Israel Yrjönpoika Wallius

Pielisjärven seurakunnan arkisto - Pää- ja rippikirjat 1723-1745 (I Aa:1), jakso 6, sivu (6): Liexa ; Kansallisarkisto: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=7522778 / Viitattu 14.1.2021
https://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/kirjat/Kirkonkirjat/pielisjarvi/ri...

Pielisjärven seurakunnan arkisto - Pää- ja rippikirjat 1781-1790 (I Aa:3), jakso 14, sivu 9: Klockare Bohlet ; Kansallisarkisto: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=7596657 / Viitattu 14.1.2021

Kuolema/Death: Pielisjärven seurakunnan arkisto - Vihittyjen luettelot 1765-1796 (I Eb:4), jakso 308: haudatut 1783; Kansallisarkisto: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=7599477 / Viitattu 14.1.2021

Israel Wallius (1704–1783) Bell-Ringer - great great grandfather of Olavi Ignatius The family of Maria Ignatius traces through her father Olli (Olavi) Ignatius even farther back than her husband's Hakuni tail male line. Olli's father Stephan descends from his great grandfather Marten Ignatius born in 1715. On his more extended distaff side, Olli's mother Kirsten Pardain's tale female line goes to Margeta Henrichsdotter Ahllund (1694 – 1766) who was married to Israel Wallius, ten years her junior. Margeta gave Israel three daughters--Eva, Elisabeth, and Anna Margaretha--but lived just a year and a half after their oldest daughter Eva died in childbirth. Eva nonetheless left a legacy of three sons and three daughters as wife of Carl Walckendorf. Their daughter Margareta Walckendorf born in 1753 would become Olli's great grandmother.

Israel Wallius was born in 1704 in Pielisjärvi to Joran Wallius and Clara Larsdotter Bergman. After he was widowed he remarried to Valborg Pellicka (1744 – 1788) and went on to father two sons and four more daughters with his 40 years younger wife who outlived him by only five years; he fathered his last daughter in his late 70s. Even more remarkable, Israel's profession as klokare, or bell ringer, reveals his uncommon status in the early Lutheran church. The bell ringer's duties at times incorporated the esteemed role of cantor who led the choir in liturgic music, taught parishners reading and writing, or performed as parish clerk, any essential functions of the vicar's assistant.

The third of six brothers, Israel was the one who remained immersed in the family clerical tradition as the nephew of a vicar, son of a vicar, and grandson of a vicar. Israel's grandfather Jöransson Petter (also known as Georgius Petri Wallius) was born about 1600 and died in 1691; he was the first pastor of the Lutheran church in the predominently Orthodox small town of Kitee in North Karelia next to Russia. Israel's father, known in some registers as Georgius Vallius (otherwise Jöran Wallius), graduated as a student in Turku in 1687 and the following year became the schoolmaster in the rectory. Within a decade he was the vicar's assistant and then served as the chaplain from 1702-1719. As Vicar during the Great Northern War in 1720 he was tortured by the Russians, expelled to the Sviri river area and then on to St. Petersburg. Finally he returned to Pielisjärvi after the peace and earned his final rest there at age 55 in the fall of 1722.

Georgius Vallius' daughter Malin married Michael Aeschillin who succeeded him as chaplain, adding brother-in-law to Israel's list of clerical relatives. Then Israel's fifteen years younger brother Henry followed in his brother's footsteps to became a kyrkoväktare himself, a church officer or caretaker who was maybe even a bell ringer. Coming from a clerical family, Israel's choice for his wife, Clara Larsdotter Bergman, was a daughter of the vicar at Nurmes, Laurentius Larentij Hallitus, of the large parish of Pielisjärvi.

Although a priest's life imparted some status, it hardly provided any widows' benefits. Israel's mother Clara Bergman died of old age thirty-three years after her priest husband, but, sad to say, she died a pauper. No longer eligible to live in the rectory, she ought, plausibly, to have gone to live with one of her six or seven children who survived her. That she was not buried until October although she died in June raises sad speculation since at that time of year burial ought to have been swift, especially for the mother of two sons who routinely oversaw burials at the church.

Israel died in his 80th year, a literate bell ringer always a step away from the clergy of North Karelia's oldest Lutheran church. He gave us his daughter Eva to carry on his family for the Ignatius family. She married Karl Walckendorff (also written Carl Valkendorf) whose father, one tradition suggests, was another Karl Valkendorf, descended from Swedish nobility, who was a freeholder in Lieksa in 1700. The assumption continues that their distant ancestor was Christoffer Valkendorff, a Danish statesman descended from an aristocratic German immigrant family. This myth offers the family's only link to nobility. Whatever the lineage, Carl and Eva's daughter Margareta went on to marry Staffan Pardain but no land ownership trickled down the generations to Ollie Ignatius, nor any titles of distinction.