So how to make Marshall a Mehtälä

Well, you have to find one of these Marshalls and then by complicated mating ritual and flirting and fancy dancing and phone calls...... and yes..
Anyhow when we arrived to Finland we registered onto the Finnish system as our names were in our passports.. "Mehtälä" and "Marshall" thinking as honest people do, that you provide the officials the name printed on the official documents.. WRONG.. once we noticed that Halle was still Marshall and I was Mehtälä we hurried down to the Magistrate to fix this minor formality.. This was 2009 spring or something like that.. The lady smiled nicely and said.. Sure you can change her last name "90€" thank you very much... we calculated our weekly food budget and figured better eat than starve and be called something else.. So the matter was left for that year..
This time we knew what to expect and just smiled as we gave away 90€ and wished the lady good day.

It apparently takes 3 weeks.. and then after the "officials" have sent us a bill and we supplied the money.. for someone to re write Halles official document... then in a week she will be called Mehtälä.. So in short how you do it..

Marry, tell a lie, avoid officials and decide on a name you would like to be called instead of the one currently in use... changing last name costs just the same as changing last, middle and first name.. Perhaps we should have made use of the money and renamed Halle to... Rumpelstilskin Snow-White Ruusunen Mehtälä.. later on it will cost yet an other 90€....

Happy name changing day to everybody.. :)

P&H