The Ancestors

       In the year 2004, Samuel Roy Sampson was contacted by Ed Etelemaki, who introduced himself as a distant cousin. He had retired from teaching art, and had taken an interest in genealogy. He was looking for the “Missing Link.” We looked around. We didn’t see any prehensile tails, but we seemed to have a fair allotment of opposable thumbs. He explained that he wasn’t looking for Darwin’s missing like between man and his ape-like ancestors, but for a connection to the Oregon Sampsons. He found it in us.  Evidently, he had communicated with Gene and Sylvia in the past, because he quoted snippets of information from them.  His own data goes back to the 1500s and runs 109 pages long on a “Family Tree Maker” software program, but he dispersed all his copies at a family reunion around that time.  He provided  a family tree to Eli’s branch of the family that I have truncated further to name just the closest relatives, as follows.

            Ed told Sam about the first identified ancestor, who was called Jakko Illki. Illki was killed and staked out in pieces for all to see what happens to Finns who raise armies against Russian intruders. There was, indeed, a war in the fourteenth and fifteenth  between Russia, and Sweden, which dominated Finland for many centuries. (Jakko doesn’t rate a “Google” entry that I can read; entries for parts of the name appear to be Polish. )

            Skipping ahead 4 centuries, we come to “Matt,” who begat Thomas Matinpoika Isolahti Halmi Kujala ( b1810). Thomas married Liisa Johontytar  ( b either February 1802 or1814—d.  November 4, 1844). Their children were Matthew (June 25, 1826—April 23, 1875); Caisa Royska Kujala [spelled with umlauts over the “o” and “a” in the “Royska”] (b.March 5, 1828); Johannes Kujala (b.April 17, 1830); Maria Christina Kujala (b.April 27, 1831); Johan Abram Kujala (b.Nov. 29, 1833);  our ancestor SAMUEL TUOMANPOIKA KUJALA HALMESSAARI (b.Aug. 18, 1836—d. May 14, 1901); Elisabeth Kujala (b.Apr. 29, 1840); and Greta Justina Roysko [spelled with umlauts] (b. Aug. 14,1842).  That’s eight children over 16 years. When Liisa died at age 42, two years after giving birth to her youngest child, Thomas waited a proper year, then married Caisa Majamaa (b.May 6,1828), who would have been 18 years younger than he, and  the age of his children. They begat Thomas Kujala (b.Nov. 9, 1849).

            Thomas was from Alavus Parish, which is located in the southwestern quadrant of Finland, in Vaasa state. Alavus is located inland  in an area of relatively flat terrain, ranging from 300 to 600 feet above sea level. In 1850, he moved his family to Kontias (a place too small to show on my atlas), where they rented a place near Kuivas Jarvi, “Dry Lake.” There, he build a shelter to use as a sauna, giving the place the name “Sauna Saari.” Vake explained that “Saari” means “island.”  According to Gene (via one Herman Soini), Thomas acquired the property and build the home that was named “Halmes Saari.”His descendants took the name “Halmesaari.” Remnants of the house remain, but other people live there now, and are descended from people who took the name “Halmes Saari”also, because that’s where they lived,  but that does not necessarily imply that they are related. Eli’s son Gene and Gene’s wife Kathleen visited the “homestead” in the 1970s, and Kathleen described the house there as being like a wigwam. She said that she could have seen that much among her own relatives in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. [Sam later discovered that his mother was descended from teachers or Indian agents on the reservation; they weren’t  really Indians.]

Our ancestor Samuel Tuomanpoika Kujala Halmesaari, the son of Thomas and Liisa, married Hedvig Albertina Kolisto (1838-1913). Hedvig’s father Juho  Kolisto lived with them and took the place name, Halmes Saari.  Their children, all surnamed “Halmesaari” at birth, were Johan Juho (1861-1926);Edla Marie (1866-1928), Samuel (1869-1917), Aksel (1871-1936) who took the names “Halmi” and “Sampson” upon immigrating, Tuomas Victor (1874-1950), Anna Lyydia (1876-1953), and ELIAS (April 10, 1880—April 1972). Aksel, Victor and Elias immigrated to the U.S. and  stayed; Samuel and Lyydia stayed for a while, then went back to Finland.  That’s only seven, over 19 years, so they weren’t keeping up with the old man’s record. [This poses a question. Eli’s bio said that Samuel returned to Finland to operate the family farm when Eli was 18,the year Eli left home;  but also says that Samuel operated a grocery store in Marshfield in the early 1900s. Perhaps Eli misspoke and meant a different brother.]

We have no news on how Samuel and Lyydia  fared when they returned, but some returnees were not happy.  Vake’s childhood friend Johnnie Hakonen married a Norwegian woman, Signe. Signe’s older sister Anna  immigrated, then returned to Norway. She was very disappointed that she wasn’t welcomed home—she was treated as being a rich American.

 ELIAS married Sofia Keskimaki (b. May 30, 1880). Her name translates “Center Hill.” They met and married in the United States, but she came from Kurikka, about 50 miles west of Alavus, where Elias was raised. They had six children spread over 10 years, and lived past their 60^th wedding anniversary.   So now we come to the American-born generation, whom we remember as individuals, not just statistics. We see them through our personal filters, which are mostly rose-colored glasses, and they are our family lore.