Hello.
My grandmother's name was Ida Johnson. She was born c. 1880-82, the daughter of John Karlsson and Sofia (Månsson )---I put "Månsson" in parentheses because this is the name my mother told me, but the only Sofia Mansson I could find in the Mansson/Lindbergh genealogy died when she was 3. So maybe Ida's mother's name was Ida Sofia Mansson, and maybe she went by her middle name, but named her daughter after her first name (Ida).
Ida came over to America from Sweden when she was 12 years old, around 1894. In America, she had the name "Ida Johnson," even though in Sweden she was probably "Ida Jonsdotter." (I read that the "dotter" suffix wasn't eliminated in Sweden until 1901.) Ida lived first with her sister, Mathilda in Brooklyn, NY, on Atlantic Avenue, which in those days was known as "Swedish Broadway" because so many Swedes lived there. Ida married John Linden (also from Sweden, born c. 1885), on Oct. 6,1906. She was in her early 20's at that time.
Her mother's name was Sofia. I was told it was originally Sofia Mansson, but that wouldn't make sense, since she would have been somebody's "dotter." I was also told that somehow she was related to Charles Lindbergh. At one time I was told that Sofia was sister to the aviator's grandmother or grandfather.
Sofia had beautiful auburn hair. She was living in Smedstorp when she met her husband, whose name I think was Jon Karlsson. He was traveling through town, an itinerant fiddler and portrait painter. When they married, she came with a good dowry and a set of copper pots. He became a carpenter to support his family, but at one point she had to sell her hair to pay some bills, so I guess they went through some hard times. AT some point, they moved to Asljunge, where he built a large brown home with white shutters across from a lake. Sofia had about 11 children.
Sofia's children who came to America included: Ida, (my grandmother), Hjalmar, Oskar, Carl, Adele, and Selma. Selma returned to Sweden when her mother, Sofia, was elderly and had gone blind and needed assistance. I have an old postcard sent from Asljunge from Selma to Ida. It shows the lake and the houses that existed around it at that time.
Seeing on this web page the names "Ida Sofia," as well as Oskar, Jon Hjalmar, and Carl August," I think there must be some connection. I have been trying to figure out the direct lineage for quite some time. According to my mother, Carl Augustus Lindbergh came back to Sweden one time to visit Sofia and her family, and Ida, my grandmother, remembered that he bounced her on his knee. If anyone can help me, that would be most appreciated. I have a photo of Ida, who was supposed to look very much like her mother, Sofia, except that Ida had blonde hair instead of auburn hair. Ida died in 1956. Thank you!
