Finnmark County, Norway Genealogy

Guide to Finnmark ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Finnmark is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland (Lapland) to the south and Russia (Murmansk Oblast) to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea (Atlantic Ocean) to the northwest, and the Barents Sea (Arctic Ocean) to the north and northeast.

The county was formerly known as Finmarkens amt or Vardøhus amt, and since 2002, has had two official names: Finnmark (Norwegian) and Finnmárku (Sami language). It is part of the Sápmi region, which spans four countries, as well as the Barents Region, and is the largest and least populated county of Norway.

Situated at the Northernmost part of continental Europe, where Norway swings eastward, Finnmark has always been an area where east meets west, in culture as well as in nature and geography.

Government Offices and Sites

 * Government parties in Finnmark
 * Finnmark fylke

Church Records/Civil Registration

 * These are the most important records you will use, and a majority of your research will be found in them. All civil registration was kept by the church parishes until 2012.
 * Digitalarkivet: Digitized parish registers of Finnmark
 * Norway Indexed parish register transcriptions
 * The Family History Library has microfilms for all Finnmark parish registers up to about 1920. These can be viewed at the library or at a Family Histor Center near you.
 * By clicking on the parish links above, you may find direct links to all the records for that parish.
 * You do not have to be fluent in Norwegian. These records use a very limited, specialized vocabulary that is easy to learn. For help reading and interpreting theses records, see:
 * Norwegian Genealogical Word List
 * Norway Handwriting
 * Scandinavian Handwriting
 * Scandinavian Handwriting, part 3 - No part 2 available


 * [[Media:Parish_Register_Headings_for_Norway.pdf|Parish Register Headings for Norway]]: This pdf gives the translation of headings for the records in different time periods.  When a record is written with labeled columns it is much easier to search. Much of the material you read in each column will just be names and dates, since the meaning of those names (child, parents, godparents, minister) only has to be read once, in the column heading.


 * For more detail on the contents of these records and how to use them, see Norway Church Records and Norway Civil Registration.

Censuses

 * 1664-1666 Census for Vesterålen, Senja, and Troms prosti
 * 1701 census for Senja og Trms fogderi
 * 1801 Census
 * 1865 Census
 * 1875 Census Partial
 * Norway Census, 1875 FamilySearch database
 * 1885 Census
 * 1891 Census for Northern Norway
 * 1900 Census
 * 1910 Census

Farm Books
Bygdebøker for Finnmark Fylke

Passenger Lists

 * Emigrants leaving parishes in Finnmark county for the port of Trondheim.

Probate Records

 * Digitised probate records for Finnmark County


 * 1640-1903 - at FamilySearch — index


 * 1686-1816 - by Arne Gunnar Edvardsen. Index to probate records for Finnmark county, Norway, 1686-1816 (1818). The index is arranged in alphabetical order according to given name.


 * 1741-1817 - by Arne Gunnar Edvardsen. Index to probate records for Lutheran ministers and their families, 1697 -1824 for Troms and Finnmark counties; and for military personnel at Vardøhus fortress, 1741-1817.

Taxation
