Finland Genealogy

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

Country Information
Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Estonia. Before 1809 Finland was a part of Sweden. From 1809 to 1917 it belonged to the Russian Empire. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Finland

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, Finland Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Finland Clickable Map
In 1998, new regions and names of regions were organized. If you look at a modern map of Finland, it does not match this. However, the FamilySearch catalog and FamilySearch Historical records are organized by this map. Prior to that date records were cataloged based on the counties as they were in 1945, including the county of Vipurri, which was ceded to Russia in 1940.

Counties
Genealogy records are kept on the county and parish level in Finland. Click on a county below to go to the county wiki article listing more information. In 1998, new regions and names of regions were organized. If you look at a modern map of Finland, it does not match this. However, the FamilySearch catalog and FamilySearch Historical Records collections are organized by these counties. For more information on changes to the country's internal and national borders see Finland Historical Geography.

Parishes

 * Finnish Parish List

More Finland Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional wiki articles about research strategies in Finland.
 * Finland Research Tips and Strategies

More Finland Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools for Finland.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * FamilySearch Center locator map