The Erickson family held a family reunion this past weekend with special guests Tillie Gerow, Carl-Ake Elmersjo and his wife Margareta Elmersjo from Uppsala, Sweden. Pete Erickson, Tillie’s father, immigrated from Sweden to Fort St. James where he met and married Marion Prince.
Pete and Marion had eight children together, Tillie Gerow is the last remaining child of the eight children the couple had together. Ake Elmersjo, grandson son to Erickson’s brother August Eriksson, traveled with his cousin Tillie and wife to attend the event.
Charlene Webb, who is now living in Terrace and co-ordinated the reunion, said the last Erickson family reunion took place in July, 1976 and saw people from the United States and across BC and Canada.
Book in making
Webb said she will have family members who are at the reunion filling out a book that will be filled out with genealogical information from family members, she said she is also collecting family recipes and stories that will eventually be made into a book.
“I’ve asked them to share memories of our parents and grandparents and special recipes or new recipes that they would like to share,” she said. “We’ve had families come from all over BC,” she said. “We have cousins that are just meeting for the first time.”
Webb said at the last count the Canadian side of the Erickson family was at more than 500 and the Sweden side of the Erikkson family were at 36 members.
“This took many months to plan and co-ordinate,” said Webb.