We visited Olli Sotamaa in Espoo, about 25 miles outside Helsinki. It was a quiet, hot Sunday afternoon. Olli's wife Tuuli was in Botley, Hampshire, with their daughter Mira who was due to give birth. Tuuli is the genealogist in the family, and it was through her subscription to the Finnish forum that Olli asked his question about the Antons. We spoke on Skype as she was very excited about the fact that we were visiting... so were we!
Olli's explanation about the change of surname is that his father has 'finnicised' it in the 1930s... Söderman means 'man of the south' : Sotatmaa means 'war land', so the change was to something that sounded similar even if the meaning was far from the original. He says that "according to the Finnish Population Registry Centre there are in Finland 757 persons whose surname is Söderman, I suppose all are not relatives. Surname Sotamaa have 67 persons, all are relatives but our family connection is not very close."
In 1986 Olli's cousin Heidi Backstrom created a document that gave us more new information, photocopies of photographs and some more surprises about Anton Söderman (2), our common ancestor.
Olli's explanation about the change of surname is that his father has 'finnicised' it in the 1930s... Söderman means 'man of the south' : Sotatmaa means 'war land', so the change was to something that sounded similar even if the meaning was far from the original. He says that "according to the Finnish Population Registry Centre there are in Finland 757 persons whose surname is Söderman, I suppose all are not relatives. Surname Sotamaa have 67 persons, all are relatives but our family connection is not very close."
In 1986 Olli's cousin Heidi Backstrom created a document that gave us more new information, photocopies of photographs and some more surprises about Anton Söderman (2), our common ancestor.
The photo of Brita Caisa and her son Andreas appear to be taken in about 1870, possibly during the same session as the chair they both occupy looks similar. She would have been aged about 65 or more, and she looks comfortably-off, well-dressed.
It is a real pity that we cannot see the originals - Olli says they are in the Finnish National Archives, embargoed until about 2030, following Heidi's death in 2010.
It is a real pity that we cannot see the originals - Olli says they are in the Finnish National Archives, embargoed until about 2030, following Heidi's death in 2010.
He would have been about 30 when the photo was taken, born in 1841. He looks prosperous, pinstripe trousers, white bow tie. The caption for him says that he had brown eyes, but was blind in one of them as a result of a tree branch hitting it; it also mentions bankruptcy!
Heidi's translated notes (with some comments from me in italics):
- she says he had his own ship that used to plough the seas between London, Öregrund, and in Finland, Uusikaupunki (Nystad) and Kokkola, also Pietersaari (Jacobstad). As captain he was working on the Forsoket, for which I have records until 1826 including to London, which was owned by PJ Eschilon and sold to Henric Bergstrom in 1827, while it was at sea with him as the skipper! Then he captained the Activ, for which I have records from 1832. He is also captain of the Fortuna in 1835.
- One day in Pietersaari he met Brita Caisa, and married her, moving to Finland. They were married in 1832, in Gamla Karleby, and Brita had lived there for all of the 10 year period before then, in the family house in the same street as Anton & she lived after marriage, Storgatan. Anton originally came to Finland in about 1819, and worked on the Mercurius for Peter Pousette out of GK. He was certainly established there from around 1822. It's possible that Brita could have been in Pietarsaari with her brother Jacob's ship, as he was a captain who is found sailing from that town. This bit needs more investigation!
- Another curiosity is that Heidi says it was a second marriage for both of them. This is certainly a mystery! Although Heidi says she was a 'leski', a widow, Brita Caisa is described as a 'jungfru' on her marriage record, which suggests a single woman as she was 28 when they married. There are no marriage records for her in Kokkola prior to 1832. Similarly, Anton's records do not show a first wife, although this might have been in Sweden. We wonder if it relates to the episode with Brita Dahlberg in 1823, especially if he moved to stay permanently in Finland as a result of what Michael described as a "broken heart"!
- Finally, the oddest thing of all - that Anton died and was buried in Uusikaupunki, up the coast from Turku and not in Gamla Karleby at all!