Noteworthy About the Maukonens

How this Activity All Started
by Bret Maukonen

During the summer of 1993, I was on the bridge of the passenger ship "Canadian Empress" waiting to depart Montreal on our upbound trip to Kingston, Ontario. The head office of St. Lawrence Cruise Lines had been good about sending maritime journals and newsletters for the attention of officers. I was reading one called the "Great Lakes Log" and on the back page saw "Maukonen" in the obituary section. It literally took my breath away. We're such a small family and I did not expect to see our family name in an American publication. But there it was ... Arne E. Maukonen of Conneaut, Ohio had passed away. I shared the information with my immediate family and planned some day to contact the Maukonens in Conneaut.

My wife and I had been invited by one of the passengers who lived in Cleveland to attend a Cleveland Indians - Toronto Blue Jays game. We drove from our home in Port Colborne (on the north shore of Lake Erie) across the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York and followed the south shore of Lake Erie westward. When we arrived in Conneaut, I looked up the Maukonen name in the phone book. My first call was to Jane (and Darrell) Maukonen who suggested that I contact Gertrude (Waino Maukonen’s wife). We stopped by her place with the intention of leaving a note but were delighted to meet her and to spend about an hour in conversation. We had to continue our trip to Cleveland but that meeting would become part of an ongoing contact and an expanding awareness of the Maukonen family clusters.

In the closing years of this decade and century, Maukonens are discovering and rediscovering one another. When I had been travelling on the Great Lakes and during my two trips to Finland, I failed to find any Maukonens in what seemed to be the obvious places. But, by a fortunate "happenstance" and a variety of contacts and searches, we had the means of contacting "lost" family members and others who share our heritage as Maukonens.



Our History
Prior to coming to Canada
From Finland to Canada
To the mid-20th Century
The latter half of the 20th Century
Kalle Maukonen's Heritage
Kalle Tobias Maukonen
Henry Ilmari Maukonen
Niilo Jalmari Maukonen
Unto Eric Maukonen
Norman Lauri Maukonen
The family of Kalle & Emma
In Recent Times
Sanoma Maukonen
Get Togethers
Sharing our interests
Maukonens across the globe
back to the Welcome page
 
This page is designed to be the place where we can share information about recent or upcoming events of interest to Maukonens. You may wish to share information about personal events (marriages, births, graduations, promotions, relocations, etc.) or just to post a greeting to other Maukonens.

Use the hyperlink below to convey that information on the Maukonen Family Forum.


We welcome comments and information that will improve the accuracy or detail of this website.
Contact Bret Maukonen by e-mail.