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.
So, to my immediate knowledge, there are 18 of the 10th generation relatives. That doesn’t seem like many. How many more might there be? Sometimes finding contemporary relatives is not as easy as finding those born 50 or 100 years ago.
I was in touch with a genealogist in Finland this winter and I asked him how common the name “Hupila” was. “Not common at all” was the answer. Between the two of us, we counted only 33 people world-wide that use the surname “Hupila.”
What I found from another website: The surname Hupila is very uncommon in Finland. As of recent genealogical correspondence, it was estimated that only about 22 people in Finland use Hupila as a surname.
Key Facts about the Hupila Name: Origin: The name is Finnish, with roots often linked to a “house of joy or happiness.”
Rarity: It is considered a rare surname, with a very small number of bearers compared to common Finnish names like Korhonen or Virtanen. Regional Origin: The name has roots in the area west of Parkano in Finland. Usage: Records suggest a small number of families have used this name historically.
Of course, there are many more people related who were born “Hupila” and through marriage have different last names at this time. In most cases, they and their children wouldn’t have shown up in this count.
Kinnunen is a different story, however. It is the 18th most common surname in Finland with over 13,500 people listed with that last name. I would suspect that those numbers would be reflected in American as well. I have known several families of “Kinnunens” who were not knowingly related at all. Trying to connect the dots with that many people is an almost impossible task.
And, as time slips on, the 11th generation is emerging. To my research at this point, all from that generation come from my immediate family. Kaija has two children, Eero and Airi. Matti has two, Graham and Brielle. Keeley’s son has a daughter, Eliza and Kim’s daughter has a girl and a boy, McKenna and Alex. As others of the 10th generation get a little older, I’m sure this number will grow in the coming years.
It’s been a rewarding journey. I was fortunate that my dad was able to tell me much about my grandparents and their journey as immigrants and about growing up in Balsam Township from the 1920s until his passing in 2012.
He had written two books about the community and his experiences living there. As with many first and second-generation immigrants, the family kept papers that were important – land acquisitions, marriage certificates, birth certificates and the like that I had access to.
Oral history also played a part. I interviewed my dad under a program called Story Corp that is housed in the Library of Congress.
My sisters helped me remember some things I had forgotten and filled in some of the blank spots that riddled my narrative.
Ancestry and My Heritage allowed me to follow lineage that went back to the 17th century. The Ellis Island Foundation and several Canadian immigration archives allowed me to follow when my grandmother Helmi arrived from Finland and when my grandfather came through Canada on one of his three trips to America.
Spending time with relatives on my two trips to Finland and staying in touch with them since have opened doors that I didn’t think possible. The Discovery Center in Chisholm also provided some documentation and information.
This began as a labor of love and a hope that I could help the generations through my children and grandchildren to understand where they came from and why they are here.
Too often these days the hectic pace of life of modern-day society keeps younger people from exploring – or even having an interest in – their ancestry past parents and grandparents.
My family wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Russian Revolution or the persecution of the Sami people in the old country. If my grandfather hadn’t purchased land within a quarter mile of the Kinnunen farm, he probably wouldn’t have met my grandmother. If Helmi’s problems with childbearing had prevented her from giving birth to my dad, I wouldn’t be here. And, if my dad hadn’t met a pretty young girl in a flowered print dress at the Honky Tonk in Bigfork, our line might have stopped there. It’s all part of the story and all important.
Thank you to all who have followed these writings in the Ely Echo. Many of you have come up and talked to me about your stories and how you ended up being here in this country and in Ely. I enjoy and appreciate our conversations.
Maybe the telling of my story will inspire you to look more seriously into your past. We owe it to our descendants to pass history down.
