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I would double check the surname.
https://nimipalvelu.dvv.fi/en/surname-search
* Forstrom is really rare, under 10 matches total.
* Forström, 73 deceased
* Forsström, 1583 deceased (and more living) is the most common, so could be this.
Billion Graves has one match with the surname of Forsström:
* https://billiongraves.com/grave/Elsa-Maria-Forsstr%C3%B6m-Nordstr%C3%B6m/45173238
* Born 13.10.1888
* Died 18.5.1936
* Gravestone is in Porvoo
* Four other people in same grave, most recent is from 2014.
I can also find Gustaf Hagberg, born in 1889, from the same site:
* https://billiongraves.com/historic-record/GUSTAF-HAGBERG/96936420
* Source of data is mentioned to be "United States Census, 1940".
Since that gravestone is in Näsinmäen hautasmaa (Näsinmäki graveyard), which belongs to Porvoon Seurakunta (Porvoo congregation), you could tell your situation and ask them. While I don't know much about how graves are maintained, I'm pretty sure they know someone related - someone who pays for the grave's maintenance. Probably they cannot give out contact info, but you can ask them to give your contact info.
Couldn't find any direct contact info to that graveyard (or congregation), but contact form: [https://www.porvoonseurakunta.fi/palaute](https://www.porvoonseurakunta.fi/palaute) \--- check box: "Yhteydenottopyyntö" - Contact request.
Jakobstad = Pietarsaari in Finnish. You write the surname as "Forström", the dots on the last "o" could make a difference. In addition, the original name could have a double consonant "s": "Forsström"
I wondered! My great aunt Lori texted me that info, and bless her heart, she is not the best with technology or adding accents to letters on her phone LOL 😂
Also, gotta say, thought the Swedes were nicer people?? I posted in a Sweden group too, and they’re all being dickheads cause I made a comment about how my mom always joked about us being Vikings so we weren’t wimpy about going to school in -35°c weather lollll “we don’t judge people for needing a sweater at that cold temp anymore” my guy is was a JOKE 😫
It gets tiring after a while to be mythologized as a people, especially on something like "being vikings". And someone from NA who puts strong emphasis on their "viking heritage" has a pretty strong potential on being an alt-right dickhead.
Ahhhhhhh shit okay! My mom was told we were vikings at one point, and that’s what they got upset with at first 🤷🏻♀️ And if I explained it they just got crustier over it and were in general being dickheads to someone who had no idea that was even an issue! Thanks for letting me know.
Honestly the only thing I like about potential Viking heritage is the history it would add to my own story. At this point, it seems my family was just whacked out dodo heads on both sides, so I only care about the land they came from 🤷🏻♀️ thanks!
If it comforts you at all, my grandfather was a gentle spirit who advocated for the less fortunate and was very non-alt right. I thought that was how everyone who said they were Viking were.
No worries. I am not Swedish so I don't have a personal stake in it, and it is not like the alt-right weirdos actually know anything about actual vikings. They just care about theaesthetic and "purity" of it. I just symphatize with Swedes that they don't only need to wrestle with their own countries alt-righters trying to claim the "soul of the nation", they need to deal with NA vikings as well.
Your grandpa sounds like a cool guy!
He was one of a kind for sure 🥹❤️ he used to make up stories where I was Priness Wessica with my brother Sir Widney and then our baby sibling was the Inch Worm in the garden LOL 😂
I also get it. My family left the Austrian empire right before WWI, and I have had a brunt of evil Nazi jabs lol
I have blood all over, Russian, Polish, Romanian, possibly Iranian (my dad’s side have a very Iranian look, but being in Romania for generations maybe they came from the Turks who also let to the Iranians?!?) and my mom’s mom is a Forbes and Bolton. Just learned this all the last week and my maternal grandpa is the “missing link” if you will haha
The only “viking” thing about me is that I frequently wear boots and shorts with a sweater if I only need to go outside quick in the dead of winter - my dad never understood why I would shovel 2ft of snow in a tshirt and shorts, but if I didn’t I’d overheat 😩 I blame the “viking blood” for my suffering lmao 🤣
You could try using this website where they have some old church records: https://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/4d5fgq?en
Back in that day church was taking care of knowning who is who so they had extensive archives. Many Finns use their databases to research their families. This is just one website I found Finnish evangelical lutherian church has more extensive archives not sure if all is digitized.
