Norway Genealogy

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

Country Information
Norway is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe bordered by Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Denmark. Part of the Kalmar Union from 1397 to 1523, Norway was part of a personal union with Denmark from 1536 until 1660 when King Frederik III established an absolute monarchy and Norway came under the Danish crown. From the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 until 1905 it was in another personal union, this time with Sweden as part of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Two different forms of Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk are the official language, with several other recognized national languages.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Norway
Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.

If you do not know your ancestors' town, see the article, Norway Finding Town of Origin, to identify other records that might provide that information.

Norway Clickable Map
The map below shows county boundaries as of about 1660 to 2018.

County Mergers
On 1 January 2020 several counties were combined as part of an administrative reform (Regionreformen). Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag were combined 1 January 2018. Four counties were unchanged.

Parishes in Norway

 * Parish List
 * Congregation List of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Regions in Norway

 * Regional List

Clerical Districts

 * Clerical District List

More Norway Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for Norway. • 2

More Norway Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Norway. • 2

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Historical Records
 * FamilySearch Center locator map
 * Nordic Countries Genealogy Research

Learning Center
The following classes can help you learn more about Norwegian research. You can search for other classes on the Learning Center Search page.
 * Exploring Church Records in Norway
 * Exploring Death Notices in Norway
 * Norwegian Emigration: The Experience
 * Pre-1867 Emigration Records from Norway: History of Norwegian Emigration
 * Finding ancestors in the Norwegian farm books online
 * Norwegian Migration and Immigration
 * From America to Norway - Using US and Norwegian records in tandem
 * How to find Ancestors in Digitalarkivet of Norway
 * Finding Gyrid Aarsand’s Place of Origin in Norway - Locating an ancestor's parish and port of emigration