THE FAMILY SOCIETY OF PUHAKKA
Happy new year to all the members of the Puhakka Family Society and all the members of the Puhakka family. There are about 100 of us members around Finland and some from Sweden at the moment.
This year is the 9th anniversary of our society. The Family society of Puhakka was founded year 1996 in Joensuu and registered the very next year.
WHERE DO WE COME FROM
The Puhakkas have traditionally been landed proprietors. They have been very attached to land
The members of Puhakka family have spread all over Finland. But they are mainly from three regions. The Puhakkas are supposedly from the same origin, but the information has not yet been verified. It has been said that the Puhakkas have come from Germany in the 15th century. But this is also still a legend.
There are the Jääski Puhakkas. They are originally from the Jääski area in South Carelia and the Carelia that nowdays belongs to Russia and the Kymenlaakso region.The eldest known ancestor of the Jääski line is from the 18th century.
Then there are the North Karelia Puhakkas that are divided into Eno Puhakkas, Kontiolahti Puhakkas and Ilomantsi Puhakkas. These Puhakkas have lived in the North Karelia region since the beginning of 17th century. They have arrived to North Karelia from Kainuu region. But from where they have arrived to Kainuu is uncertain.
And finally there are The Puhakkas living in the Oulu area.
THE GATHERINGS
The Puhakka Family Society’s first gathering was held on Sunday 31st of August 2003 in the regional center of Kontiolahti in North Karelia. Though there were men and women of Puhakkas who tried to organize a gathering in the beginning of the 20th century but due to the situation in Finland then the gathering never happened.To the organizers’ surprise and delight there were about 120 people. At first we thought that we would organize a smaller gathering because there was not much time to tell people about the event. But the family “jungle drum” began to work exceedingly well and so we had a gathering of 120 instead of about 40 people.
The second gathering was held on 11th of July 2004 in Joensuu, North Karelia. There were a lot of new people to meet. The organizers had also put together a photo exhibition. There were many old pictures of Puhakkas.
The gathering of 2005 was held in Lappeenranta, South Carelia. The meeting accepted family crest suggestion that was drawn by Harri Rantanen from a design by Eeva Puhakka.
FAMILY SOCIETY’S OFFICIAL MEETING 2006
The official meeting of Puhakka Family Society in 2006 is held in North Karelia. The more exact time and place will be decided during the rest of this year and put into theese webpages. A meeting is a wonderful place and opportunity to meet close and distant relatives and get to know the ones you don’t already know. Hope to see you in the next meeting.
TOIVO PÖLÖNEN’S BOOK ABOUT THE NORTH KARELIA PUHAKKAS
All you who are interested of the book Toivo Pölönen has wrote about the Puhakkas of Eno, Ilomantsi and Kontiolahti can contact the genealogical society. The genealogical society now has these books. The price 25 euros includes postal fare (in Finland). There is only a limited edition but if there is a lot of demand we can take more.
MEMBER FARES IN 2005
For members who have already joined to the society the fare is 10 euros and for new members it’s 15 euros (includes joining fare and member fare).
THE PUHAKKA FAMILY SOCIETY’S WEBPAGE
The society’s webpage is very simple at the moment. If you want something else to be added, please contact the webmaster by e-mail. All development suggestions are wellcome. You can send comments to the webmaster to the address eevapuhakka@yahoo.co.uk
PUHAKKAS’ DATABASE
At the moment we Puhakkas are scattered to different genealogical researches about the Puhakkas. So to help all of as and the generations to come your webmaster is writing Puhakkas to the computer. The goal is to combine all the researches and get all Puhakkas into one database and later make our very own book. But I can’t do this without your help. Please let us know your own Puhakka family information (name, date of birth, place of birth and place of death) so we can add the latest info.
With snowy greetings
Eeva Puhakka
the webmaster
webmaster Eeva Puhakka
eevapuhakka@yahoo.co.uk