Greenland Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Greenland, go to the Religious Records page.

Church Records [Kirkebøger]
Research Use: Church records are a primary source of birth, marriage, and death information in Greenland. They identify names of parents, prove other relationships, and are very useful for linking generations.

Record Type: Records of births, marriages, deaths and burials. Responsibility for recording vital events was placed upon the state church. Groups of dissenters and German Protestants also kept church records.

Time Period: 1742 to present. The earliest parish register is in Frederikshåb [Paamiut] since 1742.

Contents: Birth &amp; christening registers – infant's name, name and surname of father and mother, christening date and sometimes date of birth. Marriage registers – names of bride and groom, sometimes date of announcement of marriage intention; date of marriage, often ages, residence and occupation of couple, previous marital status, often names of parents, sometimes birth place and age. Death and burial registers – name of deceased, date and place of death and/or burial, place of residence, sometimes cause of death, names of survivors, occasionally date and place of birth.

Location: The original chuch records are at the Provincial Archive [Landsarkivet] for Sjælland in Copenhagen, Denmark and Grønlands Arkiv in Nuuk, Greenland. (Generally, however, transcripts of church records created in Greenland are also located in Copenhagen).

Percentage in Family History Library: 60%. Most records from 1742 to about 1849 have been filmed. For some congregations records have been acquired to 1861. Dissident protestant records have been filmed up to 1900.

Population Coverage: The earliest church records were incomplete and covered only Europeans. Since the mid-1900s the church records cover 90 to 95% of the population.

Reliability: Excellent.

Accessibility: These records are available through on-site research or by correspondence.

Landsarkivet for Sjælland. Københavnske Kirkebøger [Copenhagen’s Churchbooks]. København: [Landsarkivet for Sjælland], 1974.