This photo was mailed to me back in the '80s in a packet from my grandmother Ella Reivo, in response to my fifteen-year-old self asking her about 'where my mother's family came from.' The back of this photo identifies this simply as "The Peltonen Homestead in Finland." There is no date, but my best guess is this was taken some time in the late 1880s or early 1890s. With my research I'm assuming the homestead is located near the village of Honkilahti and the people in the photo are my great-great grandparents Isak Isakinpoika Peltonen and Fredrika Wilhelmina (Kajander) Peltonen, and one of their children--possibly Isak Ernst, who was my great-grandmother's brother. Interestingly, I also have two paintings of the same homestead I inherited from my mother when she passed away in the 1990s, and also a braided rug that (according to my mother) was made by her great-grandmother out of old worn out family clothing; every time I look at this photo I wonder if I've walked on the very clothing they're wearing in the photograph.
That's a great piece of family history. I got lost in the research again and added quite a few sources to your great grandmother Milda and her parents.
Based on the findings in the church books they lived at Ilola homestead in Mannila village of Honkilahti parish.
Google maps shows the homestead as it is today.
Thanks so much for that! Wow!
Here's one of the paintings I inherited from my mother; I can't really tell how much it's changed. Maybe someday I'll be able to actually visit now, though. :)
Thanks again, Juha--that was so nice of you!
