During a particularly busy period last summer, I received a a series of emails from Pernilla B., a Swedish woman who'd found me through my blog postings. Since I was traveling at the time, then entertaining houseguests and traveling again, I filed away her messages -- under "IGSI BLOG" -- and promptly forgot about them despite their fascinating content. 

The incident came rushing back this week, when I reviewed Bill's matches on Gedmatch and found a new name at the top of the list.

Pernilla's mother and my husband Bill are second cousins. Their grandfathers were brothers. That makes Pernilla a second cousin, once removed. 

Her great-grandfather was Otto-Linus Eliasson, brother to Bill's grandfather Anders Ludvig Eliasson (who became Andrew Ludwig Ellison in America). We knew about Otto. We even visited his grave at Fritsla, Sweden, in 2013. 

Pernilla initially found my blog posting when she googled "Flyåsen," which was the childhood family home of Otto and Anders near Svenljunga, Sweden.

A bit later last summer she emailed a story -- which I again filed under IGSI BLOG and temporarily forgot -- about Johanna Carlsdotter, who was the mother of Otto-Linus and Anders:

"My mother told me a very interesting story about Johanna Carlsdotter. The story was told by my mother's aunt Olga Eliasson, daughter to Otto-Linus Eliasson.

The story tells that Johanna was an "oäkta"  (born out of wedlock) daughter to a noble man called Gustaf Magnus Kuylenstierna, born 17 Sept 1769 - dead 29 Sept 1841. Gustaf was married to Antoinette Kuylenstierna born 1768, dead 1859 in Revesjö.

Johanna's mother, Agneta, was a maid at Gustaf's mansion and when she got pregnant by Gustaf, he let Agneta and Johanna stay at his mansion.

The story says that Johanna and her mother lived on at Gustaf and Antoinette's mansion and that Gustaf let Johanna go to school. Johanna was well educated and was promised a farm as a legacy from her father. Somehow Johanna lost the farm and the story says that someone cheated her."

Pernilla included an image from church books confirming that Johanna lived at the Kuylenstierna mansion, but she wondered "is the story true that we have noble blood? I wonder if your husband has done a DNA test?"

She suggests we look for someone with the name Kuylenstierna among his matches. (Pernilla's mother had recently taken a DNA test; undoubtedly her results are now at the top of Bill's matches.)

So now we'll be looking for Kuylenstiernas (and Gilliams, per my earlier postings this week).