Tver / Sankt-Petersburg - Zverev

That is an interesting question for me too. I also wonder if Karelian surnames were in use in Tver region at all? I have no answers, but considering that Karelians moved to Tver region a very long time ago (XVII century?) and being Orthodox christians they most probably all have "Russian" official names. My grand mother from one side was most probably Karelian too (my mom is 30% "Finnish" in DNA test). They are also from Tver region (close to V Volochek).

Hi. My family is from Tver area also, although from the areas that used to belong to Novgorod (Valdai).
One of my Great-Grandfather's family is originally from Impilahti. They were "de-kulakized" and ended up in Firovo area.
I have not been able to track the other three GGrandparents (my mom is 75% Finnish/Baltic).
My dad's maternal line is also Finnish. All my matches there seem to be from Vyborg. My grandmother was born in Novgorod region and also ended up in Tver region eventually.
My Valdai GGrandmother had a last name after her father's first name, which was common.
My Impilahti GGrandfather, whose family name was originally Koivunen, had it changed to Filippov - after one of his paternal ancestors.

Lots of people did not have last names, so they are very hard to trace. Or they had such common names as my GGrandfather Kirill Feodorovich Petrov - I can't find anything on him.

Dear Pavel,
It was quite typical that people couldn’t read Russian that time. The fact that a person was illeterate doesn’t tell that he or she was Karelian. As pointed out, most of the people had a Russian name in official records, but we cannot know if they had Karelian/Finnish or other origin. At past, way until 29th century, names weren’t staple as they are now, but people could use different versions of their names in different situations. It might be very difficult or impossible to trace down the supposed Karelian roots, since many Karelians/Finns moved to Tver region in the 17th century and back then any registers were not kept about those who moved.

The "Topographical Description" of the Government of St. Petersburg reported that Finns "... know how to read Finnish books..." and that "...are as eager to teach their children literacy as the Russians neglect it." In practice, with the cooperation of home, church and education, the literacy of Ingrian Finnish farmers was common, while the total illiteracy of Russian peasants was very common.

Regarding Karelian surnames, names you can read here
file:///C://C:/Users/User/Downloads/partel,+18652-Article+Text-23530-2-11-20221013.pdf

and here also in russian https://vk.com/topic-340729_22291226

and here Кузьмин Д.В. Тезисы Международной научно-практической конференции «Тверские карелы: 400 лет на тверской земле» (Лихославь, 18-19 мая 2017). Тверь: Тверской государственный университет. 2017. C. 47-48 (RSCI)

Thank you, everyone!
So many responses in a day.
Especially thank you Private User for posting the link to VK so I can ask in Russian.
I have 9% Swedish roots per the DNA test, not sure if it is because of this link to Karelia, but this is the most likely version, so I would read about 17th century migrations, thank you Reijo Mitro Savola, Geni Curator

Private User We cannot access the first file you linked since that is directly on your computer, it is not a web link. You'd have to upload the file to some site first.

Private User Pavel Charny I fixed the link to the first file, it should work now https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/jeful/article/download/jeful.2022.13...
The main migrations of Orthodox Karelians to the area of Tver, Valday from the area of the Finnish province of North Karelia, modern Lahdenpokhsky, Sortavalsky, Suojärvi districts of the Republic of Karelia and also from some other districts took place in the period of about 1620-1670. The main specialist in Finland on Orthodox Karelian migrations was Veijo Saloheimo, but all his works are in Finnish. Here is a link to one of the lists of those who left Vyborg province (Muutto Käkisalmen läänistä Venäjälle) https://www.tverinkarjala.fi/Muuttolistat/ In Russian the topic of Karelian migration to Russia was dealt with by A.S.Zherbin. His work is still relevant today https://vedlozero.ru/karelia/istoriya-karelii/pereselenie-karel-v-r...

Professor Veijo Saloheimo presented me his book of Karelian immigrants to Tver, when I finished working in his institution in 1984. :)
He passed away some years ago.

I am unable to help but wanted to post the fact that my Finnish-Swedish roots go back to Norr Degergard where the family of Degerlunds came from via London, England to Canada at the end of WWII. My mother, of Finnish-Swedish roots, married a Canadian in the RAF where they were both officers and met in Scotland. My older brother and I were born in Harrogate where he was eventually posted. My father came home to visit a dying mother in 1944 and met me for the first time when we arrived in Montreal. I was four months old and arrived with my mother and brother via the War Brides program in April 1945. Since Finland was a Duchy of Russia throughout the 19th century, I guess you could say my ancestors were also Russian.

Robert, Finland was under Russian regime 1809-1918, but it doesn't mean that people were ethnically Russian. Finns were Finns. Ethnical identity is different than citizenship.

In document papers they could say for example, when concerning Finnish people or any other nationality.
Subject Russian (empire)
Nationality Finnish

Thanks to FamilySearch records, I was able to identify the ancestors, and the earliest one with the name Login, living in the same area/place, was born in 1767. It is still the question of whether he was the first one in the area (unlikely), but at least I know much more about Karelia from the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries.
The other curious part is that I see some Swedish roots in my DNA test, which could be partially to the fact that my grandgrandmother on the other line was Danish, but also because of Karelian roots.

Hello Everyone,
First, I just uploaded my mother's autosomal DNA test results and immediately got 200 matches most of which are from Finland. What to do next? I also uploaded a kit on GEDmatch, is anyone interested to compare?
With the pure genealogy records (FS), I was able to identify the next generation (9th generations) - Yakov Semyonov (1743-1778) who lived in the same village as my greatgrandfather 200 years later near Tver.
Kind regards,
Pavel Charny