FINNSKOG
The Finnish Woods in Norway
By Arnold Berwick – April 1989 issue of the Viking magazine
If we look at a detailed map of Norway, we see, northeast of Oslo near the Swedish border, the name Finnskog. Then we see Grue Finnskog, Hof Finnskog, and Åsnes Finnskog. If our eyes slip over the border into Sweden, we see a Nörra Finnskog and Södra Finnskog.
Why do these places have the same name? What is Finnskog?
The answer goes back to the 16th century, when the western part of Sweden was covered with mile after mile of a dense forest of skinny spruce trees, the soil was thin and full of stones, the land was worthless. No people lived in this vast desolation, and Sweden’s population was growing faster than the food supply.
Duke Carl (later Carl IX) of Sweden had an idea. Sweden ruled Finland at the time, and the duke had heard that the Finns were hardworking and knew how to “grow rye on burned stones.” Why not offer the Finns the use of the land? Let them clear off some of the trees and raise grain to feed his people. Let them turn the useless woods into productive farms.
So in 1579 and again in 1583, Duke Carl promised good land and six years’ freedom from taxes to all who settled in Värmland, a province in western Sweden. Many Finns were happy to accept the offer. Every time Sweden went to war with Russia, the Finns were conscripted to fight for Sweden’s cause. Their own country, lying between the two adversaries, was often the battleground. The weather in Finland was harsh, crops were meager, the people oppressed and often hungry.
Especially after the Finnish peasant uprising in 1596-97, which ended in a bloody defeat for the peasants, they saw the opportunities they could gain from the virgin forest lands far away on the western boundary of Sweden. Thousands came from all parts of Finland, but the largest group came from the Rautalampi parish in mid-Finland. And they knew how to make unfertile land produce. They had a method called svedjebruk.
Rye from StonesThe Finns had developed a system of rotational woodland burning. When a new family arrived on foot at some remote part of the forest in Sweden, they started to cut the spruce trees in one section of the forest. The second year they burned the fallen trees now properly dried, and planted rye in the fall of that year.
The potash from the ashes fertilized the soil so that a crop of rye could be harvested in the third year. But it was not fertile enough to produce more than one cutting. The section lay fallow in the fourth year and became pasture land for their cows.
This method was workable because in the second year when Section 1 was being burned, a new Section 2 was cleared. In Year 3, Section 1 was harvested, Section 2 was burned, and a new Section 3 was cleared. In Year 4, Section 1 was left as pasture, Section 2 was harvested, Section 3 was burned and a new Section 4 was cleared.
This rotational burning system could produce a living for the people and could keep on indefinitely because there was seemingly no end to the forest land available to them.
Another farm might be started somewhere off in another part of the forest. A chapel would be built to serve the people within a wide area. The parish would acquire a name, perhaps that of the first farm. So we have Grue Finnskog; that is, the Finnish settlement in the forest that is called Grue. Another parish, many miles away, would be called Hof Finnskog, and so forth.
So, Finnskog is not a name, but rather a description. It means the Finns’ Forest, or more loosely, that part of the forest in which the Finns settled.
Although the Finns went first to Sweden, some who followed later chose to settle across the border in Norway. The landscape on both sides is the same, and the border is an artificial one based on national interests and not on geography or human considerations.
This caused problems; Norway was ruled by the Danish King, and Denmark was often in conflict with Sweden. Each time they went to war, the Finns were conscripted and had to fight the enemy. This meant that Finns on one side of the border had to fight fellow Finns on the other.
To aggravate the problem, the location of the border was changed three times in the 1600’s as part of peace negotiations. As a result, Grue Finnskog was originally in Sweden but is now in Norway. On the other hand, there was a farm in Norway called Østmark – literally, the field toward the east – and properly so since it was in the easternmost part of Norway. After one of the wars the boundary was shifted, and “the field toward the east” is now in the westerly part of Sweden.
