Finland Emigration and Immigration

Online Resources

 * 1869-1951 Emigrantlistor : inkomna uppgifter om utvandrade personer 1869-1920, med personregister 1869-1951 (Emigrant lists: information received about emigrants 1869-1920, with personal register 1869-1951) (Police Department emigration lists)
 * 1869-1884 Personregister till emigrantlistor, 1869-1884, emigranter från Finland (emigrants from Finland), images (Separate index for Finland emigrants)


 * 1874-1939 Emigrantlistor, 1874-1939, at FamilySearch Catalog; images only, Index and emigration lists of persons from Sweden and Finland who emigrated via the port of Malmö.
 * 1879-1916 Finländsker Emigrantlistor, Index 1879-1916 (Separate index for Finland emigrants)


 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Finland
 * 1892-1960 Matkustajaluettelot Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö (Passenger lists Finland Steamship Company) 1892-1960
 * 1904-1914 Germany, Bremen Passenger Departure Lists, 1904-1914 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of Finland
 * Finnish Passport lists, by county
 * Migrant Register($) at Siirtolaisuusinstituutti (Migration Institute) Information on contents
 * Siirtokarjalaisten tie (The road to migrant Karelians) Contents: I. Migrant Karelians living in the territory of Western Finland. - II. Migrant Karelians living on the south coast. - III. Covers a narrow strip from the height of Lahti to the eastern border. - IV. The rest of Finland. - (Index) Migrant Karelian Road: Address Directory.

Finding the Town of Origin in Finland
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Finland, see Finland Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Finland Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. (See Immigration into Finland.) Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or coming into (immigrating) a country. For Finland, emigration information is usually found in passport records and passenger lists. The information in these records generally includes the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, and destinations and their places of origin.

Canada Online Sources

 * 1898-1922 Immigrants from the Russian Empire, 1898-1922

Canada Background

 * It is difficult to determine the exact date of arrival of the first Finnish settler in Canada. However, Finns began to settle in large numbers in the 1880s.
 * During this period, several Finns who had arrived in the United States in the 1860s crossed the border into Canada.
 * By 1890, several communities of Canadians of Finnish origin had formed. The largest of these communities were Nanaimo (British Columbia), New Finland (Saskatchewan), Port Arthur, Toronto and Sault Ste-Marie (Ontario). Many of these early settlers were pious individuals and therefore churches of various denominations played an important role in cultural and social regrouping.
 * The first great wave of Finnish immigration to Canada occurred in the early 20th century, just before the First World War. Approximately one third of all Finnish immigrants to Canada arrived between 1900 and 1914.
 * A civil war broke out in Finland during World War I and one faction received support from Germany to defeat the other. As a result, the Government of Canada declared Finland an “enemy country”.
 * It was not until the end of the war that Finnish immigration to Canada resumed. During this period in the United States, quotas were put in place for immigration from Finland; as a result, many Finns choose to settle in Canada. The number of Finnish speaking Swedish also increased during this same period.
 * During World War II, Finland was once again declared an enemy country due to its participation with Germany in an attack on the Soviet Union. This declaration was repealed after the end of the war.
 * The last great wave of immigration from Finland to Canada took place between 1948 and 1961. Since then, Finnish immigration has declined significantly.

United States Online Sources

 * 1834-1897 Russians to America Passenger Data File, 1834 - 1897 Sorted for keyword Finland, includes passengers who identified country of origin as Finland. To see full passenger list, search in Advanced Fielded Search by Manifest Number.
 * The history of Finnish Americans: Finnish settlements in the United States and Canada (v. 3) ( Amerikan suomalaisten historia : Yhdysvalloissa ja Canadassa olevat suomalaiset asutukset (v. 3) e-book, Item 9 on film, Book lists the settlements in the United States and Canada giving some historical background and the names of immigrants and the places in Finland they came from.

United States Background

 * As early as 1638, Finns and Swedes colonized New Sweden, which was located around the Delaware River. Many of these Finns had been living in central Sweden, and their ancestors had left Finland during the 1500's.
 * From the 1820's on, long before the general wave of Finnish immigration to the United States, hundreds of Finns came to Alaska as representatives of the Russian Empire, making up about one-third of the Russian population there. Among them were the families of government officials, Lutheran clergymen, and many seamen. After 1867, many of these Finns became early settlers in California.
 * From the 1860's onward, an estimated 316,000 Finns, primarily from Ostrobothnia, immigrated to the United States. Most settled in Michigan, especially in the upper peninsula. Many Finns also settled in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and California.
 * From the 1860's onward, an estimated 316,000 Finns, primarily from Ostrobothnia, immigrated to the United States. Most settled in Michigan, especially in the upper peninsula. Many Finns also settled in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and California.

