Anderson, Öxabäck parish, Sweden

My grandmother was born Emma Lovisa Andersdotter on 2 May 1885 in a stone cottage called Kärralund in Öxabäck parish, an area of forests and lakes in southern Sweden. The cottage, still standing I'm told by a Swedish woman who helped me with my inquiries, had a dirt floor.

All of the six children of Anders Håkansson and Petronella Johansdotter who lived to adulthood emigrated to America: Johan Aron Andersson Björk (born in 1872) , Hannah Severina Andersdotter (born in 1876), Karl Linus Dahl Andersson (born in 1880), Ida Paulina Andersdotter (born in 1891) and Tekla Sofia Andersdotter (born in 1895).
Click here to see Öxabäck Church.

Click here to see Anderson ancestors .

My grandmother (Emma) told me that when she finished school, the teachers told her parents she was intelligent and should go to a teacher training college. They couldn't afford it and arranged instead for her to join older siblings in Minnesota.

Emma left with her brother Karl on the steamer Aristo leaving Göteborg on 14 March 1902 for Hull, England. She was 17. I've not yet discovered what ship she took to America, but she arrived at Ellis Island and then went by train to St. Paul where the family was gathering. In 1907, her two younger sisters, Ida and Tekla, made the same trip, accompanied by the eldest brother, Johan, who'd returned from America to accompany them.

Anders Håkansson and Petronella Johansdotter never left Sweden, though the siblings chipped in for one fare in 1918 and Ida Paulina went to Sweden to see the parents.

Emma Anderson married Anders Victor Johnson, an emigrant from Swedish-speaking Finland, on 5 June 1909. They lived in Duluth, Minnesota. Vic (as my grandfather was called) worked first as a carpenter on the Great Lakes ore boats and then as a house builder and contractor. He built the house where my mother was born (27 April 1912) on Luverne Street and then a larger house around the corner on 42nd Avenue East where they lived until the 1950ies when he built another one-story house down the street and planted so many trees in the yard that he lived to see it a virtual forest. My mother was an only child, but a foster daughter, Ethel, also lived with them.

The pace of immigration continued and my mother, Vera Elizabeth Johnson, in her grade school years was the translator for new Swedish students at school. Bright, she skipped a few grades and went to college in Chicago at the age of 16, glad to escape what seemed to her a narrow ethnic environment in Duluth. The city was a wider world than she'd known, even though the college (North Park College) was connected with the Swedish Covenant Church. In later adulthood, she rekindled her interest in Swedish culture.

During the 30ies when work was hard to find, my grandparents lived and worked on a tugboat in the St. Mary's River near Marysville, Michigan. In the picture, my mother is visiting from college.

Grandma about 1970.

We used to tease Grandma mercilessly because she answered the phone and said "Halloooooooo"--it strung out for 10 counts at least and went up at the end. She never lost her accent or the lilt in her speech.

An ideal grandmother, she had homemade ice cream and "brown" cookies for us when we visited and gave us coffee with milk to suck through sugar lumps--the special hard kind they sold in areas with lots of Swedes!

She never went back to Sweden, never saw her parents after she left, but she remained a Swede always--even though she had a hard time speaking modern Swedish with visitors as time went on. By then she'd moved to Michigan where my parents lived and was dismayed to find no Swedish names in the church bulletins. She died in 1972.

Mother in 1970. Vera Johnson married Robert Helgeson in 1934 at the height of the depression when they often had to decide whether to buy ice cream cones and walk to work or save the money for car fare. Children came in the 1940ies. A legal secretary to Adlai Stevenson in Chicago in the 30ies, Vera went back to work in the 60ies in time to appreciate electric typewriters but retired before she had to learn computers. She died in 1987.

Johan, who went by the name Björk (derived from the farm name of Björkeslätt) lived in St. Paul and did not have children; he died in 1942. Karl, who was unmarried and lived in the iron range country in Northern Minnesota, also died in 1942. Hannah too stayed in St. Paul. She married Henry Erickson and died in the 30ies, but left 7 children. Ida and Tekla both lived in Kensington, MN. Ida married a Norwegian named Martin Jacobson and had two sons, both of whom live in Minnesota today. Ida died in 1987. Tekla married Theodore Norlein, also of Swedish descent, and raised 8 sons! She died in 1976.

