Åland Islands

Vårdö

Parish Records

HisKi project findings were used as a starting point to identify parish villages. 7 Then Parish Communion Records of 1873 – 1882  and Land Records were used to confirm village and identify farm names.8, 9 Because parish Communion records are listed by village and farm name and because farm names often were used as a part of a person’s name, it is interesting to note the following farms.

To open a printable list of villages and farms (pdf), click here.

This map of the Vårdö Parish in 1938 displays on the HisKi project website, made available by the Genealogical Society of Finland. 7

Parish History

  • Originally a chapel under the Sund parish
  • Became its own parish in 1866

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Of Interest

“The word ‘vårdö’ means ‘the guardian island’.  On the highest mountain of Vårdö people used to light bonfires to warn people on nearby islands of possible danger.” 1 Today’s Coat of Arms acknowledges the importance of those bonfires.

Attribution: Hippophaë / Public domain 4

Villages & Farms

  1. Uppgård
  2. Östergård

No farm names listed

1. Vestergård
2. Utby
3. Markusas
4. Nästgård

  1. Norrgård
  2. Södergård

1. Norrgård
2. Södergård
3. Jakos
4. Seffers
5. Mansas

1. Vestergård
2. Östergård

1. Södergård
2. Östergård

1. Mellangård
2. Vestergård
3. Östergård
4. Norrgård
5. Södergård

1. Vestergård
2. Mellangård
3. Påvals

1. Södergård
2. Vestergård
3. Östergård
4. Hansas
5. Norrgård

1. Mellangård
2. Ivars
3. Östergård
4. Erkas

No farm names listed

Parish Church

Saint Matthius Church  2, 3, 5

  • Built just south of the Åland postal route that connected Stockholm and Turku
  • Dedicated to Saint Matthias
  • Stone chapel built in the late 1400s; parishoner’s  received permission from the mother church (Sund Parish) to build the stone chapel in the late 1400’s as “it was difficult for old and sick people and the young to travel the long distance to the mother church.”
  • Badly damaged during the Great Northern Was 1714-1721
  • Rebuilt in 1786; designs of the court architect, Olof Samuel Tempelman of Stockholm were partially followed

To read more about the Vårdö church, click here3

Attribution: Ulf Rydin / CC  BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.05

Folk dress

Each parish has a unique folk dress.  Parish folk dress can be recognized by its style, colors, and patterns.

Vårdö folk dress photo used with permission of the Brage costume agency.6


Resources:

  1. Vårdö, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A5rd%C3%B6
  2. Vårdö Church, https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vårdö_kyrka
  3. Vårdö Church, https://www.kyrkor.ax/churches/vardo-stone-chapel/
  4. Vardo Coat of Arms, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V%C3%A5rd%C3%B6.vaakuna.svg
  5. Vårdö Church image, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V%C3%A5rd%C3%B6_Church.jpg
  6. Vårdö Folk Dress image, Brage costume agency, https://www.brage.fi/sve/draktbyra/draktbyran/folkdrakter/view-163648-66
  7. Vårdö Parish, Genealogical Society of Finland, HisKi project, http://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/fr4lat?en+0639
  8. Vårdö Parish Communion Records, 1873 – 1882, https://app.arkivdigital.se/volume/v192135?image=1
  9. Åland landkapsarkiv, Land Records, https://www.arkivet.ax/en/digital-material/search-land-register 
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