While at the Johnson Family Reunion back in June, there was a table strewn with “lost and found” photos that were free for the taking. As the afternoon was winding down, there were lots of photos left unclaimed so I snagged all the old-looking ones. That’s where I got the photo labeled, “Augusta’s Brother“.
My Aunt Florence was able to identify “Uncle” in a photo from around 1930. She knew that he was Uncle Bjorklund.
Genealogy is full of serendipity. I was going through the pile of mystery photos the other day and realized this Uncle Bjorklund would likely be the husband of our plucky Anna Petersdotter with the “baptist mindset”. Having come across Anna Bjorklund twice within a matter of days, I decided to see what other users on Ancestry.com might know about these relatives. Within seconds, I had two more of my mystery photos identified.
Below is a picture of the Gust and Anna Bjorklund family. In the back row are their children Will, Ernest, Agnes and Arthur. I had pegged the people in this photo as surely being Rudeen relatives based on the likenesses of the men in the back row. Turns out I was right!
Also below is a wedding portrait of Will and his bride Byrdie Yoxall.
Just snooping around Ancestry a bit I learned that Gust and Anna came to America in 1883 and that at least a couple of their kids were born in Saunders County. No doubt they came there to be near Anna’s brother Gust Rudeen (my great-grandfather) and Uncle Carl Rudeen.
The family eventually settled in Sharon Springs, a small town on the western edge of Kansas. Some of the kids migrated to Colorado, one up by Ault (not too far from me in Weld County) and another in Denver.
I have not received responses to the messages I sent to the people on Ancestry who posted the photos that match mine. I’m anxious to learn more about this family!