One-mile Shoes
All the Finns had to work with were stones, water and trees – millions of trees. And they made do. The buildings were, of course, constructed with logs, but their roofs differed from those of the Norwegians, who spread birch bark over rafters and finished them with a layer of sod. The Finns didn’t use sod, but rather split thin logs lengthwise and placed them, flat side down, over the birch bark. Wet branches were bent over to hold down the edges, and stones were placed on top.
Although the Finns were good blacksmiths and had some iron tools, most of their tools were made of wood, including the forked plow, which, flexible and light, could take up some roots and stir the ashes into the ground.
After a section of the land was harvested, the first things that grew up on the bare land were birch trees. They grew quickly, and strips of the bark – being light, pliable and strong – were interlaced to make baskets, knife sheaths and back packs. Shoes were made of woven strips of birch bark. When burning trees, the people had to step in water occasionally so their shoes wouldn’t catch fire.
When wandering afar, the Finns often carried extra pairs of shoes, since a pair usually wore out after walking about 10 kilometers. These were called “one-mile shoes” (a Norwegian mile is 10kilometers, or 6.2 of our own statute miles). Even the worn-out shoes were salvaged. Together with sand, they were used to clean the upper walls and ceilings of soot that accumulated in the smoke-filled rooms of their houses.
The Finns in Sweden lived in peace as long as King Carl IX lived, and were well entrenched as pioneers and groundbreakers. But as the 17th century advanced, Sweden’s need for grain shifted to the need for wood to build and fuel its mines and ironworks. The worthless forests the Finns were burning to clear the land now became valuable. Eventually the act of burning forests became a crime punishable by death. Many Swedish Finns moved over the border to Solør in Hedmark and the forests of Elverum and Trysil. A royal census taken in 1686 numbered the Finns in Norway at 1225.
At first Finns in Norway experienced freedom and tolerance. But as time wore on, Norwegians began to resent them, even hating them and hunting them down, blaming them for fishing the rivers dry, destroying forests and game. The Norwegians complained to the government authorities, and the Danish king set down many laws and regulations that brought hardship especially to those who did not have land-lease agreements.
In both Norway and Sweden, the Finns were an oppressed minority because they were “different”. They were not of the Nordic race, but rather it is believed that as a tribal, nomadic people they migrated westward from somewhere between the Ural Mountains and the Volga River. Part of this group eventually settled in the Hungarian plain and became known as Magyars, or Hungarians. Others pressed farther north and settled in what later became Estonia. The rest pushed still farther north to a region called Suomi, which is the native word for Finland.
They are a race apart from the Norse, with a language that has no resemblance to the Scandinavian. Eight centuries of rule and occupation by first the Swedes and then the Russians have failed to assimilate them into the one race or the other. With stubbornness and obstinacy they have clung to their individuality as a people.
In both Norway and Sweden, the Finns were looked down upon. Some of these strange forest folk were even feared – they were thought to possess magical powers. No respectable Norwegian girl would even consider marrying a Finnish boy. He was on a lower level, not good enough, weird. On the other hand, a Norwegian boy could marry a Finnish girl if he chose to, thereby bringing her up to his social level.
Preserving Finnish Heritage
For 200 years, the Finnish immigrants and their descendants in Finnskog lived in rather wretched circumstances, both economic and cultural. Scattered about in the immense forest country, they had little communication even among themselves because of the lack of roads and the absence of the means of transportation. They had lost contact with their home country and lived the life of an oppressed minority.
This all began to change after 1820 when Carl Aksel Göttlund, a student from Finland, visited Finnskog and saw the condition of his people. He encouraged them to learn to read and write the Finnish language, and supplied them with magazines and books, but only in Finnish. He next turned to church affairs. The Finns on either side of the border were to have ministers who spoke Finnish, not Norwegian or Swedish. He petitioned the kings of both countries to improve the economic conditions of the Finns, to choose Finns to act as sheriffs, and to build much-needed roads. He strove for many improvements and was successful in some.
Göttlund’s main accomplishment was to instill in the Finnskogen people the feeling of self-confidence, the ability to believe in themselves and to rise above the lowly social condition in which they had been held. He drew them out of their spiritual darkness. People in Finnskog still speak of Göttlund with pride and a touch of reverence.
