I have noticed as I am researching my family in Malax, Finland the they are from many different villages, and sometimes their last name corresponds with those villages and can change if they move to a different village. Places like Övermalax, Vias or Wias, Mattlars. I am finding most of my info in the HisKi database, but when they list the villages many times they are abbreviated. I'm just trying to learn the place hierarchy. So when I label where they are from would it me Övermalax, Malax, Vasa, Oostrobothnia, Finland? Does anyone know how these work?

Hi,

the basic geo structure in Finnish countryside is farm > village > parish (> country). We usually do not mark the entities beyond parish because those have changed several times over centuries, in fact we are currently having another change. And there are very few places with duplicate names. If it helps you you can choose one of the divisions in use at some particular time. Like for example the values in dropdown list at Hiski http://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/21084y?en

In Hiski, after you choose Maalahti - Malax, there is a link More information about this parish and the next page states that there are only 2 villages in Malax: Yttermalax, Övermalax.

For more complete information

http://digi.narc.fi/digi/index.ka?lang=en_US -> link search engine -> http://digi.narc.fi/digi/search.ka -> write Maalahti, click search -> scroll results forward until you hit

Maanmittaushallituksen maakirjat ja kruununmaaluettelot -arkisto >

Maakirjat
Korsholman kihlakunta 1875-1875 (74:1)
Maalahti

Click-> click page 10 ->
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=14231 which starts the list of villages and farms in 1875 . First column has village, 8th the farm name, notes explain the official status of the farm. This is a list for tax purposes.

Br,
Kaisa

Kaisa,

Thanks for the info. It's making more sense now. And thanks for the farm list. It is very useful.

So these farms - did people use a surname based on these, and then change their name as they moved to different farms? It has been difficult to search names in Hiski because it seems that the surname changes periodically to match these farm names. So many of the family names are Nordman, Wias, Mattlar and I see those names in farm list. But the parents might be Mattlar, while the children go by Wias.

Also another question. When I look up Malax on Google maps it shows the names of the farms as if they were villages, helping to add to my confusion. Also, many of the names have changed over time or they are now in Finnish instead of Swedish. I'm just interested in where thes places are in relation to each other.

I'm still fairly new to doing research in Finland. I've been doing family research for many years, but mostly on family in the Netherlands. I live in the USA so almost all my research is done online. And it's discouraging that not all the records are avaiable in Hiski yet and the progress seems to be very slow. Do you know of any other resources online for searching records in Finland (specifically Malax and Petalax)?

thanks again!

Luke

Hi

1) In western Finland farmers did not have family names until late 1800's or mandated by law in 1920's. They used farm names as identifiers, but they are not family names. (I trust you have read some introductions to Finnish research?)

2) I don't know Malax, so I can't explain except that in most of the places I research that is also the case. a)Instead of Google maps try
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/kartanhaku/paikannimihaku...
b) remember that same name is not necessarily where the farm used to be. In the results of my previous reply you will find on the first page a map (in pieces) from 1800's

3) Unfortunately relying only on Hiski is guesswork, not genealogy. http://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/index_eng.htm has digitized parish records but Vaasa area is currently not very well covered. Try to get hold of the rippikirja/husförhör records as you risk wasting your time researching wrong people. At the least for 1800's check against henkikirja (tax census) which is available also among yesterday's results.

As you can see there are only a couple of people giving replies here so you might also want to try out Finlander Forum where there are many people interested in Swedish speaking coastal areas http://finlander.genealogia.fi/

Br,
Kaisa

Thanks again for the info. I have read instructions to Finnish research, and actually what I read said that sometimes the names changed based on the place or the occupation also.

So far what I've been able to find in Hiski has lined up very well. I have found others who had done research on the same family lines and they have the same names and dates, but don't usually source where they are getting their info. I like to do the research for myself, not just copy what someone else has done. Especially when it's not sourced - how do I know it's correct?

I had signed up for the Finlander forum a while back but hadn't begun to use it yet. It was only recently that I came into some information that jump started my leap into Finland genealogy. I will start using that forum more.

thanks again for clearing things up and for the links!

Luke

Would Ytterby and Öfverby be shortened names for Yttermalax and Övermalax? I see those come up in Hiski under the village names.

The terms Ytterby and Överby are used interchangeably for Yttermalax and Övermalax in documents I have received from the parish church in Malax. I am researching Soderman surname before 1905.