Hello everybody! I've been trying to trace my Finnish roots for a little
while now. My great-great-grandparents came over from Finland and settled
in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. One side of the family was Keranen. My
great-great-grandparents on that side were Matt & Ida. Here's a link to
their marriage information:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N3FK-QXW(interesting side-note
about Ida, she was a mail-order bride that Matt
"received" after he was already in the US.)
The other great-great-grandparents were Matt (or John?) and Amanda Jestila.
He was either John Matthew or Matthew John. I visited his grave site in
Houghton, MI and the headstone says "John M. Jestila". But my grandma
always knew him as Matt or Matti. All of the census records I found call
him Matt as well. This side is rather hard to trace, it seems that Jestila
is not a common Finnish surname. I've seen the surname Gestila that goes
back to the 1600s in Finland, so perhaps that's the same? Some of the
Gestila names in the 1600s on
FamilySearch.org seem to have Swedish
sounding middle names, too.
Does anyone here have these people in their trees? I'm mostly just looking
to trace back my Finnish roots as far back as I can. Photos, passenger
ships, anything really.
Kiitos! :)
~Kyle