Findable Finland Birth Record?
We have been struggling to find birth information for Juho Lahtinen, born 10 oct 1886 (or 17 oct 1886), Bori (Pori?), Finland (some records say Oct 17). He came to the US by 1909, perhaps married, had a son born in Bloomfield, NJ, 1909. We can't find birth information for the son with would give the mother's name. She appears to have died before the 1910 census, or something. Juho later married again to Susannah.
Here is a link to the 1942 US Draft Registration, showing what Juho (John) gave as his birth date. Ancestry.com - U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942
We have been at a dead end trying to find him in Finland. We understand Juho Lahtinen is a common name there; his gravestone (in NY) calls him John A. and gives his birth as 17 October, but his draft record, which we assume he provided the information for, gives 10 October 1886 as his birth date. His social security registration gives 17 October 1886. He died in November 1951 and is buried in Washington County, New York.
We do not know for sure when he immigrated. We found a possible match arrived 19 jul 1907 who named his relative in Finland as Juho K Lahtinen, who lived at Jarnefeltenkatu 25; but we don't know if this is the correct immigrant Juho. Here is a link to that record New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 - Ancestry.com
Is it possible to find Juho's birth record and parents? The immigrant appears to be single at the time of immigration. Our Juho had a son 29 may 1909, Bloomfield, NJ, but we can't find that birth record to find the name of the mother/wife. We don't know when or where he immigrated, but we know he was born in Finland had a son in NJ in May 1909.
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The Draft Registration card you linked gives his name as John Arthur Lahtinen. There is a Juho Artturi (John Arthur) whose father is Juho Kustaa Lahtinen in the 1893 to 1902 communion book for Pori. His birthdate is 31 October 1886. Since this is found in the member part of FFHA (Finland's Family History Association) I can send you a link to it but unless you are a member, you won't be able to view it online. I will attach an image of the record with Juho Artturi's name highlighted:
I would suggest that you become a member of FFHA because that is the only website where you will be able to find church records for Finnish families for this time-period. You can do that here (click on the "Join" button in the left hand column): https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/index_eng.htm . You will need to pay the 10 Euro (currently about $10) one time joining fee and the 17 Euro (currently about $17) yearly fee to have access to the records. The 50 Euro yearly fee is just a donation - it doesn't get any access to records that they have available. This is really a wonderful site and I recommend it highly!!
This record gives his father's name as Juho Kustaa Lahtinen which matches the name (Juho K. Lahtinen) in the immigration record you linked above, so I think that immigration record is probably this same person.
There is an indexed record of Juho (Juha) Arthuri's birth/christening record here: https://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/xrupm?en+0410+kastetut+46152. This gives his father's name as Johan Gustaf From which is the Swedish version of the Finnish name Juho Kustaa From. From is probably a military name. See this article in the Family Search Wiki about military names in Sweden (it works pretty much the same way in Finland): https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Sweden_Personal_Names.
The surname "From" is changed to "Lahtinen" when the family moves to Pori (see below).
Even though the indexed birth record lists his birth place as Pori, I found the family in the communion records for Nakkila parish, Ruskela village, Aikala farm. That record is here: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20776&pnum=571. Again, I will attach an image of the record until you can access the link:
The note on the far right indicates the family moved to Pori on 18 March 1888.
For some reason, Juho (Juha) Artturi is not in this record. I am not sure why he isn't there, but I am sure this is the same family that shows up in Pori. The names and birthdates of this family matches those of the family in Pori.
This is the moving-in record of the family moving in to Pori on 20 March 1888:
The father is Juho Kustaa Lahtinen and there are 5 males and 2 females moving in. He is moving to Pori from Nakkila.
The moving record indicates that he is on page 366 in the communion book. That record is here (with Juha/Juho Artturi's name highlighted:
The link for the above page is here: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=14057&pnum=1238.
Having said all that, I have not been able to locate Juho Artturi's birth record! The date on the indexed Hiski record gives his christening date as 31 Oct. 1886 in Nakkila Ruskela, Aikala, but the birthdate is just 1886. I have looked in Nakkila parishes birth records, as well as Pori birth records (both the city parish and the country parish), and have not been able to locate that birth record.
I am going to ask @Heidi Kuosmanen to see if perhaps she can help find it. Also, to see if she is able to find a record of Juho Artturi moving to North America around 1907. Thanks, Heidi!!
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It seems that the birth record is not available online. Juho Artturi's birth record is listed in Pori Lutheran parish birth records for vierasseurakuntalaiset (visiting parishioners). The family was still registered in Nakkila, but they were already living at the town of Pori.
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Oh wow, this is amazing!!! Thank you so very, very much!!! We may have more questions but this is wonderful - a lot of information to work through. Thank you so very, very much!!!
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I must be doing something wrong. I joined the Finland Family History Association to access the records. Now I am trying to find the parents' birth and families, based on information given in the above records. I am familiar with Swedish records, so I am using that as my model, both for birth/christening and household examination (whatever they are called in Finland).
I am looking for the birth or family of Juho Kustaa From/Lahtinen born 2 jun 1858 in Ulvila. I searched the births for 1858; I went through Ulvila households (Rippikarja) looking for a family that included him in that time period. I found him as a single man in Nakkila, Rippirja 1868-1877, on p 369 (which gave his birth as Gadonelly if I am reading correctly - but I could not find that as a parish).
