Can all of Finland be connected?

+7 votes
335 views
I wonder if there are sufficient records to connect everyone together into one connected tree in a small country (like Finland) or is it almost guaranteed that due to loss of records there will be numerous isolated trees that can never be connected to the main tree?

Assuming now that every record gets used how many gaps will there be that cannot be closed?

Every time there is a war or a tidal wave we loose masses of data and I feel very sad for countries that have lost their past.  I do hope that the Wikitree data is preserved on at least a few continents.
in The Tree House by Kalle Pihlajasaari G2G1 (1.6k points)
I think it would be very difficult to get everyone connected, even where there are records. For my wife's family, once you get back to about 1750, they are all Johansdotter, Eriksson, so it's very difficult to decide which Johan or Erik might be the father.
Here Finland IS name Henric Ericsson and The House name Piskilä. you haven't studied Finnish genealogy. here it is always the surname according to the house until surnames were put into practice
Jokainen suomalainen on yhteydessä toisiinsa kun mennään tarpeeksi pitkälle vuosissa mutta kirjoja ei ole niin pitkälle. Tee DNA testi Ftdna ja siirrä sieltä myheritageen ja gedmatch.com:n

5 Answers

+5 votes
I think there will always be "unconnectable" people, even in a small area, well covered by records - at least if you move near the edges of recorded time... where records probably don't cover the population all that well, after all.

I'm thinking of some profiles I have created, like the old man with an interesting death record in the very earliest church records for a parish, revealing too little of his background to ever find him where he came from as a soldier, many years ago, and to little about his last (and only known) wife to make her family identifiable. Just her very common given name and no patronymic.

I am also thinking of some other people I have created profiles for when exploring all the births in a parish a given year, a little later but still before the records are very informative about where people came from, and where they went. Those who stayed in one place are easy to identify and connect to other families - within a few generations most of the staying families intermarried. But an itinerant farmworker couple having two children in one place and then moving on, that's next to impossible... at least before all the records all the way back have been completely and reliably indexed. But there will probably still be gaps for them to fall into, even then.
by Eva Ekeblad G2G6 Pilot (582k points)
People in the past, yes. All the Finns alive today could probably be connected to the tree though. And Swedes, etc. Which is more than can be said for the Americans, particularly African Americans since records dry up fast before 1890 (technically they should all be included in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, but in practice there seem to be a lot of gaps).

Icelandic people have very good records from what I hear, but if you go back to the 17th century things will start to get sketchy.
Taking a birth cohort from a well chosen Swedish parish in 1800 (instead of in 1700, like I did) it ought to be possible to connect them all. A whole country will be too big to tackle, but everybody born in Sweden at that time should be connectable, through parents or offspring or spouses.

There are parishes where crucial records were lost to fire, but I don't think that would make the affected families totally unconnectable.
Same in France. In a 1800 provincial parish, everyone is somehow cousin (go ask Olof or Jean-Joseph), so the local cluster is strongly interconnected. Then you only need one migrant among them to connect the cluster to the rest of the world. Just follow descendants through the early 1900s and you'll find a lot of emigrants ... et voilà
+6 votes
A good goal to have, even if it's probably a bit quixotic!

Here's the Finland list of unconnected "chunks" if anyone wants to work on them:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Automated:DD_Unconnected_List_FIN
by Matthew Sullivan G2G6 Pilot (162k points)
+3 votes

Hello Kalle,

You could join the Nordic Project and give it a try (with the help of other Finland subproject members).

Nordic Project subprojects and teams to join. 

If you would like to join or have any questions, please message me from my profile page.

Missy smiley

by Missy Berryann G2G6 Pilot (222k points)
+2 votes
Interesting question. The best candidate would be a small country with a stable population and very, very good record-keeping. Probably the only place on planet Earth one can confidently say has been completely genealogically researched is Pitcairn island.

If not Finland, could the Netherlands be connected with, let's say, 90% coverage?
by Jessica Key G2G6 Pilot (320k points)
+3 votes
I would say : almost everyone in any country, at least for "recent" profiles (post-1800). Mostly not through common ancestors, but through descendants, marriages, in-laws, outliers, migrants etc. Transversal connections are the most likely.
by Bernard Vatant G2G6 Pilot (176k points)

So, looking back to the original question, I'd say that there won't be "numerous isolated trees that can never be connected". The isolated trees we have in the Unconnected Lists, could be connected by more or less circuitous paths, if there was manpower in the right places.

What may remain forever unconnected would rather be fragments out on the edge towards the "record horizon" wherever that is in a particular location.

Yes, Eva, task force indeed we need, you and me wink.

The "record horizon" ... somewhere between 1500 and 1700 for most European countries I would say.

You of course are aware of the figures in this page https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Connection_Facts#No_large_branch_outside_the_Big_Tree

In the current state of WikiTree, the largest proportion of unconnected is among living profiles (85% of unconnected), but the main cause being many isolated profiles created with no follow-up.

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