John James Ross and Anna Charlotte Johansen arrived in San Francisco in 1903, following very separate paths. Jack had left his Nova Scotia farming family to seek his fortune in America as a carpenter. Anna had sailed from Stockholm on the maiden voyage of one of her father's ships, promising to stay with an aunt in Boston, but immediately made her way to her dream city, San Francisco. At first she set up her own millinery shop, but when this little venture failed she took work as a cook in the boarding house where handsome Jack was rooming.

The two of them took refuge from the earthquake in a tent city in Golden Gate Park. Their first child, Genevieve Alice, was born 29 Sep 1907, followed in 10 May 1909 by my grandmother, Viola Dorothea. The family continued to live in San Francisco through the 1970s.
 

Anna Ross, and baby Alice	Credits:  Story and photographs provided by and used by permission of Deborah Schmidt.	Alice and Viola
John Ross	The Ross family

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