Finnish Connections

Among six Ferguson first cousins whose DNA results I have access to, Finnish ancestry ranges from 2.7% to 8.9% and averages 5.4%. Among our extended Jader/Jaderborg family in America, Finnish ancestry ranges from 3.6% to 17.2%. In Sweden, two cousins (one a 3rd cousin, one 2nd once removed) on the Jäder branch of the family tree are 20.6% and 22.1% Finnish. Mom's Finnish ancestry averages 11%, or about 1/8, suggesting that Finnish ancestry is only a few generations back. On 23andme, her "highly likely match" with Finland has the #1 region as Northern Savonia in eastern Finland.

Cousin Jon Jaderborg and I have been trying to find our Finnish connection. Early on, we were convinced it came through our great grandmother Kristina Jäderborg. We had found some suggestive connections to Finland and Finnish ancestry was strong in the Jäderborg line. Now, we think Jon may have found the possible Finnish ancestor. He is Mats Månsson Laggare, a Finn who lived near our ancestral village of Järbo.

Finns first appeared in records of the area in 1600 with three Finnish farming families. Mats first appears in 1635 living in Finnäs, less than a mile north of Järbo. As the name suggests, Finnäs was a Finnish settlement. Mats' Finnish name was possibly Matti Maunonpoika. Another possibility is since Mats Mansson Laggare's patronymic was Månsson, his father's name was Måns. At that time there were two Finns with the first name Måns in Ovansjö parish, both in Järbo: Måns Penttinen in Finnäs 1601/1609 and Måns Väisänen in Vikåsen 1598, both from the village of Marjoniemi in North Savonia, Finland. Other villages near Järbo settled by Finns were Nordanå, Botjärn, Kungsberg and Kalltjärn. By 1650, Mats Månsson Laggare moved to Kalltjärn (Cold Pond), about four miles northeast of Järbo.

We have a documented connection to Kalltjärn. Over two hundred years later, from 1871-1875, our great grandfather Olof Andersson Jäder lived in the Kalltjärn household of Hans Persson Bergsman and worked for him as a farmhand. A bergsman was a farmer who also mined bog iron ore and often also owned shares in an ironworks. When I asked Gramma (Anna Jader Ferguson) what her father did in Sweden, she said that he was a charcoal maker. Charcoal was a key ingredient of the iron furnaces, fueling the hearths where iron was refined. So, perhaps great grandfather Olof Andersson worked at making charcoal when not doing farm work for Hans Persson. This is consistent with the seasonal nature of the 19th century Swedish iron industry.

Working in the extensive Swedish iron industry was a family tradition on both sides. Great grandfather Olof Andersson's father Anders Olsson Jäder and grandfather Olof Ersson were both rostbranneran, literally rust burners, workers who tended the fires that dried the bog iron ore prior to refining, and his father-in-law, our great great grandfather Olof Olsson Jäderborg, worked as a masmästare, or foundry master, in an ironworks. Gramma's recollection is confirmed by this interpretation.

So, we have established a Finnish connection on the Jäderborg side, and most probably on the Jäder side. What's interesting is that our ancestors were not just any Finns. They were most likely Forest Finns, in Swedish called Skogsfinnarna.

Here's who Skogsfinnarna were, from http://finnskogarna.com/english/:

"Central Sweden’s inaccessible coniferous forests are a unique part of Sweden. A part that we call the Finn Forest and which at the end of the 16th century was home to a mythical people. The Forest Finns, or the ‘slash and burn’ Finns as they were also called, emigrated from Finland and transformed the undeveloped forest into farmland. They carried out ‘slashing and burning’, clearing the way for crofts and farms, lived in smoke cottages and took smoke saunas. They gave Finnish names in the surrounding landscape and also shaped the culture and history of the region. The Forest Finns were assumed to have magical powers, they believed in nature spirits and with incantations, sacrifices and rituals they remained friends with the forest gods."

Skogsfinnarna have received a lot of scholarly and popular attention lately as they assert their cultural identity, even having their own flag. The area of Sweden that encompasses Finnskognarna (the Finn Forest) includes our ancestral village of Järbo and all the villages associated with our family. In Sweden they call this region Skogsfinnarna Riket, literally the Forest Finns Kingdom (http://www.finnskogsriket.com/en/index.en.shtml). This convinces me that our Finnish ancestors were Skogsfinnar.

The region of central Sweden where Forest Finns settled. Järbo is the ancestral home of my Swedish ancestors.

The flag of the Forest Finns.

Remember North Savonia? The region in eastern Finland that Mom most closely matched? Well, that's the Finnish homeland of the Forest Finns. Another piece of evidence that points toward Skogsfinnarna, the Forest Finns, as our Finnish heritage.