Maria Sofia Jakobsdotter Ryss & John Mattson Jungara Sandstrom

[AFD]

Looking for information about my great grandparents. Maria Sofia Jakobsdotter Ryss born 6 FEB 1861, Moresala, Förslg, Sora, Finland. And Johan Mattsson Jungara born 17 JUL 1870 • Jeppo, Finland. I would like to find out the significance, or simply why, both changed there last names when they arrived in the US. Maria Sofia changed to Freidlund. And Johan to Sandstrom. His brothers Matt, Sam, Vilhelm & Leander all did as well it seems after marriage. Sofia seemingly just changed her last name to what a brother of hers had changed his too prior.

A little more info. Johans father is Matts Ericksson born 1 DEC 1835 • Öfver Jeppo, Jeppo, Lansi-Suomen Laani, Finland , of which there is one referance to his last name changing to Sandstrom, but we dpojnt know if thats true. Not sure he ever carried the Sandstrom last name. Sohia's was Jakob Hansson Ryss Born 12 NOV 1833 • Ryss, Munsala, Finland.

Any information is helpful & appreciated!!

[tuulacu]

Let us start with Maria Jakobs daughter Ryss. Her birth record is here:
Munsala församlings arkiv - Längder över födda och döpta 1853-1870, jakso 101: döpte 1861; Kansallisarkisto: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=9035757
- she was born in Munsala församling (congregation), Vaasa region
- her parents were bondeson (farmer's son) Jakob Hansson and wife Beata Mattsdotter. At that time Western part of FInland did not have SURnames but they used farm names instead, read this: https://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article216e.htm

So she was born on Ryss (meaning Russian) farm in Munsala. Here you see Jakob, Beata and earlier child Anna in church books (Kommunionböcker/Rippikirjat) of Monå, Ryss.
Munsala församlings arkiv - Kommunionbok 1854-1860 (I), jakso 331, sivu 333: Monå By nr 6 Ryss; Kansallisarkisto: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=9028319
Jakob was the son of Hans only, his mother had probably died earlier. You can follow the family to earlier books (Kommunionböcker/Rippikirjat) and find the mother, also the births of parents in Längder över födda och döpta/Syntyneet https://digihakemisto.appspot.com/index ... ings+arkiv

It was rather common to change surname when you moved to US. We do not know the reasons behind; often there was a good reason, sometimes a difficult name in that circumstance (with letters furnished with dots and such) , sometimes a reason to disappear. Maybe Ryss was changed because it meant "Russian" at least to all Scandinavian language speakers?

I''ll go on with John Mattsson later unless someone likes to do it earlier.

BR Tuula K

[AFD]

Thank you very much! I have been able to find more of Sofia's relatives!
I see Ryss means Russia in Swedish, which she would not have wanted to use in the USA. Took the name her brother had taken, Freidlund. Does the use of Ryss mean she was Russian?? On all of her immigration & census reports she wrote she was from Finland & spoke Swedish. But the use of Ryss seems to make her Russian? Any thoughts?

Also, is there a reason your aware of, that the Vaasa region only dates back to the 1880's?? The other parishes go back much further.
Thank you.

[tuulacu]

It is possible that the name Ryss dates back from the time when the farms were born and that the first people came from the eastern part of Finland. They maybe came from that direction, not Russians at all...

Or the name was earlier Russ and was turned into Ryss, see this discussion of a soldier, probably coming from the Baltic direction
http://suku.genealogia.fi/showthread.php?t=30370

But I am not so familiar with the area. You might want to ask this question in Westside, a site more specialized: http://www.malax.org/westside/forum/

Did you mean why there are so few "fresher" digitized church books from the Ostrobothnian area, coast? There are some parishes that have not handed their archives to the national archives and this makes it difficult to get their books digitized (by national KA or SSHY). The situation of 2017 is here http://wiki.narc.fi/portti/images/e/e5/ ... A_2017.pdf and the parishes missing are the ones which have the archives fresher than 100 years only in their own archives.

Tuula K

[AFD]

Perhaps the move by Johannes Mattsson Jungarä from Jeppo to Munsala in 1896; and the Munsala marriage to Maria Sofia Jakobsdr Ryss that same year, were merely on paper...the last communion marking shown for Johannes Mattsson Jungarå in Jeppo, is 12.10.1890; and there is a notation that he went to America in October of that same year...there are no communion markings shown for either Johannes Mattsson Jungarå or Maria Sofia Jakobsdr Ryss in the Munsala Communion Book...the 1891-1900 book has a notation that both are in Wisconsin, America...unfortunately, i can't read the other writings

[tuulacu]

Johan Mattsson Jungarå moves to page (fol) 219 ("village end") after 12 Oct:
https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/sivut/ ... 3&pnum=185
and there you can see his move to Munsala. The text says something like "förfallolöst uteblifvit fr. uppbådet" - ¨which means that he has not turned up in the conscription. A good reason to leave the country...

