Dear Corrine,

I happened to see your travel log and Swedish family genealogy when I was “goggling” for information on my own ancestors from Vallda with the name “Anders Andersson.” I believe that we do have a family link through your great, grandmother, Augusta Lunn (Eliasson) Anderson
You wrote about the Lunn's:“In 1870, a family belonging to Carl Johan Eliasson left Lunna Farm in Vallda Parish of Halland County, Sweden. He left from Gothenburg on the ship Scandanavia headed to England and then onto America. He brought his wife, Lovisa, and their seven children, including their teenaged daughter Augusta Cervina. Two years later, in Warren County, PA, a new family appeared in the city directory. Charles John Lunn and his wife Louisa and their seven children now lived in America. At some point, they changed their name from Eliasson to Lunn to reflect the town they hailed from and to Americanize their names. They lived in the Swedish area of town, attending the Swedish Lutheran church, where Augusta Lunn met a young man named Andrew Anderson.”
My father’s father’s mother name was Amanda Andersson (9/29/1854) from Vallda and they lived very close to Lunna, actually just across the road in a place called Hulte No. 1. Her father was Adolf Andersson (12/21/1822) and her mother was Anne Marie Elias (01/11/1822) and she was born in Torrslanda in Göteborg. Anne Marie’s father was Carl Johan Eliasson (06/08/1824). I do not have much information on Carl Johan So, I believe that Anne Marie was a daughter of Carl Johan Elias.
I am also most curious about a Johan Anders Andersson (8/11/1852) who married Amanda Andersson and emigrated to Warren Pennsylvania in 1875. They settled in Chandlers Valley and had three children, one of which was my grandfather Edwin Andersson. He also had a sister Jennie and brother John. But in 1883, the family legend has it that Anders left Amanda and the three children and went out to the Klondike to search for gold but never returned. Amanda shortly later married Ludvig Johnson and then my grandfather become Ed Johnson and maintained one of Warren’s well-known general stores from the 1920s to the 1940s.
I have been trying to trace down Anders Andersson and I found that he came from the Lunna farm near Vallda and he had a brother Carl Otto (9/17/1854 who also emigrated to Warren. I do not know what happened to Carl Otto. I do know that Anders and Carl left a number of siblings in Vallda and one, Alex, is famous for breaking away from the Lutheran church and he built a Methodist Chapel near Lunna. I do know that Johan Anders and Amanda lived with her parents Adolf and Anne Marie in Warren and they are in the 1880 Census. He changed his name to simply John Anderson.
Your wrote that your great Aunt, Elaine Heald, remembers about the Anders (24- year) and Carl Andersson in your family tree. I am curious if she remembers the Adolf and Anne Marie Andersson and their daughter Amanda. Your great aunt may also recall my grandfather’s sons, George Johnson who was a piano teacher in Warren, and my father Gerald Johnson who became an attorney in Cleveland Ohio. My grandfather married Selma Carolina Nelson and she had two sisters who never married, Edith and Lillian Nelson. They lived on Water Street.
I would appreciate any information you might have on the Anderssons in your family and the opinions of your great aunt.
Thanks you again for posting your family history and visit to Vallda. I plan this summer to visit Vallda and continue my research.
Regards,

Paul L. Johnson
Bethesda, MD