Sunday, May 16, 2010
What is loinen?
Loinen can be translated as parasite but only in the sense that these people did not have their "own" place to live. They were probably at the bottom of the economical status order, but you shouldn't look at it as a sign of disapproval. Just a classification.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
How can siblings have different family names?
Between 1880's-1920's family names in western Finland became more common among general population. (People with education and trade people in towns had family names already in 1600's.) During this period the adoption of Finnish names (as opposed to the Swedish and Latin ones used previously) started as well.
As the name conventions were loose, people chose names without rules or traditions. Personally I find it waste of time to wonder why
a) children chose different name than parents
b) siblings chose different names
c) a particular name was chosen
d) people would change names several times
because all that just happened.
(In Eastern Finland common people have had family names 1500's which is an uncommonly long time in European context.)
You can read more at http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article216e.htm
As the name conventions were loose, people chose names without rules or traditions. Personally I find it waste of time to wonder why
a) children chose different name than parents
b) siblings chose different names
c) a particular name was chosen
d) people would change names several times
because all that just happened.
(In Eastern Finland common people have had family names 1500's which is an uncommonly long time in European context.)
You can read more at http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article216e.htm
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Where to post a query?
A general hint for discussion forums is to
a) Check the amount of activity. Low activity means that there is less chance to get a reply.
b) Check the quality of replies.
On the forums relating to Finnish genealogy in English there are usually few people answering and more asking questions. If the previous queries are unanswered or answered poorly, then you might want to try some place else.
Alternatives I am aware of:
a) do not have enough information to "jump the pond", in which case the only thing to say is: you need more information, go and try to find it
b) do have enough information but do not explain why they are not proceeding with the research.
If you are simply looking for someone to do your genealogy for you, there are professionals for that. More on finding them later.
a) Check the amount of activity. Low activity means that there is less chance to get a reply.
b) Check the quality of replies.
On the forums relating to Finnish genealogy in English there are usually few people answering and more asking questions. If the previous queries are unanswered or answered poorly, then you might want to try some place else.
Alternatives I am aware of:
- The Finlander Forum was originally focused on the Swedish speaking areas of Finland, but I think it has widened since then. Active.
- Ancestry.com message board for Finland has Americans posting and only a few people from Finland checking in. Linked to the Rootsweb Finland mailing list
- Yahoo Group FinlandGenealogy is not very active, but people usually get a reply.
- GenForum for Finland reasonable activity.
a) do not have enough information to "jump the pond", in which case the only thing to say is: you need more information, go and try to find it
b) do have enough information but do not explain why they are not proceeding with the research.
If you are simply looking for someone to do your genealogy for you, there are professionals for that. More on finding them later.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Where in Finland is...?
You can use Google maps if you like. But sometimes a better option is the official map site: Kansalaisen karttapaikka. It provides an address search but the the more useful option is place name search.
Do not worry about the municipality field unless you are already sure you have the right value for it. Enter the name you are searching to the search field. To search for places with the beginning of the name only, cut with *.
In the result list each row ends with the type of place: House, swamp, island, forest, elevation etc. Before that you can see the municipality the place is in. Press control down and select all that look promising and click "Show selected on the map".
Please note that farms/houses today are not necessarily in the same place as the farm/house with the same name ~100 years ago.
Do not worry about the municipality field unless you are already sure you have the right value for it. Enter the name you are searching to the search field. To search for places with the beginning of the name only, cut with *.
In the result list each row ends with the type of place: House, swamp, island, forest, elevation etc. Before that you can see the municipality the place is in. Press control down and select all that look promising and click "Show selected on the map".
Please note that farms/houses today are not necessarily in the same place as the farm/house with the same name ~100 years ago.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Did the only eat potatoes?
"Did I tell you that, in response to my comment that the family was land wealthy, Kathy replied, "Mummu said all they ate was potatoes some days"?"
- Finland was a poor country until WWII. Our last real famine was as recently as 1866-67.
- Farmers, of course, ate what they produced. The traditional Finnish food has been very plain and monotonous. What my grandmother (who grew up at a fairly prosperous farm) describes being the diet during her youth, doesn't seem very appealing to me. Since I have grown up eating lasagna, pizza...
