Norway Deeds

Creation of the Mortgage Records (Pantebok)
Usually the sorenskriver wrote the document into either the court records or the Extra Rett Protocol until 1845. Following the law of May 28, 1845 about dividing and tax valuation records, we normally do not find these records in the court records or the Extra Rett Protocol. They were found in the Land records instead.

The bailiff was notified when a tax division had taken place. He registered it into the matrikkel books for use in collecting the correct tax for each property. The documents before about 1880 are written in the Gothic Script. Since they contain information which is often applicable today, the state archives would copy such documents. Information about boundaries and property rights are also found in other record series.

Deeds gave proof of lawful acquisition and rights
A deed is a document which either gives property rights to real estate from one owner to another, or which verifies that the transfer of property already follows a contract of purchase or a deed of exchange. With the sale of real estate it happened that the parties involved wrote a purchase contract, but it was seldom that that contract was taken through the court. These documents were written into land records back to the 1600’s. Even in that time period there were decisions made in the courts about deeds. It was not just purchase contracts to real estate which were recorded. It was not unusual, for example, to have auction deeds to property when someone died, or on property from an executor’s sale which was sold at auction. The new owner received a deed from the estate or from the auction. The heirs could also obtain a transfer of property through the court where a record of this transaction would be found.

Contents of the deeds are usually as follows:
Description of the property, seller’s name, buyer’s name, price, eventual rights and encumbrances. Usually the deed is written or signed by the one who conveyed the property. Sometimes the purchaser also signed. Once in a while there were witnesses who signed to confirm the seller’s signature. A witness had to be either a lawyer, an official of the court, or two independent witnesses who were not closely related to either the seller or the buyer. Once in a while boundary descriptions are found in deeds. Deeds from the 1700 – 1800’s often contain references to previous deeds, and also, when the seller had inherited the property in his lifetime.

As a rule, we find all deeds in the land records (pantebøkene). Occasionaly there can be a deed of conveyance which was not registered in court such as a purchase contract. These are found in private archives, but normally not in the official archives at the State Archives. It also happened that a deed of conveyance took place within the family and no document was written.

Deeds of conveyance documents are also found for the time before court and deed books were used. Both farm archives from 1500 and 1600’s and diploma collections from the middle ages can contain deeds.