Canadian Finns Genealogy

Immigrant history and genealogy

  • Savonian immigrants to Gorham Township

    Gorham Township (Kivikoski, Lappe, Tarmola and North Branch) was settled from the west in the early 20th century, lastly the easternmost region of North Branch at the time of the 1910s economic downturn and World War. The boundaries of the villages were vague and the residents’ own opinion may have differed from the defined school…

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  • Immigration exemptions after 1929

    Immigration to Canada took a gradual downturn in the late 1920s, and became seriously harder in 1931. With the passage of Order-in-Council PC 695 on 21 March 1931, the government of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett implemented the tightest immigration admissions policy in Canadian history. Further restrictions were deemed necessary after the onset of the Great…

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  • Finnish Tailors of Toronto

    The early history of the Finnish settlement in Toronto differs quite a bit from other areas of Canada, where the main occupations were forestry, mining, agriculture and railways. In Toronto, a large proportion of Finns worked in factories, as craftsmen or entrepreneurs. The proportion of women was also higher in Toronto, and Finnish women were…

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  • Patronymic to Surname

    Shortening the original Finnsih surname into Maki, Ranta or Niemi was not the only way to facilitate the immigrant’s settlement and integration. Patronymic looking names were familiar to many people of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon origin, and therefore did not stand out from the majority population. That is why behind many an Anderson, Jacobson or Johnson…

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  • Just Be a Maki If You Want

    Surname Maki is said to have dominated the Thunder Bay phone book as long as it was published. Often the name was shortened from an original Finnish farm name or surname ending with -mäki. Just as often it was just chosen by an immigrant for convenience. Here I list 49 immigrants who chose to be…

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  • Eldon Oja: From Finland to Nolalu

    From the author’s preface to this 2020 publication: From Finland to Nolalu The Making of Me and You (pdf version) provides the historical ancestry for the Oja and Jacobson families coupled with the history of Finland that led to their emigration to Canada. In Canada they established homesteads in Nolalu, Ontario just southwest of Thunder…

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