Census records

Census records ("henkikirjat") are the second most important documents for a genealogist after the church records. They help to fill in the gaps and missing documents in church records and they are especially important for those who do research on beginnings 17th and 18th century population in Finland because church records mainly begin from 1720's and 1730's. Census records were mostly tax records until 1925, the series of census records begin from 1634.


Page of a census record from Vaasa 1815

Census records are not equal to church records in recording personal history as they do not contain birth, marriage, death or relocation information. This is why census records must be followed year-by-year. Population is grouped by villages and by families within villages. In the cities grouping is goes by districts within the city, then by blocks.

Census records may be researched in provincial archives as microfilms until 1809 after which they are microfilmed every 5 years until 1920. Provincial archives also contain original documents until 1960 and for some places until 1989 when the last census records were made.