WEB SERVICES
Isotammi
Isotammiis an online service provided by the Genealogical Society of Finland made by volunteers that takes into account the special characteristics of Finnish genealogical research. The service contains sourced family trees compiled by users, so called HisKi-trees made from materials in HisKi as well as place name databases compiled from communion books. Users are also provided with quality guidelines, recommendations and tools.
The Service and its Aims
Isotammi is developed domestically and this is where it differs from commercial services. It relies on open source software and its own programming. The service is wholly non-commercial and all its public information is owned and controlled by the Society. The Society's role and it being domestically developed means that the service supports the special features of Finnish genealogy.
The user can also edit materials to Isotammi and browse materials uploaded to it online and on mobile devices. With the user's permission some materials are also public for all users. Registration is required to use Isotammi.
The aim of Isotammi is to support the principles of good research practices and to raise the quality of researchers' genealogy materials. The information on family trees should be supported by primary sources. References to them should be to as precise information as possible. Changes to personal names are managed with alternative names. The location of events are specified by attaching a hierarchy to them, i.e. giving information as to what larger whole it belongs to, for example, farm-house-village-municipality. Tens of Place Name Databases in Isotammi help with these hierarchies..
Isotammi Homepage
Special Materials
Isotammi also publishes family tree-type special materials for researchers to browse. Collecting entities from HisKi is known to require a lot of searches and follow-up work. HisKi-trees is an experiment implemented parish by parish where mainly machine intelligence collects family information and all events that a certain individual is attached to in HisKi's databases. This enables quick access to an individual's life events. Hiski-trees are also used as a basis for material in academic history research.
There is also an experiment under way, in which a database based on large indexes of those buried in the Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery in St. Petersburg will be created in Isotammi. This database can be searched based on citizenship and family relationships. It is thus easier for the researcher to find their relatives from the materials. Another example of experimental material is the kinship mentions collected from the 18th century court records from Savitaipale, from which the "family trees" of Isotammi with sourced references have been formed. Researchers' own separate materials are welcome to be offered to Isotammi.
Maintenance and Feedback
Isotammi's development team is responsible for the maintenance of Isotammi, to whom observations, comments and feedback related to Istotammi are addressed. Isotammi users have their own Facebook group. Pekka Valta, the leader of the working group, advises on the use of Isotammi and possible problem situations. You can find the contact information of all members of the Society here.