In 1993, on the initiative of Ragnar Mannil and the late Helge Smedjebacka,
a project was started to present the oldest generations of the two
ancient families of Caino (Kainu) and Torp (Torppa). The home of both
families is in Veteli, about thirty miles southeast of the town of
Kokkola (Gamlakarleby). Today the descendants of the families - both
Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking - live mostly in the valleys
of the Vetelinjoki and Kronoby rivers (in Keski-Pohjanmaa/Mellersta
Österbotten), but many also live in Sweden and in America. At
the first general meeting in 1993 a committee was appointed with Helge
Smedjebacka as chairman. It was common knowledge that a lot of research
had already been done in the matter but there was also a lot of controversy
as to the origin of the two families and their relationship to each
other. Since a lot of research had already been done, it was thought
that compilation and publication of the material would be "a piece
of cake". Unfortunately this turned out to be an illusion and what
was first thought to take a couple of years to produce a book of about
200 pages, has now been going on for 8 years and the book will probably
be close to 700 pages. As the material tended to expand too much,
the committe decided that it would only include families whose children
were born not later than the year 1799. Nevertheless the material
comprises close to 3,000 families. It was the intention of the committee
to finish the book and get it published during the spring of 2001
- or at least in the course of the year 2001. But due to changes and
other delays, publication is now expected during the spring of year
2002. There will probably be a Swedish and a Finnish edition, and
perhaps an English edition which would contain only articles about
the families. Those interested in getting a copy of the book may contact
the secretary of the committee Jan-Erik Nygren. (e-mail:jan-erik.nygren@pp.inet.fi)
No price has yet been determined for the book.
| Web
surfers crowd onto Ellis Island site - by Gwendolyn Mariano
CNET News.com. An Ellis Island site that lets people dig into
their ancestry via the Web has taken root, with the site recording
1.5 billion hits in its first six months. |
The Identified Emigrants Database
lists individuals who have emigrated from Finland to overseas countries,
and Russia. The purpose of the database is to help researchers find
emigrants, and to avoid duplicate research when an emigrant has already
been identified by another researcher.
Data about emigrants leaving Finland needs to be included as well
as data concerning their destination country. Visitors to the site
are encouraged to send information about emigrants from their own
research, from books, etc.
Following information is needed for every record:
- given name(s)
- family name(s)
- full date of birth
- place of birth in Finland
- full date of death
- place of death in the United States, Canada, Central America, South
America, Australia, New Zealand or Russia (or the Soviet Union) including
state, province or territory
- source of information
- name and e-mail address of submitter of the data
Data is posted using an easy-to-use form. New entries will be visible
after the administrator has approved the data. Please post the data
for each individual only once.
Note! There are several records in the database with information
from obituaries. They will soon be moved to a new Obituary Database
which is under construction.
The Identified Emigrants Database is in test use. A search for birth
and death places as well as time limits for births and deaths will
be added later. Comments, suggestions, and error reports may be sent
to migrants@genealogia.fi. -JP 10/16 2001
Last Thursday, I experienced a malicious
attack on my e-mail account by unknown perpetrators. When I logged
on in the morning, my anti-virus program, Symantec's Norton AntiVirus
2000, began alerting on incoming e-mails. The first alert screen asked
how I wanted to handle the detected virus. The choices were to repair
the problem, delete it, or quarantine it. When I selected repair it,
the next screen usually indicated that the program couldn't repair
the file and asked me if I wanted to quarantine it. When I said OK,
I got a third screen that said that the file had been quarantined.
I received more than three hundred e-mails on Thursday that contained
viruses and I had to click on three screens for each one. This overwhelmed
my computer system and it crashed twice in the process. Note: Mac
and Linux users need not send me e-mails about the virtues of their
systems over the one I use. I realize the limitations of Windows-based
PCs and choose to stay with my current system...
The LDS Church's release of millions of Scandinavian records on CD-ROM
is being hailed as a major new reference tool for genealogists seeking
to peel away the mystery of their Old World roots. The eight-disk
Vital Records Index for Scandinavia contains 4.5 million records --
3.5 million culled from birth and christening documents and 1 million
from marriage certificates recorded in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and
Finland.
Her maiden name was Johnson. She was of Swede-Finn descent. And she
had an eye disease, Schnyder's Dystrophy, that causes clouding in
the cornea, the curved front of the eye. Dr. Jayne Weiss did not think
much about the woman's name or ethnicity until she saw another patient
a year later in 1988. She also had Schnyder's Dystrophy. She, too,
was Swede-Finn. And her name was Johnson. Six months later, a young
doctor called Weiss to consult about a patient he had examined for
Schnyder's Dystrophy. Weiss immediately asked the patient: Is your
last name Johnson and are you Swede-Finn? "How did you know?" Weiss
says the patient asked in amazement. "Because you have Schnyder's
Dystrophy," she recalls responding. Jayne Weiss knew she was onto
something...