Australia

 * The first group of Finnish immigrants who arrived in Australia came to work in the gold mines of Victoria in the 1850s.
 * Many Finnish immigrants began arriving in Australia between 1947 and 1971. When these new immigrants came to Australia, they were taken to refugee camps and given free room and board until the head of the family was assigned his first job. The largest and best-known of these camps was Bonegilla. Most of these Finns began their new lives in Bonegilla during this period.
 * Finns were particularly attracted by the income from the sugar cane fields and mining in Mount Isa, in north Queensland. As a result, Mount Isa has one of the largest Finnish communities in Australia.

Sweden and Norway

 * Throughout the years, many Finns, including colonists, refugees, and laborers, have immigrated to Sweden. Many Swedes, especially during the Swedish Era, have emigrated to Finland as well. Some localities in northern and central Sweden have had a Finnish population for several centuries. Since World War II, about half a million Finns have moved to Sweden. An authoritative history of the Finns in Sweden is:
 * Many Finns have also moved to northern and east-central Norway. From Norway, many of them have immigrated to the United States.

Russia
Russia, especially its former capital, St. Petersburg, was a destination for Finnish laborers, officials, and military personnel serving both the Russian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Finland. At the turn of the century, 36,000 Finns lived in Russia, and 83 percent of them were in the St. Petersburg region.

Immigration into Finland

 * After World War I, about 30,000 Russian subjects immigrated to Finland, many of whom were Karelian or Finnish.
 * The Great Depression of the 1930s in the U.S. led to the emigration of many Finns from Canada. Many recent immigrants choose to leave for the United States or Finland instead of living in poverty in Canada. In addition, more than 2,000 Canadians of Finnish origin moved to Soviet Karelia between 1930 and 1935.
 * In World War II, Finland lost its eastern regions (Karelia) to the Soviet Union. Nearly half a million people were evacuated from the areas.

Finnish Passport Lists
The Finnish passport lists are the primary source for obtaining the immigrants’ places of origin. The lists began around 1820 and are available on microfilm through 1920. The early lists are not as informative as the ones from the mid 1800's on. These lists record the passport recipients in chronological order and contain:


 * Names.
 * Occupations.
 * Home parishes.
 * Destination countries.
 * The number of children included in the passport.

Immigrants could receive a passport in any county. Many received them in the county from which they embarked, not from their home county.

To find the passport lists in the FamilySearch Catalog, look in the Locality Search under:

FINLAND, [COUNTY] - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

Both county offices [lääninkanslia] and city offices [maistraatti] issued passports. The catalog lists the county offices first and the city offices second.

It is useful to know that in these records the city of Vaasa is often called Nikolainkaupunki/ Nikolaistad and abbreviated as N:stad.

Emigration through Other Countries
Finns also traveled through the ports of other countries, primarily Göteborg, Malmö, and Stockholm in Sweden, and Trondheim in Norway.

The Swedish and Norwegian passenger lists were actually lists kept by the local police of people leaving the country. These lists generally include:


 * Name.
 * Age.
 * Destination.
 * Last residence (the specific place of residence is given about half the time; otherwise, it lists only Finland).

Below is a list of the ports and their records available through the Family History Library. For complete bibliographic information and film numbers, please search the FamilySearch Catalog.


 * Göteborg - Original records 1869–1920
 * Index 1869–1951
 * Index of Finns 1869–84 (FHL film 1043046)
 * Malmö - Original records 1874–80
 * Index 1874–1939
 * Index of Finns 1879–1916 (FHL film 1613007)
 * Stockholm - Original records 1869–1904

Index 1869–1920
Index of Finns 1880–1932 (FHL films 1613015–18)

Trondheim - Original records 1867–1926

Index 1867–1925

Index of Swedes and Finns 1867–90 (FHL film 1282961 item 3)

The Institute of Migration
The Institute of Migration in Turku, Finland, is preparing indexes to the following types of records:


 * Passport record
 * Passenger lists of the Finnish Steamship Company
 * Emigrant letters
 * Death notices of Finns who died abroad

The institute will search the databases for a moderate fee. You can contact the institute at:

Institute of Migration/Emigrant Register
Siirtolaisuusinstituutti Eerikinkatu 34 20100 Turku FINLAND Phone no.: Emigrant Register: 011-358-2-284-0471 Fax: 011-358-2-233 3460

To find a summary of the types of records in the collection and to check the progress of the database, check the institute’s Web site at:

https://siirtolaisrekisteri.siirtolaisuusinstituutti.fi/

The Institute of Migration publishes a quarterly journal, Siirtolaisuus (Migration). (FHL book 948.97 W2s).

Among the institute’s other publications is a bibliography of sources about Finnish emigration:

Koivukangas, Olavi, and Simo Toivonen. Suomen Siirtolaisuuden ja Maassamuuton Bibliografia: A Bibliography of Finnish Emigration and Internal Migration. Turku: Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, 1978. (FHL book 948.97 W23k).