Finnish Heritage Museum 301 High Street
Fairport Harbor, Oh, 44077
Map Here
Museum Hours:
Saturday 10am-3pm
"Ohio Genealogist's Family Journey"
by Jovette Hiltunen

It isn’t often you have a celebrated genealogist visit your museum but the Finnish Heritage Museum was lucky to host Roy Ritter, III, for a Sunday afternoon program. His story, From Finland to Ohio: My Great Grandparents’ Journey, might have sounded a little familiar to others whose family members immigrated from Finland during the Great Migration of the late 19th century up until 1924. In fact, 300,000 Finns, or roughly 10% of the population, particularly from the western part of Ostrobothnia, an agricultural portion of Finland, found themselves setting up new homes in the United States during that time. Ritter noted that the Finnish Migration Museum is an open-air museum area, located on the shore of Lake Kalajärvi in Peräseinäjok and would be of particular interest to those whose families emigrated during this time.

As we have learned from other speakers, Finland had a no name area for it for a very long time and it was perhaps not until the 1200’s, during the Crusades, that Sweden took an interest in the area occupied by the Finns. During the Middle Ages the Finns were drawn into all the wars, 35 in number, for Sweden. It was however Sweden’s loss to Russia during the “Finnish War” that Sweden ceded Finland to Tsarist Russia. At that time it was called the Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland remained a Grand Duchy for over 100 years and ended when the Russians overthrew the Tsar in the Russian Revolution. It was then that Finland declared its independence on December 6, 1917. Lenin was in power in Russia at that time and he took very little note of Finland.

Perhaps lesser known is the “Finnish Famine of the 1860’s” wherein 138,000 people (8% of the population) died of famine. All over Finland there are a total of 100 famine memorials. Roy’s relative, John Henry Hemming, of the Hemming family died at age 39 of famine as did Elias, at only two months. These famine monuments are most common in Ostrobothnia, Satakunta, and Northern Karelia. These were the areas of greatest mortality.

Roy’s maternal grandparents were John “Juha” and Amanda Uitto Hemming and John Gust and Ottillia Haavisto Makee. Why Ohio? Finnish immigrants were drawn to the opportunities that existed in the northeastern Ohio ports of Ashtabula and Youngstown as well as the railroad of Pittsburgh. At this same time, the United States was in need of laborers and recruiters went to Finland to encourage Finns to emigrate to the U.S. After reaching the U.S. the Finns wrote home to their families and friends to come. Most of these Finns were young, able-bodied men. There were women, but most came much later. Roy’s great grandfather John was a crofter in Finland (tenant farmer) and his great grandmother Amanda was a servant girl. It was not until after 1850 that surnames were important in Finland so some of their surnames, most likely Roy’s “Hemming” came from the farms where they worked. John Hemming died November 10, 1934, at the age of 68 in Fairport Harbor. His obituary stated that he had been a resident of Fairport for 36 years and worked for the Diamond Alkali Co. He was also a member of the Suomi Zion Lutheran Church. Amanda was a member of the church as well and of the Temperance society.

John Gust Makee was born in Kauhava, Finland on November 27, 1871. This family changed their surnames several times. When he arrived in the U.S. he used the name Juha Kustaa Kotimaki but later he changed it to Makee. In Finland his original surname was Hietala. John’s father also changed his surname. He was Matti Koukkari and then changed to Matti Hietala. Stella immigrated to the U.S. in 1899 to live with her brother. However, when she arrived in Newcastle, her brother had already left and gone back to Finland. Stella found a job as a maid in one of the houses. John and Stella met in Pennsylvania but soon relocated to Newbury, Ohio. In 1918, they had moved to Painesville, Ohio. They had 11 children and of those children all were boys except one. They lived on Sanford Street in Painesville.

Roy’s grandparents, Gus Leonard Hemming and Millie Makee were married on December 23, 1926, at Zion Lutheran Church. The Hemming and Makee families were united.

Roy has a fond memory of the Haavisto Family Reunion of 2023 where he was invited to the family summer house. Here he had sauna and a jump in the water.