Finland Merchant Marine

Merchant marines are sailors who work on commercial ships. Finland had a large merchant marine enterprise that traveled and traded worldwide.

Among the records of the Finnish merchant marine are:

Records of the navigational schools [merenkulkukoulu/navigationsskola].

Records of the sailors’ houses [merimieshuone/sjömanshus].

The sailors’ houses recruited and registered sailors. They made crew assignments for each ship and recorded the ships’ crews as they embarked and disembarked. These records contain individual names, birth dates, birthplaces, marital status, position on the ship, salary, and previous ship assignments, with some ports listed for each journey.

Records of Finnish Lutheran churches or sailors’ houses in foreign ports.

Since there were many Finnish merchant marines, these records are a valuable source for researchers. To find them, look in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under Finland and the main port cities:

FINLAND - MERCHANT MARINE

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - MERCHANT MARINE

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - OCCUPATIONS

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - SCHOOLS

FINLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - TOWN RECORDS