Säfsnäs, where the whole story begins, is today part of Fredriksberg, a small town in the old iron mining and forestry heartland of central Sweden. Säfsnäs was settled by Finnish homesteaders in the early 1600´s. One of these was our oldest known ancestor, Pål Larsson Turpoinen, who was born around 1600 in Tavastland, Finland. His descendants more or less ran this community for the next century

My oldest known ancestor, Pål Larsson Turpoinen, is believed to have homesteaded on this hill around 1620. He was born around 1600 in Tavastland, Finland, and moved to Sweden. This place is now the location of the Säfsnäs vicarage, next to the church.

By ca 1650 my ancestors had moved to another homestead, deep in the forest south of Säfsnäs at Älgsjöhöjden. The location is marked in the lower left corner of the map.