THE ELUSIVE LARSSONS

Sometime in the 1890's, Patrick LARSSON (or Peterson), husband of Charlotta ERIKSSON (or Andersson), left Göteborg, Sweden to come to the United States. He supposedly landed in Maine and moved across to one of the lands that were being given to settlers at that time. I have not found any land records to support that. It is unclear as to which state he ended in. I have been told by older relatives that it was either Ohio, Minnesota or Wisconsin. I have not found any trace of him as yet.

In 1901, Patrick and Charlotta's daughter, Anna Marie came from Sweden to help her father while they earned the money to bring the mother, Charlotta, and the other children to the United States. Anna was to be met by her father, Patrick, in Maine when the boat landed.

This meeting never took place according to family stories. Here was a 13 year old girl, alone on the dock and the boat leaving. Two women befriended the daughter and helped her find work at a local hospital, according to family tales. From here, the story becomes sketchy. At some point, by 1907 Anna ends up in Brockton, MA, possibly married to Frederick Peterson, a fireman on the railway. A little girl, Viola, is born of this marriage. Frederick is killed shortly before or after her birth in a train accident. Anna goes to work as a housemaid/nanny, for a doctor in Milton, MA., bringing her daughter with her. It is at this time, that she meets recently widowed Daniel Leo CUSHING who is a street car conductor at that time on the new line running from Dorchester to Mattapan Square, up River Street, a part of Boston, MA. By the time of Anna's marriage to Daniel, in 1909 Anna was living with a Dr. Starbuck's family in Dorchester.

No trace of Patrick LARSSON (or Peterson) has ever been found. Charlotta (ERIKSSON) LARSSON never came to this country and the only remnant of our Swedish ancestry that remains is the following picture of one of Anna's brothers, (possibly named Karl)and his three children, Julle, Elin and Elsa, taken in Sweden by his wife, Freda and sent to Anna. We are still searching for these relatives.