Juntunens in North America

Work continues on research about Juntunen family members that became immigrants in North America. The North America Juntunen History Project has logged thousands of hours of research, travel, data entry, and writing for several major, related topics. These include: (1) Juntunen ship arrival records and associated immigrant travel, (2) Juntunen immigrant destinations in North America including towns, industrial locations, settlements, homesteads, and farms; (3) genealogy for Juntunen family branches as submitted by interested Juntunen descendants, and (4) genealogy links to original records for Juntunens in Finland. Results of this research combine to provide meaningful insight and understanding of Juntunen immigrants and their descendents.

Key to this work is using a widespread variety of records from centralized data sources at the U.S. National Archives, on the Internet, and in local county government records. We continue collecting data from ship arrival records, the U.S. Census, homestead records of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, local land ownership records, naturalization records, and birth, marriage, and death vital records from county courthouses in the states where many Juntunen immigrants lived. Local county governments often archive vital records in the United States, but not always. In some places, records are stored in state capitals or by local historical societies. Canadian passenger lists before 1925 have not been indexed. The lists can be found on microfilm at the Canadian National Archives in Ottawa. Of more than 3,200 U.S.A. counties, only a few hundred are likely to have had Juntunens located within their boundaries yet it is challenging to find appropriate records. One source of county locations for Juntunens is the U.S. Social Security Death Index. The North American Juntunen Project is coordinating Juntunen immigrant records from many data sources, seeking to establish linkages with Juntunens listed in Finnish passport and church record data supplied by the Juntunen Society of Finland. Our goal continues to be the publication of the North American Juntunen journal containing results of research and genealogy submissions.

One of the very interesting topics of research is the pattern of Juntunen immigrant travel along the “Great Lakes route” into North America. Many Juntunens arrived in Halifax/St. John or Quebec/Montreal, Canada. Many traveled from those seaports to Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, the Dakotas, and Canadian provinces. Some even went to the Far West and Alaska. So far, the North American Juntunen Project has concentrated research on Juntunen immigrants who traveled the Great Lakes route to Michigan, Minnesota, and the Dakotas where a majority of Juntunens first arrived and settled. But not all Juntunens traveled the Great Lakes route to northern Michigan. Some had destinations in New York, Boston, or other eastern U.S. ports. Others were headed to Massachusetts, New York State, Delaware, southern Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Finding their traces is an enormous challenge.

Most Juntunen immigrants arrived at the Canadian ports of Quebec and Montreal. Quebec is an old Canadian city founded in 1608 by the French explorer Samuel De Champlain. It overlooks the mouth of the majestic St. Lawrence River where it empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. As immigrant ships entered these waters, they picked up pilots to guide them along the St.Lawrence passageway from the Gulf to the immigrant arrival station on Belle Island adjacent to Quebec City, where medical clearance was required prior to entry.

Other Juntunen immigrants arrived in Halifax, on the seacoast of the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. Halifax is southeast of Quebec, across the Gaspé Peninsula and the Appalachian Mountains on the Atlantic. It is east across the Bay of Fundy from Bar Harbor, Maine and slightly southeast of St. John, New Brunswick. Nova Scotia’s indigenous Mi’kmaq, used the name Chebucto, ‘’at the great harbor’’ for the place that British Colonel Cornwallis named Halifax after British Earl Halifax in 1749. In the succeeding century, the city became a major center for trade along the Atlantic coast. At Halifax, a 19th century stone fort sits on a hill overlooking the city, and immigrants arrived in large numbers at many small docks in the harbor. A new Pier 21 was opened in 1928 for processing the thousands of later immigrants that arrived in Halifax. Further research may determine the type of transport used by Juntunens from Halifax to inland North American destinations.

According to our research, 40 percent of 147 Juntunens traveling the Great Lakes route crossed the ocean in 8-10 days in steamships named Virginian, Tunisian, or Victorian. These steamships were in the 10,000-ton class of ships owned by the Allan Line that sailed from Liverpool, England to Quebec, Canada from 1880 to 1920. However, the Numidian, Laurentian, and Parisian, steamships of the 5,000-ton class, also carried nearly 20 percent of Juntunens to Canadian ports. These and other steamships were listed on Juntunen manifests when they crossed the border into the U.S.A. After disembarking their ships, many Juntunens took trains across the eastern Canadian provinces to reach Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. There they crossed the border and the St. Mary’s River into the United States of America at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. There were many other U.S.A. border-crossing stations on the Great Lakes route, including stations at Niagara Falls, NY; Detroit, MI; Port Huron, MI; Duluth, MN; Milwaukee, WI; and Chicago, IL.

The 147 Juntunen immigrants that traveled inland from Canadian seaports used an already ancient travel route into the heart of the North American continent — a route that had been followed much earlier by Aboriginal, French, and English discoverers, traders, and colonists. Juntunen immigrants on the Great Lakes route were often single males. Our research shows that sixty three percent were male while 37 percent were female. Twenty percent of these arrivals indicated that they were married, and over 75 percent indicated that they were single. Many of the immigrants were bound for northern Michigan destinations where a friend or relative would meet them. The males often said they were laborers. Many took jobs as iron or copper miners or lumberjacks. Some of the single females planned to work as “domestics”, while married females anticipated being met by husbands who had immigrated previously.

Most Juntunen immigrants on the Great Lakes route were in their twenties. About 55 percent were 20 to 26 years old. Married Juntunens sometimes arrived with their infants or small children, and a few gave birth enroute. While the New World offered hope and promise for many, there were also those that had second thoughts or even regrets about leaving their family and homeland. In Canadian seaports (and later in US cities and towns), they often encountered rough and rowdy conditions and the myriad concerns of a new and different land. From England through the remainder of their travel, they realized the need to communicate with people speaking English, French, and many other languages that were foreign to their ears. They may have been anxious about finding jobs at their destinations. Illness took a toll on some during the Atlantic voyage. On the minds of every Juntunen immigrant was a host of thoughts, dreams, and goals about establishing themselves in America. Their journey across eastern Canada to a Great Lakes point of entry into the U.S.A. took 2-3 days, depending on whether transport was by train or boat. After arrival at the border-crossing point and admittance to the U.S.A., they traveled to a wide range of destinations. Through continued research, we hope to learn the types of transport they used for passage to final destinations. Even though many were bound for places with available jobs and support of other Finns that had emigrated earlier, the challenges our Juntunen immigrant ancestors faced were undoubtedly difficult.

John Stierna