Berättat av Willis Stenberg:

Kristina probably left Sweden because her family couldn’t support all

the children under the conditions there at that time. At the request of

her brother, Joseph, and Aunt Albertina she set sail for New York about

1912 at the age of 16. She stayed in N.Y. with her sister, Hannah, for a

few weeks. She was then put on a train for Portland, Oregon. Because she

couldn’t speak English, her sister had fashioned a note on cardboard and

hung it around her neck. It said, more or less, "I am Swedish, speak no

English and am on my way to Portland to meet my brother and Aunt. She

lived on the farm in Skomakawy for a few years with Joseph and Albertina,

learning English which she spoke and wrote very well. I think she tired

of the farm life - work sun-up to sun-down, and left to visit relatives in

Berkeley, possibly John Carlson and family. She obtained a job as a maid

for a wealthy woman there. She met other Swedes, including the John

Gunnarsons. My dad had been a sailor on a merchant ship and jumped

ship in San Francisco. He went to live and work with his brothers in Fort

Bragg and eventually came down to Berkeley where he met the Gunnarsons.
(John was from Styrso). Through them Frank met Stina and later they were

married. They settled in Berkeley and lived there intil my mother passed

away in 1960. My parents did return to Sweden in 1923 and stayed there for

6 months. Don, age 4, went with them and when he returned spoke only

Swedish. I believe they brought cousin Bertina and Frida with them to N.Y.