Records and their use

The Provincial Archives of Jyväskylä holds records of government authorities, church records and private archives in the area of its archives district. The authorities submit their records that are more than 40 years old to the Provincial Archives for permanent storage.

The continuous series of records in the archives of the authorities generally date back to the end of the 18th century. The oldest document is a letter written in Latin in 1535. Jyväskylä is a well-known city when education is concerned, and thus the archives of schools and education institutions form an important part of the material from the authorities.

The National Archives has deposited materials such as copies of outgoing letters and draft minutes of the administrative departments of the Senate of Finland, part of the archives on compensation for the displaced population, and the archives of Suomen Huolto in the Provincial Archives.

The Provincial Archives holds a total of around 6.3 shelf-kilometres of records and about 65,000 maps. Private archives account for around 2.3 shelf-kilometres of the total amount of materials.

Information on the archives held in the Provincial Archives and partly also on the archive inventories are available in the archival database. Archive inventories in paper format are available in the research room of the Provincial Archives. There are manual indexes on registrations of title to property, estate inventory deeds, microfilms and some of the maps.

In addition to original material, the Provincial Archives also holds a considerable amount of material on microfilm: around 13,000 microfilm rolls and some 165,000 microfiche. Parish registers constitute a considerable part of the material on microfilm. In addition, microfilms have been acquired on other documents including accounting records of bailiffs and provincial accounts as well as court records. The History Department of the University of Jyväskylä has deposited its collection of microfilms in the Provincial Archives.