The Ann Connection

Back in early April of 2011, I received a message on Facebook from a woman named Annina, from Helsinki, Finland.  She had recently been on vacation in New York City, NY, USA and had become interested in searching records related to her family travelling to North America.  She registered for a trail ancestry.com account, and some of her information matched mine.

I had spent hours and hours doing research on the British side of my family with a moderate amount of success, but I had little to no information on my Finnish family.  I couldn’t wait to reply! 

Through back and forth messages and emails, Annina advised me that we were actually cousins:

So, it seems that we are related via your grandfather Eero Salonen. His mother Ina was sister of my great grandmother Maria Kaivola (Salonen was her maiden name). Also, one fun fact is that my grandfather (son of Maria) was also named Eero :) The Eeros were cousins, and that makes us some little cousins.

You might already know, that the family of Ina and Kalle Salonen left from Finland to live in Canada. I must admit, that I still haven't figured all the details but might get some help as I get more information from my older relatives.

I have a couple of old photos: one was taken of Ina's family, supposedly still in Finland. I also have one photo that has been taken in Duluth, Minnesota, but I don't know the people. I can scan these and send you, as soon as I get back to work on Monday.

The good news for your search is, that we belong to the broadest family that has ever been researched in Finland - the Storckovius family. The first forefather has been a priest, so of those people there was left more information than of "normal" people. And because the Storckovius family has been widely researched, it is possible to have the known information about it - actually I just asked for a copy in CD format.

I updated the information I have about our family to Ancestry.com, I wonder if you can see it? I'll add the link here.

I am SO excited about finding you and hope we can continue sharing information about our family.

Now tell me she is not the sweetest cousin ever. 

I dare you. 

Annina gave me access to information I would never have found out for myself.  Since that one fateful message, we’ve spent hours emailing, using video chat, talking on the phone and even visiting.  She has been a blessing, and this post is about how it all began.

How would I ever have known that our family name has been changed numerous times? We started out as Storckovius, then became Riikonen, then Salonens. In fact, my great-grandfather Kalle took his wife Ina’s surname (Salonen) and dropped his Swedish surname of Sten. There were rumours about the reason behind these changes. My great uncle Charlie (Kalle Kustaa) Salonen had told my mother many years ago that his father and their family wanted a Finnish surname to be more ethnically pure. Back then, Finns hated Swedes and Russians as the oppressors and wanted nothing to do with them – a fact later confirmed my great-uncle Arne Salonen.

Another important fact was finding out from which parish our family hailed, as all records are organized in Finland according to your local parish. The Salonens-Storckovii are all from the town of Laukaa, Laansi-Suomi, Finland. I could now start searching records for myself.

On top of all of that, Annina also had access to some research that was published in Finland by an amateur genealogist named Tommy Koukka. She even sent me the full text version for my own use...all 600 pages in Finnish.

Not long afterward, I started taking Finnish lessons in Toronto. I still can't speak the language very well and my reading is at a beginner level, but I can understand some of the information I come across in the records, and that is real progress.

Annina and I are only a few months apart in age. Her great-grandmother and my great-grandmother were sisters. We call each other 'pikkupikkuserkku' which means little little cousin (2nd cousin) in English. Annina is the Finnish name that would translate to Anna in English. We both have grandfathers named Eero (Eric) and great-grandfathers named Kalle (Carl). We have similar interests and hobbies. Born on different sides of the world and raised in completely different manners, we are still alarmingly alike.

We call it the Ann connection.