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Norway Research Outline |
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Norwegian Search Strategies
Records At The Family History Library
The Family History Library Catalog
Archives And Libraries
Biography
Census
Church Records
General Historical Background
Information Recorded In Church Records
Locating Church Records
Records At The Family History Library
Records Not At The Family History Library
Civil Registration
Court Records
Emigration And Immigration
Encyclopedias And Dictionaries
Gazetteers
Genealogy
History
Land And Property
Language And Languages
Maps
Military Records
Names, Personal
Nobility
Periodicals
Probate Records
Social Life And Customs
Societies
Other Records
Comments And Suggestions
ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES Encyclopedias may provide information on all branches of knowledge or may treat a specific topic comprehensively, usually in articles arranged alphabetically. They often contain information of great interest for genealogical research, including articles about places, prominent people, minorities, and religions. They can give information about diverse topics such as record-keeping practices, laws, customs, commerce, costumes, occupations, and archaic terminology.
The Family History Library has general knowledge encyclopedias in the Norwegian language and Norwegian-English and English-Norwegian dictionaries. The encyclopedias
A gazetteer is a dictionary of place-names. Gazetteers describe towns and villages, parishes, counties, rivers, mountains, sizes of population, and other geographical features. They usually include only the names of places that exist at the time the gazetteer was published. The place-names are generally listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. The standard spelling used in the gazetteer may differ from the variation used in records of your ancestor.
Gazetteers may also provide additional information about towns, such as schools, colleges, universities, major manufacturing works, canals, docks, and railroad stations.
You can use a gazetteer to locate the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and church jurisdictions over those places. For example, the place-name Maugerud, Flesberg, Buskerud, Norway reads this way: Maugerud is a farm, in the parish of Flesberg, which is a county of Buskerud, in the country of Norway.
Many places in Norway have the same or similar names. You will need to use a gazetteer to identify the specific parish where your ancestor lived, the county of the parish, and the jurisdictions where records about your ancestor were kept. Gazetteers are also helpful for determining county jurisdictions as used in the Family History Library Catalog.
Place-names in the Family History Library Catalog are listed under their modern names and in their current counties. When using the microfiche version of the catalog, you can find the county that a parish or city is listed under in the catalog by using the “see reference" on the first microfiche for Norway. When using the compact disc version of the catalog, the Locality browse can be used to identify the county a particular parish belongs to.
The following postal guides of 1901 and 1972 are the best sources for identifying the parish and county a particular farm of village belongs to:
Klaus Helsing of Ragnar Lundh. Norsk Stedfortegnelse: Postadressebog for Norge (Norwegian Place-Name Index: Postal Guide for Norway). Kristiania: Poststyrelsen, 1901. (FHL book 948.1 E8ns 1901; film 123,205; fiche 6030038-49; computer number 0411170.) Norsk Stedsfortegnelse.
Norge. Postdirektoratet, 1972 (Norway. Postal Directory, 1972). Oslo: Nasjonaltrykkeriet, 1972. (FHL book 948.1 E8ns 1972, fiche 6054629; computer number 0106663.)
The Amt (county) system was introduced to Norway and Denmark in 1661. The union of Denmark and Norway lasted until 1814. On 14 August 1818 the word county in Norway became fylke. A list of the old county names with reference to the new county name is found in List of Parishes, Clerical Districts, and Regions with Maps for Each County in Norway. (See the “Maps” section of this outline.)
The term genealogy
The Family History Library has several sources that contain previous research or can lead you to others who are interested in sharing family information. These sources include the following:
International Genealogical Index Norway is divided into 18 counties and the autonomous cities of Oslo and Bergen. The Norwegian IGI index can be searched by last name or given name..
The IGI is available on both microfiche and compact disc (as part of FamilySearch™ Ancestral File Family Group Records Collection
The Family History Library has a large collection of Norwegian family histories. They are listed in the surname section of the Family History Library Catalog. Not every name found in a family history will be listed. Only the major surnames discussed in the family history are included in the catalog. See also the “Biography” section of this outline.
Genealogical Collections. The Family History Library has some collections of pedigree charts and notes gathered by different researchers for prominent Norwegian families. The collections are organized in alphabetical order by family surname and are handwritten. They are listed in the Locality section of the Family History Library Catalog under:
The Family History Library has one of the largest collections of Norwegian local histories in the United States. Genealogical collections and these rural chronicles are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under:
If you find your surname in any of the sources described in this section, determine whether the entry actually pertains to your family. All persons with the same surname are not necessarily related. You might have to do some research before you can connect your ancestry to families listed in these sources.
Internet. Norwegian GenWeb has produced a comprehensive Norwegian genealogy web site that allows users to locate lost ancestors. It contains the entire 1880 United States census listing of people of Norwegian ancestry. Research tips and helpful links to other good genealogy sites can also be found at this site. It's address is:
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and dictionaries are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under:
NORWAY - ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES
Also see the “Language” section of this outline.
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GAZETTEERS
Finding Place-Names in the Family History Library Catalog
Historical Place-Names
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GENEALOGY
is used in this outline and in the Family History Library Catalog to describe a variety of records containing family information gathered by individuals, other researchers, societies, or archives. These records include pedigree charts, compiled information on families, correspondence, ancestor lists, research exchange files, record abstracts, and collections of original or copied documents. These can be excellent sources of information that can save you valuable time. Because they are compiled from other sources of information, they must be carefully evaluated for accuracy.
Major Collections and Databases
. The names of million deceased individuals who lived in Norway are listed in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). Copies of the IGI are located at the library and at each Family History Center. The index for Norway includes names extracted from parish registers by volunteers as well as names submitted by other researchers.
). When using the compact disc version, you do not need to know which county to search. The computer will search the entire country for any name.
. The Family History Library has developed a computer database of family information called Ancestral File, which currently includes over 30 million names from many countries, including Norway. This file must be used with great caution, as file merges have caused some patronymic name families to mix erroneously.
. More than eight million family group record forms have been microfilmed in the Family Group Records Collection. This collection includes many Norwegian families. There are two major sections: the Archives Section and the Patrons Section. The film numbers for both sections are listed in the Author\Title section of the catalog under:
FAMILY GROUP RECORDS COLLECTION.
Family Histories. Many Norwegian families have produced histories that include genealogical information, biographies, photographs, and other excellent information. These usually include several generations of the family.
NORWAY - GENEALOGY.
Local Histories. A special type of local history book called a bygdebok
(community book, such as rural or farm history) is available for many rural Norwegian communities. These bygdebøker often include several volumes for a single community. Part of the material is devoted to the general history of the area, but more of it is devoted to the individual farms and the genealogies of the people living on the farms. Information found in a bygdebok should be considered secondary and needs to be verified using primary sources such as births, marriage, and death records.
NORWAY, [COUNTY], [PARISH] - GENEALOGYNORWAY, [COUNTY[, [PARISH] - HISTORY
Many local periodicals published in Norway also contain excellent family information. The main places and families that are described in these periodicals are indexed. See the “Periodicals” section of this outline.
www.rootsweb.com/~wgnorway
To get started, post a query on the web site's surname or farm/parish bulletin boards. This is similar to Viking's "Lost Branch" (see the "Societies" section in this outline). The bulletin boards are a forum for questions about specific family members or branches of the family. You might also search the site's online census records.
[FamilySearchTM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 4/3/2006]