Finland Emigration and Immigration

Online Resources

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

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

 * 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

 * 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 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
About 10,000 Finns have immigrated to Australia since World War II.

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:

Tarkiainen, Kari. Finnarnas Historia i Sverige (The History of the Finns in Sweden). 2 vols. Helsinki: SHS, 1990. (FHL book 948.97 W2t).

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.

Finns living in St. Petersburg were a mobile group, and many of them later returned to Finland. A history of St. Petersburg and the Finns that lived there is:

Engman, Max. St. Petersburg och Finland, Migration och influens 1702–1917 (St. Petersburg and Finland, Migration and Influence 1702–1917). Helsingfors: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1983. (FHL book 948.97 W2en).

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.

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.

Passenger Lists (Departures)
The Finnish Steamship Company [Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö/Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget]

In 1892 the Finnish Steamship Company [Suomen Höyrylaiva Osakeyhtiö/Finska Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget] began to coordinate the travel of emigrants on several ship lines that left from the port of Hanko/Hangö.

The passenger lists of the Finnish Steamship Company are arranged by ship line and year and include the following information about emigrants:


 * Names
 * Ages
 * Port of departure
 * Destinations

The records seldom indicate the emigrant’s last residence in Finland. However, they do use the farm name as a surname, which can be a clue to the home parish.

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).

National Archives
The National Archives of Finland has the emigration lists that were kept by parish ministers for statistical purposes for 1882 to 1924. These are not available at the Family History Library, but you can obtain the information from them by writing to the National Archives (see Finland Archives and Libraries for the address).

Records of Finnish Emigrants in Their Destination Countries
Sometimes the best sources for information about your ancestor are found in the country to which he or she immigrated. These sources sometimes provide the town of origin and other information. To learn about these records, use handbooks, manuals, and Wiki articles for that country.

In U.S. records, especially passenger arrival records, Finns are often listed as being Russian or Swedish because Finland for a time was part of the Russian Empire or because many emigrants were Swedish-speaking Finns.

The following book gives a history of Finnish immigration to the United States and Canada and the names of many early Finnish immigrants:

Ilmonen, S. Amerikan suomalaisten historia (The History of Finnish Americans). 3 vols. Hancock, Mich.: by author, 1919, 1923, and 1926. (FHL book 973 W2i).

A translation to the third volume of this work, along with a comprehensive surname index to the names mentioned in the volume has also been made:

Ilmonen, S. The History of Finnish Americans. Vol. 3 of Finnish and Scandinavian Migration Series. Translated, edited, and indexed by Timothy Laitila Vincent. Salt Lake City: Family Sleuths, 1998. (FHL book 973 W2i vol. 3).

Another book listing the places of origin of many Finns is:

Vincent, Timothy Laitila. Journal of Pastor Johan Wilhelm Eloheimo from the Evangelical Lutheran Parishes from Calmut, Michigan and Ironwood, Michigan. Salt Lake City: Family Sleuths, 1998. (FHL book 977.49 K2or).

The following record might also be helpful:

The Records of the Russian Consular Offices in the United States, 1862–1928. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1986. (On 169 FHL films beginning with film 1463389). These records contain data on subjects of the Russian Empire, including Finns.

These records are indexed in:

Sack, Sallyann Amdur. The Russian Consular Records Index and Catalog. New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. (FHL book 973 D22s; film 1605681).

You can also find more information about finding the origins of immigrant ancestors in Tracing Immigrant Origins.