On his leaving for America it says in the lists of Institute of Migration that he took a passport of 1 year on Oct 14, 1890, that he was a crofter's son from Jepua. No documents on later passports there by the name Jungarå (or by Sandström either). NB a good reason to change name from Jungarå is that it was probably never pronounced right in America, like "Yungaro(w)" - although Sandström still had "ö" which is not the same letter as "o".

Tuula K

[AFD]

Question..förfallolöst uteblifvit fr. uppbådet" - ¨which means that he has not turned up in the conscription.

What did you mean by it being "A good reason to leave the country"??

[tuulacu]

It was rather common to leave the country when you did not like the idea of serving in the army for three years.
There was also the possibility of serving in Russia even though the Finnish bataillons were the first.
You had maybe already been in the "lottery of serving tickets" and had got a low number (meaning you had to serve) or you were afraid of getting a low number.

Also the times of the Crimean War (brought British war vessels to Finnish coasts) and the Turkish War were not so long behind, and there were stories around. Finns fought in these wars although there was not yet a Finnish troop system of its own.

Here some text in Finnish, hopefully it translates somehow:

Palvelus autonomian ajan asevelvollisessa sotaväessä

"Kaikki miehet tulivat kutsuntoihin sinä vuonna, jona he täyttivät 22 vuotta. Käytännössä asevelvollisuus koski vuosina 1859-1883 syntyneitä, koska sotaväki hajotettiin vuosina 1901-1905.

Asevelvollisen palveluksen muoto ratkaistiin hänen kotipaikkakunnallaan järjestetyssä kutsuntatilaisuudessa. Tilaisuudessa suoritettiin arvannosto, jonka perusteella asevelvolliset jaettiin vakinaiseen väkeen ja reserviin. Pieni arvan numero johti 3 vuoden vakinaiseen palvelukseen, suurempi kolmena kutsuntaa seuraavana kesänä järjestettyihin harjoituksiin lähiseudun reservikomppaniassa. Ensimmäisenä kesänä harjoitukset kestivät 45 päivää, toisena 30 ja kolmantena 15 päivää eli yhteensä 90 vuorokautta. Se, oliko nostettu arpa pieni vai suuri riippui mm. pitäjän väkiluvusta: etukäteen oli päätetty, montako asevelvollista kustakin kunnasta määrättäisiin kolmivuotiseen palvelukseen.

Arvalla valittujen lisäksi sotaväkeen liittyi vapaaehtoisia (frivillig) ja tarjokkaita (volontär). Vapaaehtoisesti ilmoittautuneet, kuten koulutetutkin, saivat palvelusaikaansa lyhennystä. Tarjokkaiden palvelusaika puolestaan oli enimmäismäärä eli 3 vuotta nostetun arvan numerosta riippumatta. Palveluksesta saattoi saada pysyvän vapautuksen esimerkiksi ammatin, perhetilanteen tai terveydentilan perusteella.

Lähtökohtaisesti vakinaiseen (3 v) palvelukseen valitut suorittivat palveluksen oman lääninsä tarkk’ampujapataljoonassa. Halutessaan palveluspaikaksi saattoi valita myös Helsingissä sijainneen Suomen Kaartin tai (vuosina 1890-1901) Lappeenrannassa sijainneen Suomen Rakuunarykmentin. "

[AFD]

I run into a roadblaock with Matts Eliasson Kojonen born 1743 • Kojonen, Ytterjeppo, Vaasa, Finland. I believe Elias Pehrsson, born C:1713 • Viitassaari, Vaasa, Finland & Susanna Mårtensdotter, born C:1713 • Schuggila, Kauhava, Vaasa, Finland could possibly be his parents. If so, I hit the end of the line with them.

Another i run into a problem with is Maria Jakobsdotter Skata born C:1775 • Lotlax, Skata, Vörå, Finland married to Simon Simonsson Sundqvist born 6 SEP 1770 • Lotlax, Skata, Vörå, Finland. I have been unable to find Maria Jakobsdotter Skata parents. Any direction is much appreciated, she is my Great Granmother X5.