Per Månsson Ignatt

Per Maununpoika (Månsson) IGNATT mainitaan vuoden 1543 maakirjassa Viipurin pitäjän Ignattalan kylässä. Vuosina 1551-1557 hän omisti myös talon Viipurin pitäjän Naulasaaren kylässä. Hän on ilmeisesti se Per Maununpoika, joka toimi Vuoksen varrella sijaitsevan Jääsken pitäjän nimismiehenä 1531-1544.

Per Maununpoika (Månsson, "son of Magnus") IGNATT is mentioned in the tax books of the year 1543 as a resident of Ignattala village of Viipuri rural parish (currently Vyborg, Russia). Between 1551 and 1557 he owned a house in Naulasaari village of the same parish. Most probably he is the Per Månsson who functioned as the sheriff of Jääski parish along the Vuoksi river from 1531 to 1544.

Lähde/Source: Ignatius-suku (sukukirja / family book, 1942)

ABOUT THE IGNATIUS FAMILY, THE DESCENDANTS OF PER IGNATT

The surname IGNATIUS has existed in this form Finland since the late 1600s, when Matthias Ignatius (ca. 1610 - ca. 1680), a Lutheran minister, followed the fashion of the time by "latinizing" the originally shorter surname. The first ancestor we know of was Per IGNATT living in Swedish Karelia in the 1540s, close to the Swedish-Russian border, north of today's St. Petersburg (which was established some 160 years later).

There are several IGNATIUS families in Finland, of which the descendants of Per Ignatt, is the largest one.The connections to some smaller families with this surname have not been clarified.

But, it would be of interest to find out, why someone with a most untypical name appeared near Sweden's eastern border in the 1540s. Today, the surname IGNATIEV in Russia is fairly common. Could it be that the first IGNATT appearing in Finnish documentation in the area of the Kingdom of Sweden actually had crossed the border from Russia? As it was not a peaceful border in those days, perhaps the immigrant wanted to make his surname look less Russian by dropping the -IEV ending from the name?

There are or at least have been some IGNATIUSes in Estonia and Sweden and Russia at least in the 19th Century. We know that some members of our family have emigrated from Finland to these neighbouring countries, but we have lost all traces of them.

IGNATIUSes appear even in the Netherlands, Germany and certainly in North America, where most people with this surname probably are immigrants from Europe.

See also: http://www.geni.com/surnames/ignatius