Do you actually know how large the Haataja family is? I come from a family of 10 kids and my dad had 15 in his family, befor that is unclear. Our geneology is a little fuzzy, the finns married indians when they arrived in the US in the 1800s. Anyway, I like to read about the mystery, it is exciting and it makes me think of how he may or may not be related to me and my family. Write back if you know any of his history. thanks
kristine haataja | 01.20.08 - 7:55 pm | #

Hi Kristine- It is interesting to find a person with my same name! Professor Steve Haataja was my first cousin. His father and my father were brothers. They came from a very large farm family in Western Minnesota. Our family also came to Minnesota in the 1880's. Somehow the family geneology stayed quite "pure" since I am still 100% Finn in the 3rd generation. I also have a sister who married a Finn, so their 4 children are 100% Finn. Mostly, I was interested that you and I share the same name...I found you when i googled my name! There are not a lot of Finns in this world, so we are probably related somewhere along the line.
Kristine Haataja | 05.10.08 - 1:46 am | #

I do have a cousin that lives in Minn., Do you know many of your great grand parents names and infor? I would be very interested to find out if we are connected in some way. Many of the names were changed from finnish to something simmilar in english. I am almost all finn with a little french canadian. My uncle Leslie in the UP is doing research over the internet to find decendants in Finland. I have the records of my grampa and grandmas families but nothing befor that when they came to the US. Thanks for contacting me, it is cool to know that we have the same name. What is your middle initial? Talk to you soon.
kristine laura haataja | 06.03.08 - 4:10 pm | #