Finnish Churches in North America

There are no modern compilations published of all Finnish North American congregations. The only available books were published in the beginning of the 20th century or at least about 50 years ago. This is an attempt to collect information about all Finnish and Swedish Finnish parishes in both the United States and Canada. It is part of the big survey "Parishes of Finland" where information about Finnish parishes around the world is presented in one place.

Hundreds of churches on the North American continent fit into the description "Finnish church". The project is far too big for one or two people to handle because the information about the churches is found in innumerable publications and archival sources. Everyone interested in Finnish North American history and genealogy is encouraged to take part in the gathering of information. All the data will be published later at the site "Parishes of Finland".

The project is not interested in religious aspects of the churches. The history of the churches, the men and the women who started them as well as the pastors who run them, church records, cemeteries, pictures, etc. are all of interest. All churches regardless of their religion are treated equally.

Why it is important to gather information about the churches:

To get a better picture of the life of Finns in North America.
To find all areas where Finns settled.
To find and preserve records telling about the church members.
There are still living former members of the Finnish churches now joined with other churches.
To help genealogists find relatives.

The coordinator of the project "Parishes of Finland" is leif.mether@genealogia.fi from the Genealogical Society of Finland.

Information gathered consists of:

History of the churches, including date when the church was organized or brought to an end, names of founders, etc.
Names of pastors and dates when they took part in the church life.
Information about possible church buildings.
Information about church records, their preservation, deposition in archives, microfilming, etc.
Pictures of church buildings, cemeteries, pastors, confirmation classes, etc. Pictures can be sent by mail for scanning to Leif Mether, P.O. Box 68, FIN-20101 Turku, Finland. They will immediately be returned after the scanning procedure. Scanned pictures can be sent as attachments to e-mail messages to leif.mether@genealogia.fi.
It is extremely important to get a complete list of all anniversary books and articles (all articles in "Siirtokansan kalenteri" and "Kirkollinen kalenteri" are already processed).