So then I looked for the birth or family of Vilhelmina Kustaantr born 4 jan 1858 in (I think) Kiirkoinen. I went through the births and also the Rippikarja (household examination equivalent) with no success. I also checked births in Kuikainen, Kiukainen, Kiuruvesi, Kiika, Kiikala to no avail (thinking I was misreading the parish),
(I am looking for someone of that name either being born around that date or living in a household with a matching date.)
Clearly I am not doing something right. Can you advise?
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In the communion book 1888-1897 it says clearly that Juho Kustaa was born in Ulvila ja Vilhelmina was born in Kiukainen. In Nakkila, Rippirja 1868-1877, on p 369 it says Juho Kustaa was born in Gammelby. In village of Gammelby in Ulvila at June 2nd 1858 Gustaf Adolf was born to Fredrik From and Eva Stina Adamsdotter. I believe this is your Juho Kustaa From.
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You are not doing anything wrong! This is just a little bit of a complex problem.
Finnish records are very much like Swedish records but there are some challenges in Finland that you have to get used to. I think Swedish records are a little easier to use because they were a little better at keeping track of people, but the Finns did a pretty decent job.
In FFHA (SSHY in Finnish), go to the Rippikirja for 1868-1877 and click on the word "rippikirja". If the 5th column says "AP" (it stands for "alkuperäinen = original"), those records are in color. I always use those if they are available because they have much better image quality. Do a "Control F" search ("Command F" if you use a Mac) and search for "From". You will be able to find the family by doing that. (Not all parishes in Finland are indexed this well, but this one happens to be.) Hint: on page 308 you will find him with his father and step-mother. It is always helpful to locate all the records that you can if there is a mystery to be solved.
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Now to find Johan Gustaf's birth record!
The place on page 369 where it says Johan Gustaf was born is Gammelby, which means "Old village", in Swedish. You will find it more plainly written on other pages. If I do a search in Hiski, I find a village in Nakkila called Gammelby. But there is no place called Gammelby in the communion records.
I used Hiski to locate his birth in Ulvila parish: https://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski?en. I searched "Christened" in all the parishes (you can do that easily by selecting "All" in the gray area under the white box where the parishes are listed) using only his birth year, 1858, and his father's last name, From. Like this:
This is result at the bottom of the page:
The father's name matches what I expected and the birthdate was correct. His name was a real surprise!!
Then I just had to find the actual birth record here (right page, last entry): https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=28206&pnum=37. His birth name is Gustaf Adolf. His parents are Fredrik From and Eva Stina Adamsdotter.
The family shows up in Nakkila here in the 1854-1860 communion records here (last 4 lines on the page): https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20772&pnum=186.
In the next communion records (1861-1867), Gustaf Adolf is now Johan Gustaf: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20773&pnum=212.
Fredrik From's and Eva Stina Adamsdotter's marriage record is here (in Nakkila): https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=18574&pnum=24.
I don't have any explanation as to why his name changed, but the people in these records have the same names (except him) and the same birth dates so they must be that same people.
Try these same steps for Vilhelmina Kustaantytär (Wilhelmina Gustafsdotter) and see if you can find out more about her. If you have problems you can't answer, please feel free to ask here on the Nordic Community site.
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About Vilhelmina Kustaantytär (Gustafsdotter) you just go backward and follow her movements.
She got married: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20775&pnum=442
At 1879 she came from: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20775&pnum=549
She came from previous book: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20774&pnum=473, her birth date changed to 4/11 1858, meaning that when her information was written to the next book, there was a transcription error and her birth month changed.
At 1877 she came from: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20774&pnum=5
At 1876 she came from: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20774&pnum=12
At 1875 she came from: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20774&pnum=52 and here you can find her mother and step father.
On previous book you can see her both biological parents: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=20773&pnum=360
Vilhelmina's birth record can be found from Kiukainen parish, from visiting parishioners (vierasseurakuntalaiset) meaning that the family was visiting this parish when Vilhelmina was born but they lived in Ala-Klemola, Hiirijärvi, Harjavalta. She was actually born at 3 Nov 1858 and christened at 4 Nov 1858: https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/jasenille/paikat.php?bid=18288&pnum=10
Rippikirja says that family came from Harjavalta (Hvalda) at 1859. Both parents were also born there.
Now I have very bad news for you. Almost all church records have burned for years 1807-1889 in Harjavalta. So you cannot find birth records for Vilhelmina's parents and you cannot find her grand parent from church records.
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Thank you both, so very very much!!! All this information is so helpful! I am working through, piecing the families together. Thank you especially for the information on Vilhelmina; I was having a hard time with her.
I can't express how much I appreciate this help! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Little bit more, I looked census records (Henkikirjat), I could find Vilhelmina's father's father was Johan Ojala and father's mother was Johanna and her father had at least brother Michel and sister Maria.
Turun ja Porin läänin henkikirjat - T:72 Henkikirja 1858-1858, jakso 571, sivu 1323: <Kumo Socken>. Hindikkala, Hiirijärvi ; Kansallisarkisto: https://astia.narc.fi/uusiastia/viewer/?fileId=5647741148&aineistoId=2302404205 (quite middle of the page you can see Torparen Johan Ojala)
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