WELCOME TO GEN WEB FINLAND

GENEALOGY	HISTORY	GEOGRAPHY	GENERAL	CONTACTS
WELCOME TO GEN WEB FINLAND Finland is officially a bilingual country (Finnish, Swedish) and was part of Sweden during 1150-1809 and part of Russia during 1809-1917. Independence was declared in 1917. The border to Russia has changed since the first peace treaty 1323 in Nöteborg (fi:Pähkinäsaari). Studying your roots is easy as very much has been studied and priests started to make notes on people in the 17th century. Another very good source is the Silver Tax List (Silverskattelängden 1571) where every house and its inhabitants and their posessions were recorded for extra taxes. Most people live in the southern part of Finland and largest towns are Helsinki (capital), Tampere, Turku, Espoo, Vantaa, Oulu, Lahti, Lappeenranta and Kotka.
The main genealogy information can be found at the Finnish genealogy society (Suomen Sukututkimusseura) that volontarily is putting all church books (called The Black Books) into the Internet. More than 50% are ready. This society has most needed contacts and links to other research facilities. East Carelia, lost to Soviet 1940 and 1944 is special as many church books were destroyed. All carelian families (abt 400 000) moved to Finland in 1944					Click picture for biger picture
					Click here for virtual map of Finland

22.05.2003 Mac Ramsay rammac@hotmail.com