Family History

Family history in brief

Genetically our "Name family Määttänen" has 2 major paternal lines.  The age-old Carelian basic family Määttää/Määttäin belongs to the fennougrian Haplotype N1c1-Ladoga.  The Finnish N1c1 was the major male line in northern Europe before the indoeuropeans started to expand northwards some 5000 years ago.  Some 1/4 of our family group belongs to this type, as also the rather big Määttä-family with about 6500 name bearers.

Major part of our "Name family Määttänen" descends from a son-in -law branch entering to the basic family about 1530, using double names Kalloin/Määttäin about 150 years, but thereafter using only the name Määttänen.  We have only weak guesses about the origin of the name Calloin/Kalloin.

The basic family Määttää/Määttäin has existed by this name in the heart of the Karelian Isthmus since the beginning of the 15th century.  According to the expansion history (for instance by geographical names) the family has had the basic name probably already in the 13th century or earlier.  The latest Y-DNA studies show, that this Haplotype N1c1 emerged around the lake Ladoga about 1000 years ago and the Haplogroup N1c1 did apparently  arrive to Ladoga region at least 6000 years ago.

Starting apparently during the 13th century some family groups bearing this name moved to the northern Savo wilderness in the eastern part of Central Finland. Hunting and fishing were an important part of their livelihood, and they farmed using the productive Karelian slash and burn method.

With slash and burn farming, the soil becomes depleted of nutrients after a few years, and then it requires at least 20 years to recover with reforestation. Families were forced to move widely to find new forests to farm, and they often travelled long distances. By the year 1600, a few of the families reached the edges of Lapland, a distance of some 700 km to the north.  At least some of them used the shorter basic form of the family name, Määttää, and we know now that they were the very ancestors of the extensive Määttä family that developed in northern Finland.

 In Karelia and Savo, the patronymic form Määttäin gradually developed to the present form Määttänen.  The core homestead of the Määttää/Määttäin family was the Määttälä village located on the eastern banks of lake äyräpäänjärvi in the Karelian Isthmus.  In the 16th century this lake was a gulf of the gigantic lake "Vuoksenlaakson Suurjärvi".

Määttälä village consisted of about half a dozen family units by the middle of the 16th century.  Despite constant wars, the family grew.  During the first part of the 17th century most families settled to the east, in Rautu and Pyhäjärvi, and to the north in several North Karelian regions.  Most of these branches exist today.

Several families also moved farther to the south, to Ingria, including the area of present-day St. Petersburg. But after the beginning of the 18th century practically nothing is known about these families.

Only the family branch Kalloin/Määttäin stayed in Määttälä village and in our family books they were called as the 'Pekka Heikinpoika' family branch (born about 1605 he was the first registered in the clerical books). Pekka Heikinpoika's grandfather's grandfather Matti (or Martti) Calloin is the first known  forefather of the branch. He came as a son-in-law to the Määttänen family in Määttälä probably during the 1530-ies and his forefathers arrived to Carelia around 1400 (+/- 50 years) from Bothnia region in western Finland.  The earlier forefathers of this line are apparently pre-vikings from present southern Sweden (then and about 1000 years afterwards Denmark)  arriving to Satakunta in western Finland almost 2000 years ago as individuals (no mass migration is known and the newcomers have soon smelted culturally to the previous Finnish habitation).

In 1653, Pekka Heikinpoika acquired a new estate in Hämeenkylä village in Uusikirkko and became responsible for providing and equipping a mounted dragoon (sometimes this was replaced by financing the priest of the Viipuri cavalry regiment). His three sons joined him, but all families lived in a typical Carelian big house (sometimes up to 10 families). In the beginning of the 18th century after the death of Pekka the younger brothers acquired similar types of estates in nearby villages.

The branch grew amazingly quickly. Many were active and prominent members in their communities. Over three quarters of the whole family bearing the name Määttänen are Pekka Heikinpoika's descendants. From Matti Calloin to the latest generation of this branch, we know of 20 generations.

Before the Second World War, the number of Määttänen estates, both large and small, in the whole Karelian area was about 220 (the number of individual families was some tens of % larger).