Swedish Ancestry. Are you my cousin? :)

Alright, my parents have told me that I just MUST write a blog about my Swedish ancestry… yep, that’s right- along with every other Northern country in Europe, I am also part Swedish! Haha! Apparently my grandmother used to have a Swedish “välkommen” sign in her house. I vaguely remember it, but always assumed it was German.

My Grandma Marie and I when I was a little girl. She was half Swedish.

So here it is:

My great great grandparents (mother’s mom’s side) were from Gothenburg, Sweden and they imigrated to the United States in May of 1893. My mother has found a manifest from Ellis Island (in New York, where all U.S. foreign immigration used to be done). On line 113 (The 7th line in the picture) of the document you will see John A. Larsson, my great great grandfather. His wife, Christine Larson also came over with him.

The seventh line down is my great great grandpa, John A. Larsson

John A. Larsson was born in 1859 and Christine Larsson was born in 1869. My mother is not positive, but she thinks John’s middle name was Arvid, since her grandfather’s name was Harry Arvid Larson and her Aunt’s name was Arvid LaJune Larson. American’s often drop extra letters in their name, which is why the spelling of the Larsson family is now l-a-r-s-o-n. For example, my Uncle is Italian and their last name used to be Fargoa, but they dropped the A to just make it Fargo.

It looks like other family members eventually followed from Sweden to the United States. John’s aunt, Maggie Bangston and cousin, Andy Bangston, lived with them according to some census records that my mom dug up.

Okay, so this is probably either the most interesting blog post of mine, or the most boring depending on your interests.

Who knows, maybe we are related!? If anyone knows that they have relations to a Larsson family and can dig up some information, I would love to meet some distance cousins while I’m over here! However, I do know that Larsson is an extremely popular name- but you never know!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!