general questions

[Lynette1]

Hi,
I have a few more questions that I can’t find the answers to.

Was there a poor farm in each of the villages in the 1800’s? I noticed some crown farms in the Communion books. Were these poor farms? If not, why did the government have village farms? I also found entries of some of the villagers receiving aid from the Church. One of the torpares on Erik Eriksson Anttila’s farm was getting some aid. His torp was called Frikeri so does this name indicate that he was living there rent free?

I notice ladders against many of the farmhouses in some photos. I am assuming they were used to put out ember fires on the roof or remove snow. Is this correct or was there another reason?

On the attached page, there are many farmers’ signatures, all in the same handwriting. Each farmer has a unique mark written below his name. I thought that the farmers could read and write (taught so they could read the Bible). So why didn’t they sign the page themselves and why do they need the unique mark?

https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut_ ... 39&pnum=64

So many questions! Any help would be most appreciated.

Thank you,
Lynette

[Kimpula]

Hi,
I have a few more questions that I can’t find the answers to.

Was there a poor farm in each of the villages in the 1800’s? I noticed some crown farms in the Communion books. Were these poor farms? If not, why did the government have village farms?

It was not a poor farm.

Google "maanluonto". Crown farm - I think you mean kruununtila
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruununtila

https://tieteentermipankki.fi/wiki/Oike ... aanluonnot


There were two kinds of "crown farms"
1) Farmer had a permanent, inheritable right-to-live in a crown farm. How do you translate "vapaa hallintaoikeus"?
2) Crown farm that the government had rented to some farmer.

See https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maanluonto
Kruununluontoiset tilat


TL;DR Maanluonto was a juridical concept that described what kind of taxes a "farm" had to pay and what rights the user of the land ("farmer") had towards that "farm".

Note that these "farms" were administrative units of tax collection, not "real farms".

[tuulacu]

The ladders are used just for the purpose you suggested. Sparks could light up a roof easily when the material was wooden, e.g. shakes or shingles. And cleaning the roof was also necessary, not just of snow in winter but also of conifer needles and dry leaves which made the roof even easier to catch fire.

As to the marking used in the official papers until 1950 or so, they were first used by people who could not write. Later on these signs were used also with the signature, sort of decorations. And there are still people who are proud to have a mark like this in the family!
Here you can read=translate more of the signs, called puumerkki in Finnish, bomärke in Swedish: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puumerkki or in Swedish https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bom%C3%A4rke

Tuula K

[Lynette1]

Kimpula and Tuula,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. It is most appreciated.

Thanks,
Lynette