by M Sjöström

The present study assesses family legends in the process of critical reconstruction of some lineages through the 1400s-1500s. Landed inheritances in Vehkalahti are the principal basis for the genealogical reconstruction, these families sharing a common feature: both lineages held allodial land both in Hietakylä of Pampyöli and in Reitkalli of Vehkalahti. Many relevant family connections are revealed by analysing the lands and inheritances of one lady, Kirsti (born bef. c.1495, d.c.1553) and her close relations - reconstruction reveals her as a scion of the Vilken lineage. The study concludes that in the Vilken lineage, there must have existed during the 1400s two equal brothers, one being ancestral to the aristocratic family of the Horn of Kankainen and the other being direct forefather of the still-surviving Husgafvel family. The article argues that knight Henrikki Laavunpoika (progenitor of the said prominent family of Kankainen, including several notables such as five field marshals surnamed Horn), was the son of that lady Kirsti whose mother was Matleena Niilontytär of Poitsila. Conclusions are drawn about the chronology and inheritances of main representatives of the two early-branched lineages, the Junkar and the Vilken, which are one of the earliest surviving families in Finland, whose earliest attested ancestor flourished in the last decades of the 1300s.