999, has revealed her very own MyHeritage journey. Her family history includes a strong military presence — we love a man in uniform! — with a few surprises thrown in. For instance: Who knew she had a little Balkan Girl in her?
You can read about Charlotte’s MyHeritage results on their official blog and web site. We’ve also summarised some of the findings below.
Charlotte Perrelli’s MyHeritage DNA results
Charlotte’s results show that she is 44.3% Scandinavian and 43.9% North and West European. The Swedish blood is strong, which might explain why she is such a schlager queen. More surprisingly, Charlotte found out that she is also 5.4% Balkan, 3.6% Finnish, and 2.8% Greek! That’s right, Sweden’s Eurovision winner has Mediterranean realness running through her veins.
MyHeritage was able to trace Charlotte’s family history across seven generations, all the way back to her 5th great-grandfather, using records from SuperSearch™. The results reveal Charlotte’s historic connections to her homeland and a long line of ancestors who made their own contributions to Sweden (which didn’t involve bringing home Eurovision trophies).
Charlotte’s military family history
The first of Charlotte’s family to bring awards home to Sweden was Henrik Nilsson Ingelberg, her 5th great-grandfather. He was awarded a medal for “bravery at sea” during the Swedish-Russian war of 1788–1790. Born in 1750, Henrik joined the army aged 22. In 1778, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal and served in the army for the rest of his life, which was 29 years in total.
Henrik’s son Olof Hindrichsson Ingelberg, Charlotte’s 4th great-grandfather, joined the Kalmar Regiment in 1801, following in Henrik’s footsteps just months after his death. Olof also rose through the ranks to become Corporal. Charlotte’s other 4th great-grandfather, Sven Andersson Åberg, was also a military man, fighting for Sweden in a number of battles during the Napoleonic Wars, which ended at the Battle of Waterloo — yep, THAT Waterloo which gave ABBA a great song title.
Charlotte’s 3rd great-grandfather, Carl Fredrik, also served in the Swedish Army. Most recently, Charlotte’s two grandfathers Sture Erik Villiam Nilsson and Erik Helmer Korner fought against the Nazis in the Second World War.
Which of Charlotte’s ancestors was a political man?
Charlotte’s maternal great-grandfather, Anders Gustav Nilsson Korner, served Sweden politically rather than in the Army. He worked as a juryman at the Konga district court, an estate administrator, and cashier of the Sparbank, a local savings bank, for Kronoborg county in Hoghult. He also worked as chairman of the city council, chairman of the local agricultural society, and chairman of the city childcare, which has provided organised childcare for Swedish families since the middle of the 19th century.
MyHeritage equally studied records of the female members of Charlotte’s family, noticing two generations of women who tragically died in childbirth. Bearing in mind, 1 in every 14 women died in childbirth during the mid to late 18th century.
Lisa Svensson, Charlotte’s 3rd great-grandmother, died in 1845 a week after she gave birth to her daughter Johanna. She was only 21 years old. Johanna grew up and gave birth to her own daughter, Anna Karolina, however she died five days later. Four years beforehand, Johanna lost her husband to pneumonia in 1873.
Anna Karolina survived and thrived, continuing Perrelli’s family line.
As we gear up for Eurovision in Tel Aviv, get ready to discover your own heritage. Perhaps you’ll find undiscovered connections from around the continent — and the song contest!
Apparently they forgot to mention the 50% botox, fillers and other cosmetic improvements as part of her heritage.
the people who lived near to the sea have more mixed blood cause the facilities interchange, but Charlotte dont have baltic or russian polish dna? strange i think the swedes mixed many of with them
I think some people read in to much on a simple article. Apart from the article being sponsorerd and useless, you can read the same on Eurovision main page, there is no harm with it. I think its meant to show that we are connected, that every human has some foreign in them. That no one is pure, so to say. Which in these times with being questioned about who is native this and that is making a point. Now that some people use it as some sort of proof of being superior is really those people’s problem. They can’t… Read more »
You may disagree with my opinion, but please do it respectfully.
You may also give your own opinion, and I will leave it alone.
P.S. I love Sweden and I love John Lundvik’s entry this year.
Very interesting!
I don’t see many problems with this article. There’s TV programmes where celebs research their family history or where racists/nationalists take DNA tests only to find out that they’re not as ‘pure’ as they thought they would be.
