Maukonen - Ohio Cluster - USA

Hello, my name is Denny Butts. I am the son of Lois Graff (Maukonen), daughter of Arne Maukonen of Conneaut, Ohio. I thought I would give you some background on myself, how this all started and my goals for this site.

I grew up in Conneaut, Ohio hearing the stories from my Aunt Gert while we sat on her porch at the top of the hill over looking the Port of Conneaut on Lake Erie. It was such a great place to sit in the sun and watch the ore boats come in. It is the house that my grandfather grew up in.

Read how Bret stumbled upon the Conneaut Ohio Maukonen cluster here. It seems that the Maukonen family has been fortunate to their connection to the Great Lakes and the Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Company. The P&C Dock Co. is where my grandfather worked for many years. It was the docks that helped to connect the Conneaut, Ohio Maukonen family history all the way back to Finland and to family currently living there.

It wasn't until late in my college years that I started to inquire more about my family history. I wanted to document my family history, but by this time my grandfather and others had already passed away. I wish I would have started many years earlier and recorded the many stories first hand from family members.

I contacted Bret and emailed a copy of a family tree given to me by my Aunt Gert, who had received it from a Tuula Maukonen years ago. Bret then passed this tree onto Maukonens doing research in Finland. October 2000 was a great year for research, Bret sent me a very exciting email forwarded from Hannele Maukonen in Finland. In only about a week and a few more emails, we had a connected our family back to Rautalampi, Finland in 1560.

The emails are below. Click here to read them in order:

I will be adding many photos, drawings of family trees, stories (as I can remember them from my grandfater Arne Maukonen, and Great Aunt Gert (wife of Waino Maukonen, brother to Arne). I plan to contact my relatives from the Ohio Maukonen Cluster to get their stories and copies of photos and movies they may have.

My goal is to collect, digitally as many photos and items and compile them here for all family members to have access to. If you have photos and have access to scanning these photos, please email them to me. Please include as many details about the photos as possible. (Dates, locations, people in the photos, what was happening in the photo).

I also plan one day to complete this project as a multi-media piece. As technology has changed, now DVD's allow for movies, and more storage space. I would love to include home movies, and interviews in this project. If you have old movies (8 mm, Super 8, or VHS) of events, please contact me and I can coordinate to have these items converted to digital media. I don't know when or how long this will take, but I plan to send copies to all family members.

This site and all the success we have all enjoyed would not have been possible without the help of Bret Maukonen (The Canadian Maukonen Cluster). Many of you know the great work Bret has done with his Maukonen Family Newsletter, Sanoma Maukonen, over the years. I wanted to use that great idea that and use the internet to help connect more of the Maukonen Family. As you can read, it has already been a success.

Bret had purchased the domain name maukonen.org and had made a website for the Canadian Cluster of Maukonens in hopes of one day having the USA and Finland Families add their history. I contacted Bret in January of 2001 to host the website on my server and add to it. It has been a very slow start. Bret will be turning all the Sonama Maukonen issues into Adobe Acrobat PDF files. This will allow for us to archive the newsletters for future readers here on the website.

If you can add more details or correct the stories I have her please contact me.


Denny Butts
usa@maukonen.org

719-272-1652

4243 Ginger Cove Place
Colorado Springs, CO 80923
USA

From: Bret Maukonen
Date: Wed Oct 11, 2000 06:33:51 PM US/Eastern
To: Denny Butts
Subject: [Fwd: THANK YOU VERY MUCH]

From: "Jyrki Maukonen"
Date: Wed Oct 11, 2000 05:29:35 PM US/Eastern
To: "Bret Maukonen"
Subject: THANK YOU VERY MUCH


Hei Bret!
 
Thank you so much for the information and the fine pictures.
 
Jyrki will print the pictures in his office and I will send them to Martta.
 
Do you mind if she will put a few of the pictures out in the book of
the Maukonen Family? The main book is goming out in 2002  -we hope.
 
There is so much to do before the next Maukonen Family Meeting in
the summer in 2002. We try to find more links from Finland to Canada
and USA.
 
