The trip of a lifetime is what I’m calling it. In just a couple of days I will be doing something I’ve dreamed of for years, and that is heading to Finland to visit my relatives over there.

Having corresponded with them for many years, I had the opportunity to meet them very briefly (8 hours or so) when I was on Unlock the Past’s Baltic Cruise back in 2015 when our ship stopped at Helsinki for the day (you can read about that here and here). That was super awesome, but nowhere near long enough.

So since then I’ve been saving my dollars and am now actually going … and I’m rather hyper excited about it? Can you tell?

Anyway for those who don’t know, I am 1/8th Finnish, the rest being a mix of English and Irish. Otto Rafael Winter was my Finnish great grandpa who became seaman as a way of getting out of compulsory service to the Russian Army.  And after sailing the world on cargo ships for a number of years, he jumped ship in Australia in 1907, settled in South Australia, got married and had a family … and interestingly enough even signed up to fight in both WW1 and WW2 as an Australian.

For a change this is not a work trip for me, but rather an actual holiday, though I am hoping to hit the National Archives of Finland for a little research and suss out the National Library of Finland as is one library which is always on the “libraries you you must see lists” while I’m there. But other than that I’m playing tourist, taking in the sights, scenes, and daily life of Finland, as well as generally just taking a break.

While I’m not exactly looking forward to the LOOOOOONG flights (all 3 of them) to get there, and travelling the 19,000 kilometres (I checked and that’s pretty close to half way around the world), I still have to be thankful that I’m travelling by plane and not boat, as those journey’s were not hours or days … but MONTHS. And yet that’s what our ancestors lived with when they emigrated. How they managed that, I can’t begin to imagine. But then again there was no other alternative in that era.

Anyway I’m already learning a little about Finland already:
– to compare the size of Finland to Australia, it’s a little bit bigger than Victoria.
– their Summer temperatures are pretty similar to what we’ve been having in Adelaide recently in our Winter at present, mid-high teens.
– Finnish is the national language (as you would expect), Swedish is their second language, and English their third. Fortunately for me they understand English, as I have no idea on how to pronounce any of their words … but I’m sure my relis will have fun listening to me try.

Anyway, subject to me having time and wifi … my posts over the next couple of weeks are likely to primarily be pics of my trip … so stay tuned.

Where would your trip of a lifetime take you to?

I was inspired to write this post as a result of reading Heather Rojo’s blog, Nutfield Genealogy, when wrote about her “Top Ten Genealogy Close Calls“.

The title alone intrigued me, as I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by ‘genealogy close call’. But she explains it well:

“What’s a “Genealogy Close Call”? It happens when I research an ancestor and realize that if fate didn’t intervene I wouldn’t be here today. Some of our ancestors narrowly escaped disasters, only to live on and produce a descendant that led to YOU. “

So that got me thinking. Did I have any “genealogy close calls”. My initial thoughts were no, but as the day progressed I remembered the following incidents:

MY GENEALOGY CLOSE CALLS

WILLIAM KENNARD ELPHICK (c1815-1869)  – Survived the voyage
and wife SUSANNA ELPHICK (nee ELLIOT) (c1812-1899)
William and his wife Susanna married in London in November 1838, and then immediately boarded the ‘Plantar’ ship to start a new life in Australia. The journey which on average takes about four months, took almost six months partly due to the captain’s incompetence – missing a port where they were meant to collect supplies, and having to stop elsewhere as a result, together with other misadventures such which included much of the crew being lost, as were some passengers and most of the livestock. Eventually a new crew was acquired and the journey continued. For more on their story click here. The Elphick family settled in Adelaide, and had numerous children. The Elphick’s are Mr Lonetester’s 3x great grandparents. While not everyone survived this journey, they did, and if they hadn’t he wouldn’t have be here.

