Friday, March 4, 2011

Sepia Saturday #64: The Finnish Cows

Courtesy Sara Grostick

This photo was sent from Lapua, Finland by my great grandfather's sister Sanna (Wiita) Honkaharju to her sister Josefina (Wiita) Kitinoja in the United States. On the back is written, "Tässä minä olen ja tyttärenpoika ja karjani pari vuotta sitten." This translates to, "Here I am and my daughter's son and my cattle a couple of years ago." (Translation thanks to Ismo Nuuja.) This is probably referring to Kalle Herttua whom, according to a letter to Josefina and Sylvia Kitinoja, was helping Sanna with her cows in the summer of 1947. I have another photo of Kalle with his family that looks very similar to this boy, so I think there is a very high probability that it is him.

Kalle Herttua, c.1943

Kalle was born in 1939 to Iska and Liisa (Honkaharju) Herttua, so he would be eight in the cow photo. Sanna was born in December 1874 to my great great grandparents Matti and Justina Wiita, so she is 72 here. It is so nice to see the young and the old working side by side.

This post is inspired by the Sepia Saturday blog. Please visit this blog for links to more great photos and posts.

7 comments:

  1. Yes it is and they sure did alot of that way back when...nice phot and I love the look of the Finland cow!

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  2. The boy appears to be barefoot, dangerous when there are cows around. Good photo.

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  3. Now that is certainly different to me, posing amidst the peaceful cows. I'd frame and display that one!

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  4. That must have been nice to spend the summer up with the cows. If you didn't have to milk to many.

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  5. I'm fascinated by how thick the forest is behind her. Short trees so I'm assuming a young forest. Lose a cow in there and you might as well write it off.

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  6. What a wonderful old photograph : it says so much about the time it was taken. And as a bonus you linked to the cattle theme.

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