Genealogy

Remember to be critical of information posted by others, we always recommend that you check the original sources.

Some tips for sources to find your forest Finnish roots:

There are several local history groups/societies and genealogy associations in both Norway and Sweden, that have worked for a number of years with Forest Finns genealogies. These have also published many publications. You can try contacting them for information.

• There is a primary source that is quite special for the Forest Finns: Finnemanntallet
  https://www.nb.no/items/f9dc9e23f867247de13276b8dc980727?page=0&searchText=finnemanntallet
• Some censuses deal with language and ethnicity, and there you will find some Forest Finns listed with Finnish as their language. But it is important to bear in mind that there are many Forest Finns who are not listed with this marking in censuses, as the Finnish language gradually disappeared, and also because some Forest Finns did not want to be stigmatized because of their background.
• Carl Axel Gottlund's diaries from his travels to Forest Finn areas in Scandinavia in 1817 (Dalarna in Sweden) and 1821 (Finnskogen in Värmland and Solør) are good sources of Forest Finn findings. Thanks to his entries in the church registers, many of the Forest Finn family names have been preserved.
• To document the Forest Finns background of people in older source material, this book is useful: Bladh G, Myrvold J og Persson, N. «Skogsfinska släktnamn i Skandinavien» Karlstad University Studies 2009:58.
  Skogsfinska-slaktnamn-in-Skandinavien.pdf
• The organization Finnbyger i Samverkan, www.finnsam.org, has an overview of most Finnish forest literature that has been published (over 18,000 titles).
• The Forest Finland DNA project has documented 100 Forest Finland family names as of today.