Some 19th and 20th century sources suggest that some of the local peasants could have had Swedish roots, stating that after the Second Polish-Swedish War in the years 1655-1660, when the Swedes reached southern Poland, some of the soldiers taken prisoner were later released and decided to stay in Poland rather than to return to their homeland, quite possibly largely because of the associated costs. Additionally, as there were Swedish colonists in Poland, they could have moved around, eventually settling in the Lesser Poland. It should also be noted that many Polish areas were also colonized by the Germans invited by the local rulers through the Middle Ages and Early Modern period and slowly accepted Polish culture and language. A significant destination for the German-speaking settlers was the 'Red Ruthenia' i.e. a territory roughly corresponding to the modern Sub-Carpathian and Lublin voivodship in Poland and the Lviv, Tarnopol and part of Ivano-Frankivsk regions in Ukraine. These settlers polonized somewhere in the late 16th/early 17th century and were sometimes referred to as 'Deaf-Germans' (ger. Taubdeutsche), denoting the fact that they had their distinct customs, but were using Polish as their main language, usually having abandoned German completely. I'm mentioning them just in case the alleged Swedes were simply the descendants of German settlers.

It should be noted that the Swedish troops almost reached southern border of Poland, having been present in Nowy Sącz as early as October 1655 and were forced to leave by Polish resistance two months later. During the same conflict, a large battle has been fought near Wojnicz (now in Tarnów commune, Lesser Poland Voivodeship) with the area being called 'Swedish gorge' by locals even until today. Swedish troops also took part in extensive military actions during the Third Northern War in the years 1700-1721 that, despite the name, was largely fought in the territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and to lesser extent, also in Russian Empire and Saxony, Sweden, Denmark and Prussia seeing only minor part of the conflict. Given the scale of the conflicts in 17th and 18th century it is also not impossible that some Swedish stragglers or even deserters stayed in Poland in service of the local landowners.

On a curious note, there are some Polish village bearing names derived from Sweden, namely Szwedy (arch. pol. 'Swedes') that is located near Nisko, again in what is now Sub-Carpathian Voivodship in southeastern Poland. This particular village has been located in early 1660s and settled with the former Swedish prisoners of war, what was also the case of the village Rzochów in the same region. In both cases, the inhabitants were commonly called 'Swedes' even long after they intermingled with the Polish and Ruthenian inhabitants, largely adopting local language and customs. It should be noted that all the settlements associated with the Swedish prisoners of War are confined to relatively small region located along what is now northwestern border of Sub-Carpathian voivodeship, reaching slightly into the territories of Lesser Poland and Lublin Voivodeships, also in southeastern Poland. Resettlement of Swedes could have also been orchestrated by the Russian authorities, as Russia gained control of Ingria and Karelia after the treaty of Nystad in 1721 and resettled some of their Swedish inhabitants. For example, a village Staroshvedskoe (rus. Старошведськое) was founded after the forced relocation of the Swedish inhabitants of the Dago island in 1782. It is possible that after the partitions of Poland, similar measures were also taken on the former Polish territory.

In addition, there were also Swedish immigrants, usually living in cities and working as merchants, artisans or artists. It should be noted that the migration of largely protestant Swedes was facilitated by the religious tolerance in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and relatively fast development of the country in 16th and early 17th century. It is worth noting that a significant part of frescoes adorning the Jasna Góra church, an important point of successful resistance during the Polish-Swedish War of 1655-1660 and heavily damaged by fire in 1690 were made by a Swedish painter, Karol Dankvart who has been born to Swedish parents in Habsburg city of Neisse, now Nysa in Poland. In 19th century certain number of Swedish nationals too part in the November Uprising of 1830 and January Uprising of 1863 respectively, primarily due to their wish to support Poles against Russians considered their main enemy. It is possible that some impoverished members of the Swedish minority could have settled as the peasants in the southern Poland.

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Blajer, W., Bemerkungen zum Stand der Forschungen uber die Enklawen der mittelalterlichen deutschen Besiedlung zwischen Wisłoka und San [Observations concerning the state of research related to the enclaves of medieval German settlement between Wisłoka and San rivers], in: Gancarski, J. (Ed.), Późne średniowiecze w Karpatach polskich [Late middle ages in the Polish Carpathian Mountains]. Krosno, 2007.

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