Finland Biography

A biography is a history of a person’s life. In a biography you may find the individual’s birth, marriage, and death information and the names of his parents, children, or other family members. Use the information carefully because there may be inaccuracies.

Many brief biographies have been gathered and published in collective biographies, sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or dictionaries. Usually these only include biographies of prominent or well-known citizens of a country. Some feature specific groups of people, such as bankers or musicians.

Some significant Finnish biographical collections available through the Family History Library are:

The Scandinavian Biographical Archives. New York: K. G. Saur, 1989. (FHL fiche 6060424–31, 6060441–45, 6060452–66) The information in this collection comes from many sources and is in alphabetical order by surname. It also has an index (FHL book 948 D32s). The second section contains Finnish and Swedish biographical sketches. To find more specific microfiche numbers for this material, look in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

FINLAND - BIOGRAPHY

Biographica (Biographies). Salt Lake City: Utahin Sukututkimusseuralle kuvannut AB. Rekolid, 1952. (FHL film 55735–55767)

Kansallinen elämäkerrasto (Biographical Encyclopedia of Finland). Porvoo: WSOY, 1927–34. (FHL book 948.97 D36k)

Colliander, O. I. Suomen kirkon paimenmuisto (Memorial of the Clergy of Finland). Salt Lake City: Utah in Sukututkimusseuralle kuvannut AB. Rekolid, 1952. (FHL film 55724–34)

The Finnish Historical Society is working on a project to publish biographical sketches of 6,000 Finns. This collection will first be available on the Internet, later on compact disc, and finally in book form. The biographies that have been completed are in Finnish, but eventually many will also be available in English. Following are the addresses for the trilingual home page for this organization and for their biographical database, respectively:

http://www.histseura.fi/

http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/

You can find collective biographies at the Family History Library in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

FINLAND- BIOGRAPHY

FINLAND, [COUNTY]- BIOGRAPHY

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- BIOGRAPHY

You may also find some biographical information in Finnish local history books. See the "History" section of this outline for more information.