Tompkins County's Nordic-region immigrants largely began arriving in the mid-nineteenth century. With the highest numbers first arriving from Sweden, with families from Finland and Norway beginning to arrive in the early twentieth century. Most of these families purchased farms in the rural areas of Tompkins County, with the largest community growing in the Newfield/Spencer/Van Etten area. The immigration and cultural impact of first and second generation Finnish community in Tompkins County has been most closely studied and documented through the work of the Finger Lakes Finns a community group established in 1968. 

'Send These to Me' published in 2022, includes a section on
"The Finlanders" sharing that "The 1920 census claims 111 Finns living throughout the county, and in 1930 there were 147" (pg 30). The first generation of Finns owned and worked farms in Newfield, Spencer, and Van Etten. Later rounds of second and third generations of the Finnish community spread to other areas of the region including Trumansburg and Interlaken. "In 1928, Finnish farmers in Spencer and Van Etten started the Spencer Co-Operative Society where they sold eggs, poultry feed, hardware, and coal" (Send These to Me, page 31). The Finnish run co-op was well known to the point that a short documentary was produced about it in 1947 for Finnish State TV (Translation of documentary). Later generations of the earliest Finn's in the area have kept their culture alive through celebrations, annual scholarships, and music groups that play Finnish-American folk songs. 

The Tompkins HistoryForge has records of first-generation Tompkins County residents from Denmark, Iceland, Findland, Sweden, and Norway living in the City of Ithaca and rural Tompkins County between 1880-1940. These census records can be explore at tompkins.historyforge.net. 

The History Center is actively seeking more local histories of Nordic and Scandinavian-Americans from Tompkins County. Please connect with us to preserve these histories.

Midsummer/Midsommar/Juhannus/St. Johns Night occurs annually on June 21st, and is a recognized cultural gathering time for Nordic peoples. A Juhannus celebration coordinated by the Finger Lakes Finns has been celebrated annually in Newfield or Danby since at least the 1990s. A "Finnish Heritage Day' in Tompkins County was first celebrated on August 8th 1998 with a presentation by the New York Folklore Society, a musical performance, and "Finnish Show and Tell" (See Ithaca Journal, July 28, 1998). The Ithaca Journal also notes a Finnish Festival held at the Women's Community Building in 1981. 

Notes on Nordic and Scandinavian identity and terminology:

• The Nordic countries are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic above the Baltic Sea. 
  
• The region includes the countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden; and the autonomous territories of Greenland, Faroe Islands, and Åland.
• "Scandinavia" is a term generally used to the monarchies of Norway, Sweden, and part of Northern Finland.

• **Please Note** This geographic region also includes Indigenous cultures that may or may not identify as Nordic, including the: Sámi, Inughuit, Tunumiit, Kalaallit, and the føroyingar (Faroese). These identities are harder to track in historic records and immigration from these cultures to Tompkins County would require further research to confirm.