Finland Research Tips and Strategies

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Finland

Research Strategies

Purpose of Research Tips and Strategies Wiki Page The Finland Research Tips and Strategies page consists of links to specific research strategies for Finland. It also contains general tips and other resources for finding your ancestors in this locality.

Finland Research Strategies

• Finnish Research - Searching Records
• Getting Started
• What's the Next Step
• Tips for Beginners
• Emigration and Immigration
• Tips for Finnish American Researchers
• Finding your ancestor in the records
• Finding Records of your Ancestors in Finland Before 1900

Finland Research Tips

• Finland Record Finder
• Finland Handwriting
• Finland Letter Writing Guide

Tips for Finnish-American Researchers

• Pay extra attention to last names, they could be farm names. Farm names can help you identfy a home parish in Finland.
• If you are unable to locate the place of origin in Finland for your ancestor, try finding the place of origin for neighbors from Finland. Emigrants from Finland sometimes would settle in areas with friends and family from their home locality.
• Did the Finnish immigrant belong to a Finnish-American church? Many of these Finnish American churches kept excellent records of their members even recording place of birth and place the member came from in Finland. Try to find them in these records.
  
• Old letters may contain information about places. Postmarks can give clues to places in Finland.
• The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis has a department called the "Immigration History Research Center". They specialize in Finnish immigration. Contact them for help and suggestions.

Search Strategies

When you begin using church records, it is usually best to first verify the information you already have before you try to find new information. The following steps may be helpful as you use Finnish church records:

1. Find a person’s birth record. Write down the name of the parents and the place where the family was living. You will then be able to find the person in more records.
2. Search the communion records and pre-confirmation rolls of that parish for the date when the family was there for the birth you just located. Note all information about the family, including names, birth dates, birthplaces, marriage and death dates, and moving information. You will now have much more information about the family.
3. Search the birth, marriage, and death records to verify the information you found in the communion and pre-confirmation books.
4. Search the communion records and pre-confirmation rolls for all the years the family lived there. Start with the year of the parents marriage and go until the family dies out.

Repeat steps 1 to 3 for the person’s parents, siblings, or other persons of interest. If you do not find earlier generations, search neighboring parishes.

These step-by-step case studies with illustrations show how to apply these strategies:

• Finland: A Case Study Using HisKi and Digitized Online Church Records
• Finding Records of your Ancestors, Part A Finland Before 1900 (PDF)
• David S. Saari. "Beginner's Guide to Finnish Family History Research", The Swedish-Finn Historical Society, 15 May 2021. Internet Archive. Accessed 12 September 2022.

Classes in the Learning Center

• See Finland Online Learning for online classes and presentations