MARINERS
THE WEBSITE OF THE MARINERS MAILING
LIST.
Researching Finnish Merchant Seamen
Leif Mether
Every seaman had to be registered in a seamen's house. The first seamen's
house in Sweden-Finland was founded in Stockholm 1748. The first one in
Finland was Turku 1753 and Helsinki 1759. The system ended in 1937. The
idea was to collect pensions for old seamen and for seamen's widows. At
that time there were ship traffic abroad only from towns with permission
to have trade to foreign countries. Also the domestic traffic was restricted.
The society was full of regulations and the registering of seamen was part
of that system.
The archive of the seamen's house in Oulu starts in 1729 (there seems
to be some records included in the archive from 1729 even if the system
was founded in 1748). The archive can be found in the Provincial Archives
in Oulu.
| 1859 - 1895 | log books |
| 1729 - 1798 | diaries (departing ships and crews) |
| 1799 - 1863 | records of sailors joining the house |
| 1788 - 1937 | records of sailors leaving the house |
| 1859 | protocols |
| 1918-1938 | protocols |
| 1893 - 1937 | lists of sailors and ships |
| 1876 - 1937 | letters (concepts) |
| 1897 - 1938 | arrived letters |
I couldn't find information about the seamen's house of Oulu in FHC
library catalog (some are microfilmed). Try to contact the Provincial Archives
in Oulu. You find information and addresses at http://www.narc.fi
They charge FIM 220 per hour for their services. A cheaper way may be to
contact some of the genealogists offering their services at http://www.genealogia.fi.
Leif Mether
This article first appeared on Finngen, the Finnish genealogical mailing list (see http://www.genealogia.fi ) It was reproduced here with his kind permission.
20.04.02ef