How do I use Hiski?

Blog Genealogy in Finland contained one set of instructions, this is my version:

In Hiski searches it is usually helpful to
1) Check what is the time period of the data available.
2) Fill in as little as possible and add if there are too many results

Starting from http://hiski.genealogia.fi/historia/indexe.htm click Search program for history books.

Then scroll down in the alphabetical list to the relevant parish, click the name and then the "Selected" button below.

Next page shows the dates. As per (1) above, look at them before doing anything else. Once you have the impression that you can find something useful, click the document type Christened / Married / Buried

Let's say Christened, to search for birth record. As per (2) you can start with limiting the years to a sensible window. Either one year or a couple if you are less certain. And then put the first name to the Child/first name field. Click submit and review results. If the list is really too long to go through, click "to the search form" and try to come up with additional search criteria that is not too strict.

But commonly you are able to find the right row either by matching the date you have and/or finding the surname used in USA as either father's name or farm name.

The result page is showing all the information that has been included to the Hiski index of history books. Which is not the full extent of Finnish church records.

What is a common name in Finland?

Finnish names might seem weird and uncommon abroad, but some of them are really common in Finland and it makes no sense to send a query like "anyone with name Peltola"?

Should you ever have a need to understand commonness of a surname in Finland the place to go is
Finnish population register which has the link Name service on the front page. After clicking that click surname search at left and then simply write the name to the search field and click "Search".

You need to have the right spelling of the name, of course. Which means having ä and ö if necessary. More about those later.