At the end of the 19th century it was quite common among the young men living in the archipelago or on coastal areas to work for a few years on board a commercial ship. Most of those young men returned to their home islands, but some of them stayed abroad. There may still be distant relatives living in Australia, Spain, USA...
Many of the stories stay open. In some cases the history of the person himself is known, but nothing of his decendants. The following story is one of those, the story of Axel.
My grandfathers elder brother, Axel Willehad Wirtanen, born 12.7.1896 in Parainen Finland, sailed as a young man to USA.
According to Ellis Island's documents he arrived in New York the 5th of July in 1917 as a crew member on 'Ausable'. He was granted citizenship the 1st of May in 1919 and was married ab. the same year. Axel's sister Elli stayed for a while with Axel and his family, then later for a few years with other families of Finnish origin, but returned to Finland for a vacation, married and stayed. Based on her stories and communion books of Sagu parish in Finland, the brother Axel was married to a daughter of a French captain of one of the ships he was sailing on.
In 1922 Axel and his family lived at Apt. 23, 411-East-100St. New York N.Y.
In 1923 he is mentioned as a crew member and US citizen on 'Roma' coming from Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone, France. The captain of the ship is Antonie/ Antonin Combernous, age 43.
Axel had one daughter before he died of tuberculousis the 23th of October in 1924. The names and later stages of life of his wife and daughter are unknown. His parents in Finland were, however, informed of his death.
29.12.2010:
Later information has given more light to Axel's family and decendants in USA. I want to thank all his relatives for discussions on this subject.
I've deleted the contents of the comments from the public page, but the information is stored in my personal archives.
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