Society Membership

GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF FINLAND

Society Membership

The Genealogical Society of Finland is the only academic genealogical society in the country. Its activities are aimed at all genealogists from beginners to those with considerable experience. The primary purpose is to provide genealogists with various tools to develop their hobby. Central to this are educational and guidance services as well as online services provided by the Society. The Society has both membership benefits as well as services freely available to anyone. Members get a 30% discount on the Society's publications and educational events.


Membership types

An Annual Member of the Society pays a yearly membership fee determined during the fall meeting. The membership fee is due by the end of January. An annual member who joins in the middle of the fiscal year needs to pay the membership fee for the entire ongoing year.
An individual can become a Permanent Member if they fulfill the requirements for an Annual Member and the board accepts them as a member. 

A Permanent Member pays a one-time membership fee the price of which is twenty times that of the annual membership fee. An annual member can change their membership to a Permanent one by paying the Permanent Membership fee.

Membership Benefits

The Journal Genos

Membership benefits include a digital copy of the journal Genos which comes out four times a year. The journal can also be had in book format delivered by post to Finland. The paper copy costs a further 5 € and it is paid together with the membership fee annually. For those joining in the middle of the fiscal year, copies of Genos published earlier that year will be posted. Non-members can order the journal too. In 2023 the price for non-members in Finland was 52 € and overseas it was 67 €.

Jalmari

Jalmari is the Genealogical Society's digital magazine for the Society's members. It is published in the middle of each month except during the summer break. Jalmari publishes on current events concerning the Society and genealogy. Society members will receive information on Jalmari via the email address they have provided. All published Jalmaris are available on the SukuHaku -service.

SukuHaku

SukuHaku is a membership benefit service opened in 2017 for the Society's 100th anniversary. The service acts as a gateway to Finnish genealogical research materials and it contains among other things digitized literature and indexes to archival materials and publications. To date more than four million lines of indexes and over 210 000 digitized book pages have been stored in SukuHaku. The most used materials include e.g. name changes, those declared deceased and muster lists from the autonomous era. New material is constantly being added to SukuHaku as soon as it can be digitized and indexed.

The Finnish Heritage Agency's Photo Archive

Society members receive a discount for Atelier Nyblin's glass negative collection and O. I. Colliander's collection of priest photos that are stored in The Finnish Heritage Agency's photo archive. Society members may use photographs from these collections without having to pay The Finnish Heritage Agency's usage fees. Society members only need to pay a list price photo fee that is currently 18 € per photograph. If the photograph is digitized, Society members can get it for half price.

Atelier Nyblin's glass negative collection from 1877–1922 is a significant Finnish photograph collection. It has c. 120 000 photographs of which only a small part has been digitized. Bishop O. I. Colliander collected 2888 photographs for his book Suomen kirkon paimenmuisto 19:n vuosisadan alusta nykyaikaan (The Church of Finland's Herdaminne from the Start of the 19th Century to Present).

To receive this membership benefit the member places a photograph order in accordance with The Finnish Heritage Agency's normal ordering procedure and in this context declares that they are a member of the Finnish Genealogical Society.

Membership discounts on publications

Society members get a 30% discount on all of the Society's publications purchased in the Society's office or in the Tiedekirja bookshop situated in Helsinki. In Tiedekirja, members also receive discounts for publications by The Finnish Society of Church History (30%), The Finnish Medico-Historical Society (40%), Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland (30%), Finnish Historical Society (25%) and The Finnish Literature Society (30%). One can get the membership discount by making an order to Tiedekirja via email or by phone - unfortunately the discount is not available on Tiedekirja's online shop.

Members get a 15% discount on non-fiction and historical books published by Karttakeskus with the code B97AVVSL. Enter the code to the space "Discount Code" in the shopping cart to receive the discount. The products are found under the categories "Non-Fiction" and "Historical Maps".

The publisher Reuna gives Society members a 20% discount on autobiographies, biographies and histories with a discount code R00200. Enter the code in the "Discount Coupon" space in the shopping cart.

The Finnish Literature Society, SKS, gives members a 30% discount on normal priced books both in their online store and in the Tiedekirja bookshop in Helsinki. Enter the code SUKUTUTKIJAT in the shopping cart to receive the discount.

The Finnish Hostel Association

The Society's members get a 10% discount on the normal accommodation price in all Finnish Hostel Association's hostels and will also receive the Finnish Hostelcard for free. The Finnish Hostelcard receives a 10% discount in all Hostels in the association in Finland, other travel benefits, travel tips and membership of the Hostel Association for the duration of the card's validity. The card can be ordered from The Hostel Association's website after which the card will be delivered by an e-mail attachment.

Society members also receive the Hosteling International Card at a membership price: the personal hosteling card for 15 € (normal price is 20 €) and international hosteling family card for 29 € (normal price is 34 €). The International card gets at least a 10% discount in HI-hostels in Finland and abroad as well as other travel benefits. One also gets membership to the Finnish Hostel Association and the Hosteling International network for the duration of the card's validity. A hostel card at the membership price can be bought from the Hostel Association's website.


Resignation

A member who wishes to resign from the Society needs to inform the board in writing, for example by sending an e-mail to the Society's e-mail address. The membership ceases at the end of the calendar year in which the notice of resignation was made. A member is considered to have resigned from the Society if they have not paid their membership fee within 11 months of its due date.

Society Membership