Another new member in Texas

[DaveCarlson Registered Find all posts View Profile Close DaveCarlson]

Hej!

Longtime lurker, new member here.

I'm from Seattle Washington, currently reside in Central Texas.
I went on a family heritage tour a couple years ago organized by the SFHS in Seattle.
My paternal great-grandparents were from Korsnäs, Närpes, Malax/ Maalahti in Ostrobothnia. It appears none of my paternal great-grandfather's sisters who remained in Finland had any children.
A maternal great-grandfather came from Umeå in Västerbotten.

I've got some distant relatives in Västerbotten who were tremendously helpful in getting started with Swedish language records and the church books. I was able to visit them. I try to "play it forward" and help people with record searches at the Digital Archives of the National Archives of Finland, the SSHY/ Finland Family Heritage Association church records database, and the Genealogical Society of Finland HisKi project database, so I'm fairly familiar with the available databases. Greatly looking forward to my new membership here.

Med vänliga hälsningar/ M v H,
Dave C

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Welcome as an active member. Are you aware of the well-known Sursill family from Umea - there are a number of descendants here as members of Finlander, as well as on Facebook.

[DaveCarlson Registered Find all posts View Profile Close DaveCarlson]

Ha-ha! Yes, I do in fact have ancestral connections to that Sursill family in Västerbotten! Small world.

I've got some ancestors in the line who were "Swedes of the realm" and others who were allotment soldiers or settlers that settled in Österbotten. When I was there a couple summers ago, some of the islands in the Gulf of Bothnia were pointed out as sites the post sleds could put into when everything was frozen over, and there was a need to get out of the extreme cold.

Kiitos/ Tack for the kind welcome.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Dave,

Are you aware of the closed group on Facebook for Sursill descendants? If not, and you wish to join, let me know and I can submit your name. They'll want to know your line of descent from Erik Ångerman Sursill. Lars Holm is part of the group who are updating Genealogia Sursilliana.. a project that will take many years.

[DaveCarlson Registered Find all posts View Profile Close DaveCarlson]

Hello June,

That is very kind of you to let me know. I was entirely unaware of that group. I do have a lot of information on Erik Ångerman Sursill, and various Östensson Sursill and Östensdotter Sursill descendants. I may have sawed that limb of the tree for the time being, as often happens when dealing with people that far back, into the fifteenth century and so on. Perhaps if some of the members have DNA tests, it might help. There is a lot of what anthropologists call "endogamy" and what laymen call cousin marriage or "inbreeding" in parts of my line, particularly the Västerbotten/ Umeå line it would seem.

I'll go back over some of the branches and double check what the relationship might be before I try to contact the group.

[Peltopera52 Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Peltopera52]

June, could I get an invite as well? My family also connects into the Sursill lines-- Erik Ångerman Sursill was my 12-greats grandfather (Erik's grand-daughter married a Calamnius; eventually leading down to one who married a Kranck, whose daughter married a Wegelius, whose grand-daughter married my great-great-great-grandfather Matti who had a multitude of surnames-- Mäkelä, Helisten, Peltoniemi, Peltoperä, Palosaari, and Laiti; there are a number of Laitis and Peltos in America who are descended from him).

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Yes, I'd be happy to submit your name to the committee. Can you send me your email address, either here or in a PM.