Update February 2010 – what I found out
After this site was created I have solved this enigma!
In the summer of 2009 I had some names from the Emigrant’s house in Växjö, Sweden. Among these names there was a Johannes Jonasson, born November 15, 1864 in Eldsberga, Halland, Sweden. As the birth date of him was the exact birth date I had heard I did some more research of him. I found out that this Johannes had three brothers and that one of them, Jöns Peter, stayed in Sweden and had a family. I started a search for his descendants and found Margareta. One day I visited her. We were looking at some photos that I had scanned from an old album and Margareta recognized one of them. She called for her brother to come and bring a painting he had on his wall. When he came in to the room a few minutes later I was very excited as the person on his painting was the same I had in this album!
My 29 year old enigma was solved! The painting was of August, the brother who went to America and then went home again and died in Sweden in 1955. The fourth brother, Carl went to America twice. The second time he brought his wife and six children. I am now trying to get in contact with some of his descendants.
Here you can se the photo I had and the painting:
