Anna Turja

[Laura Melinda Varjo]

Anna mentions a mother travelling in her cabin with two little girls, the family was Finnish, like Anna. However, none of the women travelling in Third Class match that description, the closest match is Mrs. Backstrom with her 2 little girls, but they were Swedish. It can't be the Panula family, with 5 boys. I just want to know what the story is, were they passengers, or not, or if yes, did they survive ?

Laura

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Anna shared her cabin with Kristina Laitinen and with Mrs Helga Hirvonen and her daughter Hildur, who was 2 years old. Initially they all went on deck together but later separated. The Hirvonens were helped into boat 15, Anna probably into boat 13, but Kristina headed off on her own and did not survive.

 

[Laura Melinda Varjo]

So Anna probably later on thought that Mrs. Hirvonen had two children, not only one, I see. Unlucky Kristina.

 

[Hildur Panula-Heinonen]

Well you see, the two children could have actually come from a Swedish family living in Finland, who spoke both languages. It was not at all uncommon to find such people. I wrote abit on the Finnish passengers page.