Hello! Hei! Hej!
I am Keith Lofstrom, a 71-year-old engineer, inventor, and writer in Beaverton Oregon. More about me at
I hope to learn more about my grandmother's family tree, and my cousins in Finland. MyHeritage claims we have 0.6% shared DNA. A common ancestor three generations back from me, four generations back from you.
Two of my great-grandparents immigrated from Finland to Wyoming in the United States:
William Longi born May 1868, immigrated 1882 Anna Lissa Niemelä born June 1864, immigrated 1885
Their daughter Emily Longi (my grandmother) was born December 8, 1897 in Kemmerer Wyoming. William worked in the Hanna Wyoming coal mine.
See http://wiki.keithl.com/EmilyLongi
With your help, I can connect her ancestry to you. A detailed email here:
http://wiki.keithl.com/FinnCousins
My father was born in Portland Oregon. His father Johan Sigfrid Lofstrom immigrated from Sweden in 1911 (I have his steamship ticket), more information here:
http://wiki.keithl.com/JohanSigfridLofstrom
I visited the Swedish house where my Johan Sigfrid was born, and know my cousins there, who have traced that ancestry 6 generations further back.
My mother's Mormon relatives in Texas claim to trace our European ancestry 70(!) generations, but they ignored an African ancestor 6 generations back. (or 2 ancestors, 7 generations back ...) Sadly, that is no surprise, "mixed race" couples were attacked or murdered more than a century ago. Geneticists also say that the genetic father is not the legal husband in 5% of cases; 0.95 to the 70th power is 3%, so their "70 generations" are 97% fiction. I care more about the lives they experienced than who made babies with who.
Genetics also shows that both of my sisters (and our grandmother Emily) have methylated "thrifty" genes, which help survival in famines (like Finland under the Swedish king) but cause obesity when food is abundant. We have too much food in the US, and more than 90% of Americans are overweight. I am "normal" weight for my height (170 cm), but 97% of U.S. men my height are heavier. That is because I eat one meal per day, walk more than 2000 kilometers per year, and sometimes ride a bicycle more than 100 kilometers. I also design and invent electronics, read books, and write academic papers rather than watch television.
Three startups - all failed to get big, but they paid for my house, and introduced me to many new friends in Japan, China, and India. My volunteer work with IEEE ( ieee.org ) connects me to electronics engineers all over Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world.
But ... I've never been to Finland. Perhaps someday, I can "e-visit" there, experiencing the nation over the internet in "real time", without burning 1000 liters of jet fuel (round trip) to visit in person.
The only immigrant Finn I know is Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, who lives 10 km away. We meet (among other friends) less than once per year, but share many interests. Linus was born in Helsinki in 1969. I hope to tell him where my great-grandparents were born, 100 years earlier.
Lastly, I apologize for some of the leaders that the United States elects; the politicians I campaign and vote for almost always lose. I especially worry that Trump will make deals with Putin that are harmful to Scandinavia, or will stop the flow of immigrants and ruin our future. I am proud that we help outcasts and the poor become the parents of our best citizens.
The mother of my godchildren (kummilapset, gudbarn) arrived in the US from Guatemala, hidden under the back seat of a car. Two of those godchildren are high level managers at Nike, creating jobs for hundreds of American-born, thousands in Asia, and running shoes for millions.
We have room for millions more contributors ... if we don't put too many in "fire-traps" such as the Los Angeles basin. I lived in Altadena when I was 12 years old; that house burned to the ground last week. I will help friends who lost their homes near L.A. move to the northwest U.S.