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Sippo Family History, part 3
My Visit to Finland


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The paper on "Sippo and Hämäläinen Families in Australia" has explained the origins of my grandfather Simo Sippo in the Koivisto Parish of the former Karelian area of Finland. Simo had never made this origin clear, whether because of poor english or some unknown personal reason we will never know.

After I retired from the work force I started searching properly for the family roots, but it took a long time to find a good, accurate, starting point. In the end, however, the job was done, after many letters, emails, phone calls, internet news group messages, record searches, and the like. Most importantly, after Simo's approximate time and place of birth were established, a number of people in Finland gave a lot of information and help so that a true family tree was eventually established and some relatives located.

Two of these related families thought it would be good to reestablish the links between the long separated families. Hence they came to Australia to visit us, one group in 1999 and the other in 2001. They told us of Finland, and Simo's original home, and found out something about us over here. All this left me anxious to go to Finland, to see it for my self, to see where the family came from, to seek out relatives and meet people, and to gather information for the rest of the family here. After some worry as to whether I could raise enough money for such a long trip, and whether at nearly 78 I was getting a bit old for that sort of thing, I booked plane tickets and the trip was under way.

On 24th June 2002 I went to Sydney airport and flew out of Australia for Helsinki via Singapore and Amsterdam. In Helsinki I was met by cousin Helena Hela and her husband Jarmo, and her mother Aini Huttunen. Helena and Jarmo took me as a guest in their home, and for five weeks took me on very wide travels in Finland and Koivisto, acting as guides and interpreters.

Jorma Sippo's log cabin in Lapland.A few days after arrival, we were joined by Jorma Sippo of Kajaani and drove up to Lapland, to Jorma's log cabin. We spent a few happy days there, walking and driving, to have a good look at the area, it's forests and rivers, museums and art galleries, and new developments of various kinds. It was a most interesting experience.

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Back in Helsinki we had a very nice relaxing cruise to Porvoo. Then came the main feature of my visit. From Helsinki we went to the house of Kari Hämäläinen. He had arranged for us to join his tour bus and cross into Russia to go to Viipuri and the Koivisto Parish. We were joined by Tauno Tetri who helped very much in making the trip successful. Tauno Tetri and Bill Sippo in the Koivisto church, now museum, near a Karelian national dress. We had two days during which Kari ensured that we saw everything of my family origins that it is still possible to see - the villages where the families had lived, ruins of former Sippo houses, the land on which they lived, the church they had attended. This was a very deep and wonderful experience. The only unhappy thing about the visit was seeing how the area has been neglected in recent years, how buildings are falling down, maintenance is failing, agriculture seems to be disappearing, and there is a general air of neglect.

After the return to Helsinki, we all drove off again to spend a few days in Aini's cottage at Karijärvi. Here was another different experience in another beautiful area. We drove to many nearby towns and saw many different things, from a golf centre at Kuusankoski to the Salmela Centre at Mäntyharju where people from across the lake used to stay overnight on Saturdays to go to church on Sunday.

We then went back to Helsinki and spent some days looking around this lovely city. I also spent a few days testing the medical system by getting treatment for an infection I'd picked up. The system worked well, and I got better, but it did take a while to build up to normal strength again.

The final feature of the visit was the annual meeting of the people of Koivisto, held this year at Raisio near Turku. We all went to stay in Turku so as to attend the meeting, but we went a few days early to have time with Anna-Kaisa Siipi who had done so much towards establishing the details of the Sippo family tree.

Jarmo and Helena Hela with Aini Huttunen in replica Karelian national dress from 1000 years ago. At the Raisio meeting I bought a number of Koivisto gifts to bring back to Australia so that the various family members here would have something to help link their thoughts with the family roots. It was a very good weekend. I went to all the sessions and listened to the music, the singing, and the plays - all clear enough despite not speaking the language. The arts and crafts sections were great, and I had interesting talks with some of the exhibitors. I went to the Rautanen and the Makslahti village meetings, and between times met many people and found new relatives.

Then we went back again to Helsinki and the adventure was over. It was time to pack and to go back to Australia, where I arrived at Sydney airport early in the morning of 1st August. It had been a wonderful experience, during which I travelled widely in Finland, and met very many friendly and helpful people. I found that people do not become different just because they live on the opposite side of the world. Finland felt like home, just as Australia is home, and I hope the contacts made can be maintained. The last contact before this one was 121 years ago. Let us hope the next does not wait so long.

I have now written an extensive diary of my visit, and published it in book form. It has been distributed to relatives, as a further step in trying to re-establish and strengthen family ties between the branches of the family.

The only further thing to add is my very deep thanks to those who supported and sponsored me in Finland, keeping my personal expenses to a minimum so that the visit could be extended long enough to see and do many things and, I hope, achieve something a short visit could not have done.

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