It’s been a long journey. We started almost 400 years ago and have followed the Hupila family through a history of wars, of famine, of revolution, of immigration, of building a life on a new continent and of reconnecting the old world with the new. Though this narrative is coming to an end, the Hupila family isn’t.
Those of us in the ninth generation are aging but have been fortunate to have our own families. In Finland, Markku and Raija and Pekka have had children that would make up the 10th generation there. In the U.S., I’ve had two children – Kaija and Matti – and my sister Keeley has a son Michael. My sister Kim has a daughter, Mandy. Cousin Marina has two sons and Peter has a daughter.
On the Kinnunen side, Bill has two daughters, Bailey and Kaija and Jack has a son and a daughter, Luke and Hannah. Mia has three children, Isaac, Eli and Cara and Jon has two, Isabelle and Charles. Sixteen 10th generation here in the States and Markku had a son and daughter, Janne and Henna. I’ve lost touch with my other second cousins in Finland so don’t know how big their families go into the next generation. Sometimes that’s how genealogy works. I might have to make another trip to Finland.
