Sweden

Åhlstad, Simon

Åhlstad was born in India and adopted by a Swedish family in 1974. He suffered from polio as a child but has become a champion swimmer. In the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics he won the 200 mete... [more]

Bergman, Ingrid

Bergman's mother died when she was two and her father when she was 12. She then lived with an aunt, who died six months later, and then with an uncle. Her first film was Munkbrogreven in 19... [more]

Björk, Carl Axel

Björk was the child of an unmarried seamstress in Stockholm and an unknown man. When his mother died he was four years old and went to live in an orphanage for two and a half years before b... [more]

Dreyer, Carl-Theodor

Dreyer was born in Copenhagen and went immediately into foster care, but he was adopted in 1891. He first became a journalist but by 1913 he was a caption writer for silent films. His fi... [more]

Fremstad, Olive

Fremstad was born Anna Olivia Rundquist to an unmarried mother in Stockholm. She was adopted there by an American family of Swedish heritage and emigrated with them to the USA when she was ... [more]

Ingjald the Evil-Adviser (under Norwegian Ruling Families)

In the Middle Ages fostering was practiced between the great families of Norway, possibly as a means of cementing interfamily alliances or demonstrating reciprocal status relationships. Acc... [more]

Karl XIV Johan

Karl was born Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the son of a French lawyer. He entered the army aged 17 and rose in the ranks to great influence and fame under Napoleon. Sweden was ruled at the ... [more]

Martinson, Harry Edmund

Martinson was born in Jämshög in southern Sweden. His father died when he was six, and his mother abandoned her seven children to emigrate to America. The rest of his childhood was spent in... [more]

Olaf the Tree-Feller (under Norwegian Ruling Families)

In the Middle Ages fostering was practiced between the great families of Norway, possibly as a means of cementing interfamily alliances or demonstrating reciprocal status relationships. Acc... [more]