Letter from Grand Hotel Fennia, 1930, and Anna Melin, 1946

The letter paper for August 4, 1930, has an image of Grand Hotel Fennia, from Finland, Helsingfors, (also Suomi, Helsinki).   The hotel was on the Railroad Square.  The letter was written from Sweden.

Anna Melin (behind Grandmother in the departure photo) helped say goodbye to Linnea Gord and Marie Malm at the Malm's home.   And among letters saved are two letters from Anna Melin, from 1939, and from 1946.

Anna Melin 1946

Linnea Gord writes, to her “Mamma & All the Rest”, (I listened to this kind of discussion in my grandmother's kitchen):  I met a girl in Malax who says that her mother is related a little to Grandma.  This girl's name is Anna Melin.  She says that Grandma used to work for their mother's folks.  Mrs. Charles Carlson of Hoquiam is her aunt. 

A disclaimer usually accompanied discussion about cousins, or cousins removed, at my grandma's house:  they did not know, the specific meanings were a part of some official expertise.   But when they slept five in the room with the uncle of Amanda and Marie,  the others were all first cousins – her aunt, the three sisters, Wilma, Tyra, and Olga, as well as the three brothers, Lars, Paul, and Bror.  Only Linnea was not a first cousin, and she was Once Removed.   And, as always followed:  with the disclaimer, that the terms exist in some official expertise.

Part of the familiar social discussion was about this family background.  Their Swedish-Finnish background was not a culture that arranged marriages.  Young people met in daily life and made their own choices.  It was an old and condensed gene pool, and it was the Church that could control the incest taboo and decide, by people's shared ancestors, that they could or could not marry.   I think this has been different for the Swedish-Finns in the United States.  

Anna Melin's Mother   

But one reason for the Masonic-type lodge popularity was this familiar social discussion:  if their background was too close, they could not marry.  Linnea Gord knew she could not marry her mother's cousins.  But the official expertise was with the church.

A saved letter from 1946 described a photo included in the letter.  The photo is among photos from Sweden and Finland, along with a photo with Linnea’s writing on the back, Anna Melin’s mother Jucka’s Lovis / Hermanas Marie.