The Kannastos and Andersons of Finland, and of Rocklin, Placer Co., CA
Read Census Journey 1 -- The Andersons and Kannastos of Rocklin, Placer Co., California, in 1910 and 1920
The gravestones of my great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather, in Rocklin Cemetery, Rocklin, Placer Co., California, and the Anderson plot at Rocklin Cemetery.
Ida and Oskar Anderson, both born in Finland. He was a gold miner who moved his family around to various small towns in western states. Their children were born in Noyo, CA (1886 &'88); Maiden, MT (1889); Billings, MT (1891); Cornet, MT (1893); Franklin, WA (1895); Ophir, CA (1898 &1900); and Rocklin, CA (1902, '04 & '05). Later they owned and operated a small granite quarry in Rocklin, California, and stayed there until their deaths.
The Andersons' home and granite quarry, as they look today. My great-grandfather John Kannasto (born in Finland), married the Andersons' eldest living child, Mary Josephine Anderson (born in Noyo, CA). The young Kannasto couple then lived with the Andersons and worked at the Anderson family quarry. Sometime between 1916 and 1919, when the granite market in the area was going downhill, John and Mary Kannasto moved with their children to Astoria, Oregon, where John worked as a stone cutter in a rock quarry.
The gravestone of my great-grandfather John Kannasto's uncle, also called John Kannasto, in Rocklin Cemetery. My branch of the Kannastos is not buried in Rocklin, because they moved to Oregon. Rocklin Cemetery is located on Kannasto Street, named after the family of John Kannasto (the uncle), probably because they lived next to the cemetery.
The Finns were an important presence in old Rocklin, and many continue to live there today. We visited the Rocklin Historical Society Museum, which is a fascinating place, very well run by several volunteers from the Rukhala family. The area near the cemetery is dotted with ponds of various sizes, which look like regular ponds, but are actually very deep, former granite quarries! One of them apparently has a whole train engine and possibly car at the bottom of it. In the museum, I saw an old photo of the train engine dangling down into the hole. See News and New Developments page for more about our trip to Rocklin.
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