Digitized Danish Records Online - Arkivalieronline

Denmark Digitized Danish Records Online

About the Danish National Archives Website
In the fall of 2002, the Danish State Archives with the support of the Ministry of Culture, began to digitize the Danish Lutheran state church parish records and the national censuses. Today, a variety of other records can be found on the website including probate records, civil marriages, fire insurance, and court records.The images have been scanned from microfilm, microfiche, and original sources. The digital images are available for free at Arkivalieronline.

Church
Some of the first records to be digitized on the website are the Lutheran church records. Each parish has records digitized from the earliest records up to the 20th century (dates vary depending on the parish).

Danish Lutheran Church Parish Records are found by selecting 'Kirkebøger'.
 * Click Søg (Search)
 * On the Kirkebøger page, select 'Kirkebøger fra hele landet' or 'Church books from around the country'
 * Then choose a parish from the many church parishes throughout Denmark
 * Select from record options that appear for selected parish.
 * From the column to the left of the parish record image viewer, choose the date span and the record type/types.

ArkivalierOnline uses the following codes to identify the content of each volume:
 * F (births/baptisms)
 * K (confirmations)
 * V (betrothals/marriages)
 * D (death/burial)

Helpful Danish Church record information and English translation of parish register headings can be found at Denmark Church Records and Denmark Parish Register Headings.

The National Archives of Denmark has published a PDF, Hurtige tips & tricks til det nye Arkivalieronline to help users locate images from the church records. A free online translation service, such as Google Translate may be useful for Danish to English translation of this information. Similar help pages are also available on the National Archives' website for other categories of records.

The following PDF provides an English guide for using church records on (an earlier edition of) the website:
 * Arkivalieronline Church Records Guide
 * [[Media:Arkivalieronline Digitized Church Records guide.pdf|Arkivalieronline Digitized Church Records guide]]

Alternate Online Access to Danish Church Records
Many indexed records can be found on FamilySearch at Denmark Church Records. These indexes are not complete. Images of the church records may also be accessed through the FamilySearch catalog entry for the specific parish.

Records can be also be viewed at Danish Family Search which is not affiliated with FamilySearch or its sponsoring organization. Left mouse-click on the map or on Church Books on Overview drop-down menu to select, successively, county, district, and parish, then select record group by date range and type/types of records. Danish Family Search website instructions can be viewed in either English or Danish language.

Census Records
Along with the church records, the census records were some of the first Danish records to be digitized.

Census records are listed alphabetically by the government agency responsible for creating the records, then by the region. Most censuses are divided into three regions:
 * 1) København (Copenhagen city)
 * 2) Købstæder (other cities)
 * 3) Landdistrikter (rural areas) called Sognelister (parish lists) after 1916.

The 1803 census covers only the region of Slesvig-Holstein. The 1870 census separates handelspladser from the other cities. In 1940 Frederiksberg and Gentofte were included in enumerations separate from Copenhagen.

On the archives' homepage select Folketælinger or censuses to go to the census collection page.
 * Select Folketællinger
 * Select the census year and the region you wish to look at


 * Records for Copenhagen city are further divided by the section of the city (kvarter) and neighborhood or street (etat)
 * Other cities are grouped by county (amt) and city (købstad)
 * Rural areas are grouped by county (amt), district (herred or birk), and parish (sogn)

More information can be found at Denmark Census or the FamilySearch Historical Records articles for a specific census.

Tips for using Arkivalieronline census records are found, in Danish, at:         https://www.sa.dk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nyAO-folketaellinger-hjaelp-2.pdf

The updated diagrams are helpful. A free online translation service, such as Google Translate may be useful for Danish to English translation of this information. see:         https://translate.google.com/

(Similar help pages are also available on the website for other categories of records.)

The following PDF provides an English guide of how to access the census records on (an earlier edition of) the website:
 * Arkivalieronline Census Records Guide
 * [[Media:Arkivalieronline Digitized Census Records guide.pdf|Arkivalieronline: Accessing the Digitized Census Records]]

Alternate Online Access to Danish Census Records
Danish Family Search:    http://www.danishfamilysearch.com/           Left mouse-click on map,or on  'Census Data' on drop-down menu to select, successively,  census date, county, district, and parish to get to census records which can be searched. If indexed, records can be searched by various categories, i.e., first names, surnames, place names, etc, to find an extracted record of a family, attached to an image of the actual census page. If not yet indexed, pages of census images can be searched one by one. Danish Family Search website instructions can be viewed in either English or Danish language.

Probate Records
1. Go to the Danish Nations Archives Website:https://www.sa.dk/

2. Go to the ARKIVALIERONLINE section, left mouse-click in the search box, and select 'Find din slægt',or in English,'' 'Find your relatives'. Click on 'Søg' or 'Search'.''

3. On the 'Find din slægt' or 'Find your relatives' page, scroll to the bottom of the page, where you will find several 'Skifter...' or 'Shifter' topics,which are the probate records, representing the shifting of property from the deceased persons to the heirs. The section that is more general, for the whole country is listed as 'Skifter, hele landet'or 'Switches, the whole country'.

4. After selecting which type of record you wish to search, left mouse-click on the topic. This will take you to a page where you may select the location of records you wish to view. Selection of the area, a listing of types of records, and period of time in which they existed. Selecting one of the record sets, will allow you to proceed to view specific records, and search for information about specific people in the Danish probate records.

(Note: on 'Find din slægt' or 'Find your relatives' page, select  'Skiftevæsen - Registre og hjælpemidler' or  'Probate Office -Records and aids' to find name register and other aids for finding relatives.)

Another great digitized record type on the website are probate records. As of right now (Jul 2013), only probate records for the islands of Sjælland and Bornholm are available, along with the city of Copenhagen.
 * Arkivalieronline Probate Records Guide
 * [[Media:Arkivalieronline Digitized Probate Records guide.pdf]]

Civil
On Arkivalieronline, the civil marriages of Copenhagen are available. They cover the years 1923-1961. There are two sections of the marriage records - the register to the marriages (Register til ægteskabsbog) and the actual marriage records (Ægteskabsbog).

Download the following PDF for an English guide of how to access the civil records on the website:
 * Arkivalieronline Civil Records Guide
 * [[Media:Arkivalieronline Digitized Civil Records guide.pdf]]

Fire Insurance
Fire insurance records are a special record type that can be very useful when researching ancestors in the larger cities of Denmark. The fire insurance records are available from 1731 to 1872. Depending on the city, there are some areas that have records up to the 1920s.

Download the following PDF for an English guide of how to access the fire insurance records on the website:
 * Arkivalieronline Fire Insurance Records Guide
 * [[Media:Arkivalieronline Accessing Digitized Fire Insurance Records guide.pdf]]

Tips

 * 1) You can save and print the digital images simply by first pushing the 'Save Image' button in the top lefthand corner of the screen, then opening the image in your image viewer (Microsoft Image viewer, IfranView, etc.), and finally pushing print. It is adviseable to save the images as '.tif' files.
 * 2) High speed internet is recommended for optimum performance.
 * 3) You may run into problems with the viewer depending on your operating system.
 * 4) They do not enhance the digital images from the microfilm. If the microfilming was poor, it carries over to the digital image.