Today the Finns in Norway are fully assimilated and accepted. The days of persecution and soul-crushing toil are over. They are Norwegians now; Finnish customs, foods and costumes come out only at celebrations.
One of these celebrations is Finnskog Days, held each July in Grue Finnskog. At this celebration the “Republic of Finnskog” is established for three playful days. On Friday afternoon Åsta Holth, who is the acknowledged expert on Finnskog history and holds the title of “president for life” of the Republic, opens a meeting with her cabinet and gives a speech. The people then stage a comical program that varies from year to year.
One year the Republic decided to kidnap the mayor of Grue and hold him for ransom. The mayor learned of the plot and ran away. So the Republic kidnapped someone in the mayor’s office instead. I didn’t learn of the outcome, or if the mayor came back.
Another year the Russian submarine fleet approached the shore of a lake, threatening to attack a Finnskog farm. However, the people rallied and forced the Russian submarines to the beach. The people saw human feet under the submarines as they approached the shoreline.
Their only failure was the year they decided to send a spaceship to the moon. For some reason it didn’t get off the ground.
The people of Finnskog have much to celebrate. Their ancestors pioneered, cleared forests, and added to the economy and culture of Norway. Some of her people are renowned, including Rikard Nordraak, the composer, and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the writer, both of whom had Finnish blood. Bjørnson wrote the words to Norway’s national anthem, and Nordraak set it to music.
The Finns in Norway contributed much to the country in the past and no doubt will do more in the future. Who knows? Perhaps someday we will hear that the Republic of Finnskog has successfully launched a spaceship to the moon.
Editor’s comments: The article above is reproduced with the permission of the Viking magazine, a publication of Sons of Norway. Åsta Holth passed away in 1999 at the age of 95. We are working on a series of articles on the Forest Finns. Watch for them in future issues of the Glåma Ekko.
The Finnish Woods in Norway
By Arnold Berwick – April 1989 issue of the Viking magazine
If we look at a detailed map of Norway, we see, northeast of Oslo near the Swedish border, the name Finnskog. Then we see Grue Finnskog, Hof Finnskog, and Åsnes Finnskog. If our eyes slip over the border into Sweden, we see a Nörra Finnskog and Södra Finnskog.
Why do these places have the same name? What is Finnskog?
The answer goes back to the 16th century, when the western part of Sweden was covered with mile after mile of a dense forest of skinny spruce trees, the soil was thin and full of stones, the land was worthless. No people lived in this vast desolation, and Sweden’s population was growing faster than the food supply.
Duke Carl (later Carl IX) of Sweden had an idea. Sweden ruled Finland at the time, and the duke had heard that the Finns were hardworking and knew how to “grow rye on burned stones.” Why not offer the Finns the use of the land? Let them clear off some of the trees and raise grain to feed his people. Let them turn the useless woods into productive farms.
So in 1579 and again in 1583, Duke Carl promised good land and six years’ freedom from taxes to all who settled in Värmland, a province in western Sweden. Many Finns were happy to accept the offer. Every time Sweden went to war with Russia, the Finns were conscripted to fight for Sweden’s cause. Their own country, lying between the two adversaries, was often the battleground. The weather in Finland was harsh, crops were meager, the people oppressed and often hungry.
Especially after the Finnish peasant uprising in 1596-97, which ended in a bloody defeat for the peasants, they saw the opportunities they could gain from the virgin forest lands far away on the western boundary of Sweden. Thousands came from all parts of Finland, but the largest group came from the Rautalampi parish in mid-Finland. And they knew how to make unfertile land produce. They had a method called svedjebruk.
Rye from StonesThe Finns had developed a system of rotational woodland burning. When a new family arrived on foot at some remote part of the forest in Sweden, they started to cut the spruce trees in one section of the forest. The second year they burned the fallen trees now properly dried, and planted rye in the fall of that year.
The potash from the ashes fertilized the soil so that a crop of rye could be harvested in the third year. But it was not fertile enough to produce more than one cutting. The section lay fallow in the fourth year and became pasture land for their cows.
