Norway Genealogy

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

Country Information
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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.
 * Tips for beginners in Norwegian Research
 * "How to" Guides
 * Starting Research in Norway
 * Strategies
 * Record Selection Table
 * Birth Record Search Strategy 1500-1813
 * Birth Record Search Strategy 1814-Present
 * Birth, Marriage, and Death Search Strategies 1500 - Present
 * Death Record Search Strategy 1500-1813
 * Death Record Search Strategy 1814-Present

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.
 * Clerical District List
 * Parish List
 * Regional List
 * Norway: Typing Æ, Ø, and Å
 * Parish heading list
 * Census Register Headings
 * Feast Day Calendar (Moveable)
 * Feast Days (Fixed and Moveable)
 * Handwriting Examples
 * Norwegian Currency
 * Weight and Measurement in Old Norway
 * Dictionary
 * Gazetteers
 * Given Names List
 * Glossary
 * Maps
 * Timeline
 * Websites
 * Word List
 * Latin Word List
 * (helpful tools and resources, gazetteers)
 * (language dictionary, handwriting guide or tutorial, etc.)

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in resourcing your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Scandinavian Research
 * Reading Scandinavian Gothic Handwritten Records.
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

Digitalarkivet (Norway's Digital Archives)
The National Archival Services of Norway maintains a website in which you can search in transcribed source material for free.

Please note that this site is undergoing a restructuring. On March 31, 2014 the old system of searching will be replaced by the new. A very substantial difference between the new Digital Archives (DA) and the old (ODA) is that users are now able to search across all sources at once.

To use this choose Select Source (Finn Kilde) from the menu. Here you may choose the type of record(s) you want to search for the geographical location of your choice.

Scanned images of the original church books are also found on the Digital Archives. The Parish Registers interface can be used in English, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk) or Samisk (Davvisámegiella). However, the records are written in Norwegian.

Featured Content
Take a look at the Bergen Norway Page, it contains links to some of the Emigrants leaving Norway for the United States from the ports in Bergen. Another useful Website for Norway research is Fylkesarkivet i Sogn, can be read in English or Norweigian.

Did you know?

 * You can view photos of churches in Norway.


 * You can also view a Photo Album of Farms as part of the digital archives of the Norwegian National Archives. It contains patron-submitted photos of 1900-era farms. There is a link in the album between a farm photo and the respective farm in the 1900 census list, so that one can find information on the farm and household.


 * During the 1500-1800’s it was very common for the Norwegian people to use a patronymic naming system. They would take the father’s given name and add “sen/son” or “datter”. Others chose to use the name of the farm they were associated with as their last names. This really was an address, but some of these farm names were continued through many generations and have become last names.


 * In 1923 a new naming law (Navneloven av 1923) came into effect, and people now had to choose a family name. The change from patronymics to family names had already started in the mid-1870; the cities had started a little earlier and the smaller parishes a little later. However, the law was approved 1923. In 2003 another law was put into practice. It was now again legal to choose a patronymic or matronymic name.


 * Farm names are very important in locating people in Norway. Through these names you can find parishes and then your ancestors in the parish registers.


 * There is a Norwegian Farm Book Extraction Project. Contact Roger Magneson only if you wish to&amp; participate in indexing. [mailto:MagnesonR@familysearch.org MagnesonR@familysearch.org]