Gulin-Pinomaa Family Society

Family society

In the past the relatives kept in touch with each other in many ways, like letters and visits. In late 1970s the situation was already different: all relatives didn’t know each other, because we were already over 100 people. Visits to the relatives were rare and the phone had replaced letters as a communication tool. The Gulin-Pinomaa Family Society was established in 1979 for strengthening the connections between members of our family.

Since 1955 our relatives have gathered at Christmas time to have a cup of coffee and meet each other in Helsinki. This tradition has been called ‘Aino’s Christmas coffee party’, because our deceased aunt Aino started this tradition. She also used to be an ‘assembler’ for the whole family. This tradition is still very much alive: in December we meet at Aino’s Christmas coffee party – the attendance has been normally around 100 people! Other activities are e.g. an annual general meeting in March and G-P Golf at the end of summer. Earlier we used to have a so-called big family meeting for a weekend every fourth year, but that tradition is not any more in place. The family society also publishes a magazine called ‘Pinon Sanomat’ in Finnish and ‘Gulins Underrättelser’ in Swedish yearly – in 2018 the 39rd copy was published.

Everyone, whose mother or father has been born in the family or who is married to a member of the family, belongs to the family society. Our family uses two different surnames: Gulin or Pinomaa. Membership fee has been waived recently, and funding comes from selling the annual Pinon Sanomat magazine.

Short family history

Gulin family comes originally from the parish called Linneryd that is situated in the county of Kronoberg and the bishopric of Växjö in Sweden. In Linneryd Nils Abrahamsson (1) lived with his wife Ingegerd Persdotter in the beginning of the 18th century. Unfortunately, there isn’t available much information about them. Nils and Ingegerd got two children in Linneryd: son Abraham and daughter Kirstin.

Son Abraham Nilsson (2) was born on 8th September 1730 and died on 14th August 1781. He got married with Elin Jonsdotter on 20th April 1760 and they got six children. The eldest son Paul Adolf (3) was born on 9th September 1768 and died on 4th December 1825 in Loviisa (in gravestone there is a mistake with the year of his death: 1845). His first wife was Lisbet Nilsdotter. Paul Adolf changed his residence first to Ronneby (Sweden) and then to Karlskrona (Sweden). Before moving alone to Loviisa in Finland Paul Adolf probably changed his lastname to Guhlin. In Loviisa he got secondly married with Maria Charlotta Sarlén on 29th April 1802. Paul Adolf and Maria Charlotta got seven children.

The eldest son was Alexander Gulin (4) (born on 20th September 1808 in Loviisa and died on 1st December 1869 in Virolahti). After Maria Charlotta’s death Paul Adolf got married once more with Anna Kristina Wikman, with whom he got one more child. Alexander became a priest and he worked in several parishes. He got married with Katarina Elisabet Stråhlman on 25th March 1840.  The 9th child out of 12 children was Arthur Lorentz Gulin (5), who was born on 24th July 1855 in Virolahti. Arthur followed his father with his profession and became also a priest. He got married with his first superior’s daughter, Bertha Kristina Sarlin. Arthur Lorentz and Bertha got eight children: Eero Arthur (6) (born on 20th October 1885 in Ruokolahti), Walter Alexander (6) (born on 31st May 1888 in Lemi), Lauri Johannes (6) (born on 31st January 1890 in Lemi), Veli Nathanael (6) (born on 7th January 1892 in Mikkeli), Eelis Gideon (6) (born on 29th December 1893 in Mikkeli), Lennart Bernhard (6) (born on 13th April 1901 in Mikkeli), Aino Kaarina Amanda (6) (born on 3rd October 1904 in Mikkeli) and Anna Kristina (6) (born on 24th September 1908 in Mikkeli).

In our Gulin-Pinomaa family we use the term “clan”. This term is based on Arthur Lorentz Gulin’s sons, i.e. members of our family belong to the clan of Eero, Walter, Lauri, Veli or Lennart depending on which of the brothers is his/her ancestor. Eelis, Aino and Anna Kristina didn’t have any children. Nowadays we are over 200 living descendants.

Note! Marking of “(6)” after the person’s name describes lineal generation from Nils Abrahamsson.