OTTO RAFAEL WINTER (1880-1961) – WW1 injuries
Otto Winter was born in Finland and spent 7 years sailing the world on a merchant sailing ship. I’m sure if I had detailed of every voyage there would be ‘close call’ stories there, but I don’t, so I won’t make assumptions. After having jumped ship in Australia, he chose to get naturalised and in 1916 he signed up for the Australian Army in WW1 and was sent off to Belgium. During his three years in the AIF he was wounded several times, including being  shot in the stomach and poisoned with mustard gas while tunnelling at Ypres. Despite this, he survived and made it home to his young wife and baby boy. Had he not survived my grandma would not have been born. For more on Otto Winter click here.

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GENEALOGY CLOSE CALLS, BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

ISAAC RICHARDSON (1804-1873) – sentenced to death
A labourer in Kent, Isaac Richardson together with his bother Simeon, were rioting to stand up for their rights during the Industrial Revolution. Sentenced to death, the local townspeople petitioned to save their life and both were then sentenced to transported to Van Diemen’s Land for life instead. Isaac’s wife Matilda (nee Bonner) and the two children Edward and Esther were given assisted passage in 1837-38. Isaac was granted a conditional pardon in 1842. Isaac and Matilda had a total of 9 children, and continued to live in Tasmania. Isaac’s first born child, Edward was my 3x great grandpa). As Edward was already born before Isaac was transported, this doesn’t count as a ‘close call’ for me, but for descendants of the 7 children that were born later it certainly would. You can read more about Issac Richardson here.

WILLIAM RICHARD RANDELL (1824-1911) – near explosion
William Richard Randell is known as the father of paddlesteamers on the River Murray. He emigrated with his parents from Devon, England in 1837 and initially they bred cattle and drove them along the land along the Murray River, in South Australia and later setup flour mills in the Adelaide Hills. Despite having no previous experience in navigation or having ever seen a steamboat, W.R. Randell became obsessed with building a paddlesteamer to transport supplies up and down the river. And by 1853 the “Mary Ann” which he built became the first paddlesteamer in South Australia. The boiler, a box shape, and made of lead riveted together was said to have “needed chains wrapped around the middle. Even then when proceeding at maximum speed the sides and top were observed to swell in and out like a concertina”. And while it didn’t explode, but it seems like it wasn’t far from it. William Richard Randell is a half-brother to my 2x great grandpa … so he’s not a direct relative. But had he not survived his paddlesteaming days, it certainly would affected his direct line.

GEORGE PHILLIPS (1865-1941) – nearly drowned
There’s a story that’s been handed down the generations in my family about George Phillips. George Phillips and his wife Mary Ann (nee Kemp), along with their baby boy, also George, emigrated from England to South Australia in 1865 onboard the “Adamant”. The story goes that a fellow female passenger was holding baby George, when Mary Ann had a bad feeling or premonition, so she collected him from the lady, and shortly afterwards that poor lady fell overboard. I don’t know the validity of the story, except that there was a lady who drowned on the voyage out mentioned in the surgeon’s journals. So it is a possibility. And as baby George survived, he counts as a genealogy close call, although not for me, as he’s a brother to my great great grandpa, not my direct line.

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While I don’t have many ‘close calls’ in this list. Ok technically only two, this just means that I have more research to do. More digging to find the stories.

Just think of all the possibilities there are, past and present: car accidents, horse and cart accidents, farm accidents, mining accidents, fires in the house, other occupational accidents, childbirth, fell down steps, numerous diseases and ailments, natural disasters (fires, floods, famine, tornado, cyclone, hurricane), major sporting injuries, a close encounter with a wild animal, or was your ancestor known for getting in fights? The list is endless …

Now I’m off to see what else I can find …

I’ve been good recently and have been scanning a few more old family photos. Scanning isn’t the funest job in the universe. In fact it’s rather a drag. But still it is nice to have a few more done. And they are nice high res ones, named, and filed appropriately, ready for when I need to access them again in the future.

But while I was scanning some photos of one of my grandmas, I thought I’d like to share them so came up with an idea to do a mostly pictorial blog post of both of my grandma’s (maternal and paternal), and in another one I’ll show you my four great grandma’s.

So let me introduce you firstly to Evelyn Hannaford (nee Randell) my maternal grandma (1916-2006)

And that brings me to Valda Phillips (nee Winter), my paternal grandma (1921-living)

Previously I wrote about my day in Finland in an overview form, but reality I glossed over the best parts because I was saving it for this post.

