A classic Nelson Family portrait, a one-of-a-kind family image taken over one hundred years ago, was photographed on the Family Farm in Painted Woods, North Dakota in 1918, the photograph was well preserved by my Grandparents Clara Amelia (Nilsson Nelson) and Frank G. S. Erickson's photo album. They often wrote on the back or along the margins of the photographs they kept.

This is remarkable and the key to my Family Archive Project. Without their documentation, so many family names, places, and images would be lost forever. This photo was a natural to identify, I knew everyone from the early years growing up with it framed on the wall of our living room in Hollywood. I think it is one of the premier historic photographs of the family.

Top Row Standing - L2R: Uncle Anton Tony, Uncle August Valentine, Uncle Albert 'Bob' William Nelson, my Grandmother Clara Amelia (Nilsson Nelson) Erickson, and Uncle Sture Albin (Nilsson) Nelson in the Navy uniform. Sture Albin was serving at the time in the Navy, the oldest son of Gerda & Anders was home on leave visiting his family. Soon after this photograph was taken he would be heading to the east coast and departing on a ship out of the Brooklyn (NY) Port bound for the Atlantic.

left to right - sitting: Gertrude 'Gerda' (Miljander) & Anders (Nilsson) Nelson.

Also below: My Grandmother Clara Amelia on the request from her son, my Father Ernest Anders Erickson, wrote down her complete Nelson Family History starting in Sweden and carrying forward to when she and her Family emigrated from Landskrona to Painted Woods. Clara wrote it at the kitchen table at her home on Jefferson Avenue in the Park Hill District of Bismarck, North Dakota. It spanned the Nelson family history covering over one hundred years.

I am very grateful to my Grandma Clara, a gem of a gal, as it has enabled me to be more accurate in my writings on the family photographs she and my Grandfather Frank kept over the years. Her writing covers the birth of her parents, Gertrude 'Gerda' (Miljander) & Anders (Nilsson) Nelson, their marriage, the births of her six siblings, and leading up to the period when the Nelsons emigrated (1902 & 1903) from Landskrona, Sweden to Painted Woods, North Dakota. Her writing leads up to the present time of her writing.

Anders & Gerda (Miljander) Nelson and four of their five children, one being my Grandmother Clara, after emigrating from Landskrona the Family lived with Ander's Brother August Frederick and sister-in-law Amelia 'Aunt Molly' Josephine (Holm) in Painted Woods until they Homesteaded in 1907 at a farm nearby. Their youngest daughter Klara (1894-1896) passed away in Landskrona and Clara's younger Brother Bob Nelson was born on the farm in 1905. In 1907, another daughter Bertha was born on the farm and unfortunately, she passed away in 1908.