Tag Archives: Suomi

Everything is fine with Finland, my ancestral home

Rudy Owens in Helsinki, Finland, February 2024

As a Finnish-American by birth, with one quarter of my ancestry rooted in the Nordic nation of Finland, I am by birthright personally and biologically attached to this country. Today, this is cause for celebration, as suddenly all things Finnish, in the eyes of the world and social media, are wildly cool—or as the Finns say, “Siistia!”

In March 2024, it was named, for the seventh year in a row, the world’s “happiest country,” according to a United Nations report examining major areas of individual and societal wellbeing. But that is not the reason I have taken a strong and later-in-life interest in my core Finnishness and my biological family history that can be traced to Finland’s farming belt.

I am a long lost “son” of Suomi because of my origins being separated from my kin through adoption. Naturally, my Finnish “sisu” prevailed. I found my kin and my heritage, against improbable odds. This also became part my book I published in 2018 called: You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are. Not only did I find my U.S. kin, I connected in 2023 and 2024 with my wonderful and long-lost Finnish relatives in a nation that is suddenly popping up in health research, documentaries, wonky policy research, and on countless social media streams.

All told, I’ve written 15 articles and some long-form stories (one is 9,000 words!) about Finland and my ties to it since March 2023. I’ve had my writing published the Genealogical Society of Finland (a 4,000 word story is available to its members) and I’ve been interviewed on the Michigan Radio news magazine “Stateside,” to discuss my story connecting with my Finnish kin. I’ve put all of my writing and my in-depth Finnish photo essays on my page that I’ve branded: “Celebrating all things Finnish—Kaikkea suomalaista juhlitaan.” Let me know what you think. We can learn a lot from the Finnish people, especially how they care their people.

(Note: I’ll be updating this page later with more photo essays and an essay about what I learned taking saunas in Finland, including the “sauna capital of the world,” beautiful Tampere.)

Enjoy/ Nauttia!

What I learned about happiness in Finland, my ancestral homeland

Some photos from a family meal capture the warmth of connecting with family, a joy almost like summer, in Kurikka, Finland (February 2024).

Today I published a new story examining my ties to one of my ancestral home countries, Finland, and why it consistently scores at the top of the charts for social wellbeing.

I think the Finnish people must be tiring by now of the many articles that latch on to the country’s consistent ranking, six years in a row, as the world’s “happiest country.” That’s the analysis provided annually in a big and well-researched report on individual and national wellbeing generated by the United Nations.

As a Finnish-American who only last year found his biological kin/family in Finland, I have a strong interest in “cracking the code” to what has made this Nordic nation of about 5.6 million rise to such lofty heights. It is certainly not the weather. On my last fabulous trip there, in February 2024, I had a mix of rain and snow, and mostly clouds.

Mostly I feel lucky to be Suomalainen (Finnish), at least one-quarter by birth, and to have had a chance to learn more about Finland from people who call it home.

On my last trip, to Helsinki, Tampere, Seinäjoki, and Kurikka, I visited my newly found “distal” kin/family and stayed in their homes. Naturally, we shared the joy of taking saunas. That gave me great perspectives that have warmed me even more to the Finnish people and their country. Thanks for the great memories, Finland/ Kiitos upeista muistoista, Suomi!

We all have a right to know our origins

Finding myself and my kin in beautiful Finland

This month, I had the good fortune to have one of the most memorable trips I have ever had.

I visited Finland, or Suomi, in Finnish.

It is the ancestral home of my maternal great grandmother and great grandfather. I am a proud Finnish-American by birthright.

Using information shared with me by my biological family, along with the help of strangers as well as just good luck, I found my biological relatives before I Ieft for the country of some of my ancestral kin. We share a common ancestry to small villages in South Ostrobothnia, about 75 kilometers from the city of Vaasa. We are bound and connected by blood.

Over several days, I met many of my kin in different cities. I will be sharing more on that later. Those encounters reaffirmed for me, again, the basic human truth of the critical importance of kin relationships and biological family to our place in the universe. Deprived of that knowledge, we will forever feel adrift. With that knowledge, we feel a connection.

Many thousands of Michigan-born adoptees, like me, are denied this soul-enriching information by discriminatory state laws.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has done nothing to try and fix this grave injustice after nearly six years in office, though her and her staff are well aware of his legal inequality to thousands of people. There is also indifference visible by public silence to this systemic denial of basic rights by the Democratically controlled state legislature as well.

The only solution to this problem is the passage of lasting legislative reform.

I have been working on this for years, and I’ve reached out repeatedly to lawmakers, the state vital records keepers, and to Gov. Whitmer’s senior staff. They know about the issue, and they will do nothing unless they are forced to do something by residents in Michigan impacted by these laws.

Here are some suggestions I shared earlier this year for lobbying for reform to end this harm. I hope you will support these efforts, even if you are not a Michigan-born adoptee. As my Finnish relatives would say, “Kiitos!”