My Swedish ancestry comes from both my grandmother and my grandfather on my father's side.
My grandmother, Ida Renberg, was born in America but both of her parents emigrated from Sweden to northern Michigan in the 1880's. While they did not emigrate together or at the same time, they both came from a small copper mining town called Bersbo, which is near Linköping. The mine was shut down in 1917 but a number of pre-1900 houses still exist there.
My great-grandfather was Axel Fredrik Jonsson. He emigrated from the Eksjö area of southern Sweden in 1906 and settled in Chicago where he lived with his brother John William Larson who had emigrated many years earlier. Axel's wife was Amanda Frank. She had stayed behind in Sweden with their sons and they all emigrated to Chicago in 1908. The four sons were my grandfather, August, and his brothers Linus, Ernst and Nils. Axel was born and raised on a farm known as Jonsbo. Amanda was born and raised about two kilometers away on a farm known as Björndahl. The farms are midway between Ingatorp and Kråkshult and about 30-40 kilometers from Eksjö.
Here in America, the descendents of the Jonssons, Larsons and Franks have last names including Johnson, Henderson, Frank, Field, Alexander, Heide, Beard, Mesch, .........
Bob
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