Finnish lecturer at John Moores University

Dr. Leila Luukko-Vinchenzo is an Assistant Director in the International School at Liverpool John Moores University. She has been working full-time since 1992, and along with German, she has also taught Finnish, which is exceptional as not many universities in Britain offer Finnish tuition. "I brought Finnish and Swedish here with me." She said.

Leila left her hometown Somero in the early 1970s to go to study in Germany and ended up living there for 16 years. She and her husband now have three school-aged daughters who live in Cheshire, near Liverpool.

Leila is not suffering from home sickness anymore as she has adopted England as her home. "All the time until I had children I thought I would return to Finland one day. I wouldn't mind moving back one day, but it is no longer a dream for me. Home sickness ends at a certain point. Home is where your belongings are." She said.

Leila is very happy with her life. She has a family and a job she loves. From a small town Finnish girl she became a European woman and being multi-lingual has proved to be very useful for her. "But I will never give away my Finnish passport," she said.

Nurse with Norwegian ancestors

Third generation Norweigen, Valerie Wall, lives and works in Liverpool and is currently looking into her family tree and her Norwegien ancestors and has so far traced them back to the 1600s. Valerie, who is a nurse just outside Liverpool, as well as undertaking a course at John Moores University, is able to get some information from her elderly uncle, who she says is "constantly trying to unlock memories so he can pass them on to me."

As well as tracing the Norwegian line back to the 17th century in Noterroy (now k/a Notero), Vestfold, she made contact last week with family who emigrated from Norway to Philidelphia and is getting lots of information from her second generation relative.

Valeries great-grandfather, Thor Bredal Jacobsen, was a master mariner in the Norwegian navy and came to Liverpool some time shortly before the 1900s. He married a lady called Margeret, from a fairly prosperous business family in Liverpool at that time, and they had six children.

Margeret named after Thors wife

Agenta

Berthe

Thomas Edward Thomas being the English version of Thor and Edward after his younger brother Edvard (the Norwegian spelling of Edward

Robert

Herbert.

Sadly Margeret dies giving birth to Herbert, and the boy himself died in childhood from peritonitis. "Thomas Edward was my granddad and he also served in the Norwegian navy before joing the merchant navy in Liverpool."

Valerie is still finding out about Thor and Margerets life in Liverpool, but told Scandinavia-network that she would keep us updated with any information.

Egert, Milly and Harry

These are three of the regular Wednesday morning visitors to the Seamen's Church coffee morning. They are able to use the church to catch up with friends and news, as well as relax.

Egert Madsen has lived in the Merseyside area since moving from Denmark in 1956. He was a sailor in the Danish Navy when began a relationship with a Liverpoudlian women, and after numerous trips decided to settle down here. Sadly his wife passed away four years ago, but Egert has no wish to return to his homeland, as his life had been here.

Milly and Harry Jorgensen were in a similar situation. Norwegian Harry was serving in the Navy during the war when he met Milly. After months of a long distance relationship between a ship in the pacific and Liverpool the couple now live here.

Why not Liverpool?

Why not Liverpool? That was my thought when I found myself unemployed after having worked at the newspaper 24timmar.se in Stockholm. I was working for a short while at Dagens Nyheter's webnewspaper, but to work without any real rights, I decided to be a freelance journalist instead. I suggested to move to Liverpool with my boyfriend Joseph and in May last year we were finally here in Liverpool. The contrast is huge compared to where I grew up, at a farm close to Mälaren, but I like it here. Liverpool is an interesting city with friendly and odd people. My favourite place is the local pub, but in the ideal world it would be the gym instead.

I also wish to get in contact with other Swedes in Liverpool. Many local newspapers are interested in what people from their own country do in Liverpool.

Please get in touch with me if you would like your story to be published or if you have some good story ideas.

Kristin Karlsson

E-post: kristin@pertier.com

Mobil: 07762 130 610

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http://www.btinternet.com/~kristin.karlsson/