Cajanus (family)

The Cajanus family is an old northern Finnish family of clergymen and other government officials. Count Per Brahe nominated the progenitor of the family, a local Lutheran priest, to be bailiff of his fiefdom of Kajaani. His sons became pastors in neighbouring parishes and family assumed a Latin surname according to the town of Kajaani.

The most famous member of this family is Daniel Cajanus, a world-famous giant who was a member of royal courts and performed in England and Holland. Other members of the family have been professor and hymnwriter Juhana Cajanus (1655–1681), writer of the first history of Finland in Finnish Juhana Fredrik Cajan (1815–1887), and componist Robert Kajanus (1856–1933).

References

Bondeson, Jan. The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels. Ithaca: Cornell, 2000.