Last updated 5 Aug 2021

Larry's mother was Elfrida Peterson. She was the Swedish on her fathers side, but had deep colonial roots on her mothers side -which is  a fascinating story!

Janda's paternal great-grandmother was Elfrida Peterson. She was born in the late 1890s in San Francisco. She was very formal and proper. 

She always dressed immaculately and had an African American maid her entire life. She had been very spoiled as a child and behaved as if she were the center of the universe. She ran her family with 'an iron fist and a velvet glove' according to my aunt.

I have a few very faint memories of "Nana" as we only saw her a handful of times before her passing in 1975 (I was only 5).

Elfrida's father was a first generation born American whose family were Swedish immigrants. He was intelligent, loved science and my grandfather (Larry) has wonderful memories of him. He was Janda's greatx3 grandfather.

The Petersons lived in San Francisco in the late 1890s - the city must have been quite an incredible place!

Lawrence's parents were John Peterson and Cora Bredberg, both immigrants from Sweden in the early 1800s. John was born in Sweden in 1836 but was living in Chicago by 1861 when he married Cora Bredberg. Cora's family first arrived in America in the 1850s and eventually settled in Chicago. Cora's father, Jacob Bredberg had been a preacher and minister in both Sweden and America.

In 1871 the Peterson family (Lawrence Claudious, age 8, and his parents John Peterson and Cora Bredberg) were living in Ward 16 . The Great Fire broke out in the evening of October 8 and raged for several days. Their ward was completely destroyed and afterwards the family moved to Maywood, Illinois.

Elfrida's mother, Grace Esther Lackey, is one of my favorite stories and solved mysteries of the last 20 years of research! What started out as a complete brick wall (she was adopted and there were no records as to her birth family) - thanks to DNA we now know who her parents (or at least most of her family) are. 

We will never the real story or the circumstances behind Grace's birth story - but thanks to DNA we now know 85% of her ancestry! The Hightower and Perry families have deep colonial roots with these families coming west in the 1840s after many generations in America.

Joshua Hightower's parents were John Hightower and Sarah Perry who came from generations of Southern ancestors. Emily Cummings' family is less defined as of this writing but hopefully more DNA evidence will emerge in the future and we can finish Graces' story!

The next generations of Larry's maternal ancestry can be found here: these families have deep Colonial southern roots having settled in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Missouri in the 1700's.