Norway, Digital Archives Transcription Marks

When the Digitalarkivet (Digital Archives) of Norway began their project to transcribe records for publication on the Internet they developed a system of special transcription marks and abbreviations that would indicate to the reader that additional information may be found in the original manuscript. This is not the same as a full diplomatic transcription, a word-by-word transcription that represents the text of a document exactly as it appears, without any interpretation or editorial comment. This was especially important at the time as images of the records were generally not available online, and had to be examined on microfilm.

Even though the Digital Archives now publishes images along with indexes, the transcription marks are still used. The first version of their instructions were published in 2005 titled, Kyrre : Standard for dataregistering av kyrkjeb&#248;ker i Noreg. The standard's name is an abbreviation of kyrkjebokregistrering (church book indexing). The Norwegian Historical Data Centre (NHDC) has detailed instructions about how these marks were to be used when transcribing census records at HISTFORM - Felles registreringsinstrukser for folketellingene 1865-1910.

Abbrevations
The following abbreviations are found in transcribed records. A more extensive list including abbreviations found in census transcriptions specified by the HISTFORM standard can be found at Histform - Appendix

Gender

 * m = male (mand)
 * k = female (kvinne)
 * !! = unspecified (ubestemmelig kjønn)

Living Situation

 * b = resident (bosatt på stedet)
 * mt = temporarily resident (midlertidig tilstede)
 * f = absent (midlertidig fraværende)

Family Roles

 * hf = man of the house (husfader)
 * hm = woman of the house (husmoder)
 * hp = main person (hovedperson)
 * hu = housewife (hustru)
 * s = son (sønn)
 * d = daughter (datter)
 * tj = servant (tjenestetyende)
 * fl = lodger (losjerende, hørende til familien)
 * el = solitary lodger (enslig losjerende)
 * b = visitor (besøkende)

Civil Status

 * ug = unmarried (ugift)
 * g = married (gift)
 * e = widow (enke, enkemann)
 * s = separated (separert)
 * f = divorced (fraskilt)

Illness

 * b = blind (blind)
 * d = deaf/dumb (døv/døvstum)
 * s = psychiatric illness (sinnsyk/sinnssvak)
 * a = mentally challenged (åndssvak)

Citizenship and Ethnicity

 * n = Norsk
 * l = Lapp
 * lf = Lapp, permanent resident (lappisk, fastboende)
 * ln = Lapp, nomadic (lappisk, nomadiserende)
 * f = Finnish (kven)
 * k = Kven (finnish)
 * b = mixed ethnicity (blandet)

Languages

 * n = Norwegian
 * l = Lappish
 * f = Finnish (Kven)

Property

 * bu = shop (butikk)
 * ko = office (kontor)
 * ve = workshop (verksted)
 * fa = factory (fabrikk)
 * an = other (andre)