Westminster Finns to meet

A meeting of Finns in Westminster will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, at the Westminster Historical Society, 110 Main St. The society continues to gather material about Finnish families who came to Westminster beginning in the early 1900s. A particular focus of this year's meetings is to gather photos of Finnish saunas in Westminster. If anyone has a sauna on their property in Westminster, the society would like a photo of it, including those photos or drawings taken years ago.

The society will be collecting stories about the importance of sauna in the lives of the Finnish people, and will be looking for artifacts that could be loaned for an exhibit on saunas at the Juhannus program being planned for the Historical Society meeting in June at the Farmers Cooperative Building.

The society is collecting all kinds of information about all Finnish families who lived in Westminster. This may include immigration or naturalization papers, deeds to farms, or family and farm photos. People are asked to begin writing what they were told or what they remember about their ancestor's immigration to this country and their early lives in Westminster. All are invited to this meeting. For more information, or for a ride to the meeting, please call Betsy Hannula at (978) 874-0430.