Åland Island - Part III

The original home, once a pensionne

After breakfast, Carita picked us up to go visit Roy’s family. After a short ten minute drive we entered the driveway to be greeted by several people. Thus began another great day of family gathering. Tage was there but we were first greeted by the nieces and nephews who spoke English.

Taking notes as fast as I can

Gabi, Nicklaus, Sebastian, and Tage

We met two of Roy’s cousins, Henrik and Magnus, their wives and sons. The ten of us got to know each other a bit over a morning coffee. They were a bit disappointed that I wasn’t Roy, but were quite excited to learn about their long lost relative in America. They have been working on a family tree just like we have and loved having the information we had to share. Before we left they gave us a tour of their property which includes five or six houses, mostly used as summer houses, a boat house, three docks, a cooler dug into the ground and covered with dirt. We saw at least seven boats of various sizes, composition, and power. One boat with a metal hull they use for hunting because they can drive it right onto a rocky shore. One day we will go back, hopefully taking Roy to meet his relatives.

Magnus and Henrik and their boats

From there we returned to Carita’s winter home because the neighbor, whose house is in one of Cherie’s pictures, said we should come by and he thought he might be related to her. It was an amazing visit as he kept opening drawers and boxes to pull out more pictures and documents to share. As soon as he saw one thing, it led him to another and then another. We tried to keep up but it was a bit difficult. In the end Cherie and he decided that they were not related, but that his father or grandfather had purchased the property from her family.

This screen was used when the house served as a Russian church.

He also took us to the church in Jomala to look through the cemetery. Cherie found a number of gravestones with the correct names. The church itself is one of Åland’s most spectacular. The tall tower with its pointed spire makes it visible for miles arounds. The walls are of a beautiful stonework. They were retarring the wooden tiles on the roof. The shiny black will add sheen to the roof for some time to come before it fades.

Inside it contains several important and interesting sculptures and the partial remains of early Gothic wall paintings from the 1280s. We learned that it was extensively remodeled in the early 1800s. The description of those efforts are not complimentary as it significantly changed to layout of the church, not for the better. Dedicated to St. Olav, patron saint of Norway, the nave also boasts two votive ships, On from the late 17th century, the other from the 1950s. These ships were donated to churches by sailors looking for prayer support or in thanks for deliverance.

We decided to check out the Åland Emigrant Institute in the afternoon rather than take a drive through the country. That turned out to be a remarkable visit, too. We spent about four hours that afternoon talking to Eva and Maria. While Cherie, John, and Linda talked to Maria about Cherie’s ancestor. Cherie had just come into possession of several documents including a seaman’s book. These books were kept by each sailor. He presented it to the ship captain each time he shipped out. The captain kept the book for the voyage and wrote in his evaluation of the sailor’s work. Cherie learned that these books are fairly rare today and that while her ancestor did move up the ranks, he often received bad ratings. He also jumped ship twice and eventually applied for a new passport. And he did not die at sea. Surprising news for Cherie.

The four of us with Eva and Maria

Meanwhile I talked to Maria about Seaman’s Schools. Finland had three Seaman’s Schools that trained sailors, many of whom worked for the Russians. Finland was a part of Russia during the 19th century and Finns were most of the sailors who manned the ships during the time Russia had American outposts from Alaska to California. We also learned that Roy’s grandfather had attended the school in Vaasa before he left for America.

This jewelry shop is owned by one of the Lundgrens.
We were too late to check it out.

Dessert

After a gin and tonic at the hotel, we walked to Sentrum (the shopping street) for a stroll and dinner. We chose Dino’s Bar and Grill where again we were treated to locally sourced foods, burgers or fish and chips (with peas). For desert, we had to try the Åland pancakes. Cherie loved them. The other three of use were not so excited. They were a bit like a cake and a bit like a flan. For me, it did not have the best features of either although the stewed prunes and whipping cream added a nice sweet touch.

We saw several of these memorials to men lost at sea.

After dinner we decided to take a drive out into the country and play tourist for the evening. All of our genealogy work had kept us from doing any looking around at the rest of these beautiful islands. We drove out to the west to a ferry dock near Eckerö. On the way back we visited two other churches one attached to Eckerö and the other attached to Hammarland, although both were by themselves out in the country. These two churches were quite similar, made of stones plastered together. Pyramids top the towers. Because we were in the evening we were unable to go inside. But walking the cemeteries and seeing the beautiful churches in the late evening sun was a good way to finish the day.

Our ship heading to Stockholm