Family History 3, part one

 For the past weeks, I have focused my extra energy on figuring out the life stages of a relative I found by chance. While browsing old American newspapers, my attention was drawn to the memoir of an American Finn who died on the west coast of the United States, which also mentioned the surnames of her parents. Her mother, Anna Huru, was said to be nee Surakka. I had never heard before that my grandmother’s relatives had ever lived on the west coast of the United States. So, I was immediately ready to investigate and find out who she was and how she had ended up in America.

Anna Surakka (Huru) was born on February 11, 1885 in the village of Taipale to the family of Ivan Vasiljev Surakka (1846 - 1902) and Anna Vasiljev Ratilainen (1851 - 1914). The family had lived in roughly the same places since at least the 1530s. A large part of the Orthodox indigenous population moved from the region to Russia in the 17th century due to wars and unrest. They feared revenge on the Swedes, as they had often sided with the Russians as they fought with Swedish troops and troops from western Finland. North Karelia, together with Käkisalmi County, was transferred from the Russian rule to the Swedish krona in the peace of Stolbova in 1617. The willingness to emigrate was also increased by the fear of forced conversion to Lutheranism and the recruitment and propaganda by the Russians for emigration.

It is known that the two brothers of Surakka, Hövilä and Maksima, left for exile to Russia during the "Ruptuuri War" in 1656-1658, but they returned to their homeland. Hövilä returned immediately after the peace came, Maksima a few years later. The Lutheran population moved to the deserted farms during the war from the west (mainly from Savo) and the south. The northern parts of North Karelia were almost completely emptied of Orthodox inhabitants. Almost the same thing happened to the Orthodox in Rääkkylä, Kitee, Kesälahti and Tohmajärvi. However, the native population remained to live in a couple of villages in Kitee and Tohmajärvi. In the eastern part of the province, in the Ilomantsi-Tuupovaara area, a rather strong Orthodox settlement remained, but even there they remained a minority. Liperi, which later included the Polvijärvi, Kuusjärvi (Outokumpu), Kontiolahti and Kaavi areas, which later became their own parishes, also had a fairly strong Orthodox indigenous population. The reason why the population of this particular area did not leave for Russia or return from there was probably that the region was a good farming area by that standard and the native population had the best and most fertile areas on the shores of Lake Viinijärvi, Pyhäselkä and Heposelkä. Although subjected to Lutheran forced conversions and pressure and submissive to the power of the "enemy land", there was a desire to fight nail teeth for the homeland which was cleared and owned by the ancestors.

Many Orthodox lived in the villages of Taipale, Viiniranta, Kompero, Harmaasalo, Sysmä and Sotkuma, as well as along the Pielisjoki River in Jakokoski and Paihola. After conditions calmed down, the Orthodox population, which remained a minority, grew faster than the Lutherans. Presumably it was because the Orthodox were, on average, wealthier than the Lutherans. In the famine years that were then occasional at the time, the scythe man of death reaped his harvest far more abundantly among the poor than the rich.

After the long background explanation I mentioned above, I will return to Anna Surakka’s family. His family's main farm was Taipale village farm number 13. This later formed four farms: according to the 1855 land register, they were Taipale no. 25 Uusisurakkala, Taipale no. 26 Ristonkangas, Taipale no. 28 Wanhasurakkala. Anna's grandparents Vasili Jakovlev Surakka (1812 - 1863) and Tatjana Aleksejev Ratilainen (1819-1887) have been hosting Wanhasurakkala since 1858. After Vasili's death, the farm was continued by his son Ivan (1846 - 1902), who was married to Anna Vasiljev Ratilainen (1851 - 1914). Anna and Ivan's family had eight children, four of whom had already died before Anna was born. When Anna let go of her first tanning, only her three-year-old brother Kondrat was alive. Anna and Kondrat were accompanied by little sister Mary (b. 1887) and little brother Alexander (b. 1894).

To be continued...