Brändö Parish, Ahvenanmaa, Finland Genealogy

Europe Finland  Ahvenanmaa County Brändö parish

Guide to Brändö parish, Finland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.


 * For almost all of your Finnish research, you will only need church records and civil registration records. (For more detailed instructions and strategies, click on the links).


 * These records are digitized online in the Finnish National Archives.


 * In addition, Finland's Family History Association is working to place digitized records online, and The Genealogical Society of Finland indexing the records online in the HisKi Project.


 * For more complex research issues, other records are available. See the Finland Record Selection Table.

Online Record Links for

 * Some of the records are indexed in FamilySearch Historical Records:
 * 1657-1890 -, index, incomplete.
 * 1725-1909 -, index, incomplete.
 * 1682-1892 -, index, incomplete.

Family History Library Records for
Finland, Ahvenanmaa, Brändö - Church records may be viewed on microfilm at a Family History Center near you.

Writing to the Local Parish

 * Finland Letter Writing Guide
 * Brändö Lutheran parish contact information

Reading the Records

 * Since Finnish was not an official language in Finland until 1863, most records were written in Swedish. To do research in these records, you will need to know some Swedish and Finnish key words and phrases (such as born, died, mother, father, etc.), but you do not have to be fluent in the language.


 * Key words and a glossary of somewhat less common words are found in the Finnish Genealogical Word List and the Swedish Genealogical Word List.


 * Online lessons are available to teach you how to read old Swedish handwrining:.


 * 1) Reading Scandinavian Gothic Handwritten Records Lesson 1: Scandinavian Gothic Letters
 * 2) Reading Scandinavian Gothic Handwritten Records Lesson 2: Names, Words, and Dates
 * 3) Reading Scandinavian Gothic Handwritten Records Lesson 3: Handwritten Records