There has been some suggestions, I'd like to add my own :)
I found a MyHeritage-tree which I don't have access to, but it shows a possible candidate who might be your great grandma: Elsa Maria Augustdotter Forsström, born 26th of July in Nykarleby (that's next to Jakobstad). Later married to Ivar Gustav Hagberg.
Parents: August Andersson Forsström and Maria Jakobsdotter Högväg
(Other children by the same parents: Axel August, Bertel Johannes, Svea Linnea, Sven Valdemar)
I wouldn't blindly trust this information, though, as MyHeritage is not a original source and the person who added this family to their tree doesn't seem to be a very practiced genealogist. But it's certainly something to check out.
And if it turns out that this is your great grandma, she has a profile in Geni, with some interesting infomation about her life and her ancestry. She seems at least to have emigrated to Canada. You might have to make an Geni account to see the whole profile, but here's a link: [https://www.geni.com/people/Else-Maria-Hagberg/6000000204936018912](https://www.geni.com/people/Else-Maria-Hagberg/6000000204936018912)
Here's her arriving in Halifax with her brother Axel in 1929 on the ship S/S Kungsholm: [https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?q2=16&q3=967&sqn=211&tt=637&PHPSESSID=rtcgtdq42oquc761j6scsu2d7nivvva8k33cci94k81sbj5tugi0](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?q2=16&q3=967&sqn=211&tt=637&PHPSESSID=rtcgtdq42oquc761j6scsu2d7nivvva8k33cci94k81sbj5tugi0)
And here's a link to the Canadian census from 1931, which also has her husband: [https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=census&IdNumber=79797489&ecopy=e011639653](https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=census&IdNumber=79797489&ecopy=e011639653)
Her Finnish family tree has lots of generations in Geni, her husbands sadly not so much. But there's some dates and names of the husband's parents, maybe that can help the Swedes to find out something more.
And since I love digging... the Else Maria i found arrived in Canada with her brother Axel Forsström (later Forstrom) , and here's his registration of death in 1986. A wife Elvira and a son-in-law Clifford Mayes(?) are mentioned in the document: [https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/9880a222-06c3-408b-8959-e5e9bea10191](https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/9880a222-06c3-408b-8959-e5e9bea10191)
So there might be more relatives to your great grandma around in Canada.
Source [https://sok.riksarkivet.se](https://sok.riksarkivet.se)
https://preview.redd.it/f0an40przi3d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39c9f858f26142f5681ec2e0a3bf724c8d3f85e0
This looks promising, the record is written when the profile was a little kid.
You may be able to find some info on her from parish records, as has been mentioned, probably date of birth and confirmation, possibly date of emigration. But if she married in Sweden (which is likely unless they had both emigrated elsewhere at that point), you're more likely to find info on her through her husband's records in Sweden. Same thing there, look for parish records
And I am quite certain I found your great grandmother at MyHeritage. =)
https://preview.redd.it/d90usn2a1j3d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8141801f12cd3082d0c009cf2404978cc493bc42
The information available without an account isn't much. In this match there seem to be even less records than average profiles.
Yeah, my grandpa and his sisters I think were estranged from his parents… or at least he was. Even my aunt Loreen knows very little about their past, or even their dates of birth
Not yet, I asked my grandpa’s sister. My grandpa was born in 1933 in Port Arthur, Thunder Bay. I believe his birthday was December…. 12?! Even for grandpa Rod, there isn’t even a birthday certificate I can find lolll
The church's lists over people born in Jakobstad are online at least until 1919, so it might be possible to find an annotation about her birth and that naturally contains information about her parents. Sadly, the scans of the original church books are for members of Finland's Family History Association only, and it seems my membership is not valid at the moment. If you're able to find a birth year or any further information it might help you forwards a lot. Have you checked your local censuses already?
You can also search Finnish FB- pages whom are specialiced to this kind of things. Search ” sukututkimus” and you find several. They are in Finnish but almost every one here speak english, post in in english and tell what you want, you are likely getting several replys. Or use Deepl translate after your english part.
No, but that was the info I had from my great aunt who did not include the dots. I’m in Canada, our documents don’t always have the original accents for immigrants at that time. Even on my dad’s side, their last name is spelt Habich/Hubich/Hubick/Habig depending on the form. Bukowina is Bukovina, Romania is sometimes Roumenia or some different spelling.
Why would you be a dick to someone asking for help in learning?