However, let’s try to not go down the path of celebrating ‘purity’ or insinuating that her win for Sweden was more deserved because she has more Swedish blood – that really reeks.
Wow she is 5 % balkan and 3 % Finnish how fascinating, I 100% couldn’t care less
Still here you are…obviously reading, and you care
You got me reading this article has been the highlight of my week.
This article is a mix of DNA + information that Charlotte gave.
Flash News : every man that was young in the 30’s and 40’s, was in WW2.
I hate how all say “they fought against nazis”. This is just a lottery, it depends in which country it happened to be born. Stop making it a personal merit. If they lived in another place, they had no chance to say NO to Hitler.
All Europeans have grandfathers that were in WW2, your family is not special, and fighting against nazis was not their choice, they did what they were told.
Sorry for my ignorance but I really don’t know. What can they do with my DNA? I’ve heard that they can sell it to insurance companies, but what they do with it?
Thank you for the answer. I don’t understand Americans. I don’t care how much university costs (to go to university is a personal choice), but health is the exact opposite, is something basic and nobody wants to be sick to have free treatment. Everybody would want to not be sick in the first place.
they sell it to pharmaceutical companies too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvS2gjMMXBQ
A DNA test doesn’t just come with an ethnicity estimate but also with a DNA match list – this is a list of people of whom you share DNA with. This information is vital for people such as adoptees/foundlings to identify their birth family. It can also be used by family history researchers to solve family history mysteries, such as the father of an illegitimate child or the parents/origins of an illusive ancestor.
This doesn’t warrant an article. It just retreads the same things the MyHertiage article says with certain jokes. Why not just post a link on Twitter?
I usually try to be positive, but on this occasion I object loudly. This sponsor is thoroughly objectionable. This blog should not be encouraging this kind of “status by heritage”, and neither should the ESC. It actually gives me chills to think of the comparisons with 20th Century history. Also thank you commenters for effectively demonstrating how the results can be used to bully a person. However, this is not a joke – it really is not. People died in WW2 because of their “heritage”, and the same thing happened in the Balkans as recently as the 1990s! No more… Read more »
That’s a rather dark reading, Purple Mask. I took it more as, ‘we’re all more connected than you think.’ As in a Scandinavian woman also has connections to southern Europe. But make it sensationalist, if you insist…
Yeah, I hear that. Sorry if it is too dark. Perhaps my purple shade is darkening to cope with dark times.
I’ve seen that video. The results about the geographical region of origin are very questionable. However, it’s interesting to learn about our ancestors.
Here. This article may explain your confusion surrounding siblings having different results. SPOILER: it is because DNA inheritance is completely random. Additionally, different DNA companies use different reference panels (DNA tested individuals whose ancestries are located in one region) and use them in different quantities, thus explaining the discrepancies in the ethnicity results.
https://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/same-parents-different-ancestry
“The Swedish blood is strong, which might explain why she is such a schlager queen.”
Just… no, don’t go down this path. I know it’s a joke, but come on. I knew the sponsoring would lead to this kind of articles, but I hoped not to find it on wiwibloggs. People tend to read too much into flawed tests in general, you don’t need to encourage it.
I think the worst part is:
“That’s right, Sweden’s Eurovision winner has Mediterranean realness running through her veins.”
Think about what that actually means. Why is it being highlighted as important? It sure looks to me like a type of racial supremacy is being promoted. lf that’s true, and intentional, then it should be the end for this blog in the UK.
If it was an honest mistake, Katie has the opportunity to retract it. In the mean time, I can keep an open mind. Let’s see what happens.
Come on man. Do you really think a site like Wiwibloggs would honestly promote something like racial supremacy? There’s no way this was intentional. Just an awkward comment distracting us from the fact that this was basically an ad for MyHeritage.
I would hope it was not intentional. Morally though, I have asked the question. I think it was the right thing to do, either way.
uh i’m pretty sure she also has alien ancestry
she really looked like an alien in 2008…
this isn’t news, this reads like a paid for article, complete with links to the website to order your own kit. if so this should be made clear.
Omg I was contemplating writing “really surprised alien wasn’t one of the DNA findings” but I thought it would be super mean and then saw this comment hahaha
It is super mean. Being mean doesn’t mean being funny.
Ron, you actually have self-control, what this person Vanilla Bean has done is called bullying.