Norwegian Genealogy
HERITAGE: If you are of Norwegian ancestry, information on how to trace your roots can be obtained from the Norwegian consulate nearest you. In Norway, for assistance in those conducting genealogical research, contact : The Norwegian Emigration Center Bergjelandsgate 30 N-4012 Stavanger Tel. +47 51 50 12 67 Fax +47 51 50 12 90 E-mail: denut @telepost.no A minimum fee of $30 is charged for each written request. The Emigration Center is a genealogical and research center with sources covering all of Norway, including parish registers, passenger lists, national censuses and local history books. The Norwegian Emigration Museum is both an open air museum with buildings made by Norwegian settlers in the US, as well as a research center with archives, church books, letters, photographs, and other useful information. The open-air museum operates from May through September. requests for genealogical services can be mailed to: The Norwegian Emigrant Museum Genealogical Society Akershagan N-2312 Ottestad Norway. Internet-http://www.hamarnett.no/emigrantmuseum/ e-mail; knut.djupedal@emigrant.museum.no;
THE NORWEGIAN EMIGRANT MUSEUM History and Purpose: between 1825 and 1960 , over 900,000 Norwegians emigrated to overseas destination. Seen as a percentage of the total population, no other country except Ireland had such large numbers of emigrants. Furthermore, it is documented that these emigrants had over 4 million descendants around the world. In other words, the Norwegian “ethnic groups” worldwide is as large as the entire population of the home country. The Norwegian Emigrant Museum commemorates this massive movement of people. First establishes as a part of the Norwegian Folk Museum in 1952, it was moved to Hamar in 1973, and became an independent institution in 1988. Today the Norwegian Emigrant Museum is Norway’s only museum devoted solely to the history of Norwegian migration. They collect and conserve relevant historical material and disseminate knowledge of the migration through exhibitions, publications, lectures and other media. There are two area, the research center and the open-air museum. The Research Center is housed in a new building at Akershagan, just outside Hamar. It includes reading and work areas for those who wish to make use of the Ingrid Semmingsen Research Library and archival materials. These materials include: ca. 7, 000 letters from America ca. 5,000 photographs An emigrant agent archive Archives from Norwegian missionary activity 450 tape-recorded interviews with emigrants Microfilms of church records from about 2,000 Norwegian Lutheran Congregations in the United States American census information A collection of objects related to emigration
The open-air Museum was dedicated by His Majesty King Olav V in May 1989. this section gives visitors a taste of Norwegian America at the turn of the century. At present, the section includes two log cabins, a granary, a corn crib, and a barn. With support from the Norwegian Department of education and religion. The Oak Ridge church from Houston, Minnesota was brought to Norway. When rebuilt, it will be dedicated as the Norwegian Emigrant Memorial Church.
SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE MUSEUM Reading and work areas are available for visitors who wish to use our library and archives. Microfilm records and some books may be loaned for use at public record offices state archives and university and high school libraries. Advice and assistance is available for those interested in genealogy. An internship program is available for college students interested in migration studies. In cooperation with the Norwegian American Historical Association, Norwegian Section, we publish a triennial collection of essays. Newsletter is published quarterly.
HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION In the United States, 3.9 million people indicated on the 1990 census, that they had ethnic roots in Norway; and there are similar groups in Canada , Australia, New Zealand and other emigrant destinations in Africa and South America. Perhaps as many as a quarter of all Norwegian emigrant later returned for good to the old country, Indeed, in 1910 the emigration took on the character if a labor migration rather than a permanent settlement in new lands. In more recent times, many older emigrants have returned to spend their retirement in the land of their birth.
Norwegian LAND DIVISIONS
Fylke: the whole of Norway is administratively divided into fylkes. Presently there are 19 fylkes. Sogn og Fjordane is a fylke.
Kommune: each fylke is again divided into kommunes. Presently there are 448 kommunes in Norway, and 36 kommunes in Sogn og Fjordane.
Husmann: a man who lived in a cottage on a farm, at a site called husmannsplass. Usually he had some petty farm land of his own. He had specific duties on the farm. There were many husmannsplasses in Sogn og Fjordane.
Bygdelag: a member society belonging to a specific community, kommune or local district.
Stol: a mountain croft used by the farmers in the summer.