These Ohio Maukonens interests us very much. Martta has some names
and the investigations are started. Here in Finland is the palce named
Vesanto , Horontaival and there the house named Jaakkola. Three young
men Oskar, Eemeli and Otto (sons of Gabriel? Maukonen) and maybe
your grandfather Kalle from Viitasaari with them, emigrated in the early 1900's to USA
or Canada. We have heard from Vesanto that these three brothers have lived in Ohio,
 Ashtabula. I saw the picture in Sanoma Maukonen ,no 1 spring 1998,
from three brothers by Gertrude Maukonen and there was Emil, her father-
in-law (was Gertrud's husband ,Wäinö Maukonen  Emil's son). Could it be so
that Eemeli is Emil.
 
Is this Gertrude still alive? She might be the gold mine of the information
from the early days in 1900. How is the matter with Ohio Family Tree?
Do you have any names, who might have more info about the Maukonens
in Ohio. One Reino Maukonen from Vesanto try to find out, who was the Gabriel, the
father of these three brothers, during the winter. Martta is going to fly
to Spain for the winter months ... she does not now when.
 
I red and found much more detiles from the early Sanoma Maukonens
about Kalle and his brothers...we thought also that Kalle and Eedla came
back to Finland for a while and then returned to Toronto.
 
I wonder what we can do to activate Maukonens in Canada and USA
to share all the information they will have from the early 1900's.
Could you tell in the next Sanoma Maukonen that for the Maukonen Family
Book in 2002 we need all their help they can give us.
 
I found from the internet a list from Finnish-Americans newspapers.... I thougt
to send an e-mail for asking help to find Maukonens in USA. Do you have any
other suggestions to help us for our investigations about Maukonens?
 
I thank you again, you have been vary helpfull.
 
Warm regards
 
Hannele
From: Bret Maukonen
Date: Wed Oct 11, 2000 11:30:46 PM US/Eastern
To: Dennis Butts
Subject: Staying in touch

Dear Denny,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Hannele was in a bit of a
panic because of a Maukonen book deadline. I sent her what I could via
e-mail and then mailed hard copies of family trees of Maukonens in
Canada, Ohio (the one that you sent to me), and Florida. She should
receive those in a week. I will send her your e-mail address as the one
who created the tree for the Ohio cluster.

They actually traced my grandfather, Kalle, and have information that we
never knew. It is working out to everybody's great advantage as we
co-operate across clusters.

I have been in e-mail contact with Donna concerning any trip that she
might be making back to Conneaut when we could meet up and spend time
together with Gertrude. Gertrude has been so faithful in writing but we
only just heard about her affliction with cancer. We promised her a
visit when we got a reliable car and just leased a new one in May and so
we are looking forward to seeing her again.

We have a Canadian Maukonen who recently moved to Florida to work with a
communications (call centre) company. There is a growing number in that
state including my time working for a Miami Beach-based shipping
company.

For the next bit of time I will be in Ontario trying to put the wraps on
my MEd thesis.

Take care and feel free to e-mail with any bit of news.

Yours,

Bret
From: "Jyrki Maukonen"
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 22:42:41 +0300
Subject: Maukonen Family Tree

Hi, Denny!
 
I have got your family tree copy from Bret Maukonen by mail.
 
I tried to read it....it was not clear... numbers and letters were misty.
Have you any idea, who has made it.  Who was Tuula Sundberg 1967, who has given
the family tree to Gertrude?
 
I could not find out the familynames and where they have lived in the early times.... Emil Maukonen had got married with Hilma (nee?) and Iida (nee?) with Oscar. Was Hilma's and Iida's named Sundbergs?
Have any material where you can find out this from?
 
You mentionet Aunt Gert. Is she Mary Susanna Maijala's and Jaakko Kuula's doughter?
And Matti Maukonen from Konnevesi, Finland was Gertrude's step-father... am I right?
I have Matti Maukonen's forefathers here. There might be the connection between your
family tree and Matti Maukonen (Ohio - Florida).
 
