Andreasson Family

This is the genealogy of my grandmother Anna Andreasson. Because she was born on the island of Tjörn, Sweden, her genealogy includes some of the families that have lived on Tjörn for centuries.

As I remember it being told, Anna came from a large family. Her mother died when she was still a young girl. The family was too large for her father to manage alone, he being a seaman, so Anna was sent to America to live with her older sister who had already moved there. She became ill during her passage across the Atlantic, and it apparently was a very traumatic experience for her. From that she developed a deep and long lasting fear of travelling by sea, and later by air. My impression was that she would have preferred to return home to Sweden but was too averse to the idea of travel to make the journey. So, she lived her life in America.

She married and lived for a time in Chicago, Illinois. During the great depression of the 1930's, the family moved to San Diego, California looking for better economic prospects. She raised a family of one son and three daughters, Ralph, Helen, Pauline, and Ruth. All her children have since passed away, but many grandchildren and great-grandchildren are alive today in different parts of the USA.

Although she was born Anni Andreasson, she usually used the more Americanized name of Anna Anderson. Her and her husband strongly believed their children should assimilate into American culture. Even though she could speak Swedish and English, and her husband could speak German, Russian and English, only English was allowed to be spoken in the home. She maintained ties with her family in Sweden, corresponding until late in life with some of her siblings there.