Sokn: a church and its congregation. Several churches and congregations constitute a prestegjeld (parish)
A fylke is a political and administrative unit with a governor at the top. The whole of Norway is divided into 19 fylkes, of which Sogn og Fjordane is one of the largest. Each fylke is divided into a smaller administrative units called a kommune. Presently Sogn og Fjordane consists of 26 kommunes, each is headed by a mayor. in addition one usually talks about three major districts in Sogn og Fjordane, Sunnfjord, consisting of 7 kommunes in the middle of Sogn og Fjordane and Nordfjord, comprising the 7 kommunes around the Norfjord. in the USA we find bygdelags using these district names/ Sogn og Fjordane got its present name in 1919. Before that is was known as Nordre Bergenhus Amt (amt=fylke) Emigration from the Sogn og Fjordane began in 1839 from the kommune Vik and lasted nearly 100 years. The district of Sogn had the earliest and most extensive emigration. Around 43,000 emigrant left the fylke and about 30,000 of these emigrated from the Sogn district. Since the early emigration was heavy, it is estimated that there are between 500,000 and 700,000 descendants in the USA. The farm was the basic unit of the old Norwegian society. For Americans searching family in Sogn og Fjordane (and generally in Norway), the use of farm names as family names may cause problems. The farm names were not only family names but also addresses. If for instance a boy was baptized Ole and the name of the father was Anders he became Ole Andersson (son of Anders). A girl baptized Anne with a father named Andersm became Anne Andersdotter (daughter of Anders). If the parents of Ole, at the time of Ole’s birth, lived at a farm called Hovland, Ole would be known as Ole Andersson Hovland. Hovland denoting the place where Ole lived. If Ole later moved to and settled at another farm, for instance at Moen, he would be known as Ole Andersson Moen. Moen then becoming his new family name and address. In this way a person could change his name and address (and family name) many times during a lifetime. This practice is often bewildering for Americans searching family in Norway. When the parson or the harbor authority in Norway noted the name of an emigrant, they mostly included the farm name at the time of departure. Coming to America, many immigrants kept the farm name as well as the family name. That is why we still today in America find so many Norwegian farm names as family names, though often Americanized and very different from the original Norwegian farm names. A problem may occur when the immigrant took another farm name as family name than noted by the parson or harbor authorities in Norway. emigrating as a Natvik (farm Ardal) might in America become an Offerdal (another farm name in Ardal). This change could depend on the time a person had stayed in a farm, or he might choose as his permanent family name in America the name of the farm he was born at.
Going back to the last century (1880) you may come across the following parishes (and parts thereof) and kommunes with the spelling of that time.
Before you visit or write to Norway for genealogical information, you should make every possible effort to find answers to your questions in your own country.
The answers are often nearer at hand than you imagine. In other cases information from sources in your own country is a necessary precondition for further research in Norway.
Such information may be obtained primarily from three kinds of sources:
A) Your own milieu
Oral tradition in the family itself or through friends and acquaintances. Written information, such as certificates, naturturalization documents, deeds, letters, diaries, notations in old Bibles or on photographs, newspaper cuttings (e.g. obituaries and other biographical articles), inscriptions on tombstones, initials and dates on silverware etc. You should also write to your relatives in Norway, if you have their names and address. They can perhaps give you valuable information and will probably know whether any history of your family has been written.
B) Printed sources
Hundreds of books have been published, especially in the United States, containing information that may be useful for the genealogist: biographies, family books, histories of special settlements or of Norwegian immigration in general. Books of this kind have also been published in Canada. In the USA special reference can be made to the publications of the bygdelag (year books, membership rolls, etc.) and to the many books published by the Norwegian American Historical Association.
These publications and other Norwegian and Norse-American literature, can be consulted at major libraries such as the Library of Congress in Washington, and the libraries at the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College, both in Minneapolis, MN, and St. Olaf College , Northfield, MN. The Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, has the largest collection of Norwegian local histories in America, together with most of the Norwegian genealogical journals and collected works (but not individual family histories). Remarkable is the collection of Norwegian-American newspapers, available on microfilm, at the Preus Library of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
C) Archival sources
These include, first and foremost, the records of congregations and other church organizations, and the records of official agencies on the federal, state, county, city, and township level: papers relating to immigration, naturalization, settling, employment, military service, birth, marriage, and death. Some of these papers are kept by the appropriate agencies, others are transferred to central repositories.
Valuable information, and also a clue to further research, may be obtained from the passenger arrival lists, which give the names and other data for passengers arriving from abroad at ports on the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and a few inland ports. Such lists (beginning with 1820) are now on file in the National Archives in Washington.