So Kathy's "mummu" quite possible ate mostly potatoes at her home in Finland, as did many other people as well. And after coming to America and experiencing a greater variety of food stuffs, her opinion of the old days could very well have been coloured as not-very-rosy.
- Finland was a poor country until WWII. Our last real famine was as recently as 1866-67.
- Farmers, of course, ate what they produced. The traditional Finnish food has been very plain and monotonous. What my grandmother (who grew up at a fairly prosperous farm) describes being the diet during her youth, doesn't seem very appealing to me. Since I have grown up eating lasagna, pizza...
So Kathy's "mummu" quite possible ate mostly potatoes at her home in Finland, as did many other people as well. And after coming to America and experiencing a greater variety of food stuffs, her opinion of the old days could very well have been coloured as not-very-rosy.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
What is torppari?
Conventional translation of torppari is crofter, but as I don't know what sort of terms crofters were living under, I don't know if that is accurate or not.
A torppari had a (probably small and simple) house and a plot of land to farm (these together form the torppa). This was not an independent farm, but a part of one. A torppari would pay rent, usually by working a set amount of days per week for the farmer. Additionally there could be yearly work product requirements like spinning yarn, gathering berries, making baskets, making trips to the closest town ... whatever was agreed. Often they also needed to work extra days during harvest - just when they would have needed to work on their own land as well. The saying is that moon is the sun of a torppari.
The agreements were seldom on paper so the torppari position was not very secure. But it could also be that the torppa would go from father to son for several generations (as was the case in one part of my own ancestry). Whereas farms are often (though not always) today in the same place they were a hundred years ago, torppas can be harder to locate as they could be a long distance away from the actual farm. After the civil war of 1918 we got a law that allowed the torppari's to buy the land (or equivalent) and many small farms were created. Many of these have since disappeared.
In church books torppa is usually on the pages after the main farm. Depending on the parish they can also be in a separate book reserved for non-owning class.
A torppari had a (probably small and simple) house and a plot of land to farm (these together form the torppa). This was not an independent farm, but a part of one. A torppari would pay rent, usually by working a set amount of days per week for the farmer. Additionally there could be yearly work product requirements like spinning yarn, gathering berries, making baskets, making trips to the closest town ... whatever was agreed. Often they also needed to work extra days during harvest - just when they would have needed to work on their own land as well. The saying is that moon is the sun of a torppari.
The agreements were seldom on paper so the torppari position was not very secure. But it could also be that the torppa would go from father to son for several generations (as was the case in one part of my own ancestry). Whereas farms are often (though not always) today in the same place they were a hundred years ago, torppas can be harder to locate as they could be a long distance away from the actual farm. After the civil war of 1918 we got a law that allowed the torppari's to buy the land (or equivalent) and many small farms were created. Many of these have since disappeared.
In church books torppa is usually on the pages after the main farm. Depending on the parish they can also be in a separate book reserved for non-owning class.
Friday, April 2, 2010
What is the big deal about Å, Ä and Ö?
Many Finnish people and internet searches will make a difference between a and å&ä and respectively between o and ö. Why? Because they are different letters.
Finnish is written phonetically. And we have more vowels than the English alphabet allows for.
Strictly speaking you don't need Å for Finnish. In Finnish it is called "Swedish-O", as it is pronounced usually the same as O and it is "swedish" because in Finnish text the place you see it in is names with Swedish origins.
But with Ä and Ö, Å is part of the Finnish alphabet. They are the 3 last letters, which might be useful to know when looking at indexes and registers.
Finnish alphabet with pronounciation from Wikibooks.
Finnish is written phonetically. And we have more vowels than the English alphabet allows for.
Strictly speaking you don't need Å for Finnish. In Finnish it is called "Swedish-O", as it is pronounced usually the same as O and it is "swedish" because in Finnish text the place you see it in is names with Swedish origins.
But with Ä and Ö, Å is part of the Finnish alphabet. They are the 3 last letters, which might be useful to know when looking at indexes and registers.
Finnish alphabet with pronounciation from Wikibooks.
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