This method was workable because in the second year when Section 1 was being burned, a new Section 2 was cleared. In Year 3, Section 1 was harvested, Section 2 was burned, and a new Section 3 was cleared. In Year 4, Section 1 was left as pasture, Section 2 was harvested, Section 3 was burned and a new Section 4 was cleared.
This rotational burning system could produce a living for the people and could keep on indefinitely because there was seemingly no end to the forest land available to them.
Another farm might be started somewhere off in another part of the forest. A chapel would be built to serve the people within a wide area. The parish would acquire a name, perhaps that of the first farm. So we have Grue Finnskog; that is, the Finnish settlement in the forest that is called Grue. Another parish, many miles away, would be called Hof Finnskog, and so forth.
So, Finnskog is not a name, but rather a description. It means the Finns’ Forest, or more loosely, that part of the forest in which the Finns settled.
Although the Finns went first to Sweden, some who followed later chose to settle across the border in Norway. The landscape on both sides is the same, and the border is an artificial one based on national interests and not on geography or human considerations.
This caused problems; Norway was ruled by the Danish King, and Denmark was often in conflict with Sweden. Each time they went to war, the Finns were conscripted and had to fight the enemy. This meant that Finns on one side of the border had to fight fellow Finns on the other.
To aggravate the problem, the location of the border was changed three times in the 1600’s as part of peace negotiations. As a result, Grue Finnskog was originally in Sweden but is now in Norway. On the other hand, there was a farm in Norway called Østmark – literally, the field toward the east – and properly so since it was in the easternmost part of Norway. After one of the wars the boundary was shifted, and “the field toward the east” is now in the westerly part of Sweden.
One-mile Shoes
All the Finns had to work with were stones, water and trees – millions of trees. And they made do. The buildings were, of course, constructed with logs, but their roofs differed from those of the Norwegians, who spread birch bark over rafters and finished them with a layer of sod. The Finns didn’t use sod, but rather split thin logs lengthwise and placed them, flat side down, over the birch bark. Wet branches were bent over to hold down the edges, and stones were placed on top.
Although the Finns were good blacksmiths and had some iron tools, most of their tools were made of wood, including the forked plow, which, flexible and light, could take up some roots and stir the ashes into the ground.
After a section of the land was harvested, the first things that grew up on the bare land were birch trees. They grew quickly, and strips of the bark – being light, pliable and strong – were interlaced to make baskets, knife sheaths and back packs. Shoes were made of woven strips of birch bark. When burning trees, the people had to step in water occasionally so their shoes wouldn’t catch fire.
When wandering afar, the Finns often carried extra pairs of shoes, since a pair usually wore out after walking about 10 kilometers. These were called “one-mile shoes” (a Norwegian mile is 10kilometers, or 6.2 of our own statute miles). Even the worn-out shoes were salvaged. Together with sand, they were used to clean the upper walls and ceilings of soot that accumulated in the smoke-filled rooms of their houses.
The Finns in Sweden lived in peace as long as King Carl IX lived, and were well entrenched as pioneers and groundbreakers. But as the 17th century advanced, Sweden’s need for grain shifted to the need for wood to build and fuel its mines and ironworks. The worthless forests the Finns were burning to clear the land now became valuable. Eventually the act of burning forests became a crime punishable by death. Many Swedish Finns moved over the border to Solør in Hedmark and the forests of Elverum and Trysil. A royal census taken in 1686 numbered the Finns in Norway at 1225.
At first Finns in Norway experienced freedom and tolerance. But as time wore on, Norwegians began to resent them, even hating them and hunting them down, blaming them for fishing the rivers dry, destroying forests and game. The Norwegians complained to the government authorities, and the Danish king set down many laws and regulations that brought hardship especially to those who did not have land-lease agreements.