Reference can also be made to the applications for federal citizenship (on file in the county courthouses), to the federal and state census schedules, and other material. There was a federal census every tenth year 1790- 1920, the returns now being kept by the National Archives. In addition there are a large number of special censuses for certain territories, states and counties, among them the 1857 schedules for Minnesota. Some of these schedules, and also index material, are in the custody of the state historical societies or libraries of, e.g., Illinois, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
More details about these and other sources, and about where to find them, can be obtained through the «Guide to Genealogical Records in the National Archives» and a number of general information leaflets from that institution. Other useful leaflets are «Where to Write for Birth and Death Records», «for Marriage Records» and «Divorce Records». These publications can be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Note that the National Archives and Records Service (which is a branch of the General Services Administration) operates a nationwide system of depositories, including 11 Regional Archives Branches (located in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle). The Regional Archives Branches do not only house original archives material created by federal agencies in that particular area, but also microfilm copies etc. from other depositories. Microfilms from the National Archives may be borrowed through more than 6000 libraries and research institutions nationwide, or through the National Archives Microfilm Rental Program.
In addition to the federal records there are the papers from agencies on lower levels, kept by the State Archives or sometimes by the State Historical Society or similar institutions.
Church and parish registers are usually still in the possession of their respective parishes. But a great many of the registers pertaining to the former Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have been microfilmed, and the film reels are available at the Archives of the Evangelical Church in American (ELCA), Chicago, 111. At the ELCA colleges in Tacoma, Moorhead and Sioux Falls there are significant Norwegian-American collections.
Anyone may use the films on site or for a fee, research of the film will be done by the archives staff. For those who would need to have extensive use of a film, it may be more cost effective to purchase copies. To purchase copies of active congregations, written permission from the congregation is necessary.
Special reference should be made to the library of the Genealogical Society of Utah , Salt Lake City, Utah. This library, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, possesses film copies of the principal genealogical records in Norway and other countries, and also of American immigration records, besides millions of family group genealogies and other information on computers and microfiches containing names and other data. More than 1800 branches of this library are spread all over the USA and 51 other countries. They are open to all readers, not just to members of the Mormon church. This library also has a large collection of Norwegian bygdeboker.
In addition to all the printed, written, or microfilmed material mentioned above, and to public records in general, there are also several large collections concerning immigrants from Norway: for example those of the various State and County Historical Societies, and - not least - of the Norwegian American Historical Association, (housed in the Rolvaag Library of St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN), including the voluminous collections prepared by Andrew A. Rowberg and Carl G. 0. Hansen.
The National Archives, the State Archives and other institutions and societies will certainly be able to tell you more about the various records and where to find them. First of all, however, you ought to read a textbook about genealogy and the special research technique used in connection with such work. A great number of books of this kind have been published, including guides to research in foreign countries.
For information about how to proceed in your work you may also contact Sons of Norway, Minneapolis, MN, or you could contact one of the more than 30 Norwegian-American bygdelag. They consist of emigrant descendants from a particular area of Norway, now living in North America. On their annual gatherings they display Norwegian arts and crafts, and all of the bygdelag have their own genealogists.
Although there are other societies in the USA aiming at research work in Norse-American genealogy, the best existent «clearing house» for such research is the Vesterheim Genealogical Center, 415 W. Main St. Madison, WI 53703-3116. For membership in the center, and for subscription to the periodical "Norwegian Tracks", you may apply to Vesterheim, Norwegian-American Museum, Decorah, IA 521 01.
With regard to Canada, reference can be made to the passenger arrival lists (I 865 ff.), on file in the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and also to various material in the Provincial Archives. As in the USA, the church papers, at least the Lutheran records, are for the most part kept by the individual congregations and only to a smaller extent collected by the various synods.
7. Other
There are also other things you can do before you consult the primary sources in the old country. As mentioned earlier, you may be able to find out whether your pedigree has already been, more or less, charted in Norway. There is a great quantity of printed family histories, either separate books or articles in periodicals. Some of the North American libraries mentioned above may also be able to give you information about this literature, but you can also write to one of the principal libraries in Norway, e.g. the university libraries in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim or Tromso, or Deichmanske bibliotek, Oslo.
Good information about typical farming families in Norway is, very often, found in the rural chronicles called bygdeboker. (Bygd is a topographical and usually also an administrative unit, like a township.) Many of these chronicles devote most of their space to farm and family histories. The contents, however, are often confined to the farmers' families proper and to civil servants and others of the «upper» classes, while the husmann and other social classes in some cases are left out. Nor have all parishes as yet acquired their bygdebok.
