On Sunday, November 17th the Society hosted an event called "Doors Open" in the Falconbridge Room in the Palvelukoti at Finlandia Village from 1 to 4 pm.  There were displays of photo albums of our Finnish Heritage, including families, athletics, businesses, people, theatre, concerts, musicians, family stories.  Also trifold displays of Finnish family photos events and festivals.

These people were the ones who were 

the hosts for the Doors Open event from left to right:

               Paul Pasanen, President; Shirley Tye, Goodwill and Membership;  Heidi        

Duhamel. Member; Usula  Hildebrandt. Member; Tom Kovala, Treasurer;          

Helen Makela, Archivist;  Marty Neva, Genealogist and Website Administrator.

There were 10 out of 26 albums

available for viewing and on the right

is Ken Makela bringing the albums to

the Falconbridge Room from the

storage on the 3rd floor.

Arja and Bill Mäkinen, on the left,  

were looking through an album and

found something interesting.  

On the right is number of guests

looking at the albums

Marty Neva had a printout of our Burials Database consisting of over 9,300 individuals of Finnish Heritage and their spouses, listing the surname, maiden name, given names, place of burial, date of death, place of death (if available), source of information, date of birth or age and place of birth (if available). See the example below:

KEKALAINEN/ NEVALAINEN/ Siiri Tina/ Waters/ 13-Oct-52/ (Obit/Gravemarker/Kari S.) / 1883 Nov 10 Finland

The Society has the source of the information in the form of newspaper stories, obituaries, death certificates from 1904 to 1950, grave markers and funeral home records plus other sources for almost every entry.  These are in three ring binders amounting to over four feet of shelf space.  They were available for photocopying to guests needing a copy of the information for a relative as there was a photocopier on site. 

Here is Gary Peck discussing some of the burials Marty

was showing him on his computer 

Tom Kovala, Treasurer, connected his computer to the TV to display photos in our collection and was very well received. In the photo is Taisto Altonen intently viewing the photos as they appear on the TV screen. 

Helen Makela, Archivist, who organized the event said later

"I can't express how satisfied I was with the turnout for the event." 

The donations by Martti Kokko of the 1945 journal amounting to 39 pages,

 'Muistelmia ja Mietteitä ' all in Finnish (1916—1940) written by his mother and the 1952

Finland Olympics scarf will be placed in display cabinet with info.

Thank You Martti !