Helsinki Reader Asks for Help Finding Lost Relatives

HELSINKI, FINLAND - Thursday, April 23, 2009 - This afternoon the Chronicle received the following email from Ulla Terho, Helsinki, Finland. It is our hope that someone will know something about the people mentioned in the letter and can help out locating some missing relatives.

Good afternoon from Helsinki, Finland

I am looking for the descendants of my grandmothers siblings, hailing from POLLARI family, Ylistaro, Finland. Four of them emigrated to the USA around the turn of the century 1900. Judging from old photos the daughter, Maria Greta (Kreeta) might have settled in New York. She did not have children.

The three boys seem to have landed in Ironwood and eventually its surroundings.

They were:

  1. IISAKKI (Isac), born in 1873, married Liisa Kujala, had at least 2-3 children that reached adulthood..
  2. TUOMAS (Thomas), born in 1877, married Sofia Stadig. Tuomas and Sofia have deceased as early as in 1913 and 1919, and seem to have left behind only one surviving son, Arvo. Arvo Pollari and his wife Ellen had a farm in Bessemer and are known to have lived there in late 1960's.
  3. JAAKKO (Jacob), lived 1880-1953, but had no issue.

One of Iisakki's children Tyyne (Mildred) Johnson was visited by a Finnish relative in Iron Mountain in the 1970's.

Another of Iisakki's children seems to have been Lempi Pehu, who is known to have moved from Fitchburg to Lantana, Florida, in the 1960's with husband Einari.

These are the last contacts any of us Finnish descendants of the Pollari family have had with the American families.I would now very much like to hear from any descendants of Iisakki and Tuomas Pollari or receive any other information about the lives of the siblings and their descendants in the Upper Peninsula or elsewhere.

Luckily an old photo album has survived in the old Pollari house - still standing in Ylistaro, and has recently come to my attention. There are no names of the people portrayed, but luckily in most cases the names of the photographic establishments, mostly in Ironwood, some in Crystal Falls and Wakefield. These have led me to the Gogebic Range!

I am enclosing a couple of these photos, very likely of our great-uncles.

With best greetings and hoping for positive response,

Ulla Terho, ullterho@welho.com