Today I'm opening the pages of an album packed full of postcards collected by my great grandaunt Saima (who was also the star of last week's accumulator seriali post). Most of them are addressed to Saima from her family, but she's added a few of her family members' pretty cards there as well. The postcards in the album are all dated pre-1910. The note paper box, labelled "Saima's postcards 1912-1916" is also filled with postcards, but I'll show you those another time.

The pattern on the paper is fabulous, isn't it?

As you can see, this album is a pretty old. The dedication reads: To Saima, Christmas 1904. Saima was born in 1892, so she would've been 12-years-old at the time. My great grandmother Ester, who wrote most cards in this album, was born in 1884 - 100 years before I did.

Here I'm coming to Saima, Little Ester. Shared greetings to you all from Ida O. Especially to Mamma from Little. ("Mammalle Pikku lähettää erittäin" isn't really translatable - I see where the odd way my mother and I use words comes from.) -  from 1904, when Finland was still a part of Russia, hence a Russian stamp on the other side.

My mother just told me that Ester may have signed this card "Little Ester" because, while she was eight years older, she was much shorter than Saima, who was very tall for a woman, even on today's standards.

Left: My great grandmother is requesting a package with garters, corset bones and hooks to be shipped to her via railway to Kiikka, Lauttakylä. Year unreadable from stamp, still Russian.

Right: A postcard from my great great grandmother to Saima on her 12th birthday (1904)

Ester sending her regards to Saima from Lauttakylä.

Jolly Easter to Saima.

 A name day card to Saima Karolina on Karolina's name day. Whether her second name was written with one or two 'i's, I don't know, as both versions appear a lot. The speciality of this card is how it's addressed with Saima's name and street address, but in place of the city the card reads 'here' instead of Turku. Back then postcards were sorted in the post office, and 'here' was a perfectly good way to let the post personnel know this card can go directly to the postman's bag.

This final card is from Saima's and Ester's little brother Niilo. I believe he's staying with their sister Olga, who was a teacher. He writes Saima how school is ending on the Pentecost and how their eldest sister is making him a blue shirt and a hat - at least I think the word 'pluusi' refers to a blouse or a shirt; the language in these postcards is often old and strange to me, even though I'm pretty good at figuring things out from a linguistic perspective.

A good part of this album is filled with postcards sent for special occasions, but great many are just short notes requesting things (or money) to be sent, or letting the recipient know their letter or package is coming soon. I love the ones that reveal things about the family's everyday life the most. Christmas greetings haven't changed much since, but the silly notes about relatively unimportant things are the ones that make these people come alive well after a century.