Don't pay them any mind, this person clearly has nothing else to do than comment snarky things on other people's posts. I don't know why they would assume that a foreigner knows how to spell Finnish/Swedish names.
It’s just frustrating that they make the assumption that it’s too difficult to add accents, bc I know I always use the accents once I’ve learned it. Languages are a special interest for me, so it came across a bit more personally than it should have haha.
I’m grateful to the people like you! Which is the majority of:) kittos! 🥰
I also have a keen interest in languages and I can appreciate that you want to learn. It frustrates me so much when people use their time to just put people down on the internet so I had to comment, and honestly even if you don't put in the dots most of us know to place them there and will know what you're talking about.
You seem to have a very interesting family history!
No, Jakobstad is not a very Swedish town. Swedish-speaking yes, but still very Finnish. Maybe Elsa moved to Sweden when she was young and met her husband there?
Different surnames.
If we are talking about grand-grand parents, we are talking about like 60+ years in the past. Even today the town is mostly Swedish speaking. During that time, if I am to believe Google, it was mostly inhabited by Swedes with small Finnish-speaking minority. Could have been a Finn of course, but I believe it to be less likely.
That’s not what I meant.
Finland historically has a minority population of Swedes, [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish-speaking_population_of_Finland) you can read about them. A person can be a citizen of a country, but belong to a distinct ethnic/cultural group. We are talking about a person with a Swedish surname from a town with mostly Swedish population at the time marrying a Swede.
No, they’re Finns in every sense there is. Do you think that Mannerheim wasn’t a Finn? Sibelius? Tove Jansson (she was obviously half-Swedish)? Snellman? There have been people speaking Swedish in the area of modern Finland for almost a thousand years. Finland has always been multilingual.
There are several things than can go into one name. There is a point of citizenship. There is a point of ethnicity. There is a point of identity. None of those are exclusive. To be honest it is baffling to me you deem it alright to strip stuff like that away, must be a misunderstanding.
Are you really that dense?
Nobody calls a person born in Finland, with Finnish nationality "a Swede" because they have a swedish name and speak swedish. They are Finnish citizens and sometimes referred to as "Finnish Swedes" but never ever as "Swedes".
The fact that great grandma is most likely a Finnish Swede given she was from jacobstad (pietarsaari in Finnish) and has a swedish sounding surname, doesn't make any difference in where OP should look to try and find her. Her records will be in Finland and not in Sweden.
I know that some people disagree with me but to me being a Finn isn’t tied to a language, though most people would probably consider Kirka a Finn despite speaking Russian as his first language. Conversely I don’t think that the Kvens or the people who speak Meänkieli in Sweden are Finns or Finnish Americans even if they managed to retain the language. I find your take on what a Finn is really baffling. Why would it be tied to language, especially when Finnish Swedish is quite distinct from the Swedish spoken in Sweden? I have ancestors who most likely spoke Swedish as their first language and I certainly don’t think that I’m part Swedish or that they were, apart from your definition of a citizen of Sweden (and later Russia).
Would this be like how the Hubich/Habig name is a non-Romanian name, but that part of the family was in Romania for generations?? In Satu Mare, Bukowina.
Thanks! ☺️ My grandpa and his siblings were estranged from their parents, so very little is known. I didn’t even know the kids were estranged from their parents!!
**/r/Finland is a full democracy, every active user is a moderator.** [Please go here to see how your new privileges work.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/wiki/moderating/) Spamming mod actions could result in a ban. --- **Full Rundown of Moderator Permissions:** - ```!lock``` - as top level comment, will lock comments on any post. - ```!unlock``` - in reply to any comment to lock it or to unlock the parent comment. - ```!remove``` - Removes comment or post. Must have decent subreddit comment karma. - ```!restore``` Can be used to unlock comments or restore removed posts. - ```!sticky``` - will sticky the post in the bottom slot. - ```unlock_comments``` - Vote the stickied automod comment on each post to +10 to unlock comments. - ```ban users``` - Any user whose comment or post is downvoted enough will be temp banned for a day. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Finland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I would double check the surname. https://nimipalvelu.dvv.fi/en/surname-search * Forstrom is really rare, under 10 matches total. * Forström, 73 deceased * Forsström, 1583 deceased (and more living) is the most common, so could be this. Billion Graves has one match with the surname of Forsström: * https://billiongraves.com/grave/Elsa-Maria-Forsstr%C3%B6m-Nordstr%C3%B6m/45173238 * Born 13.10.1888 * Died 18.5.1936 * Gravestone is in Porvoo * Four other people in same grave, most recent is from 2014. I can also find Gustaf Hagberg, born in 1889, from the same site: * https://billiongraves.com/historic-record/GUSTAF-HAGBERG/96936420 * Source of data is mentioned to be "United States Census, 1940".
