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Thunder Bay, Ontario has a very large Finnish / Finnish-Canadian population This project covers the entire Thunder Bay District (Wikipedia).
The purpose of the project is to support the research and collaboration of Finnish and Canadian genealogists when it comes to Finnish emigrants to the area and their descendants who have lived there.
Finnish immigrants began to arrive in the Thunder Bay area in the mid 1870’s. At that time, the destination was either the city of Fort William, Ontario, Canada or the city of Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada until the two cities were amalgamated in 1970 to become the City of Thunder Bay.
The next step for many Finnish immigrants was a search for their new home and perhaps a homestead in rural Thunder Bay. A 1976 publication “A Chronicle of Finnish Settlements in Rural Thunder Bay - Bay Street project No 2” introduces the names and stories of those Finns who established homesteads and expanded out of the city in all directions across the District of Thunder Bay.
Those rural Finnish settlements included North Branch, Tarmola, Lappe, Kivikoski, Ostola, Intola, Miller, Alppila, Kaministiquia, Pohjola, Dog River, Sunshine, Finmark, Kashabowie, Mabella, Shabaqua, Shebandowan, Mokomon, Stanley, Murillo, Sellars, Leeper, Nolalu, Hymers, Suomi, Silver Mountain, Lybster, Marks, Gillies, Strange, Pearson, Devon, South Gillies and Kakabeka.
Often the search for work in the timber business or mining development took the Finns northeastward from Thunder Bay to communities such as Red Rock, Nipigon, Beardmore, Jellicoe, Geraldton and Longlac.
Still others went to work on the railways and llived along the routes in Upsala, Wava, Buda, Schreiber, Hornepayne or Nakina.
The first generation of Finnish-Canadian children born to Finns in the Thunder Bay area is recorded about 1879. There are now as many as 6 subsequent generations of descendants of Finnish immigrants born in the Thunder Bay area and many still living in the area. This translates into 10’s of thousands of children and grandchildren and so on which leads to the purpose of this project. Historically, every Finnish community had a Finn Hall, so to accommodate today’s online Finnish genealogical research we need a similar concept to find and meet family through a “virtual” Finn Hall for Thunder Bay Finns.
The following links may be of assistance in Finnish genealogical research or historical background.
Thunder Bay District cemeteries
Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society
https://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/
http://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski?en
https://siirtolaisuusinstituutti.fi/en/frontpage-eng/
A more detailed project about the homesteaders around Nolalu: Nolalu homesteaders
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROJECT
If you are a geni.com user and you have a Thunder Bay Finn in your online Geni family tree, then please add their profile to the project.
Remember any profile added to the Thunder Bay Finn project should be a Finnish born immigrant to the Thunder Bay area or a descendant child of a Finnish born immigrant who lived in the Thunder Bay area.
You can start a discussion by clicking the prompt at the the top right hand corner of the page and share your information..
If you are not a Geni.com user, you can still view all the posted profiles as well as any ongoing discussions.