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PART 3: THE SECOND GENERATION: JACK AND IDA
CHAPTER 1: JOHN JOSEPH ANDERSSON
(25 June 1885 – 8 November 1949, aged 64)

W

e left Carl Gustav and Catherine raising their eight children in Grahamstown. And
now, one by one they are leaving home and making their independent ways in the
world. By now I assume the double ‘s’ in the name Andersson had been dropped
and it was anglicised to ANDERSON and their home language was English.
Apparently Carl Gustav kept his accent all his life but I doubt whether he had occasion to speak
Swedish again, and he never taught his children his Home language. This seems to be
characteristic of the ‘ideal’ pioneers who quickly assimilated their new languages and culture,
married within their adopted country, and abandoned their ‘Old Countries’ forever.
Now we enter the new phase of second generation Andersons who were born, bred and died in
South Africa and they never saw themselves as Swedish or Irish, nor did any of them ever set
foot in Sweden or Ireland.
We will focus on only one of their offspring as it was he who continued to direct our genetic
pathways.
John Joseph Augustus was the third child of Catherine and Carl Gustav and was always known
as JACK so that’s how we will refer to him. I was nine years old when he died in 1949 and I
remember him quite clearly; a gentle blue-eyed dark haired grandpa who was adored by his
family, particularly by his daughters as far as I could tell. He must have had cancer for a long
time before he died. Grandpa Jack was a great Story Teller and something of a writer, but by
the time I found evidence of his writings they had become almost illegible. As far as I could
make out his Book was about hunting and pioneering adventures in the bush.
One can assume that Jack followed in his Father’s footsteps and learned the building trade. I
came across some very old accounts in Jack’s hand and name listing building components that
he’d bought.
I have no idea how the young Jack Anderson met Ida Beatrice Waters but Grahamstown was a
small town and they moved in the circles of the young and lively. We know that they were
much admired figure skaters on their roller skates and this mind-picture alone tells a story of
them being happy and having fun.
Soon we learn that the young couple are about to marry so let’s look at Ida’s heritage.

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