Genealogy in Finland

Finnish family estates in the web

2010-09-17T23:27:00.002+03:00

For those who are looking information on a particular family estate should have a look at the Finnish Agricultural Museum's website. They provide information about family estates in Finland. You can search for estates in the following address: http://sukutilat.sarka.fi.Currently there is over 26 000 family estates listed. You can do searches by municipality ("kunta"), village ("kylä"), estate

Common causes of death in Finnish archives

2010-09-15T23:10:00.003+03:00

Below are listed some of the typical causes of death found in Finnish church records. This list may be of help when using the HisKi database. The swedish word is the one found in the records. English Swedish Finnish shortness of breath andtäppa hengenahdistus childbirth bardnsbörd synnytys stomach ache bukref vatsanväänne (typhoid) brännsjuka polte (

Private archives

2010-01-13T08:00:00.000+02:00

Private archives are a resource that should not be neglected by a genealogist. They can provide lots of useful information on diverse subjects. Here I present some of the finnish private archives which may be useful in genealogical research. A full database of Finnish private archives that receive state support or are maintained by official archive institution is available at http://www.narc.fi/

Military records

2010-01-10T19:15:00.000+02:00

Finnish military records are mostly located in two archives: in the War Archive and in the National Archive. Some of the archive material is accessible on internet too.National Archive's Militaria Collection contains documents on military personel from 18th century until the beginning of the Finnish autonomy period (approximately 1812). Military records of the National Archive are available also

Finnish surnames

2009-12-21T14:12:00.000+02:00

In 1920 it became obligatory for all the Finnish citizens to have a surname. If one did not have a surname, it had to be invented or a priest ordered a surname. There is no common base for all Finnish surnames. In eastern Finland real surnames were used already in the beginning 13th century. Some of the eastern names have basis in the very old finnish pagan names, some come from Greek-Catholic

Obtaining an extract of parish register

2009-12-17T10:24:00.019+02:00

It is possible to obtain extracts from parish registers for genealogical study directly from the local parishes in Finland. Parish register extracts are usually available from 1850 until nowadays, so they are a good place to start your genealogy research as it is sufficient to know your grandparents name, place of living and birthdate. Before 1850 the parish records are in church archives which

Court records

2009-12-16T11:54:00.001+02:00

Oldest Finnish court records ("tuomiokirjat") date back to middle ages, they are mostly documents about land and property cases. Until 1623 only some court records have preserved but after 1623 they are more frequently available. The reason for this is that on 1623 the Court of Appeal was founded in Turku and it requested local courthouses to send all court records to the Court of Appeal to be

Census records

2009-12-14T22:37:00.008+02:00

Census records ("henkikirjat") are the second most important documents for a genealogist after the church records. They help to fill in the gaps and missing documents in church records and they are especially important for those who do research on beginnings 17th and 18th century population in Finland because church records mainly begin from 1720's and 1730's. Census records were mostly tax

Finnish emigration to Canada and USA

2009-12-11T04:00:00.004+02:00

Emigration from Finland to USA and Canada was on one hand due to attraction to wealth and possibilities USA and Canada had to offer, and on the other hand it was due to poverty in Finland at the time. Most of the emigrants were country-dwellers, and belonged to the poorer classes of the agricultural population, and the majority of them were young men. Some Finns have emigrated to America as early

Genealogy Ebooks

2009-12-10T17:33:00.019+02:00

Getting a fast start in genealogical research is something that most of us never get. There are many guides and books available, in fact so many that it's hard to know which ones to use. To avoid spending money in the beginning on books or courses that may not suit your needs a good way to start is to look for a an eBook that you can download immediately and read it on your computer. Ebooks have

Old maps of Finland online

2009-12-10T09:00:00.003+02:00

A couple of days ago a new service was launched to bring old Finnish maps available online. The project is named after researcher Heikki Rantatupa who has worked with the maps for years. Thanks to his efforts the service covers about 5400 maps in 6350 pictures. Most of the maps in the service are from the years 1600-1800 but some maps exist until 1950's.The map service is hosted by University of

Finnish parish records online

2009-12-09T14:59:00.015+02:00

I thought some of you might be interested in some tips on how to search for Finnish parish records in the online HisKi database mentioned in my previous post "Finnish genealogy database on the web". Here's some step by step instructions to help you out.1. Go to the HisKi site in http://hiski.genealogia.fi?en2. Let's say we are looking for birth records of an ancestor who we suscpect to have born

Provincial archives

2009-12-08T09:55:00.001+02:00

Provincial archives ("maakunta-arkisto") in Finland are state's regional archives and research centers. They work under the supervision of the National Archive. Provincial archives mission is to receive and preserve documents and facilitate their use in research. There are seven provincial archives in Finland in the following cities: Hämeenlinna, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Mikkeli, Oulu, Vaasa and Turku

Finnish genealogy database on the web

2009-12-06T11:12:00.010+02:00

The genealogical society of Finland has an ongoing project called "Hiski" which aims to make Finnish parish records available on the Internet. The project has it roots in an earlier project of the society where parish records before the year 1820 were copied from original documents to "black books". This copying was done during 1924-1948. The earlies records in the "black books" are from 17th

National Archive

2009-12-04T16:04:00.001+02:00

Finland's National Archive contains around fourty shelf kilometer of documents. The oldest document are from the middle-ages. The oldest document from 1316 is King Birger's protection letter to the women of Karelia. Oldest whole document series are tax records which date back to the end of 1530's. Documents from the Swedish reign are accounting records, court records and land maps. Most important

General parish registers

2009-11-18T14:42:00.019+02:00

General parish registers are registers maintained by local parishes in Finland. They are the foundation for any genealogist doing genealogical research in Finland. Parishes were forced by law to keep the general parish records in 1668 and this is why some parishes have solid records from that year until today. In different phases of history these registers have contained slightly varying set of

Genealogical sources in Finland

2009-11-17T15:54:00.014+02:00

Among the first question confronted by a non-Finnish speaking genealogist is: what sources are available for the genealogical research in Finland? I'll present different sources here briefly and treat them in-depth later in separate articles. The most important source is church records ("rippikirjat" and "historiakirjat"). These records were maintained by parishes and they contain information

Welcome to a blog about genealogy in Finland!

2009-11-17T15:36:00.008+02:00

I decided to start this blog as I did not find any English blogs dealing with this subject, genealogy in Finland. There are lots of descendants of Finnish emigrants especially in USA and Canada so I think it will be interesting for many to have some more information in English available on the subject.I try to write as often as I can, at least a couple of times per week but hopefully more. I hope