This oral family history was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in 1969 or 1970 at the home of Wallace and Mary Jane Huskonen, 6644 Hawthorne Dr, Brecksville, Ohio. Speaking was Mary Jane Huskonen (born Dingman, known simply as Mary) with comments by her son, Walfrid. Mary made the recording for her granddaughter Karen who
Read on »Posts Tagged: Huskonen
Mom Was Born 110 Years Ago Today
Mary Jane Dingman was born on December 14, 1908 (110 years ago today), to Wallace Betts Dingman and Grace Green Morley Dingman. She was born at the family’s home in Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio. She grew up to be a teacher, wife, and mother, then a teacher again, business manager, and finally a caregiver. Her
Read on »She Rode to Work with Dad during WWII
At a meeting of the Finnish American Heritage Association (FAHA) at its museum in Ashtabula a couple of years ago, a friendly lady remarked to me that she rode to work with my father, Walfrid Herbert Huskonen, during World War II. They drove from my hometown, Andover, Ohio, about 12 miles south on Ohio Rt
Read on »Finnish Newspaper Features My Visit to Finland
This morning, I received an email from Cousin Matti in Finland with a digital image of the report in the Savo regional newspaper about my visit to Finland during the last week in June. The headline translates into “Enjoying a Visit to My Grandparents’ Birthplace.” I wrote a basic article and sent it to Matti
Read on »She Was Listed in Outstanding Young Women of America 1971
The other day I did some more cleaning and organizing of “things” around the house. I came across the book Outstanding Young Women of America, 1971. I had forgotten about this volume and the entry for Mary Jane (MJ), my late wife. Here is how the publishing organization describes the volume: “The Outstanding Young Women of
Read on »Hello to Finnish Cousins
I just received word via email that notice of my recent posts about Cousin Matti sending Kaapro Huuskonen’s biography to me, and how he and my brother Walfrid translated it into English, has been circulated to other Huuskonen (original spelling of surname) cousins. For their benefit, in case they take a look at this blog,
Read on »A Gift of Family Info from Finland
My brother Walfrid has maintained regular correspondence with cousins in Finland. Recently, I asked him exactly what the relationship was. He responded with his best explanation. I entered the info in my Ancestry.com tree. There were some missing “leaves” so I decided last evening to contact our cousin Matti myself by email and ask for
Read on »Mary Jane Van Court Huskonen 1938-2017
On Friday, 19 May 2017, we said goodbye to our wife and mother, Mary Jane. She had suffered from dementia as well as hip and shoulder problems during the last three years. After a brief hospital stay in April, followed by four weeks in a skilled nursing facility, she lived out her final days at
Read on »Surnames in Finland
Today, I accessed the wiki page on FamilySearch.org labeled “Finland Surnames.” It was quite helpful as it very clearly explained the surname practices in Western Finland versus those in Eastern Finland. Eastern and western Finland have different naming traditions. Both naming customs date back to the earliest written sources. There was frequent overlap of these practices
Read on »MyHeritage Yields Finnish Researchers Interested in My Ancestors
I just gave myself a Christmas present of a premium membership to MyHeritage.com. By poking around in the free version, I gathered the strong impression that this genealogical database provider has a bigger presence in Europe than Ancestry.com. I entered some very limited information about my Huuskonen (original spelling) ancestors on an online tree I created
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