WHERE HAVE THE VARTIAINENS COME FROM?
Assembled by Antti Vartiainen

The earliest mention of the Vartiainens in the official notes were found in District of Viipuri. Several male Vartiainens were mentioned in the cadaster of the county of Jääski from year 1543 and in the tax records of 1544-1556. In the cadasters of Koivisto from 1551 are two and in the 1556 cadaster several Vartiainens. The Koivisto Vartiainens lived in the village of Mannola, which was attacked by the Russian army troops in 1582. Amongst others they burned the house of the Vartiainen’s.

After year 1608 there were no more Vartiainens in Koivisto. In the area of Suur-Jääski there were Vartiainens registered in the cadasters from the latter part of the 16th century in the following villages that nowadays belong to Ruokolahti: Immalanjärvi, Valkeakorpi, Savilahti, Puntala and Toiviala and in the nowadays Joutseno village of Korpi (Korvenkanta). Even from these villages the Vartiainens disappeared already at the end of the 16th century mainly due to the destroying caused by the Russians and during the years of crop failure. In Immalanjärvi the house of the Vartiainens was inhabited until 1657.

Occasional Vartiainens are mentioned as living in Ronkolanmäki of Ruokolahti in 1626, in Tietävälä of Uusikirkko in 1627 and in Merenlahti of Taipalsaari in 1629. The last, scarce mentions of Vartiainens in District of Viipuri are to be found in the court records of 1664,1673 and 1674. The general parish registers were started after the period of the ”Great Wrath” 1713-1721 and in these there are no longer any Vartiainens. In addition to moving away and the dying out of families the reason for some can also be that here at the end of the 16th century  the peasants were no longer registered by their inherited surnames.

The surname of Vartiainen in Viipuri Karelian old official documents has been written in many different ways: Wartija, Wardia, Wartia, Wartha, Wardian, Wartian, Wardiaine, Warttain, Warthain, Wartiann, Wartin, Wartijn, Wartie, Wartien, Vartian, Vartia, Wartia, Wartie, Wartijen, Vartiain, Wardiain, Warthiain, Vartiaine. The first names are usually in the Swedish form.

In the cadaster of Tavisalmi or Kuopio County were noted in 1565 in the parish ( of Savilahti the inhabitant Pentti (Bengt) and Jussi (Joan) Vartiainen. From the documents it is not clear from where they moved there. A guess is that they came from the Ruokolahti or Joutseno areas, in which we know that people of the same name were living. Theirs and possibly some other persons move to the old back areas of Northern Savo Karelia were part of a larger from Suur-Jääski beginning homesteaders movement. The fight for power between Sweden and Russia reached even the new living areas destructively and so in summer 1579 the Russian Karelian looters burned down 40 others houses in addition to the Jussi Vartiainen’s house. They also killed Jussi and his wife. It is known that at least two sons were saved from destruction.

All the Vartiainens societygenealogy register’s 1500s or 1600s different branches researched come from the area north-east of Kuopio. A considerable part of the present-day Vartiainens descend from the abovementioned Jussi Vartiainen.

Sources:

Nallinmaa-Luoto, T.: Savon ja Karjalan Vartiaisia 1500-ja 1600-luvuilla. Vartiaiset ry, 1994.
Vartiainen, A.: Vartiaisten Vaiheita 1500-luvulta lähtien. Vartiaiset ry, 1962

——————————————————————————————————

The District of Viipuri = The peace treaty of Pähkinäsaari in 1323 confirmed the division of Karelia between Sweden and Novgorod (later between Russia). The Swedish part we call here the District of Viipuri.
The Great Wrath = The Russian occupation of Finland which lasted about eight years (from 1713 to 1721).