by Important events in a person’s life such as birth, death, marriage, divorce are recorded by governments all over the world. These are commonly referred to as vital records. This is a processes that has been going on for decades if not centuries across the globe. This article will take a look at how to find birth records in Finland.
Finland is a country found in North Europe. It has Norway, Sweden and Russia on its borders. The country has a population of about 5 million with 86 % of its population found in urban areas. Finland has a median age of 43 years.
To get the best out of a birth records search, you will need to first gather all details you know about the person you want to look up. This can be names, date of birth, place of birth, marriages, death (if deceased), occupation, place of residence, relatives. Try to find documents with information about them also if they are someone you live with or have access to such documents.
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Birth Records in Finland
The registration of births in Finland can be traced as far back as to 1648. Some parishes such as Teisko began keeping records as early as 1648. The Lutheran church began the registration of birth in 1686 after a decree was passed. These records were kept in Swedish as Finland at that time was part of the Swedish kingdom. It was not until 1863 when Finnish was made Finland’s official language, that records began being registered in Finnish.
Church records, also known as kirkonkirjat/kyrkoböcker, are the major sources of accurate information when it comes to names, places of birth, date of births, marriages as well as deaths. People who lived in Finland were thus registered by the church as the state gave the responsibility to them, from the beginning when it came to registration of birth records.
Birth, marriage as well as death records in Finland are referred to as history books or historiakirjat/historieböcker while communion books are referred to as main books or pääkirjat/huvudböcker.
Information that can be obtained from these church books vary over time as later records tend to have more information than earlier ones. There was no particular formula that was followed when these records were taken but the various formats that were there had the same information.
The baptism or christening of children usually took place a few days after their birth. Children who were stillbirths were recorded in both the baptism and death records.
Details that were usually found on christening registers included:
- Names of the child and parents.
- The baptism date (later registers also contain the birth date).
- The child’s legality status.
- Names of godparents and witnesses.
- Father’s occupation.
- The family’s place of residence.
- Death information if the child died very young.
- The street name or family’s address if they were in a larger city.
However, earlier records had very little details which consisted of the names of the child, names of the father and the christening date. Many pastors did not include the mother’s name until the 1700s but only her given name.
For sources of birth records in Finland, you may consider the following examples:
- Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Parish Records (1527 – 1921)
- Finland Baptisms (1657 – 1890)
- Finland Church Census and Pre-Confirmation Books (1657 – 1915)
- Finland Communion Books (1670 – 1917)
- Finland Pre-Confirmation Books (1670 – 1918)
- British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms
- HisKi Project
- Church Books
- Church Records
- Disbyt Database
Places like the National Archives located across Finland can help you find birth records in the country. You can find more than just parish registers from them but also numerous records related to your family.
The libraries of Finnish Municipalities are another great source of birth records. The basic sources of these records are microfilmed. These microfilms can be studied from your home municipality’s library as a number of these libraries possess microfilm reading equipment. You can also ask your municipality library to loan you microfilms from other libraries. However, microfilms are not home loaned.
The Institute of Migration
Founded in 1974, the Institute of Migration can provide you with further information on birth records in Finland on people who migrated to America. It has topics that cover on north American records where you can start your search, document that are related to the journey of moving from Finland to America, Finnish names (emigrants changing their names), records that are in Finland and other details.
Social Media
Social media is a great way to find out birth information on someone who is alive. Facebook is the second most used social media site in Finland with 75 % users. This means that chances are high that the person you might be looking up if a member on the site.
Other social platforms that are worth checking out for date of birth details in Finland would be Instagram (54 % users), LinkedIn (27 %), Pinterest (23%) and Twitter (22%).
With these tips on how to find birth records in Finland, you have an opportunity to do so. Try as many of these choices as possible as they all come with different data to search from.
