I recently met with one of my grandpa Korstange's cousins on his mom's (Burke) side of the family. It was a great visit filled with new genealogical finds (some that I will probably blog about in the relatively near future). One of the reasons I wanted to meet up with her was to get another shot at scanning some of the photos her father Paul had. I visited him with my grandpa in January of 2005 but I did a poor job scanning the photos and passed on some that I've been chomping at the bit to scan lately. Her father passed away in January and had been staying on the east side of the state so I was unable to meet up with him again (which I regret).
One of the photos that I had scanned the 1st time is labeled "Grandma Burke's Grandma", which I believe makes her a 4th great grandmother to me, grandmother of Paul's mother Hilma (Kiviniemi) Burke.
The problem is, I don't know which grandmother as I have birth and marriage records for both of them but no death dates for either of them:
Hilma Kiviniemi (and her sister Anna) was born to Benjam Henriksson Kiviniemi and Lisa Greta Johansdotter Känsäkangas 21 Jun 1879 at Karleby Finland. Benjam's mother was Anna Kaisa Andersdotter, born 18 Dec 1830 at Vahanga Finland and Lisa's mother was Helena Johansdotter Hotakainen, born 06 Jul 1817 at Halsua Finland. I've corresponded in the past with a descendant of Anna who also had no information on what happened to Hilma and Anna's parents, let alone grandparents. One of Lisa Greta's sisters settled in the Houghton MI area and the descendants of her have no information. One of Helena Hotakainen's nieces settled in the Chicago area and I'm starting to work that line now.
I posted the photo and my "quandry" at the Finnish Genealogy Facebook page. This put me in touch with June Pelo, who's a veritable wealth of knowledge when it comes to "Swede-Finns" and their genealogy. Utilizing her resources here and in Finland she was able to tell me pretty definitely that Hilma and Anna's father Benjam abandoned the family and came to America (in 1881, prior to Anna's birth). The scant records available initially said that Lisa Greta joined him with the daughters in 1884. From communion books found by one of June's contacts this was not only proven false, but proved that Lisa Greta had a child out of wedlock (meaning there is a sibling for my 2nd great grandmother that nobody had any knowledge of) and remarried in Finland. *Captions are the notations of the researcher, not my work.
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| Karleby Communion Book, 1873-1882 (page 587): Benjamin Henriksson to
America in 1881...but the last notation for wife Lisa Greta Jonasdr
could be a communion marking for 2.6.1884...and not a move to America... | | | |
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| Karleby Communion Book 1885-1894 (page 625): Benjamin Henriksson shown
on page 587 in the previous book (1873-1882)...Communion markings for
Lisa Greta Jonasdr in 1887, 1888 and 1889...and a move to the farm on
page 690 in 1894...also, she gave birth to a daughter Selma, born
19.8.1885...Selma shown with the patronymic Lisasdr... |
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| Karleby Communion Book 1885-1894: Lisa Greta Jonasdr shown here with 3
daughters...all came here from the farm on page 625 in 1894...Hilma
Johanna to Uleåborg, 26.11.1894... |
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| Lisa Greta Jonasdr married again...on 8.7.1894, with Gustaf Robert
Väyrynen, born 17.10.1851...also shown here are Anna Elisabeth
Kiviniemi, born 1882 (to Maxmo in 1901); and Selma Lisasdr, born 1885
(to Wasa in 1901)... |
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| Selma, born 19.8.1885, Karleby (right page, 3rd name)...the record shows
she was born out of wedlock (oä) to Henrik Kiviniemi's son's wife from
Storby, Lisa Greta... |
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| Shown here in Vaasa Communion Book, 1896-1905...Selma gave birth to a
child out of wedlock, Nils Ragnar, born 18.2.1904, Vaasa (birth records
at SSHY only until 1902). There are no communion markings shown for
her...and nothing to indicate a move out of Vaasa... | |
These communion books are absolutely amazing resources that I'd have never considered to look for. Because of them and the help of June's researcher I now know that my 3rd great grandmother Lisa Greta didn't come to America as I suspected, and that she had another daughter who had a son (which means potential cousins in Finland on this side of my family). But alas, nothing about the 2 grandmothers so my photo is still unidentified! I'm going to beat on this brick wall until it finally crashes down, no matter how long it takes........
