Emigration

We have thus far collected data here in Finland starting with: from which village the person emigrated from, in which house they lived in that village, and what the individual’s name was. If you want to explore where we currently (January 2023) are with the data collection, please visit arviiti.fi/siirtolaisuus. Regrettably, the documents in the database are all in Finnish.

The folder on individual people includes photographs and text documents in various formats: .doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf. The photographs are generally related to the individual, their family, profession or other relevant piece of personal history. The folder named Tunnistamattomat (”Unknown”) holds photographs whose subjects have not yet been identified, divided by village of origin. If you are able to recognise any of the people, please note the number of the photograph and let us know the names of the people pictured, from left to right.

We aim to include information on the individual’s date and place of birth, as well as the date and place of their death. We are also interested in the same for the individual’s parents, descendants and other family. Similarly, we collect information on when they emigrated and where exactly they went to (and also where they might have subsequently relocated to). We also welcome letters and any stories related to the emigration itself and of course the individual’s life in their new home.

Rest assured that it is perfectly acceptable that any data you may provide is incomplete, for instance in terms of dates of birth or death. This is also sometimes the case with the data we have already collected and received.
If you would like to contribute, please send any relevant information to Jarmo Rauma at jarmora12@gmail.com or to Aulis Kaunisto at aulis.kaunisto@kotinet.com. You can provide the information in English.

When delivering new material, pictures and text, please title the content in an informative way, for instance: ”Paavo pictured second from the right” or ”Paavo’s family tree”.

We will be very grateful should you be able to assist us in expanding the collection. We know that hundreds of Finns emigrated abroad from Kaustinen and the data collected thus far is but a small window into the extent of the local migration movement. The results of the data collection will be made public at a later date and all those interested will be informed.

Best regards,

Pekka Kivelä                                                  Taina Lehtonen
Editor-in-chief of Arviiti                                   Chairperson of Arviiti ry