Common causes of death in Finnish archives

Below are listed some of the typical causes of death found in Finnish church records. This list may be of help when using the HisKi database. The swedish word is the one found in the records.

English	Swedish	Finnish
shortness of breath	andtäppa	hengenahdistus
childbirth	bardnsbörd	synnytys
stomach ache	bukref	vatsanväänne
(typhoid)	brännsjuka	polte (lavantauti)
sudden death	bråddöd	äkkikuolema
pneumonia	bröstfeber	rintakuume
born dead	dödfödd	kuolleena syntynyt
cholera	frossa	vilutauti, kolera
high fever	hetsig feber	korkea kuume
cough	hosta	yskä
pleurisy or pneumonia	håll och stygn	rintapisto
pertussis, whooping cough	kikhosta	hinkuyskä
cancer	kräfta	syöpä
smallpox	koppor	isorokko
diarheall disease	lifsjuka	ripulitauti, vatsatauti
tuberculosis	lungsot	keuhkotauti
stomach ache, colic	magref	ähky, mahanpurut
measles	mässling	tuhkarokko
typhoid fever	nervfeber	hermokuume (lavantauti)
unknown disease	oangiven sjukdom	tuntematon sairaus
dysentery	rödsot	punatauti
scarlet fever, scarlatina	scharlakansfeber	tulirokko
stroke	slag	halvaus
pleurisy or pneumonia	styng	pistos
weakness	svaghet	heikkous
abscess, tumor, swelling	svullnad	ajos, turvotus
pining	trånsjuka	näivetystauti
typhoid fever	tyfus	lavantauti
swelling	vattusot	vesitauti, pöhö
old age	ålder, ålderdom	vanhuus

General parish registers

General parish registers are registers maintained by local parishes in Finland. They are the foundation for any genealogist doing genealogical research in Finland. Parishes were forced by law to keep the general parish records in 1668 and this is why some parishes have solid records from that year until today.



In different phases of history these registers have contained slightly varying set of information, but the core has remained the same. Earliest general parish register contain mostly lists of parish member names in their swedish format and possibly some notes about their bible reading skills.

Since the beginning of 18th century the records became more detailed containing also dates of birth, mariages, parish member relocations, illnesses and the time of death. During 19th century records may contain also marks about vaccinations, crimes, military service and basicly any miscellaneous notes that the priest wanted to record.