Karl Frosterus's Daughter Vappu

Research note originally published in Genos 1/2003.

The Frosterus family is one of the well-documented Finnish clerical families. Karl Frosterus served as chaplain at Ähtäri and died in 1701. Among his children was a daughter named Vappu — in the records also Walborg.

The question of what became of Vappu Frosterus had not been settled. Through bishop’s visitation records from 1737, it is possible to establish that Vappu Frosterus married into the Sipilä farm in Virrat.

Visitation records are a valuable but underused source for genealogists. When a bishop visited a parish, he would question the congregation and the clergy on matters of faith and church discipline. The surviving records of these visitations can contain biographical details — ages, family relationships, origins — that do not appear in any other source.

In this case, the visitation record of 1737 provides the link between the Frosterus clerical family of Ähtäri and the farming community of Virrat, confirming Vappu’s marriage and her fate.

This kind of research — connecting a known family in one community to a related family in another — is typical of genealogical work in the area where Matti J. Kankaanpää was particularly expert: the old Ruovesi region, encompassing Virrat, Ähtäri, Keuruu and their surrounding parishes.