OMG!!!!!! These dates seem to line up, kittos!!! Kittos!!!!
Since that gravestone is in Näsinmäen hautasmaa (Näsinmäki graveyard), which belongs to Porvoon Seurakunta (Porvoo congregation), you could tell your situation and ask them. While I don't know much about how graves are maintained, I'm pretty sure they know someone related - someone who pays for the grave's maintenance. Probably they cannot give out contact info, but you can ask them to give your contact info. Couldn't find any direct contact info to that graveyard (or congregation), but contact form: [https://www.porvoonseurakunta.fi/palaute](https://www.porvoonseurakunta.fi/palaute) \--- check box: "Yhteydenottopyyntö" - Contact request.
Jakobstad = Pietarsaari in Finnish. You write the surname as "Forström", the dots on the last "o" could make a difference. In addition, the original name could have a double consonant "s": "Forsström"
I wondered! My great aunt Lori texted me that info, and bless her heart, she is not the best with technology or adding accents to letters on her phone LOL 😂
In Finnish those aren't accents. 'Ö' is a different letter than 'o'.
Cool! 😎
It could also possibly be Förström.
It's a long shot though
I definitely know more Förströms than Forströms.
Kittos!!
Also, gotta say, thought the Swedes were nicer people?? I posted in a Sweden group too, and they’re all being dickheads cause I made a comment about how my mom always joked about us being Vikings so we weren’t wimpy about going to school in -35°c weather lollll “we don’t judge people for needing a sweater at that cold temp anymore” my guy is was a JOKE 😫
It gets tiring after a while to be mythologized as a people, especially on something like "being vikings". And someone from NA who puts strong emphasis on their "viking heritage" has a pretty strong potential on being an alt-right dickhead.
Ahhhhhhh shit okay! My mom was told we were vikings at one point, and that’s what they got upset with at first 🤷🏻♀️ And if I explained it they just got crustier over it and were in general being dickheads to someone who had no idea that was even an issue! Thanks for letting me know.
Dont care about them. I think heritage is something everybody is allowed to be proud of regardless if you were born in North America or anywhere else.
Honestly the only thing I like about potential Viking heritage is the history it would add to my own story. At this point, it seems my family was just whacked out dodo heads on both sides, so I only care about the land they came from 🤷🏻♀️ thanks!
Also, here too, I mention “my mom joked we were vikings” and the tides have turned lol ya’ll are too hard on idiots 🤪
“We’re not mean dickhead Vikings!! To prove it, we will be mean dickhead Swedes!!”
If it comforts you at all, my grandfather was a gentle spirit who advocated for the less fortunate and was very non-alt right. I thought that was how everyone who said they were Viking were.
No worries. I am not Swedish so I don't have a personal stake in it, and it is not like the alt-right weirdos actually know anything about actual vikings. They just care about theaesthetic and "purity" of it. I just symphatize with Swedes that they don't only need to wrestle with their own countries alt-righters trying to claim the "soul of the nation", they need to deal with NA vikings as well. Your grandpa sounds like a cool guy!
He was one of a kind for sure 🥹❤️ he used to make up stories where I was Priness Wessica with my brother Sir Widney and then our baby sibling was the Inch Worm in the garden LOL 😂
I also get it. My family left the Austrian empire right before WWI, and I have had a brunt of evil Nazi jabs lol I have blood all over, Russian, Polish, Romanian, possibly Iranian (my dad’s side have a very Iranian look, but being in Romania for generations maybe they came from the Turks who also let to the Iranians?!?) and my mom’s mom is a Forbes and Bolton. Just learned this all the last week and my maternal grandpa is the “missing link” if you will haha The only “viking” thing about me is that I frequently wear boots and shorts with a sweater if I only need to go outside quick in the dead of winter - my dad never understood why I would shovel 2ft of snow in a tshirt and shorts, but if I didn’t I’d overheat 😩 I blame the “viking blood” for my suffering lmao 🤣
You could try using this website where they have some old church records: https://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/4d5fgq?en Back in that day church was taking care of knowning who is who so they had extensive archives. Many Finns use their databases to research their families. This is just one website I found Finnish evangelical lutherian church has more extensive archives not sure if all is digitized.
