Østerlarsker Parish, Bornholm, Denmark Genealogy

Church Records
An online index to pre-1814 parish register entries for Bornholm parishes is available at www.kirkebog.dk. When you are on the site use the drop down menu folling the word Sogn: [parish] and choose "Osterlars". Choose the type of record you would like to search and enter the name of the person you would like to locate. Fornavn = given name; Efternavn = last name. For example: Choosing the name "Sonne" in the "Efternavn" position and you will be given a list of entries in which the name Sonne occurs.

Land Records

 * Axel Rasmussen was the parish priest over Østerlars and Gudhjem parishes from 1907 until his death in 1926 and also dean over the eastern Bornholm deanery from 1909 until his death. He collected information relating to various topics concerning  Østerlars parish.  One of his collections has been published in Bornholmske Samlinger, Volume 39.  This publication contains a list of owners of the different farms in Østerlars parish.  What Axel Rasmussen did not accomplish regarding this topic before his death was accomplished by Kr. Kure, Copenhagen, and W. Kovgaard from Østerlars main school. The purpose of this book is not to give genealogies nor correct pedigrees, but to give light to which farms had family connections and which farms were just business farms with no personal interests.  The sources used in this publication are:


 * 1) The official priest's tithing list from 1825 to the dissolving of the tithing in 1908.
 * 2) The main office of mortgages to find all long-term and short-term owners of the different farms. Those documents are mostly very accurate from 1825 although some of the owners are still missing for some of the very short term mortgages because they were not recorded.
 * 3) From 1798-1818 the Panteprotokol [mortgage records] from "Østre Herred" have been used and have been studied very closely. In these records the respective owners are listed as well as the name of his wife and the sum of money used for purchase.  Also the former owner is mentioned and who later purchased the farm.  Usually relationships are mentioned if the farm was sold within the famiy.
 * 4) No real family connections can be drawn from year to year before 1798. The Kofoed Family History by Julius Bistrup has been used for some early connections.
 * 5) Birth, marriages, and death records have been used after the year 1814.

In the parish beside "Lensgaarden" are 49 selvejer (self-owned) farms and 22 Vornede gaarde (not completely self-owned) - in all 72 farms. In 42 of the farms it can be proven that there were family connections. In 10 of the farms there was a continuous family relationship. Namely, for these selvejer farms: 1, 2, 4, 6, and 33; and of the Vornede gaarde Nos. 5, 9, 19, 21, 22, 17, and 6.

Tax Records
The farm tenancy taxation book for 1657 has been transcribed and is available at this link. Additional parishes in Bornholm are also included.

The farm tenancy taxation book for 1661 has been transcribed at this link.

The farm tenancy taxation book for 1668 has been transcribed at this link.