Geography
From 1150 to 1809 Finland was part of Sweden and from 1809 to 1917 an
autonomic part of Russia. In 1917 Finland became independent. The oldest map is
the border map between Finland and Russia from 1323, but it only gives names (many
unknown today) of border stones.
Of genealogical interest are the old fortresses that Sweden built for
instance Viipuri, Savonlinna, Hämeenlinna 1200-1500. Later many smaller
fortresses were
built along the coast from Viipuri in the east to Åland islands in the west.
Some times the roots of Finnish families go back to these fortresses.
Sweden started mapping Finland in the 17th century and there are many
maps of Scandinavia including Finland. Because of the many wars with Russia
there are many military maps of which there are reprints.
Of genealogical interests are the military maps that showed the exact
places were all soldiers lived. There are different maps for cavalierly and
soldiers. Sweden had a special system of recruiting soldiers (sw:Rotelsystemet).
If you put up a horseman with a horse you did not have to pay taxes. Most Noblemen
hired a horseman and did not pay taxes. Soldiers got a small house (one room)
and some land (less than on acre) to cultivate in peace time.
Genealogical problems arise because many times the soldiers put up for
war were either farmers/noble men relatives but sometimes rich men bought
outsiders that used the name of the farm or owner. The problem got worse, as the
army gave new names to men according to their appearances, Mr Henriksson could
be called "Flink" (meaning fast) and Mr Eriksson "Brask" (meaning
making noise). Often these names were only used in the army.
Later in the 18th and 19th centuries there are complete maps of the whole
of Finland from the scale 1:1 M to 1:20 000. Today the state has a very good
service and you can buy any maps from their office. The prices are very
acceptable. Personally I bought an area map of my farm (2 x 2 km) 1:5000 and
taken with infrared camera for about 100 USD.
The bilingual aspect of Finnish geographical names can be confusing, easy
is Loviisa (Finnish) = Lovisa (Swedish), not so bad is Helsinki=Helsingfors, but
you have real bad names Ahlainen=Vittisbofjärd. Today many Swedish names are
used as Finnish, you say plainly "Ahlainen" even in Swedish.
Of the Internet there is a free site were you can look up and zoom any
place in Finland.
| Example of the free site. If you do not know street just put in town place "Lovisa" and click Hae= Search | |
 |
Eastern Carelia (lost to Russia 1944) is a problem. There are some old
maps in the military museum and some reprints can be found. The problems is that
Russia has renamed all places and abolished the Finnish names. The new names
have no logic a place near a lake has got a new Russian name meaning "Hilltop"?
During 60 years
most of the houses have been destroyed and nearly all growing fields have been
left abandoned. Therefore Finns that have lived there cannot recognize their
old home even if they are within 50 m of their home.
GEMIMAP (for buying maps)
State map office in Finnish