American Finnish people

[Tuomo]

I've been reading AU Online regulary for several months and I've been very surprised how well American Finnish people know the latest news of Finland. (Yes, before I had that stupid way of thinking: American Finnish people speak still good Finnish but don't know so much about the country anymore.)

But from one subject to another: I read ages ago from a Finnish paper that especially few decades ago there were lots of Finnish people living regulary in the States who couldn't actually speak English very well.
What is the situation right now? Are the Finnish communities in Minnesota or in the North so close and so "independent" that you can manage without English?

[Anni]

My guess is that you might get along with Finnish in Lantana/Lake Worth, Florida, but not elsewhere. I have heard that the L/LW area is the largest Finnish community outside of Finland, at about 20.000 people. That's where AU is published, BTW, so Ville might be able to provide more exact numbers. What is the total population of that area?

Regarding American Finns' knowledge of what's going on in Finland, it completely depends on the person's interest in and ties to the Old Country. I know some over 80-year-old people, second or third generation Americans of Finnish origin, who speak very good Finnish and read Raivaaja or AU, from which they get their weekly dosage of Finnish news. I also know people who couldn't care less what's going in Finland. Isn't that the way people are everywhere? Why would we be an exception?

About ten years ago, a friend of mine, an American from Michigan, gave me a few video tapes she had recoded from a TV-show broadcast around the Upper Peninsula area called "Suomi Kutsuu--Finland Calling". The language they used was very old-fashioned, something similar to what my grandparents' generation spoke. The whole program was clearly meant for the older folks there, with melancholic accordion music and nostalgic lakeview scenery, as well as a proper Lutheran church service. With no disrespect intended, I had to laugh.

Thank God there's the Internet today!

[Ville]

Allegedly... there are about 600.000 Finns or people with Finnish ancestry (2nd or 3rd generation) in the U.S. The U.S. Census bureau and/or Finnish embassy probably would have more accurate numbers, particularly of those who were born in Finland and moved to the U.S. at some point.

[Tuomo]

What are the most common reasons to move to the States - or what was your reasons? (I believe everyone has their own so it may be difficult to say anything general but anyway.)

Finns in the States are pretty big group of people. As far as I know, most of people who move abroad from Finland, go to Sweden or the U.S. Nobody ever goes to Russia or to the Far-East or to the central Europe (excluding Brussels, where live lots of Finns, mostly because of the EU).

[Tero]

I know of one or two Finnish men in their 50's or 60's who don't speak English after living here for decades.
Some of those who live in Florida and Finland may not speak English very well.

[Pyry Vainio]

Between World War I and II thousands Finns moved from Finland to Soviet Union just like hundreds of Finns from Canada.
Almost everywhere, where I have been in the world, I have met people of Finnish origin, not only in Europe but also in Singapore or South Korea. In Spanish Mediterranean coast there are lots of pensioned people from Finland, living with Finnish pension and Spanish cost level.
Earlier I thought to live in Montenegro when I become pensioned but to-day it sounds not very clever.

[Tero]

I seem to run into second and third generation Finns quite often. They do in fact try to keep some connection to Finland. Some have done geneology work to find distant relatives to visit. Most have been happy with the contacts in Finland. Anyone know where the mormon geneology web page is?

[Ville]

Tero... here's the link: http://www.familysearch.org/

[Anni]

Before I moved to the US, I knew I had a few relatives here, in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and some other northern states. Distant cousins, many times removed, and some elderly people whose "cousinship" to my parents I never clearly understood.

But once here, it has been fun to find new "cousins". Americans wouldn't use those quotation marks, for they really count even distant relatives. At least they do here in the South. But it has been more than just fun. I find it difficult to figure out and explain what it exactly means to find a new cousin... two...three... here. There are thousands of Tuikkas in Finland that I don't know exist. When I meet a new Tuikka there I'm delighted--but nothing more.

About a year and a half ago I received an email from a man named Bill Tuikka in CA, asking if we are relatives! He had found me on the Internet. With a name like his and mine, there is no need to ask. We all come from the same tiny village, you guessed it, Tuikka. It's confusing for me to imagine a thoroughly American person as Tuikka. But he is, third generation American that he is.

I wonder if it makes any sense to you, but finding him (and many other cousins of whom I have talked to two) and getting to know him, has been closest to what I call home sickness. Suddenly I had my clan here, almost my family! I had a rooted place here! It was some kind of relief I had never known was looking for a way out. I needed to know more... I needed to know how and where my relatives and their families had lived here. How they had felt about life here. I'm still in the process. But it feels good to think that "I have a cousin in California". It's something resembling peaceful joy to have a family here.

Sorry if this sounds like odd rambling to you.

[Tero]

I didn't find my kids in the mormon database./Yhtä tyhjän kanssa se mormonien arkisto.En löytänyt edes USAssa syntyneitä lapsiani.

I didn't find my parents either.Maybe Grandparents?

[This message has been edited by Tero (edited 11-06-1999).]

[Lokari]

I tried several Finnish names but had no matches. Finally I tried John Smith - again no matches.

Has anybody managed to find somebody on the Mormon genealogy page?

[Ville]

Well, the database is for ancestors. Of course your kids wouldn't be there unless you (or someone else) entered them there. The main weight on the first phase of the database has been on the past generations. Naturally, as people do more research and add more full lineages, more live people start to turn up in the database as well.

Hmm... 'John Smith' resulted in 115 matches
(You searched for: John Smith [refine search])
Results: All Sources (115 matches)

I also searched for 'Waris' and 'Waren' (all people with last names "Waris" and "Waren" - spelled with a 'W' - are related to me in some distant way), and found numerous matches all over Finland.

Maybe the database was temporarily down when you tried to search? They're receiving incredible number of hits every day (even the hits-per-minute rate was amazing).

At the moment the database contains some 400,000 names, with 200,000 more to be added shortly.


[This message has been edited by Ville (edited 11-06-1999).]

[Lokari]

Ville: Now it works; I was able to find a bunch of john smiths and some finnish names, too. I think I did the search the same way the other day, when I had no results. The site seems to be unpredictable.

[Antti]

See www.genealogia.fi (http://www.genealogia.fi) (in finnish)
if you are looking for your family´s roots.

[Antti]

Sorry, it´s also in english www.genealogia.fi (http://www.genealogia.fi)