Welcome to the Family History Project  for the Johnson, Renn, Connelly, Eriksson, and Andersson families whose paths led to Chicago, Illinois, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

My name is Beth Johnson and I’m working on learning about my ancestors through collecting family letters, photos, and other documents, genealogy, reading local histories, and talking to family members.

I hope you find something of interest here. My aim is to present the stories of family members and enough about the times and places in which they lived to make those stories come alive. I’ll be adding information about people and places as I continue my research. Eventually I’ll add interactive features like maps showing residences in Chicago, the schools at which my mom, aunts, and grandmother taught, the streets for which the Renn brothers installed water pipes, and the paths people took from Sweden and Ireland to Chicago.

My three siblings and I grew up on the north and northwest sides of Chicago. My father, Roland S. Johnson, was born Sigurd Roland Eriksson in the city of Örebro in Sweden. He was adopted by the Johnson family and immigrated to Chicago in 1926. My mother, born Helena Frances Renn, was a native of Chicago.

Family surnames include, on my mother’s Irish side Renn/Rinn, Reynolds, Connelly, and Golden. My father’s biological family surnames include Eriksson, Johannisdotter, Andersson, and Jansson. My father’s adoptive family surnames include Johnson, Molin, Jahnson, and Anderson.

This family description is a work in progress. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome. And please share your own family stories on these blog pages, if you are inspired to do so.

Beth Johnson