AEMI

MARIA JARLSDOTTER ENCKELL
into such a Homeland parish church if
such an option had been made available
to them in Russian America, but at
the time period was not, as the closest
Evangelical Lutheran Church, with parish
and pastor was at Irkutsk, East Siberia.
And in 1840 when this option
was made available at Sitka, the ones
of the Evangelical Lutheran persuasion
became actually registered members of
Alaska’s Russian Era Evangelical Lutheran
Church. That is, registered there
with their full names given at baptism
accompanied by birth year, month
and day and parish, , full name of parents
their birth dates, death dates, and
marriage date and place, father’s social
status and occupation, mother’s social
status and parents, and perhaps even
siblings and their birth and death dates.
As nothing less will ever do, as family
names can be common and so are given
names also, as their combinations, as
well as the patronymics so commonly in
use in several regions of Finland, all of
this often additionally running through
several generations.
Although such an identification process
can turn into a most formidable
task of detective work, it is the only way
to go about, it as long as this identification
hunt takes place within the borders
of Finland, and most likely also within
the borders of the Baltic Provinces of
Estland, Lifland and Kurland. And although
there are exceptions, among
them Helsinge parish in Finland, where
the records in spots are missing, the records
including those Finnish, German
and Baltic parishes in St. Petersburg and
at Kronstadt, are such they will guarantee
a success approaching the magic
number of 80-90+ per cent.
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However, troubles hit as soon as one
moves out of the Grand Duchy of Finland
the Baltic Provinces and the St. Petersburg
and Kronstadt parishes. Why?
Because in Imperial Russia everyone is
identified by that other Russified name
imposed there upon all foreigners who
lived, worked, or were building their career
in that vast land.
Here some examples, although none
of these men are known to have served
as household servants or valets:
Finlander Efraim Jacobsson Honka,
a farmer’s son from St. Martin’s parish
near Åbo was, if at all identified,
found in the recorded into: Index to
Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths
in the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic
Church in Alaska 1816-1866 (Dorosh
& Doroch 1964) under the variations
of Efrem Gong/Gongo/Songo/Kongo/
Konno. The same goes for Finlander
Samuel Mathiasson Hyörä, a Journeyman
Brewer from Reponmäki village
in Rantasalmi parish. He was found in
the same Index under the name of Samuil
Khieras/Nieras. And the Finlander
Erik Ericsson Rosengren from Knutila/
Knuutila farm in Whittisbofjärd parish
was found recorded into the same Index
as Kiril Knutilov/ Knutiloff (Enckell
2007:23,31,48).
Among the many I manage to identify,
there is still one glaring exception,
a man who has turned into my biggest
headache, and still remains unidentified.
In the same Index he is found listed
under the name variations of Matvei
Riupp/ Riuppa/Riuppe/Ruppe/Ruppa. In
the Russian American Company records
he is identified as: Matvei Ruppe, a peasant,
worker of Vyborg Gubernia, town of
Vyborg, Kurvem …. village.