There is in Finland a man named Reino Maukonen from Vesanto, he had promised to
investigate these three brothers Emil, Osakri and Otto. May be the father was named Gabriel.
We try to find out where they belong to in the Maukonen Family Tree in Finland.
 
May I ask....are you the first husband of Lois Maukonen and the father to Dennis and
Brian? Could you help to find out the birhdays for Dennis and Brian....the dates were
got so messy....also the birthdays of Darrel Maukonen's children....also Paula and
Robert ?
 
These information helps quite a lot...every crumb of information might help us. 
 
Regards
 
Hannele Maukonen
From: "Jyrki Maukonen"
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 23:53:21 +0300
Subject: GREAT NEWS FOR YOU

Hi, Dennis!
 
Thank you very much for these Family Trees.
 
 I manged to get two of them out. One was the handwrittend and the other one was this bigger, which I got from Bret...much more clearly... thanks.
 
Sorry that I thought you are your father : )
 
Do you or anyone else knows who was the mother or father of Gertrude W. Goodale. There might be two different Gertrudes in USA??? In Sanoma Maukonen was told about Gertrude Kuula Maukonen Stenroos, too.
 
This is quite important to us, bacause there is another branch of the family....Matti Maukonen from Konnevesi, Finland and his wife was Mary Susanna (nee Maijala) Kuula Maukonen.
This Mary had a doughter named Gertrude, too .Donna Maukonen from Florida might know this.
It is her cluster.
 
Now the news:
 
I put here a very short version of your forefathers
 
Generations from about 1560 -    ( 1 - 15 )
 
1) Jöns Pietarinpoika Clito from Rautalampi, Finland
 
2) his son: Mathias (Jönsson) Maukonen
 
3) his son: Paulus Matinpoika Maukonen b. 1597 d. 1645
 
4) his son: Elias Paavonpoika Maukonen b. 1615 d. 1695
 
5) h s: Elias Maukonen b. 1640 d. 1696 /his wife: Elisabeth Frilandsa
 
6) Elias Elia Maukonen b 1683 d 1775 /his wife: Valpuri Antintytär Lesketär b 1704 d 8.12.1734
 
7) Elias Maukonen b 1722 d 5.3.1791, Rautalampi / his first wife: Brita Johansdr. Ritvanen b 22.4.1728 d 2.6.1766
 
8) Gabriel Maukonen d 26.5.1763 /his wife: Christina Rossi b 1765
 
9) Gabriel Maukonen b 23.9.1793 /his wife: Anna Greta Halonen
 
10) Alexander Maukonen b 14.11.1820 /his wife: Anna Kaisa Penttinen
 
11) Gabriel Maukonen b 1846 /his wife: Maria Kemppainen
From Vesanto, Finland
 
12) Emil Maukonen/his wife Hilma "Mary" b 1883
(Emil's brothers Otto and Oscar)
 
13) Arne Maukonen /his wife: Eleanor
 
14) Lois Ann Graff (nee Maukonen)/her 1st husband Dennis Paul Butts
 
15) Dennis Mathew  Butts b 17.6.1970
 
 
I thought that in your last e-mail was a fault?: I thought that Paula and Robert McGrath must
be husband and wife and their children are Sharon, David....
 
Paula and Darrel must be the children of Waino and Gertrude.???
 
Do you like to have some corrections (not sure of all) for the Finish names in the Family Tree:
 
A) Isaac b 1763 might be the familyname ALAKAUPPILA
B) Arja b 1953 is LIPPONEN
C) If I have understood right: the square is man and circle is female?
 
These names are for female, if you like to do the corrections:
Alli, Ruut, Birgitta, Hilja, Armi, Hulda, Martta, Helvi, Maria, Susanna, Lisa, Elisa, Sanna,
Tuula,Tarja
 
You will have more information about 11th - 12th generations later when I get the particular
info. This might last because our head genealogist Martta is going to spend the winter
season in Spain.
 
Thank you again and we will continue our e-mail conversations :)
 
Regards
 
Hannele Maukonen