Last Name Question

juslen · Post by **juslen** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 11:40 am

So from what I have been told, my great grandfather moved to the United States around 1910. He named his son Vaino (my grandfather) which seems to have been a popular Finnish name around that time. My last name is Juslen. There are probably less than 20 Juslens in the entire United States and they are all directly related to me. Every time I do a search online I usually find a few names from those who live in Finland. I have a feeling its probably not that common of a last name in Finland either. I was never able to find any possible origins or meanings of my last name until I started digging deeper into my online searches.

I found the surname Jussilainen on one of my searches. Knowing that many people who moved to the United States often shortened their names or made them easier to pronounce and read in English I thought perhaps they shortened Jussilainen to Juslen since the two names probably sound somewhat similar and retain some of the original letters. jus - l - en. Sounds possible?

I discovered that Jussi means Johannes/John and lainen translates to, inhabitant of (either noun or adjective)

I really have no idea if Juslen originates from Jussilainen but I assumed so simply because juslen doesn't seem to follow the traditional nen or la endings for most Finnish names.

So what is your opinion? And does anyone here know of any Juslens in Finland?

Although my last name is Finnish I am probably only a quarter or so Finnish myself. My Grandmother always comments about the fact that I am your typical Finn simply because I tend to keep to myself and have a tendency to be very independent and don't really need to be surrounded by people or attention. She probably said this because that is the way my grandfather was

**Sponsor:**

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:03 pm

My granpa was jussila and granma lahtela, my dad was varjo and i do have his name

Jussilainen was unheard, jussila was and is common.
Also you said "He named his son Vaino" and i call !"#¤%, its Väinö (yes there is difference)

ajl · Post by **ajl** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:11 pm

Do you know where you ancestors entered the US/Canada? A lot of genealogists do this kind
of search, they search for the ship/manifest that the person entered on and trace it back...
A lot of information is also in the census reports from when your ancestor first might have
encountered a 10 year census, have you checked those records? The records are released to
the public after seventy years.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:13 pm

Juslén is a "Swedish name" actually. Wouldn't say its anything peculiar theres a lot of such ending names. You find a few famous historical figures with that surname here.

EP · Post by EP » Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:18 pm

http://verkkopalvelut.vrk.fi/Nimipalvel ... lt.asp?L=1

According to that there have been 26 people (Finnish people) by the name Juslen through times, both in Finland and abroad. Probably more in Sweden.

Juslin is more common, 1057.

juslen · Post by **juslen** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 9:14 pm

Thanks guys, I will look into it.

Also.. my uncles name is Waino.

The Americanization process.

I will have to look into the census records. Juslen is rare, Juslin is not I guess. Yet there are even fewer Juslins in the United States.

All I know is that my great grandfather left Finland and left his 4 sisters behind. I don't know what was happening in Finland around that time but I was told about an altercation between him and some troops. Not sure if they were Finnish troops or if Finland had another other troops stationed in the area.

My grandfather died a few years back so we can't ask him anymore unfortunately.

EP · Post by EP » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:03 pm

1910 Finland was a Grand Dutchy of Russia. And around those times under heavy Russification that was opposed. Around 1905 Russia wanted d to recruit Finns to Russian wars, and also that was heavily opposed. My guess is that your great grandfather escaped the draft. Many did.

EP · Post by EP » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:05 pm

And yes, there were Russian troops in the country and they were not exactly loved.

juslen · Post by **juslen** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:29 pm

He did far more than appose the draft perhaps. From what I was told, him and his sisters were near a bridge. There were a group of soldiers, one of them started to harass his sister. My great grandfather defended her and a there was an altercation, my great grandfather threw the soldier over the bridge and he was killed. He then fled to the United States.

I have been doing some additional research and I came upon the following names from around the 1700's

JUSLENIUS

But I also see matches for Juslen dating back around the same time, a majority of them are from Finland and one Swede. So it would be interesting to know what these names mean. Lets just say my last name is a variation of Juslin. I'm not sure why it would be changed by my great grandfather to Juslen as far as Americanizing the name is concerned. So I'm almost certain that Juslen is my true last name. But It could also be a shortened version of Juslenius or they could share a common history.

And that intrigues me quite a bit. Perhaps my last name originates from Sweden but it appears that it may have been a common name in Finland for possibly several generations. Looking at Swedish names however.. a name ending with en is not very common.

Also sorry for not properly spelling certain names. I am relying on the English alphabet here

EP · Post by EP » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:36 pm

My great grandfather defended her and a there was an altercation, my great grandfather threw the soldier over the bridge and he was killed. He then fled to the United States.

Well, touch the occupation troops and you were sent to Siberia.

-en ending in Swedish based names means nothing. Or any other ordinary ending. They are just names (Juslen, Juslin, Juslenius), they dont have the meaning Finnish -nen has, a different thing. And even that does not always mean anything. Mäkinen would be "a little hill", but on the other hand Koponen does not mean a thing.

And in Finland having a Swedish last names also means nothing, it does not even indicate that you are Swedish-speaking.

EP · Post by EP » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:45 pm

And Juslenius is Latin based. Probably the first Juslenius was clergy. They liked to take Latin names.

AldenG · Post by **AldenG** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:55 am

I knew a Juslin in northern Sweden. He was one of the Finnish children evacuated to Sweden around WWII and never went back to Finland.

A colorful and very likable guy, for what that's worth...

juslen · Post by **juslen** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:52 am

Yeah I knew en meant nothing which is why I thought maybe juslen was a shortened version of a more traditional Finnish last name. It appears that Juslen was a last name in Finland dating back since the late 1600's. Not common but not unheard of. So perhaps my last name was originally Juslin but was changed to Juslen why my ancestors moved to Finland. Even then.. the Juslen's that date back to the last 1600's and 1700's could be completely unrelated to me for all I know. I guess one thing is clear, my great grandfather moved to the United States in 1910 and probably kept our last name the same. From what I have read, both Swedish Finns and native Finns often kept their last names similar to their original spelling at least in the early 1900's because Finns established themselves as respectable people long before my great grandfather moved to the unite States. Probably the reason why he kept his first name virtually unchanged, named my grandfather after him. When I tell people my grandfathers name was Vaino they always look at me funny or they say "that's an awesome name"

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:13 pm

AldenG wrote:I knew a Juslin in northern Sweden. He was one of the Finnish children evacuated to Sweden around WWII and never went back to Finland.

A colorful and very likable guy, for what that's worth...

My old school teacher in the 80's was also called Juslin... in eastern Finland. Can't say I knew anything about his background though. But a Finnish-speaker, definitely. Even though it's a Swedish family name, this is no wonder - many a Johansson, Andersson etc have Finnish as mother tongue.

There was a "translation rush hour" of family names from Swedish into Finnish in the early 1900's after the 100th anniversary of Snellman (which of course also is a "Swedish" name...) but naturally, not every family did this even if they were Finnish speakers.

maxxfi · Post by **maxxfi** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 7:33 pm

Have you checked with the Hiski Project database?
http://hiski.genealogia.fi/hiski/21d5ro

It's a Finnish genealogical database project that you can freely access.
Just throwing in 'Juslen' as last name for christened in all parishes
in Finland it has found 79 events, of children born between about 1750-1850.
Note that the system is smart enough to search also for some variation of the name, like
JUSLEN => Juslenias, Juslenius, Juslenia, Juslens, Juslén, Juslenii

Finland Forum

Find information about moving to, living in and life in Finland