The journey started in the east in the tiny village of Sotkamo, and from there it was on to the port town of Hanko at the southernmost tip of Finland, then a week-long voyage to England and all the way across the Atlantic to Ellis Island, finally ending in Ohio – and all with only a small suitcase and 21 dollars in his pocket. After the month-long journey, a new continent, a new life and a new job in a mine stood before him.
This is how a seventh grader Elias Jurmu traced his grandmother’s grandfather’s immigration to America.
The story is part of a school project on immigration at Pohjankartano Lower Secondary School where seventh graders are learning about the history of America by tracking down their ancestors’ emigration history.
The pupils write stories based on their grandparents’ tales about emigrant relatives. If the student does not have any relatives who emigrated, they can make up an emigrant story of their own. A useful source for tracing one’s ancestors’ emigration from Finland is the online emigrant register run by the Finnish Institute of Migration, which has detailed records of the Finns who immigrated to America as well as records about their journey.