Is he albino, Anne?

Nope. He's got greeny-gold eyes.

Hil, if you don't mind looking up some more, I have a question about one of my great grandfathers. Isaac Valli (1878-1947) was born in Finland and came to the US around 1900. His father's name was Jacob Sorkala Eliasson (1846-1931), who also immigrated to the US around then. Apparently Issac was legitimate, so I've been wondering--why the name change? My theory is that he had another family as "Isaac Eliasson," but I'm not sure how to find out. (The family story is that he only came home long enough to get great grandma pregnant, so it seems possible.)

Well, according to wikipedia, Finland didn't require hereditary surnames until 1921, and there were a bunch of regions that didn't use them before that. So it could just be that they had different names.

Oh, here's another one. Andreas Koch (1759-1826) emigrated to Baltimore ca. 1798. Daughter Sophia Dorothea Koch. I can't find him in immigration records, I can't find him in a census, nothing. Everything I know about him is from a 3x5 card in my grandfather's handwriting/

An interesting bit of context. There was a series of Pograms from 1903-1906, with one of the biggest in 1905. And there were Jewish Bunds in the area who fought back! Further as confirmation that we have the right person, the town was a big tanning center - one of the most common jobs for Jews was tanner. My Grandfather was a tanner. So he probably was in a Jewish Bund fighting back against a Pogram.

Wow, Hil -- you seem like magic.

Finnbar Fancypants McGee, aka "Finn"

Love!

This afternoon, I went through the wrapping paper portion of my inheritance -- my grandmother had basically a dresser full of wrapping paper, and I got most of it into a plastic under-bed storage box. (Threw some away, and a few rolls were too long for the box.) Slowly but surely...

TB, I know you always knew it, but how cool to find more evidence that your fam was fighting against The Man from way back!

Oh, here's another one. Andreas Koch (1759-1826) emigrated to Baltimore ca. 1798. Daughter Sophia Dorothea Koch. I can't find him in immigration records, I can't find him in a census, nothing. Everything I know about him is from a 3x5 card in my grandfather's handwriting/

Sorry, I can't find anything either. I think that a lot of the records back then were kept in church registers, and not too many of those are online.

Well, according to wikipedia, Finland didn't require hereditary surnames until 1921, and there were a bunch of regions that didn't use them before that. So it could just be that they had different names.

Hmm, Ok. Jacob had two other children (that I've found) who did share his last name. But Finns did do things a bit differently than others. Maybe Issac just wasn't feeling the whole Eliasson thing and decided there wasn't that much tradition to break. Thanks for looking into it!

I checked a database of births in England, and found people named Malcolm Cornforth born in 1931, 1943, 1944, and 1954.

Of all those, he'd most likely be the 1931 birth; that would make him two years younger than my mother.

Oh! Malcolm W Cornforth married Shirley Wood in 1964 in Yorkshire North Riding. But you said he came to the US in 1963.

Cool! That's probably him! He was living in the US for a while before he got his green card in spring 1963 (a few months before I was born). I have a copy of that document somewhere. He listed my parents' address as where he was living. (mm-hmm) (yeah, I'm probably one of those scandal-became-anecdote.) I'm fairly sure he wasn't married at that time. So he would have gone back to England to marry his bride and brought her back with him to New Jersey, where they lived happily ever after (because she never knew about me). As far as I know, they never had children.

Can you find where he was born? I know there's a town in England called Carnforth, because I drove through it (pretending it was my ancestral home), but whether he's actually from anywhere near there I've no idea.