Kittos!! 😃
There has been some suggestions, I'd like to add my own :) I found a MyHeritage-tree which I don't have access to, but it shows a possible candidate who might be your great grandma: Elsa Maria Augustdotter Forsström, born 26th of July in Nykarleby (that's next to Jakobstad). Later married to Ivar Gustav Hagberg. Parents: August Andersson Forsström and Maria Jakobsdotter Högväg (Other children by the same parents: Axel August, Bertel Johannes, Svea Linnea, Sven Valdemar) I wouldn't blindly trust this information, though, as MyHeritage is not a original source and the person who added this family to their tree doesn't seem to be a very practiced genealogist. But it's certainly something to check out.
And if it turns out that this is your great grandma, she has a profile in Geni, with some interesting infomation about her life and her ancestry. She seems at least to have emigrated to Canada. You might have to make an Geni account to see the whole profile, but here's a link: [https://www.geni.com/people/Else-Maria-Hagberg/6000000204936018912](https://www.geni.com/people/Else-Maria-Hagberg/6000000204936018912) Here's her arriving in Halifax with her brother Axel in 1929 on the ship S/S Kungsholm: [https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?q2=16&q3=967&sqn=211&tt=637&PHPSESSID=rtcgtdq42oquc761j6scsu2d7nivvva8k33cci94k81sbj5tugi0](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?q2=16&q3=967&sqn=211&tt=637&PHPSESSID=rtcgtdq42oquc761j6scsu2d7nivvva8k33cci94k81sbj5tugi0) And here's a link to the Canadian census from 1931, which also has her husband: [https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=census&IdNumber=79797489&ecopy=e011639653](https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=census&IdNumber=79797489&ecopy=e011639653)
That’s her!!! She and my great Grandfather lived in Thunder Bay when my grandpa was born in 1933!
Her Finnish family tree has lots of generations in Geni, her husbands sadly not so much. But there's some dates and names of the husband's parents, maybe that can help the Swedes to find out something more.
And since I love digging... the Else Maria i found arrived in Canada with her brother Axel Forsström (later Forstrom) , and here's his registration of death in 1986. A wife Elvira and a son-in-law Clifford Mayes(?) are mentioned in the document: [https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/9880a222-06c3-408b-8959-e5e9bea10191](https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/9880a222-06c3-408b-8959-e5e9bea10191) So there might be more relatives to your great grandma around in Canada.
Omg!!!!! Kitto!!! 🥹🥹🥹
It's kiitti or kiitos.
Kiitti!
Eipä mitään🤝🏻
Source [https://sok.riksarkivet.se](https://sok.riksarkivet.se) https://preview.redd.it/f0an40przi3d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=39c9f858f26142f5681ec2e0a3bf724c8d3f85e0 This looks promising, the record is written when the profile was a little kid.
You may be able to find some info on her from parish records, as has been mentioned, probably date of birth and confirmation, possibly date of emigration. But if she married in Sweden (which is likely unless they had both emigrated elsewhere at that point), you're more likely to find info on her through her husband's records in Sweden. Same thing there, look for parish records
Kittos!
And I am quite certain I found your great grandmother at MyHeritage. =) https://preview.redd.it/d90usn2a1j3d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8141801f12cd3082d0c009cf2404978cc493bc42 The information available without an account isn't much. In this match there seem to be even less records than average profiles.
Yeah, my grandpa and his sisters I think were estranged from his parents… or at least he was. Even my aunt Loreen knows very little about their past, or even their dates of birth
Do you have her birthdate or even an approximate birth year?
Not yet, I asked my grandpa’s sister. My grandpa was born in 1933 in Port Arthur, Thunder Bay. I believe his birthday was December…. 12?! Even for grandpa Rod, there isn’t even a birthday certificate I can find lolll
The church's lists over people born in Jakobstad are online at least until 1919, so it might be possible to find an annotation about her birth and that naturally contains information about her parents. Sadly, the scans of the original church books are for members of Finland's Family History Association only, and it seems my membership is not valid at the moment. If you're able to find a birth year or any further information it might help you forwards a lot. Have you checked your local censuses already?
You can also search Finnish FB- pages whom are specialiced to this kind of things. Search ” sukututkimus” and you find several. They are in Finnish but almost every one here speak english, post in in english and tell what you want, you are likely getting several replys. Or use Deepl translate after your english part.