Much general information, and also treatises on particular families, will be found in the chief genealogical magazine in Norway, Norsk slektshistorisk tidsskrift. There are also quite a number of local genealogical periodicals.
Administratively, Norway is divided into districts roughly corresponding to the British and American counties. Such a district is called a fylke (or before 1919 an amt. There are at present 19 fylker (some of the old amt names being given below in parentheses): Ostfold (Smaalenene), Akershus, Oslo (the capital, before 1925 called Christiania/Kristiania),
Buskerud, Vestfold (Jarlsberg og Larvik), Telemark (Bratsberg),
Aust- Agder (Nedenes), Vest-Agder (Lista og Mandal), Rogaland (Ryfylke, also Stavanger), Hordaland (Sondre Bergenhus, including the city of Bergen),
Sogn og Fjordane (Nordre Bergenhus), More og Romsdal, Sor- Trondelag (Sondre Trondhjem), Nord-Trondelag (Nordre Trondhjem), Nordland, Troms (Tromso), and Finnmark.
There are also a great many other administrative subdivisions, for instance kommuner (municipalities, townships), and prestegjeld and sokn (parishes).
You should realize that from time immemorial, in the rural districts of Norway, the usual unit of settlement was the farm (gard, gård), including the main farm, a number of husmann's homes, etc. Villages in the ordinary sense of the word were few and far between.
8. The central public archives in Norway
When you have assembled all the information you can secure in your own country, from relatives in Norway and from printed sources, the time has come to consult the primary sources. These include the many kinds of records which have been kept down through the centuries, chiefly by official institutions, and which now form part of their archives.
The agencies concerned now hold only relatively recent records. Old records are usually transferred to one of the official central repositories or public record offices around 25 years after their coming into being. (The parish registers being the exception, as they are kept by the parish ministers 80 years after their last entry.)
The National Archives preserve the non-current records of government departments (ministries) and other central offices, while the various regional archives preserve documents from the regional and local branches of the State administration in their districts.
The National Archives: Riksarkivet, Oslo.
The Regional Archives:
Statsarkivet i Oslo, for Ostfold, Akershus and Oslo fylker.
Statsarkivet i Kongsberg, for Buskerud, Vestfold and Telemark fylker.
Statsarkivet i Hamar, for Hedmark and Oppland fylker.
Statsarkivet i Kristiansand, for Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder fylker.
Statsarkivet i Stavanger, for Rogaland fylke.
Statsarkivet i Bergen, for Hordaland (including the city of Bergen) and Sogn og Fjordane fylker.
Statsarkivet i Trondheim, for More og Romsdal, Sor-Trondelag, Nord- Trondelag and Nordiand fylker.
Statsarkivet i Tromso, for Troms and Finnmark fylker.
NORWAY: Aust-Agder-Arkivet Parkveien 16 N-4800 AREN DAL Tel: 37 02 16 66
BBS Slektsforum (PC-relay ID: SLEKT, Post Link 255) Tel.: 35 99 09 91, 9600 Baud MNP+, No parity, 8 bit, Hayes compatible. Operator: Gunnar Aaboe Tel.: 35 99 09 90.