	My grandmother was born Emma Lovisa Andersdotter on 2 May 1885 in a stone cottage called Kärralund in Öxabäck parish, an area of forests and lakes in southern Sweden. The cottage, still standing I'm told by a Swedish woman who helped me with my inquiries, had a dirt floor. All of the six children of Anders Håkansson and Petronella Johansdotter who lived to adulthood emigrated to America: Johan Aron Andersson Björk (born in 1872) , Hannah Severina Andersdotter (born in 1876), Karl Linus Dahl Andersson (born in 1880), Ida Paulina Andersdotter (born in 1891) and Tekla Sofia Andersdotter (born in 1895).	Click here to see Öxabäck Church.
Click here to see Anderson ancestors . My grandmother (Emma) told me that when she finished school, the teachers told her parents she was intelligent and should go to a teacher training college. They couldn't afford it and arranged instead for her to join older siblings in Minnesota.
	Emma left with her brother Karl on the steamer Aristo leaving Göteborg on 14 March 1902 for Hull, England. She was 17. I've not yet discovered what ship she took to America, but she arrived at Ellis Island and then went by train to St. Paul where the family was gathering. In 1907, her two younger sisters, Ida and Tekla, made the same trip, accompanied by the eldest brother, Johan, who'd returned from America to accompany them.
Anders Håkansson and Petronella Johansdotter never left Sweden, though the siblings chipped in for one fare in 1918 and Ida Paulina went to Sweden to see the parents. Emma Anderson married Anders Victor Johnson, an emigrant from Swedish-speaking Finland, on 5 June 1909. They lived in Duluth, Minnesota. Vic (as my grandfather was called) worked first as a carpenter on the Great Lakes ore boats and then as a house builder and contractor. He built the house where my mother was born (27 April 1912) on Luverne Street and then a larger house around the corner on 42nd Avenue East where they lived until the 1950ies when he built another one-story house down the street and planted so many trees in the yard that he lived to see it a virtual forest. My mother was an only child, but a foster daughter, Ethel, also lived with them.
	The pace of immigration continued and my mother, Vera Elizabeth Johnson, in her grade school years was the translator for new Swedish students at school. Bright, she skipped a few grades and went to college in Chicago at the age of 16, glad to escape what seemed to her a narrow ethnic environment in Duluth. The city was a wider world than she'd known, even though the college (North Park College) was connected with the Swedish Covenant Church. In later adulthood, she rekindled her interest in Swedish culture.
During the 30ies when work was hard to find, my grandparents lived and worked on a tugboat in the St. Mary's River near Marysville, Michigan. In the picture, my mother is visiting from college.
	Grandma about 1970. We used to tease Grandma mercilessly because she answered the phone and said "Halloooooooo"--it strung out for 10 counts at least and went up at the end. She never lost her accent or the lilt in her speech. An ideal grandmother, she had homemade ice cream and "brown" cookies for us when we visited and gave us coffee with milk to suck through sugar lumps--the special hard kind they sold in areas with lots of Swedes! She never went back to Sweden, never saw her parents after she left, but she remained a Swede always--even though she had a hard time speaking modern Swedish with visitors as time went on. By then she'd moved to Michigan where my parents lived and was dismayed to find no Swedish names in the church bulletins. She died in 1972. Mother in 1970. Vera Johnson married Robert Helgeson in 1934 at the height of the depression when they often had to decide whether to buy ice cream cones and walk to work or save the money for car fare. Children came in the 1940ies. A legal secretary to Adlai Stevenson in Chicago in the 30ies, Vera went back to work in the 60ies in time to appreciate electric typewriters but retired before she had to learn computers. She died in 1987.
Johan, who went by the name Björk (derived from the farm name of Björkeslätt) lived in St. Paul and did not have children; he died in 1942. Karl, who was unmarried and lived in the iron range country in Northern Minnesota, also died in 1942. Hannah too stayed in St. Paul. She married Henry Erickson and died in the 30ies, but left 7 children.	Ida and Tekla both lived in Kensington, MN. Ida married a Norwegian named Martin Jacobson and had two sons, both of whom live in Minnesota today. Ida died in 1987. Tekla married Theodore Norlein, also of Swedish descent, and raised 8 sons! She died in 1976.