News & Events

 

January 26th Meeting


After our business meeting at about 2 pm Mike Ranta will be describing his solo canoe trips across Canada with his dog Spitzi (a 

Finnish dog breed). You can see photos and some information on “Mike Ranta’s Paddle" - Facebook page.  This the link to his Facebook

 page.    https://www.facebook.com/mikerantaspaddle/


Pikkujoulu


On Sunday November 24th we had our Pikkujoulu in our meeting room in the Palvelukoti building.  Pikkujoulu (Finnish for "little Christmas") is a Finnish traditional party held to anticipate Christmas. The Pikkujoulu party is non-formal, highly festive, and themed after Christmas. Prior to the meeting we had a group photo taken.

 

 
 
 
 
Doors Open

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 !

 
 
          
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Random Photos of Participants

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News & Events

 


 
 
 
Website Updates
 

An updated Burials Database as of  October 12, 2024 has been substituted for the previous version. An Excel spreadsheet for all the records is in the Gallery (if you click on the Gallery Link and get a {Misdirected Request} message click on the back button on the menu bar and click on the Gallery Link again) to download and a PDF version is also available in the Gallery for viewing - A great amount of editing has been done to the database since the update in February, 2022. Many of the records only showed the source as a page number for the obituary in the Sudbury Star publications. During the summer of 2023 the obituaries were found on the microfilms of the Sudbury Star, which are located at the Sudbury Public Library on McKenzie Street. The additional information from these obituaries has been added to the database. Also, another column (Death Location) has been added to the database and as this information is found, it is added to the database. 

Thanks to Kari Squarzolo who has photographed many of the gravemarkers and when a grave marker has been sourced, it is marked with Kari S. to acknowledge her contribution.

 

During the last few months information from current obituaries and information from the  1950, 1951 and 1952 death certificates has also been added. The Society has over 9,300 entries consisting of  digital  and paper obituaries, stories and death certificates of Finns downloaded from the Ontario Archives for the years 1904 to 1952. These can be obtained by contacting Marty Neva at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Meeting Dates

With the lifting of COVID protocols, we have recommenced monthly meeting at Finlandia in the Impola Meeting room just inside the entrance to the Finlandia Koti Apartment building. Our next meeting is on January 26th, 2025 at 1pm. As noted in other pages we do not have meetings during the months of June, July and August.
To the members who are not feeling the best these days, please know that you are missed at our gatherings, and continually wished the very best possible, each and every day.