Johan Nilsson Bastubacka, One of Finland’s Foremost Church Artists
By June Pelo with excerpts from “ÅGLIIDE 3” by Ole Granholm.Photo by Martti Jokinen, courtesy of the Finnish Heritage Agency. The transition to the 1700’s brought major changes…
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Swede Finn Junction
Gold Miners from Finland
By June Pelo.Photo courtesy of NARA. In 1895 a young man from Karleby, Finland traveled to America to search for gold and strike it rich. His…
Finnholms in Washington State
By Gösta Svenfelt in Suomi-USA, Jan 2005. Translated by June Pelo.Photo by Blazeblaze, CC BY SA 2.5. For nearly 100 years, when emigration from Finland was greatest, the…
Hangö Remembers the Epoch When Emigrants Traveled to America
Birgitta Ekström and archivist Marketta Wall have put together a living history about an important epoch in the city’s history. Submitted by June Pelo. Image courtesy…
I Remember
By Marge Mattsson Beaver. Marge Mattsson Beaver wrote this about her parents, Johan Mattsson, 1875-1957, married to Sofia Abrahamsdotter Bastubacka-Bast, 1878-1958. Johan was from Esse, Finland…
Annual Meeting 2021
April 10, 2021 9:30 a.m. PDT Join the Swedish Finn Historical Society on April 10th for our first ever virtual annual meeting. We will be commemorating…
History of Currency in Finland
By June Pelo. Sources include the National Archive – Old Handwriting and Documents; Kalevi Kiesi and the internet. Monetary unit in the Middle Ages: The unit…
Reunion with Wisconsin guests at Småbönders
Written by Anette Forsstrom for the Norden, August 5, 2004. Translated by June Pelo. Descendants of Ingvald and Gerda Storbacka Gather Jannis farm is located at…
Finnish Immigrant Farm Women in NE Minnesota
Previous title of this article submitted by June Pelo: ‘Finnish Immigration to North America and Northeastern Minnesota’. It is based on the works of JoAnn Hanson-Stone,…
Food Customs
By June Pelo. Historically the western part of Finland belonged to the Roman-Catholic and Lutheran sphere of influence and via them to that of the…
Nabba Village, Terjärv Parish
By Ole Granholm, Österbottningen, 2004. Translated by June Pelo.Jan Ole Björkbacka writes about his home village of Nabba The year is 1900. It is midsummer and…
Nyberg Family
By June Pelo. One of my major genealogy discoveries came as a result of a visit to cousins in Michigan. Because of my interest in genealogy,…