First off, let me start by telling you my connection to this country comes through my great grandfather, Otto Rafael Winter who was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1880.

The third of six children, he was the son of a cigar factory worker, and in 1902, 22 year old Otto left Finland to become a seaman. After sailing around the world for five years or so, he jumped ship in Queensland (Australia), and over the course of the next few years he made his way down to Sydney, before making his was to Adelaide, which my home city.

It is here that he met the love of his life, Irene Daley. And it is here where they settled. I won’t go into detail about his life as I’ve written about him before, but needless to say that while he did write to his family back home, he never actually saw them again.

So now on with my story …

Sunday, 19 July 2015
Sunday, 19 July 2015 is one of those dates for me. You know the ones I mean. A day when something significant happens (good or bad), but either way it is memorable, and that date just sticks with you.

This date was significant for me, because I FINALLY got to Finland. To say that this has been on my bucket list forever is an understatement. So just to get there was exciting. But while we (my parents and I) were there, we also met a number of relatives – the living ones as well as the dead, walked the streets of Helsinki, shopped at the markets, ate fabulous cake from a coffee shop, AND was shown an old family photo album. And really didn’t want to leave to go back to the ship.

Seriously this day goes down in history – for me anyway!

After making it off the ship we were met at the port by Bengt Winter (my 3rd cousin once removed), who then drove us to the cemetery nearby to see the graves of some relatives.

The Helsinki cemetery is gorgeous. It’s incredibly serene, and I could have stayed there all day as it was so peaceful. We first saw the grave of my 3x great grandpa (Gustav Wilhelm Winter), and then found the gave of my 2x great grandparents (Otto Edvard and Hedvik Karolina Winter) and some other relatives. Oh boy … can you feel my excitement??

Meeting the relatives
Next stop was Bengt’s place in Helsinki city, with other relatives meeting us there. This was so exciting, finally meeting people that I had corresponded with of a number of years

The group photo at the top shows us all together excluding Bengt’s wife, Lotta who kindly took the photo.

I am indebted to my relatives, Bengt and Lotta Winter for their kind hospitality and for organising the family get together … and for the other relatives to travelled to Helsinki to meet with us for part of a day. I was thrilled to finally meet my 3rd cousin Ari and his gorgeous wife Heidi-Maria in person. It was exciting to meet Jüssi, who has been corresponding with my grandma for many, many years, and to meet up again with Glen and his wife Tuovi who I had met in Australia previously.

Having a one day stop-over, which in reality turned out to be more like 7 hours simply wasn’t enough time. Still 7 hours was so much better than none at all.

But for this this get together was one that has taken 113 years for our families to reconnect.

Souvenirs
I went prepared having filled my suitcase with Aussie souvenirs for my extended family – soft toys, Australian flags, Vegemite, Tim Tams and Fruchocs – all good Aussie stuff. What I didn’t expect was that I would be given gifts too. I was totally spoilt, and went home with far more than I gave, so I did have to do some creative packing to get everything home.

The Photo Album
While there Jüssi, who is my 2nd cousin once removed, showed us an old family photo album, which we didn’t know existed. This was choc full of the old cabinet style photos, and fortunately a number of them are even named. Gold!

Fortunately I had packed the little Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner that I had borrowed for the day (as I didn’t have room to bring my own), as we were able to scan them.

This album has photos of my great grandpa, his mum and her mum as well. Incredible. Then there’s various siblings as well. Ones that I’d never seen photos of before. A true treasure.

Helsinki
With a few hours till I had to be back on the boat, we decided to wander Helsinki and see what we see.

Apart from some beautiful buildings, we saw an archery competition that was going in their city square, the markets, and we stopped in at a cafe for some afternoon tea.

It truly was a day to remember, so much better than I could have ever imagined it. Meeting my extended family (which I guess you’d call a mini family reunion) was awesome. And before I was even back on the ship, I had decided that I want to (and need to) go back. So now I had better start saving my dollars, as this could take a while!!!