especially for Henrik Vanger. No matter whether he was right or wrong, Vanger’s
accusation against his relatives was of great significance in the family’s history. The
accusation had been aired openly for more than thirty years, and it had coloured
the family gatherings and given rise to poisonous animosities that had contributed
to destabilising the corporation. A study of Harriet’s disappearance would
consequently function as a chapter all on its own, as well as provide a red thread
through the family history—and there was an abundance of source material. One
starting point, whether Harriet Vanger was his primary assignment or whether he
made do with writing a family chronicle, would be to map out the gallery of
characters. That was the gist of his first long conversation that day with Vanger.
The family consisted of about a hundred individuals, counting all the children of
cousins and second cousins. The family was so extensive that he was forced to
create a database in his iBook. He used the NotePad programme (www.ibrium.se),
one of those full-value products that two men at the Royal Technical College had
created and distributed as shareware for a pittance on the Internet. Few
programmes were as useful for an investigative journalist. Each family member was
given his or her own document in the database.
The family tree could be traced back to the early sixteenth century, when the name
was Vangeersad. According to Vanger the name may have originated from the
Dutch van Geerstat; if that was the case, the lineage could be traced as far back as
the twelfth century.
In modern times, the family came from northern France, arriving in Sweden with
King Jean Baptiste Bernadotte in the early nineteenth century. Alexandre
Vangeersad was a soldier and not personally acquainted with the king, but he had
distinguished himself as the capable head of a garrison. In 1818 he was given the
Hedeby estate as a reward for his service. Alexandre Vangeersad also had his own
fortune, which he used to purchase considerable sections of forested land in
Norrland. His son, Adrian, was born in France, but at his father’s request he moved
to Hedeby in that remote area of Norrland, far from the salons of Paris, to take over
the administration of the estate. He took up farming and forestry, using new
methods imported from Europe, and he founded the pulp and paper mill around
which Hedestad was built.
Alexandre’s grandson was named Henrik, and he shortened his surname to Vanger.
He developed trade with Russia and created a small merchant fleet of schooners
that served the Baltics and Germany, as well as England with its steel industry
during the mid-1800s. The elder Henrik Vanger diversified the family enterprises