Notes by Kristin Rhodes and Emigration Center in Vora, Vasa, Finland
The letter does not contain one single comma or
period. I have added them to enhance the translation. Neither did the writer
use capital letters, except a few. It is not a direct translation. The writer
had not gone to school, so it is sometimes difficult to know what she means.
This letter was written in Finland by Lisa Rasmus and sent to Lisa Bartell,
birth name Rasmus, in America. In the first part, the writer, Lisa Rasmus in
Finland
is writing something dictated by Lisa Bartell’s parents, who were probably
illiterate. Then she goes on to write
her own comments to Lisa Bartell.
It is our guess that Lisa Rasmus, the letter
writer, was Lisa Mickelsdotter Rasmus, a daughter of another farmer on Rasmus
farm. Not related. This Lisa later also went to America in
1907.
It is interesting that the family of Lisa
Bartell’s sister, Beata, would have this letter written to Lisa, but that is
what it is.
[Finland] March 28 1902
Our beloved
daughter Lisa [Lisa Rasmus Bartell],
We may now
answer your letter, which we received yesterday, and where we find you being
alive, although it has seemed a long time for us, waiting for your letter. We
may now say that we toil here as before. One day is better and the other worse.
That is how every day of life is, but remember, when you get old like us, it
gets worse every day. But what else can we expect.
I hear you
are not sure about coming home.(1) You say that if Anna Lisa comes, she will
come here, but you don´t need to think that. She has taken all of her
belongings from here so she doesn’t need to be here any more. She [Anna Lisa
Enges Rasmus] will go back home [to Enges]. They [Enges
family] want her there, so we don´t have anyone else than you, Lisa [Rasmus
Bartell] . Many greetings to [our grandson] Johan from your parents.
Then I want
to tell you Lisa [Rasmus Bartell] , a couple of words, but don´t be offended. I
feel pity for your father and mother. They are old now and would need help and
now they have nobody here to help. We help them what we can, but that is only
sometimes. They need help every day. You know inside yourself. You got help
from them as long as you couldn’t take care of yourself, but now when they are
in need, they don´t get any help. Signed Lisa [Mickelsdtr] Rasmus
Now I myself
may greet you Lisa Bartel that I am alive and well and wish you and your fiancé
the same, when you get these lines. I was so happy, when I heard that you are
coming home with your fiancé and bringing a couple people with you. When I got
your greetings in the evening, I could not sleep all night, when I heard what a
friend [male] I may get. I am not without one, but there is no one I like. I
can have the ones here once or twice, but then I´m glad to get rid of them. But
I hope that you are bringing something better, when you bring them such a long
way, so don´t you bring any water load men(2). You know I don´t like such ones.
Be careful, not to bring any with crooked legs (3), because then you may keep
them. Hurry as fast as possible because as you know the time is ripe.
So don’t
dawdle when you get this letter. You know that we will be very grateful to you.
Signed Lisa Rasmus.
This part
is upside down:
Then aunt
(mother´s sister) is sending greetings to her nephews and nieces. She thinks
that poverty will get a kick in the nose(4) over there, now that there are so
many of you. Don´t let the reply wait for three months on the road.
(1)From Kristin Rhodes: This
is a confusing paragraph. We have made it make some sense. For Lisa’s parents
what is important is that there will be no one to care for them whether it is
Anna Lisa, Anders widow or another Anna Lisa. Our scribe, Lisa Mickelsdtr is
probably wrong about Anna Lisa Rasmus returning. Within months of Anders’ death
Anna Lisa and Jonas Hard were on the path to marriage and parenthood. She may
have been reluctant to share this information.
(2) literal translation.
Whether it is a term for alcoholics is not known In contrast earlier
translators suggested “I hope that you will not bring an oaf (lout, idler,
loafer, fool).”
(3) Lisa’s father, Matts
Rasmus, “limps” according to a note in church records
(4) Literal translation; other
translators: “teach poverty a lesson”
(5) This was written one year after Lisa Bartell's husband , Charles died, perhaps in a mining accident.
