Tag: Local History
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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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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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Eldon Oja: Who Were the Fort William Finns
This new work by Eldon Oja continues the story of his family after settling in FortWilliam. It combines personal reminiscing with local history writing, andgenealogical research covering the entire Finnish population in the target area. Inthis sense, it follows the tradition started by Salomon Ilmonen a hundred yearsago in his books on the history of…
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The House that Herman Built
In my mother’s album there was a black and white photo of a house, about 5×7 cm, with more than a dozen people on the front terrace and balcony. Under the photo she had written “Herman’s house in Port Arthur”. When I started to find out about my relatives who had emigrated to Canada and…