My guess is that the photo to the right shows one of the Åkesson brothers, perhaps Nils Åkesson who turns up in St Paul, Minnesota in the 1880's. By then he has a new last name, Augustin, and he is married to Johanna Eriksson from Sövestad parish, Skåne. Nils and Johanna had three children born before 1897 when they left First Lutheran Church in St Paul. After that the family disappears again in the records.

There is probably not a Swede without prodigal sons in the family. Another one in mine is my great-grandfather's brother Sven, but in his case I know that he died near Oakland, Nebraska. Among the daughters missing, there is of course my Unsolved Mystery Alma. More than 1,2 million Swedes left for America until 1930. Of those at least 1 out of 5 came back. This was the case with my great-grandparents siblings Sven, Otto, Emma, Selma and Alma who who all came back from Chicago after several years.

There are about 75 prodigal sons and daughters in my family tree, in most cases fate unknown.