Collection glen-2287 - Hilia Keila's Trochu Finnish Settlers collection

Hilia Keila collected these records about Finnish settlers in the Trochu area of Alberta. Hilia's parents, Wilhelmiina Palm, 1877-1958, and John Hannu (later Hanna), 1876-1967, were born in Finland and emigrated to Canmore, Alberta in 1903. John worked in the mines and then homesteaded near Trochu in 1906. He and Miina had nine children including Hilia and Isaac who married into the John Keila family. John Keila, 1880-1955, came from Finland to mine in Canmore in 1900. In 1902 he married Hedvig Wilhelmina Hannu, 1880-1968, who came from Finland in 1901. In 1905 they homesteaded near Trochu. They had five children. Two of John Keila's friends and fellow miners, Sakri and Otto Ranta, filed homesteads near him. Their brother, David, ?-1941, came to Canmore from Finland in 1908 and to Trochu in 1910. He later married Heta, his brother Otto's widow, and they had a son, Arvo. In the 1920s and 1930s David was active in the Finnish-Canadian Organization and other socialist organizations. Other Finns who settled in the area were John and Sanna Luoma and Andrew and Hanna Anderson.