MEEKER I Descendants of Powell Park’s Anderson families will meet their Swedish cousins for the first time on Tuesday, when Harold and Patty Anderson and Mike and Mary Whalin host a picnic for their newly found cousins.
While relatives here knew they had relatives in Sweden, no one knew where or who they were.
After retiring, Helen Anderson, granddaughter of John, became interested in genealogy and spent countless hours looking for their Swedish family, finally finding them in 2011.
Ulf Nordén and Jan Eric Wirén and their wives traveled from Malmö, Sweden, to Colorado this week to meet their American cousins and tour the ranches where their uncles settled.
Five of the Anderson siblings emigrated from Sweden in the 1880s. They all settled in Aspen until the silver bust. Olaf Anderson first homesteaded property in Powell Park in 1886, followed by his brother, August, in the 1890s and John and sister Johanna in the early 1900s.
The Olaf Anderson property is still owned by Carl Anderson’s family.