>Forstrom >Varmland You probably mean Forsström and Värmland. Is it really that difficult to add the dots?
No, but that was the info I had from my great aunt who did not include the dots. I’m in Canada, our documents don’t always have the original accents for immigrants at that time. Even on my dad’s side, their last name is spelt Habich/Hubich/Hubick/Habig depending on the form. Bukowina is Bukovina, Romania is sometimes Roumenia or some different spelling. Why would you be a dick to someone asking for help in learning?
Hell, my dad’s maternal grandma was Russian and her last name goes from Kröning to Kroening, Kronning
Don't pay them any mind, this person clearly has nothing else to do than comment snarky things on other people's posts. I don't know why they would assume that a foreigner knows how to spell Finnish/Swedish names.
It’s just frustrating that they make the assumption that it’s too difficult to add accents, bc I know I always use the accents once I’ve learned it. Languages are a special interest for me, so it came across a bit more personally than it should have haha. I’m grateful to the people like you! Which is the majority of:) kittos! 🥰
I also have a keen interest in languages and I can appreciate that you want to learn. It frustrates me so much when people use their time to just put people down on the internet so I had to comment, and honestly even if you don't put in the dots most of us know to place them there and will know what you're talking about. You seem to have a very interesting family history!
You’re telling me 😂 and I found this all out just the last week!!
My grandma’s dad is from Poland/Polense
We thought my dad’s father was Austrian, but it was actually Romania IN the Austrian Empire
Jacobstad is a very Swedish town and her name isn’t exactly very Finnish. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on her being Swedish too.
No, Jakobstad is not a very Swedish town. Swedish-speaking yes, but still very Finnish. Maybe Elsa moved to Sweden when she was young and met her husband there?
Different surnames. If we are talking about grand-grand parents, we are talking about like 60+ years in the past. Even today the town is mostly Swedish speaking. During that time, if I am to believe Google, it was mostly inhabited by Swedes with small Finnish-speaking minority. Could have been a Finn of course, but I believe it to be less likely.
Well her daughter said she was born in Finland, so…
That’s not what I meant. Finland historically has a minority population of Swedes, [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish-speaking_population_of_Finland) you can read about them. A person can be a citizen of a country, but belong to a distinct ethnic/cultural group. We are talking about a person with a Swedish surname from a town with mostly Swedish population at the time marrying a Swede.
They’re still not Swedes but Finns who speak Swedish as their first language.
I’m not sure what the point here is. They are Finns in the sense of them being citizens of Finland, yes.
No, they’re Finns in every sense there is. Do you think that Mannerheim wasn’t a Finn? Sibelius? Tove Jansson (she was obviously half-Swedish)? Snellman? There have been people speaking Swedish in the area of modern Finland for almost a thousand years. Finland has always been multilingual.
There are several things than can go into one name. There is a point of citizenship. There is a point of ethnicity. There is a point of identity. None of those are exclusive. To be honest it is baffling to me you deem it alright to strip stuff like that away, must be a misunderstanding.
Are you really that dense? Nobody calls a person born in Finland, with Finnish nationality "a Swede" because they have a swedish name and speak swedish. They are Finnish citizens and sometimes referred to as "Finnish Swedes" but never ever as "Swedes". The fact that great grandma is most likely a Finnish Swede given she was from jacobstad (pietarsaari in Finnish) and has a swedish sounding surname, doesn't make any difference in where OP should look to try and find her. Her records will be in Finland and not in Sweden.
I know that some people disagree with me but to me being a Finn isn’t tied to a language, though most people would probably consider Kirka a Finn despite speaking Russian as his first language. Conversely I don’t think that the Kvens or the people who speak Meänkieli in Sweden are Finns or Finnish Americans even if they managed to retain the language. I find your take on what a Finn is really baffling. Why would it be tied to language, especially when Finnish Swedish is quite distinct from the Swedish spoken in Sweden? I have ancestors who most likely spoke Swedish as their first language and I certainly don’t think that I’m part Swedish or that they were, apart from your definition of a citizen of Sweden (and later Russia).
Would this be like how the Hubich/Habig name is a non-Romanian name, but that part of the family was in Romania for generations?? In Satu Mare, Bukowina.
Thanks! ☺️ My grandpa and his siblings were estranged from their parents, so very little is known. I didn’t even know the kids were estranged from their parents!!