Alajärvi - Lappajärvi farm questions

[Lynette1]

I am researching my great-grandparents from Finland - Heikki Erkinpoika Anttila and Maria Mattsdotter Karvala. They immigrated to the United States in 1880 and 1881 settling in Maple, WI where they received 80 acres through the Homestead Act.
Some very basic questions:
Is there a map somewhere in the archives which shows where their farms were located? I found Karvala (Lappajärvi) on the map but am not sure that is where the farm of my great-grandmother was located. Also, I can’t find Anttila (Alajärvi) on any map although I think it is near Kurejoki.
According to the Rippikirja records, the Antila No 6 farm (1843-1849) covers nine pages (100-108). Is this all one big farm? Or many independent farms broken up from the original farm? Also the total area of the nine pages shown in fractions does not add up to one? The farms vary in size from 1/4 to 11/128. And lastly, what type of crops/dairy etc would be raised on a typical farm in this area? I have searched the internet for an answer to this but can’t find one.

Thank you,
Lynette

[tuulacu]

This is maybe one site that could help you: https://asiointi.maanmittauslaitos.fi/k ... a/?lang=en
In Alajärvi, there are (at present) three different Anttilas. Antti is a common male name, so there are many farms called Anttila.
You will have the three choices by searching Anttila. You can study them closer and maybe find the right one.
Hints of the past you will get by adding layers from the "paper stack": the Property identifiers and Cadastral boundaries. When you zoom in, you will notice that the place you study has a series of numbers. I have gathered that the first on (.5) means Alajärvi, the second is the village number and the third one tells from which "basic" farm the farm has been divided.

This site also has other maps https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/e-services/mapsite and you might be interested in Old printed maps. FInd Alajärvi first, then choose between different maps of 1:20 000 and 1:50 000.

There is also this map site but the earliest it gives is 1967, although it is roughly the situation before the centres grew bigger and farming became less https://vanhatkartat.fi/#11.76/63.0237/23.8258 - and this site behaves sometimes in a strange way (to me, I have not learnt to use it properly).

Heikki Rantatupa has collected old maps in a site and here is the search result of Alajärvi there: https://expo.oscapps.jyu.fi/s/vanhakart ... submit=Hae I have not studied those more closely.

There are some more but you could try these first.

Tuula K

[Lynette1]

Thank you! I am hoping to visit Finland next summer and would like to see where my family lived.

[Kimpula]

the Property identifiers and Cadastral boundaries. When you zoom in, you will notice that the place you study has a series of numbers. I have gathered that the first on (.5) means Alajärvi, the second is the village number and the third one tells from which "basic" farm the farm has been divided.

Numbers in modern kiinteistörekisteri may not refer to same things than the same numbers of taxation units ("farms") in rippikirjat, because of isojako.

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isojako
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Partition

Isoako moved the official residence of people to different taxation units (like my ancestors from "farm" 2 to "farm" 4).

When was isojako in Alajärvi?

Maybe Google Translate can make some sense of this?

https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/tietoa ... n-jaljilla

[Lynette1]

Thank you for the information.
As of yet, I have not found Anttila on any map but I will keep looking.
Thank you,
Lynette

[tuulacu]

Lynette,
I suggest that you join the FB group and ask there - if you are in FB. There are so many local people with a lot of knowledge there.
But there are also contact names and emails on the family site.

Tuula

[Lynette1]

That is a great idea. I do not have Facebook but my children do.
Thank you.