My Miraculous Story

It seems that everyone who does family history has an amazing story to tell. I've had many experiences, but none that has been so amazing as finding my great-great-grandmother.

I have never known most of my great-grandparents. They died either before my parents were born or when my parents were still young. (To contrast, my son has 6 of his 8 greats still living.) We have all the family lines traced pretty far, at least, all but Robert Ylitalo's. He's my mother's mother's father. I asked Grandma what she knew about him, but it wasn't much (her parents were divorced), just that he was adopted. She didn't know who his adoptive or biological parents were.

I've been halfheartedly looking for him for years, not really knowing where to look. The other day, I struck gold. I found his biological mother. I had done a search on his name but never really looked on the partial matches. My eyes scanned the page and found someone born on the same day, in the same town, and with the same middle and last name as him. From there, I learned that he was born with a Finnish first name, Sointo (unless they spelled it wrong on the record, which is possible.) His mother's name is Ida. From a census record, I learned that she immigrated to the US from Finland in 1909 and lived as a boarder and worked in a factory. Robert (Sointo) was born in 1912 (she wasn't married), and she died in 1913 from a disease (can't remember off the top of my head). How sad is that? I can't think of a more heartbreaking story.

I can sort of fill in the blanks. For now, what I think happened is that he was adopted once his mom died. He would have been a year old at the time. On Ida's death record, it mentions that she has a sister that lives on the same street as her. I don't know, but I kind of hope that it was the sister who adopted him. I can't prove that, but I'm waiting on his Social Security record where it will list his parents' names. I've done Ida's baptism so far, and I know she's pleased. There's no way that anyone else could have found her yet. Her family (minus the sister), stayed behind in Finland. She shows up on only one census. Except for her son, she isn't really connected to anyone.

I am continually amazed in the ways that the Spirit works. I really hope that I can find her family in Finland so she can be sealed to them. I have her father's name, so that's a start.