Personal Canadian Identity Profile

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Personal Canadian Identity Profile My ethnic background is derived from a few different cultures and countries from my ancestors past. My ancestors come from England, Sweden and Finland. The most dominant influence from my past has been through my Finnish background. I can trace back many different cultures but my Finnish background is the most interesting. My mom’s maiden name was Wiley and her mother’s maiden name was Martin. My father’s last name is Everitt as well as his father and my grandmother on my dad’s side was Norppa. The most interesting nationality and culture comes from my grandmothers’ side. She was born in Finland and lived in a small farming community outside of Helsinki. My grandmother Sirkka was born in 1926 and immigrated to Canada in 1938. She later got married and had two sons whom she named after her brothers Paul (my father) and Eric (my uncle). The Nazi’s had already started rallying support for their cause in 1936 in Finland so my grandparents felt it was time to leave Finland for the safety of their family because of the imminent war going to happen in Europe. Their oldest son Paul was killed at the age of 18 in the Russian - Finland War as a soldier. Shortly after his son Paul died my great grandfather, Matti Norppa, came to Canada on an Ocean Liner to Montreal and took a train to Kirkland Lake Ontario to become a gold miner. He would leave his wife (my great grandmother), his daughters Sirkka, Liana, Gert and his son Eric two years prior in Finland until he had enough money to get a house to bring them over to live with him. My great grandmother in the mean time sold all their assets in Finland and converted it to US dollars. Before she and the children came to Canada in 1938 she sewed pockets in a girdle to bring the $10,000 cash with her and smuggled the cash into Canada on an Ocean Liner also. When they arrived in

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