Genealogy Jottings

As I chase down my Finns, I have pinpointed them to the city of Viipuri/Viborg/Vyborg and the surrounding area. Many of the people in this area claim a Karelian heritage, a sub-group of Finnish ethnicity. They purport to be the “purest” Finns, not contaminated from interaction with Swedes. Today’s Karelians live in the vicinity of Europe’s largest lake, Lake Ladoga. The people are distributed across eastern Finland,  Russia’s Leningrad Oblast, and the Republic of Karelia (which is part of Russia). Viipuri and its environs lie in the Leningrad Oblast.

But not everyone there is Karelian. Was my family? I never heard that word as I grew up, so I do not know.

How will I find out? I have been reading every book and article on Karelia that I can find, but there are not many. Very few have been translated into English. With the limited resources I can find, I am learning about such obscure topics as Karelian mushroom hunting and 19th-century childbirth rituals. This is not much to go on, but I do know that my Finnish great-grandmother was an avid mushroom hunter. Yet it would be a stretch to conclude a Karelian heritage from this single fact.

I will keep educating myself about Karelia and Karelians. With enough background information, perhaps I will be able to make a case either for or against Karelian roots.

A church on the Karelian coast