Johnsburg Public Library District

Welcome to “Let’s Talk Genealogy” online. This site will be updated regularly with news concerning our monthly meetings and links to websites taken from various quarterlies. 

 

Let’s talk about Norwegian research. Researching foreign records may sound

intimidating but fluency in the language is not required.  The following are a few key words you will need to know in order to find and use specific types of Norwegian records.

 

Census records and church records are the best and most important sources to use in your Norwegian research. In Norway only a few church registers precede 1650. In 1668 an assembly of deans from the diocese of Bergen ordered the vicars to register baptisms and marriages but very few of the parish districts complied. The Norwegian Law of 1687 obliged every vicar in Norway to keep a church register. Of course not every priest obeyed the order and some vicars began to record their records in 1688 but had spotty record keeping in later years.

 

Though the law was in place, there wasn’t a format. Thus some vicars were precise and orderly in their record keeping while others recorded data in a haphazard fashion incorporating other parish business in between the births, deaths and marriages.   Dates were often omitted and sometimes burials were never recorded. It wasn’t until 1732 that a set of rules was circulated on how to keep church registers. 

 

In 1812 printed forms were introduced and the registers were divided into seven sections: Births, Deaths, Marriages, Confirmations, List of Migrants from the Parish, List of Migrants to the Parish, and a Comparison Form. The latter was to keep track of different clerical events that individuals had participated in. Also in 1812 each parish was encouraged to keep a duplicate register in case the original was lost or destroyed. 

 

It can be assumed that the later registers are very reliable insofar as names and dates, etc. Very early registers might be spotty as far as full names and accurate dates and even recording the events. Information on the fathers of illegitimate children, for example, was given by the mothers and nothing compelled them to give the actual name of the father. 

 

In Norway the term “census records” includes three categories of documents; taxes, military census which included only males, and household census. The oldest tax records date from the late 1500’s. There was a military census in 1701 that included all males including children and the household censuses were taken in 1801, 1865, 1875, and 1900. Other household censuses were taken but they did not include the entire country.

The best website I have found for Norwegian research is the Digitalarkivet hotlink from Cyndislist.com. Choose Norway from the main page of Cyndis List then scroll down to “Records: Census, Cemeteries, etc” and click on that category. Digitalarkivet is the first choice under the Census heading. The homepage of the Archive is in Norwegian but there is an English option. However the entire archive is not in English and it will take some trial and error plus the list of English/Norwegian terms to navigate the site.

The site is updated daily and they hope to have every vital record available online and free of charge.