Updated 3 May 2003

Laaksonen Family Home Page			Maps
Hilja Happonen's Home Page
Otto Laaksonen’s Ancestry Alisa Happonen’s Ancestry University of Kuopio
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	Maps of Finland
		Finland · Alisa Happonen, Hilja Happonen and Yrjö Laaksonen were all born in Finland.
		Kärkölä-Hollola-Lammi · Kärkölä was the birthplace of Otto Laaksonen (1870 – 1953). The Laaksonen (Ottosson) family also lived in neighboring Hollola.
		Helsinki-Kotka · Otto and Ida Laaksonen were married in Helsinki in 1894. Lyyli was the first-born in 1895, followed by Yrjö in 1896 (born on Iso Robertinkatu) and Milda in 1897. They moved to Kotka in 1900, when Katri was born. The family moved to Chicago in 1901.
		Kuopio-Vehmersalmi-Litmaniemi-Nilsiä · Hilja Happonen was born in Litmaniemi in 1898. Her Happonen family had lived in the Litmaniemi area since the 1700s, except briefly when Lars Happonen lived for a while in Haapamäki in the early 18000s as a sharecropper for father-in-law Gustav Kluostarinen (whose third wife was Lars’ sister Anna Happonen). · Alisa Happonen’s Happonen line was as far as we know completely separate from Hilja Happonen’s even though her Happonen line has also lived in the Litmaniemi-Vehmersalmi area at least since the end of the 1600s. The two Happonen lines are nonetheless interrelated at several places through other families. Turula’s Turunen family originally came from Puutosmäki near Vehmersalmi in the 1700s, but has lived in Turula in Litmaniemi since the early 1800s, when Tahvo Turunen married Kristiina Hartikainen. The Hartikainens lived at the farmstead now called Turula since the late 1500s when vouti Hartwik Andersson settled there.
		Kuopio-Karttula-Suonenjoki-Pieksämäki · On Alisa Happonen’s father Johan’s side the Laitinens and Pöyhönens lived mainly in the Karttula-Suonenjoki-Mustolanmäki-Pieksämäki area, and have been traced back to the early 1600s or late 1500s. Alisa Happonen was born in Kuopio in 1935. Johan and Alma Turunen Happonen had bought a house on Snellmaninkatu in Kuopio, but the Winter War and WWII altered plans permanently. As a result, the Happonens stayed in the US.
	Maps of Fitchburg, Kaleva and Smokey Lake
		Kaleva and Smokey Lake · Otto and Ida Laaksonen moved to Kaleva in 1903, where they raised their family. Otto and Ida farmed on the Laaksonen homestead until the 1930s, when they moved to Smokey Lake. There they rented cabins and ran a gas station as a front for a bootlegging operation.
		Fitchburg, Massachusettes (also Detroit, Lantana, Dallas) · Johan, Alma and Alisa Happonen settled in Fitchburg, where Alisa grew up. Yrjö and Hilja settled down in the Detroit-Dearborne area, where they raised Donald, Helen and Marvin. Yrjö and Hilja moved to Lantana, FL after retirement in 1963, where they lived for over 30 years.