In both Norway and Sweden, the Finns were an oppressed minority because they were “different”. They were not of the Nordic race, but rather it is believed that as a tribal, nomadic people they migrated westward from somewhere between the Ural Mountains and the Volga River. Part of this group eventually settled in the Hungarian plain and became known as Magyars, or Hungarians. Others pressed farther north and settled in what later became Estonia. The rest pushed still farther north to a region called Suomi, which is the native word for Finland.
They are a race apart from the Norse, with a language that has no resemblance to the Scandinavian. Eight centuries of rule and occupation by first the Swedes and then the Russians have failed to assimilate them into the one race or the other. With stubbornness and obstinacy they have clung to their individuality as a people.
In both Norway and Sweden, the Finns were looked down upon. Some of these strange forest folk were even feared – they were thought to possess magical powers. No respectable Norwegian girl would even consider marrying a Finnish boy. He was on a lower level, not good enough, weird. On the other hand, a Norwegian boy could marry a Finnish girl if he chose to, thereby bringing her up to his social level.
Preserving Finnish Heritage
For 200 years, the Finnish immigrants and their descendants in Finnskog lived in rather wretched circumstances, both economic and cultural. Scattered about in the immense forest country, they had little communication even among themselves because of the lack of roads and the absence of the means of transportation. They had lost contact with their home country and lived the life of an oppressed minority.
This all began to change after 1820 when Carl Aksel Göttlund, a student from Finland, visited Finnskog and saw the condition of his people. He encouraged them to learn to read and write the Finnish language, and supplied them with magazines and books, but only in Finnish. He next turned to church affairs. The Finns on either side of the border were to have ministers who spoke Finnish, not Norwegian or Swedish. He petitioned the kings of both countries to improve the economic conditions of the Finns, to choose Finns to act as sheriffs, and to build much-needed roads. He strove for many improvements and was successful in some.
Göttlund’s main accomplishment was to instill in the Finnskogen people the feeling of self-confidence, the ability to believe in themselves and to rise above the lowly social condition in which they had been held. He drew them out of their spiritual darkness. People in Finnskog still speak of Göttlund with pride and a touch of reverence.
Today the Finns in Norway are fully assimilated and accepted. The days of persecution and soul-crushing toil are over. They are Norwegians now; Finnish customs, foods and costumes come out only at celebrations.
One of these celebrations is Finnskog Days, held each July in Grue Finnskog. At this celebration the “Republic of Finnskog” is established for three playful days. On Friday afternoon Åsta Holth, who is the acknowledged expert on Finnskog history and holds the title of “president for life” of the Republic, opens a meeting with her cabinet and gives a speech. The people then stage a comical program that varies from year to year.
One year the Republic decided to kidnap the mayor of Grue and hold him for ransom. The mayor learned of the plot and ran away. So the Republic kidnapped someone in the mayor’s office instead. I didn’t learn of the outcome, or if the mayor came back.
Another year the Russian submarine fleet approached the shore of a lake, threatening to attack a Finnskog farm. However, the people rallied and forced the Russian submarines to the beach. The people saw human feet under the submarines as they approached the shoreline.
Their only failure was the year they decided to send a spaceship to the moon. For some reason it didn’t get off the ground.
The people of Finnskog have much to celebrate. Their ancestors pioneered, cleared forests, and added to the economy and culture of Norway. Some of her people are renowned, including Rikard Nordraak, the composer, and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the writer, both of whom had Finnish blood. Bjørnson wrote the words to Norway’s national anthem, and Nordraak set it to music.
The Finns in Norway contributed much to the country in the past and no doubt will do more in the future. Who knows? Perhaps someday we will hear that the Republic of Finnskog has successfully launched a spaceship to the moon.
Editor’s comments: The article above is reproduced with the permission of the Viking magazine, a publication of Sons of Norway. Åsta Holth passed away in 1999 at the age of 95. We are working on a series of articles on the Forest Finns. Watch for them in future issues of the Glåma Ekko.
finnskogen
This is a copy of a letter that has been sent to me. This should be very
interesting for those of you that have ancestors from Finnskogen in Östmark and
other places in Värmland.
