Finn ancestory

[Rockstar]

I was doing some family history research awhile back. On my dads side there are Norwegians and Finns. His dad was Norwegian (Sorensen), his mom was Finn (Pajala).

When I looked up Pajala on Ancestory.com there is no reference to it either as a geographical location or use as a surname. So I was wondering if any of you barbarians from the northern parts have any idea of the origins of Pajala.


Thanks

[Dowly]

No idea where the name has origined, it's not very unlikely name to have nowadays in Finland. Going by only the surname will not get you far, you need more than that. Anywho, Good luck!

[Fincuan]

644 Pajalas currently living in Finland and 71 abroad, so yeah there's quite a few of them.

[Happy Times]

I was doing some family history research awhile back. On my dads side there are Norwegians and Finns. His dad was Norwegian (Sorensen), his mom was Finn (Pajala).

When I looked up Pajala on Ancestory.com there is no reference to it either as a geographical location or use as a surname. So I was wondering if any of you barbarians from the northern parts have any idea of the origins of Pajala.


Thanks

Great to hear you are part barbarian.:)
Hard to point one geographical location to the name Pajala, but they probably are more common in some areas.
Finnish surames can be tricky but im guessing Pajala comes from paja=blacksmith's shop.
In that case you could get pretty far with your research if some ancester was a blacksmith and payed taxes.;)
Thsi is all guessing but i can guarantee you will get to know a lot more if you want to follow up on the family.
Almost all the church records in the country are preserved down to the middle ages.

[OneToughHerring]

Well, I wouldn't trust Ancestory.com as a good source for finding geographical or place names especially in languages like Finnish.

There is a pretty famous place called Pajala but it's in Sweden, way up north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pajala

This guy called Mikael Niemi wrote a book about that region and about the dialect people talk there. Don't ask me to translate the name of the book. :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Niemi

I'm guessing that could be where the last name Pajala may have originated from although it could be from elsewhere also. As HT above wrote it could come from some other source as well. Maybe do a blood test on your dad and determine the genetic background? :D

edit. Hahaa, my sig works.

[Rockstar]

Not much in the way of the Pajala livelyhood is known, three daughters one was my grandmother (Hilda Pajala) All I know for sure right now is they came to the U.S. via Ellis Island in 1921 and were dirt poor.

Thanks to my fellow barbarians from the winter wonderland of the north where the the women are strong and the caribou beautiful.