Tag: Genealogy
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Deported to Canada
In the autumn of 1919 and the winter of 1920, an epilogue of the Finnish Civil War—and possibly the young nation’s strangest foreign policy process—took place, when Finnish volunteers of the Murmansk Legion were repatriated. The Finnish Legion was a unit under the British Navy that, in 1918, sought to repel a German advance toward…
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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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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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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…