By definition, first generation refers to foreign born immigrants. Second generation refers to people born in a country (America, etc.) with at least one foreign born parent and third generation are born in that country with two parents born as citizens.
My dad, Alvar, was the first “second generation” of both the Hupila and Kinnunen sides of the family. There are not many in our family that can boast of that distinction. My dad was born in 1924 and his sister Aili in 1933. Edwin had no siblings here to add to the total, but Helmi had two brothers and a sister who also immigrated to the U.S. Sister Nellie graduated from Hibbing High School, attended the junior college there and finally received a liberal arts certificate from Bemidji State Normal College and moved from Minnesota to San Francisco. She worked as a secretary for many businesses there, never getting married. Otto Junior lived his entire life on the farm established in Balsam. He managed the farm, was the organizer of the “Cow Club”, acted as a township supervisor for Balsam, ran for County Commissioner and worked for a time at Viking Lumber in Bovey. He also was never married.
The second brother, Wilho (Uncle Bill) married Francis Cloutier and had two “second generation children, Thomas (Cousin Tommy) and Fritzi (Frances). He lived at a separate house on the Kinnunen farm until later moving to Mountain Iron. So Alvar, Aili, Tommy and Fritzi made up the entire second generation of my family. I’ll be spending the rest of this article writing about my dad and his journey through childhood to adulthood until he met my mother.