Räisäinen Släktförening bildad
av Rolf Berntzen (23 sept 1999)
Nu har vi startat en släktförening för alla som härstammar från Per Larsen Räisäinen!
Han kom från Räisälä socken i Rautalampi, Finland. Så långt vi vet i dag är han född ca 1600. Han kommer med största sannolikhet via Hälsingland och gifter sig med en Kari Olsdatter född ca 1610. Huruvida hon var svensk eller av finsk härkomst är inte klarlagt ännu. Per Larsen Räisäinen och hustrun tar sig till Norge och en plats innanför gränsen i Värmland (nuvarande Torsby kommun i höjd med Röjdefors) - Løvhaugen. Man säger att han är den första norska svedjefinnen. Tillsammans får makarna nio barn så långt det är känt idag. Den släktforskning som Solør Slektshistorielag har gjort på dessa barns avkomlingar fram till i vissa fall nutid visar att släkten Per Larsen Räisäinen finns inte bara i Norge utan i Sverige på olika platser. Ättlingarna "utvandrarde" bland annat till Nås i Dalarna och Berg/Medvigge i Jämtland. Ett stort antal ättlingar utvandrade också till USA.
Det område som i dag kallas för Finnskogen utgör det område som de finska familjerna kom till från Finland i 1600-talets början och framåt. Detta område kan bäst beskrivas om man ser på dagens karta över gränsen mellan Sverige och Norge: i söder Arvika/Kongsvinger och i norr in på Trysilsidan Norge. Nu finns den svedjefinska kulturen natuligtvis på andra platser i Sverige.
De olika finska familjerna som kom till området på båda sidor gränsen gifte in sig med varandra och senare, i slutet av 1800-tal, började man gifta sig på andra håll. Därför kan man komma från Per Larsen Räisäinen och hans barn om man till exempel finner sådana finska namn som: Mullikka, Valkoinen, Suhoinen. Haljanen, Sikainen, Porkka, Hämäläinen, Hottakka, Himainen, Veteläinen - bara för att nämna några.
Föreningens syften är:
- Att kunna samla personer som har sitt ursprung från Per Larsen Räisäinen.
- Att dokumentera så långt fram i nutid som är möjligt i den databas som redan finns på cirka 15.000 personer.
- Att medverka att kunskapen om den svedjefinska kulturen i Sverige och Norge hålls vid liv.
- Att hjälpa dom personer som släktforskar och kan tänkas komma från denna svedjefinska kulturen.
- Att medverka till att dom byggnader som finns bevarade i Finnskogen bevaras för framtiden.
- Att samla olika dokument som är viktiga för såväl släktforskning som annan dito vilket beskriver släkten Per Larsen Räisäinen och övriga svedjefinska släkter.
- Att ordna årligen återkommande släktträff i samband med den speciella dag för svedjefinska kulturen, Finnskogdagarna i Svullerya Norge.
- Att ordna föreläsningar om svedjefinska kulturen.
- Att ordna resor till bl.a Rautalampi i Finland.
- Två nummer av "Räisäinen" tidningen om släkten och svedjefinska kulturen. Denna tidning skall utges i samarbete med Solør Slektshistorielag.
- Inbjudan till olika arrangemang som vi beskrivit ovan.
- Egen personlig kod till databasen över Räisäinen släkten.
- Möjlighet att efterlysa och söka "Räisäinen" på släktföreningens hemsida på Internet.
Genealogy friends and organizations in USA and Canada.
Now we have started a family organization for all who are descended from Per
Larsen Räisäinen.
Who was Per Larsen Räisäinen?
Per Larsen Räisäinen came from Räisälä village in Rautalampi Finland.As far as
we know today, he was born about 1600. He arrived in all probability via
Hälsingland in the northern part of Sweden and married Kari Olsdatter, born about 1610. If she is swedish or finnish is not made clear yet.
Per Larsen Räisäinen and his wife went to Norway and a place in Hedemark named
Løvhaugen. This place is near to Kongsvinger close to the Swedish border.Per
Larsen Räisäinen named this place Räisälä.
