Portin

[Rodger N. Foltz]

My great aunt, Maria Sofia nee Luoma Portin's husband was a

John Jaakobson Portin, b. 1 Jan 1871 in Lapua, Finland. They married in Montana 25 Nov 1893. He died in a mine accident Oct 1908 in Sand Coulee, MT, at which time they had already had 9 children. Later some of them changed the name to "Porteen". I have no more information about his antecedants. I assume that he was Finnish-speaking, or possibly bilingual.

Another Portin - William Portin - I discovered from the Kennecott UT Copper Co. Employment Records 1909-1920 in Bingham Canyon, Utah. Records are in the Swedish-Finn Historical Library in Seattle, WA. He was listed as 31, 170 #, blue eyes, light hair. His dependant was Mrs. Lena Portin in Kolby, Esse, Vaasa County, Finland. He was hired 7 Jul 1910. Left employment 30 Oct 1910. Hired 8 Jan 1911. Left employment 24 Apr 1911. Hired 6 Jun 1911. Rate $3.00/day. Quit 5 Oct 1911. Page 119.

If anyone has a connect with our John Portin, b. 1871 in Lapua, kindly contact the undersigned. rnf.

[sune]

According to the Hiski database, which you will find at www.genealogia.fi there was a Johan Portin born i Lapua january 1st 1872. His father was Jakob Isaksson Portin and his mother was Kajsa Salomonsdotter.

You can find a couple of other Johan or Juhani Portins in Lapua in the same database, but I was not able to find exactly the same you mentioned.

The Portin branch in Lapua were probably not bilingual. I think they spoke mostly Finnish
The oldest record in Hiski of a Portin in Lapua is from 1824.

The Hiski database is not conlclusive, because it is updated by volunteers, so it takes some time (still many years) before it is complete, but it is getting better day by day.

John or Johan or Juhani are not very unkommon first names in our family. I had an uncle John who emigrated to Canada in 1925, moved on to the USA and finally settled in New Jersey where he died 1982.

This was not much of help, I know, but someone else is able to give you better leads.

regars
Sune