Matti J. Kankaanpää

Author and genealogy researcher Matti Juhani Kankaanpää passed away on Thursday 7 December 2017, after six months of illness.

Matti was born in Kokkola on 6 November 1943. His roots were in Virrat — in Ala-Härkönen, Sipilä and Kauppila. He graduated from Virtain yhteiskoulu, studied social sciences at the University of Turku and graduated with a Master’s degree in Political Science in 1972. He then pursued postgraduate studies before becoming a full-time genealogy researcher and founding T:mi Toiset Aijat.

Research Career

Matti Kankaanpää began researching Virrat families as early as the 1960s. He also collected stories, anecdotes and oral history. He interviewed older community members and initially recorded information by hand — he began his work before the age of computers, writing his first books on a typewriter. He adopted the computer in the early 1980s.

He was able to read and interpret old texts and transcribed, for example, parish records to make them more accessible for genealogists. Matti produced numerous family histories and local histories, published estate histories and wrote many journal articles.

He was a skilled and generous researcher — thorough and knowledgeable. In 2005 and 2006 he took part in a writers’ training programme at Oriveden Opisto and attended various continuing education courses in his field. He helped many people begin their own family history research by running genealogy courses, assisted private individuals in compiling material into books, and was always ready to offer expert guidance both by telephone and in writing.

Books

Matti Kankaanpää had a particular interest in Finland’s earlier history and accumulated a great deal of historical material alongside his genealogical work. His most important works were The Great Northern War, the Great Wrath and the Finns (2001) and Finnish Cavalry in the Swedish Era (2016).

Matti had enough material in his archives for several more books, but illness gradually sapped his strength. He worked right up until the very end. His final publication was From Shimmering Waters — Virrat in Pictures and Words 1867–2018 (2018), the sesquicentennial history of the municipality of Virrat, published by the City of Virrat.

In Memoriam

Now you leave your own home,
the dear paths of Salonpää,
the beloved forests, familiar shores
and the blossoming apple trees of the yard.

Farewell, quiet keeper of memories,
the work of your hands lives on.

— Jarle M. Alvheim, nephew of Matti J. Kankaanpää

Estate

The estate maintains this website and handles sales of his books. Contact: jarle@toisetaijat.fi