Conclusion:

The sailor Matts Widman, born in 1826 at the Lassila farm in Kovjoki, and the sailor Matts Karlsson Jussila, born in 1805 at the Jussila farm in Munsala, were third cousins.

Lars Larsson (1693-1764) and Elsa Karlsdotter Rank (1682-) at the Rank farm in Munsala had two sons, Carl and Johan, both born in 1724. They were probably twins, perhaps identical twins. Matts Widman was descended from Carl and Matts Karlsson Jussila from Johan. In this way, both sailors came from the same Rank family in Munsala.

Matts K. Jussila and Kristian K. Jussila were brothers. That means that Ruth Margit Höglund (married to Thor Westerholm) was second cousin to her mother-in-law, Hanna Widman (born Westerholm), because Kristian Jussila's daughter Sofia K. Juslin was Margit's mother, and Matts Jussila's daughter, Sofia Karolina Karlsson, was Hanna's mother.

One interesting question has not been answered. Who was Greta Hämäläinen? We know that her daughter, Maria Sofia Hämäläinen married the sailor Matts Jussila. We know that Greta was very young when she came to Jakobstad in the late 1700s to work as a maid servant (piga) in different homes. I do not know where Greta came from, nor who her parents were. Nor do I know who Maria's father was.

We have seamen and we have painters in our family, but if we look further back at out older generations, we find that our roots are very deep in Österbotten's soil. Most of them were farmers, cultivating our soil in Vörå, Oravais, Kimo, Jeppo, Munsala, Kovjoki and Kronoby, even though they could have been seal hunters on the one hand in the early 1400s and 1500s, craftsmen, and have had positions of trust in society on the other hand.



Britta Forsman (born Holmström in 1942), July 2015.
Britta's mother was Irma Westerholm (1906-1981).
Britta's grandfather was Karl Gustaf Westerholm (1867-1924).



Sources:

Alma Soderhjelm: The History of Jakobstad

Church records

Census records, voting records and control records

Fire insurance records

Newspaper clippings from Jakobstad's newspaper

Old documents, home occupancy records, power of attorney and letters of purchase

Benjamin Tohlgren's will and home occupancy records

Raul Pohjomen: The painters of Ostrobottnia (1750-1900)

Book of names and experiences of the sailors in Jakobstad

Ships' log books

Passenger lists

Court records of the City Hall of Jakobstad

Research of Monå village: "Sendtjyvon," second volume

Research of Jussila: Jussila from the river mill to the "Joss" eyelet

Alarik Ahlstrom: Pictures about Jakobstad's shipping history

Woldemar Backman: Lassila in Kovjoki village from the Nykarleby rural municipality