There are several families with multiple Finnish immigrants who took the surname Maki in Thunder Bay District. Often they were siblings, but in some case also cousins from the same area in Finland. In this article I present four such “clans” that appeared more than 100 years ago, and still carry the surname in Canada. Even together they form a small minority of all Maki families in Thunder Bay. A complete list of Maki families in Thunder Bay is here.

Loukasmaki family from Ylistaro

Herman Loukasmäki’s (1846-1909) three sons Juho Valdemar, Emil Uuno and Matti Ilmari each ended up in the Thunder Bay area separately.

Juho Valdemar Maki arrived in 1912 and worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a sectionman at Bonheur station. He had a wife and four sons in Ylistaro. However, Juho died of leukemia in 1917. His widow Hilda arrived with her youngest son Aarne to Canada in 1920 and settled in Finmark where she remarried Antti Wäisänen. Juho and Hilda’s sons Herman, Eino, Arvo and Aarne Maki continued Juho Valdemar’s family branch in the Thunder Bay area.

Emil Uuno Maki came to Canada in 1913 and also started working on the railways for the C.P.R. company, but ended up as a farmhand in the Miller (Millar) Finnish community in Oliver Township. The younger brother Matti Ilmari and his family also arrived in the same neighborhood in 1927-28.

In total, the brothers had at least 11 children, who seem to have remained mainly in the Thunder Bay area.

Kimpimäki family from Nurmo

The four sons of Teofilus Kimpimäki from his first marriage came to the Thunder Bay area at different times. Teofilus had a total of 18 children from his two marriages.

Erkki Vihtori Kimpimäki, his wife Anna Kauppila, also born in Nurmo, and the eldest son Eino began their Canadian life in the Sudbury area around 1910-15, where their second son Reino was born. Erkki’s brother Juho also arrived in Copper Cliff in 1913, and they moved to the Finnish community of Miller near Port Arthur, where his nephew Herman had already settled. Eric Maki and Anna had four more children, whose descendants use surnames Maki, Laine, Siistonen and Koivuranta.

Herman Eemil Kimpimäki was the first of the sons to come to Miller as a new farmer. He married Anna Männikkö, who had arrived from Ähtäri in 1913. Their descendants may use the names Maki, Tuominen, Kunnas and Elliott.

Juho Teofilus Kimpimäki married Elsa Sainio, who had left Laitila in 1924. They had two children, of whom Martha Davis had 7 children whose families spread across Canada.

The youngest of the brothers, Isak Werner Kimpimäki, did not emigrate until 1923, and in 1930 married Hilda Elvira Pelto from Nolalu. They had a son, Edwin. The family was still living in Nolalu in 1931, but there is no information about their later years.

Teerimäki family from Soini

Einar Maki was the only one from Teerimäki family in Soini who used the name Maki in Canada, but the clan includes a large number of other relatives. Einar arrived in Canada in 1910 and purchased a homestead at the top of the North Sideroad in Silver Mountain, a neighbor of the pioneers John and Jacob Pykäri. He married Ida Pykäri who was widowed from her first marriage to Jacob Krans.

Two sons and three daughters from the family of Einar’s uncle Hermanni Teerimäki (1846-1897) left for the Thunder Bay area between 1900 and 1908. Henrik Kristian Saario had already taken the new surname after moving to Ähtäri as a crofter. He arrived in Canada in 1900 with his wife Hulda Hauta-aho and their two children. Hulda died in 1904, and Henry remarried Hilda Lillhöök, who came from Alajärvi. The descendants have used surnames Saario, Kuster, Lehtovaara and L’Esperance. Descendants of Henry Armas Saario, born from the latter marriage, still live in Nolalu.

Ida Johanna Teerimäki married Kaarle Kallio in Finland. Kaarle was from Kilponen in Ähtäri and used the name Charles Hill. The family lived in Fort William on Rowand Street, which was the residence of many Ähtäri immigrants around 1910.

Hilma Lydia Teerimäki married Matti Kortesoja from Lapua and had five children before her early death. You can read more about the history of this family in Eldon Oja’s book From Finland to Nolalu in the Downlads section of this site. Helga Lydia married Edward Kiviharju from Ikaalinen and they used the surname Harju. They had a farm in Intola.

The youngest of the siblings, Evert Teerimäki, married Fiina Kujanpää from Alajärvi. The family used the surname Hill, and they had three children.

Mesimäki family from Ähtäri

Five siblings from the Hermanni Mesimäki family from Mäkikylä in Ähtäri left for Fort William between 1901 and 1910. My grandmother was the youngest and stayed in Finland.

Herman Maki emigrated in 1901, and returned in the autumn of 1905 to find a wife back home. Herman and Vilhelmiina travelled by winter ship to Halifax and settled on Rowand Street, a Finn-dominated street in Fort William. They had four children there, and another one in Nolalu, where they bought a homestead in 1913. Wilho, Jaarli, Paul and Mauri continued with the Maki surname, and Naimi with her married name Salmi. Herman died in 1932, and Vilhelmiina remarried Nestor Ylatalo.

Dominikus (Nick) Mackie married Anna Sophia Nelson, who was born in Canada. Her Finnish parents Peter and Greta Nelson were key figures in Fort William’s early Finnish community and Lutheran congregation at the turn of the century. Nick worked most of his career on the railways in Nakina as a carman and car inspector. Nick and Sophia had 8 children who continued the family with surnames such as Mackie, Burns, and Rajala in various parts of Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.

Victor Maki received a ship’s ticket from Hermann in 1902, when Hermann’s intended bride did not want to leave. He married Tiina Perälä, who came from Lapua, in Fort William and had a total of 6 children, 4 of whom remained childless or died young. Victor acquired two adjacent homesteads in Nolalu from the Dutch Varseveld family who moved to British Columbia. Farming continued on the farms until the 1960s, and the farm is still jointly owned by the descendants. Of the children, Eino Maki’s descendants form a close-knit Finn family mainly in the Thunder Bay area, but now also elsewhere in Canada.

Isaac Maki came to Canada in 1907, but did not appear in documents until 1923 when he married Siiri, the daughter of Matti Pätäri from Nolalu. This branch of the family has become extinct when their only son Leo remained childless.

Hilma Mesimäki married Henry Sipilä, who had come from Kuivasmäki, Petäjävesi. They had a homestead in Nolalu, and Henry worked as the business manager of the Nolalu Farmers Mercantile cooperative in the early years of the business. They had two daughters and a son who died young. Their daughter Lily Reivonen had two daughters who have descendants with many different surnames in Canada.