Genealogy says that he is the first Norwegian "svedjefinne", that is the name of
the people who came from Finland like Per Larsen Räisäinen.
Per Larsen Räisäinen and his wife got 9 children as far as we know today. This
family exists not only in Norway but even in Sweden and as far as we know in USA
and Canada too.
What is Finnskogen?
This is the name of the area where the svedjefinnish people came to from 1600
and later on. Today this Finnskogen is on both sides of the Norwegian-Swedish
border.
This name is today used to describe the history of svedjefinnish culture. If you
are interested in where this area precisely is located you can look at the map
on our homepage (http://welcome.to/raisainen ).
Marriage between svedjfinnish families.
The different finnish families who came to this Finnskogarea married one
another.
Therefore you can descend from Per Larsen Räisäinen and his children even if you
have finnish names as:
Mullikka,Valkoinen,Suhoinen,Haljanen,Sikainen,Porrka,Hottakka,Rusainen/Hähmä,Him\
ainen, Veteläinen, Hämäläinen, Lehmoinen, Pälläinen.
In the end of 1800 these finnish families were married even to Norwegian and
Swedish people.
What do we want with a Per Larsen Räisäinen family organization?
* To get people, descending from Per Larsen Räisäinen together.
* To document as many people as possible in a database.
* To contribute in knowledge about that svedjefinnish culture in Norway and
Sweden still is alive.
* To contribute in that old buildings that are maintained in Finnskogen today
will be maintained even for the future.
* To collect different documents that are valuable for genealogy as well as
other research that describes the Per Larsen Räisäinen family and other
svedjefinnish families.
* To arrange annual family meetings, connecting to the special day for
svedjefinnish culture, Finnskogdagene in Svullerya Norway.
* To arrange lectures about the svedjefinnish culture.
* To arrange trips to for instance Rautalampi in Finland.
Who can be a Member?
All persons, descended from Per Larsen Räisäinen.
How do i know that i descend from Per Larsen Räisäinen family?
If you are not sure about it, you can write to us and we will help you to
investigate.
What do i got for the membership fee?
* Two numbers a year of the "Räisäinen paper" about the family and svedjefinnish
culture.
* A personal databasecode to Räisäinen database.
* Possibility to search for "Räisäinen" on our homepage at Internet.
* A personal invitation to different arrangements that we have described in this
letter.
Membership fee.
10 dollar a year per person. Family membership fee is not yet decided.
If you are interested in being a member, please let us know, and we will inform
you in what way you can pay your membership fee.
Solør Slektshistorielag Norway and Per Larsen Räisäinen family organiszation.
We are in good connection with Solør Slektshistorielag and we will cooperate in
different questions in the future.
The Räisäinen book.
Solør Slektshistorielag have published a book about the Per Larsen Räisäinen
family, this year for the 4th time.
Today the book is in Norwegian-Swedish, but is planed to be in English too.
Homepage at Internet.
Per Larsen Räisäinen family org. has an own homepage at Internet that gives you
different informations about the family organization.
The homepage is even i Norwegian/Swedish.
Address to homepage is:( http://welcome.to/raisainen)
Official establishment of Per Larsen Räisäinen family organization.
The family organization has today an interim board and the official
establishment will be at the Finnskogdagene i Svullerya Norway the 9 to 11 th of
july this year.
Please read about this on our homepage.
Addresses.
If you will get into touch with us please write to us in the interim board as
follows:
Rolf Berntzen
Mastkärr 16
S-685 93 Torsby
SWEDEN
email: berntz@t...
Magne Ivan Mellem
Bekkefaret 10
N-2270 Flisa
NORWAY
email: mmellem@o...
Finn Sollien
Kongevegen 121
N-2200 Kongsvinger
NORWAY
email: fsollie@o...
Email can even be sent to the adress of the family organization:
raisainen@t...
We understand that there are a lot of Räisäinen people i USA and Canada. Because
of that we have sent this email to you and the organization you belong to,
asking for help to distribute this informations.
If you have any questions i will be glad to hear from you.
Best regards
Rolf Berntzen.