Bergen Byarkiv Allehelgensg. 6 N-5016 BERGEN Tel: 55 96 62 83
Deichmanske bibliotek Henrik lbsens gate I N-01 79 OSLO Tel: 22 20 43 35
DIS-Norge Postboks 47 N-1 430 As Frelsesarmeen
Ettersokelsesavdel i ngen Borggt. 2 N-0650 OSLO Tel: 22 67 47 85
Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane Fylkeshuset N-5840 HERMANSVERK Tel: 57 65 61 93
Historisk lnstitutt Universitetet i Bergen Sydnesplass 9 N-5007 BERGEN Tel: 55 21 23 00
Nordmanns-Forbundet RAdhusgaten 23B N-01 58 OSLO Tel: 22 42 40 59
Norsk Folkemuseum Bygdoy N-0287 OSLO Tel: 22 43 70 20
Norsk Lokalhistorisk lnstitutt Folke Bernadottes vei 21 Postboks 38 KringsjA N-0807 OSLO Tel: 22 23 74 80
Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening Neuberggaten 21 Postboks 9562 Egertorget N-01 28 OSLO Tel: 22 60 82 96
The Norwegian Emigration Center Det norske utvandrersenteret Bergjelandsgt. 30 N-4012 STAVANGER Tel: 51 50 12 74 Fax: 51 50 12 90
Oslo Byarkiv Okernveien I I N-0640 OSLO Tel: 22 66 77 05 Fax: 22 66 74 98
Registreringssentralen for Historiske Data, Universitetet i Tromso N-9037 TROMSO Tel: 77 64 41 77 Fax: 77 64 41 82
Riksantikvaren Dronningensgt. 13 Postboks 8196 Dep. N-0034 OSLO Tel: 22 94 04 00 Fax: 22 68 70 39
Riksarkivet Folke Bernadottesvei 21 Postboks 10 KringsjA N-0807 OSLO Tel: 22 23 74 80 Fax: 22 23 74 89
Statens Kartverk N-3500 HONEFOSS Tel: 32 12 41 00 Statistisk SentralbyrS Skippergt. 1 5 N-0152 OSLO , Tel: 22 86 45 00
Statsarkivet i Bergen Arstadv. 22 N-5009 BERGEN Tel: 55 31 50 70 Fax: 55 32 12 65
Statsarkivet i Hamar Strandgt. 71 N-2300 HAMAR Tel: 62 52 36 42
Statsarkivet i Kongsberg Froggsv. 44 Postboks 384 N-3601 KONGSBERG
Statsarkivet i Kristiansand Vesterveien 4 N-4600 KRISTIANSAND Tel: 38 02 55 11 Fax: 38 02 04 11
Statsarkivet i Oslo Folke Bernadottesvei 21 Postboks 8 KringsjA N-0807 OSLO Tel: 22 23 74 80 Fax: 22 23 74 89
Statsarkivet i Stavanger Bergjelandsgate 30 N-4012 STAVANGER Tel: 51 50 12 60 Fax: 51 50 12 90
Statsarkivet i Trondheim Hogskoleveien 12 Postboks 2825 Elgesoeter N-7001 TRONDHEIM Tel: 72 56 96 20 Fax: 72 51 69 70
Statsarkivet i Tromso Skippergaten 1C N-9000 TROMSO Tel: 77 67 66 11 Fax: 77 67 65 20
Universitetsbiblioteket i Bergen Mohlenprisbakken I N-5000 BERGEN Tel: 55 21 25 00
Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo Drammensveien 42 N-0255 OSLO Tel: 22 55 36 30
Universitetsbiblioteket i Trondheim Erling Skakkes gate 47c N-7013 TRONDHEIM Tel: 73 59 22 00
Universitetsbiblioteket i Tromso N-9000 TROMSO Tel: 77 64 40 00
Utvandrermuseet Strandveien 1 00 Postboks 1053 N-2301 HAMAR Tel: 62 53 11 66
Videnskabsselskapets bibliotek N-7000 TRONDHEIM Tel: 73 59 22 00
USA: Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 8765 West Higgins Road Chicago, IL 60631-4189, with local collections at. Archives and Special Collections Mortvedt Library Pacific Lutheran University Tacoma, WA 98447 Archives Carl B. Ylvisaker Library Concordia College Moorhead, MN 56560
Center for Western Studies Augustana College Box 727 Sioux Falls, SD 57197
Genealogical Society of Utah Family History Library 35 North West Temple Street Salt Lake City, UT 84150
The Library of St. Olaf College 1520 St. Olaf Avenue Northfield, MN 55057-1098
The Memorial Library of The University of Wisconsin Madison, WI 53706
Minnesota Genealogical Society P.O.Box 16069 St. Paul, MN 55116-0069
Minnesota Historical Society 345 Kellogg Boulevard West Saint Paul, MN 55102-1906
The National Archives Washington D.C. 20408
National Archives Microfilm Rental Program P.O. Box 30 Annapolis Junction, MA 20701- 0030
The Norwegian-American Historical Association, RolvAg Library of St. Olaf College Northfield, MN 55057
The Norwegian Information Service 825 Third Avenue I 7th floor New York, NY. 10022
The Norwegian-American Museum 502 W. Water Street Decorah, IA 52191
Sons of Norway 1455 West Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55057
The Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington D.C. 20402
University of Minnesota Library Meredith Wilson Library 309 19th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55455-0414
Vesterheim Genealogical Center 415 W. Main St. Madison, WI 53703-3116
CANADA: National Archives of Canada 395 Ellington St. OTTAWA Kl A ON
