Genealogy Jottings

This week I am supposed to be writing the biographical sketch of my four Finnish great-great grandparents. Yet like many genealogists I know, I cannot resist doing that one little bit more of research.

Consequently, this week I have not written one word about these ancestors, but I have done more research on them. In the Finnish records I located and documented a birth family for my great-great grandfather Anders Abelson Mattila.

Earlier this year we found that his family came from the Lapinjärvi parish in southern Finland. They lived in the Mattila house in the Kimoböle village. From the parish register, I now know that his parents Abel Andersson and Greta Caspersdatter had at least five children:

1. Eva, born 17 March 1824
2. Anders, born 4 November 1826
3. Abel, born 26 August 1829
4. Anna, born 16 December 1832
5. Johannes, born 8 February 1842

The large gap between the births of Anna and Johannes suggests to me that I am missing some children. Did the family live and register births in another parish for a while? Was there a string of miscarriages and stillbirths? Did Abel and Greta live apart for some reason?

I would love to dive into these questions, but I really, really need to get started with my writing so I can send it out for Christmas. As a wise genealogist told me once, at some point you just need to get busy with the story and tell yourself, “NO MORE RESEARCH.” For me the time has arrived for me to write. Now.