Norway Matrikkel

A Matrikkel is a public index to Grunneiendommer (Basic Properties) in Norway. In rural Norway it is a record or a list of farm properties. The Farms are usually listed in topographic order and include a Gårds nummer (Farm number) and Bruksnummer (Division number). These indexes include


 * The name of the farm and the land that belonged to each farm, the value of the property
 * A Panteobligasjon (Mortgage bond), and increase in value of the property
 * A set value in inherritance cases
 * A set public tax, based on the value of the property

In Norway the properties are divided kommunevis (by communities) with a munber og farmes and subfarms in each "kommune". Each farm has a Gårdsnummer (gnr.) farm number; and each bruk (bnr.) sub farm a subfarm number. The farm numbers are unique within each "kommune" while bruksnumrene (subfarm numbers) starts over again for each farm. A Matrikkel can also include a festenummer (fnr.) used in sub communities and a seksjonsnummer (snr.) section number.

To make sure there is only one number for each property in all of Norway, a kommunenummer (community number) is listed infront of the matrikkel number. For Example: Farm number 200 subfarm number 243, section number 14 in Grimstad community in community number 0904)

When new land was given a marikkel number it is called matrukulering, and this will be recorded in the grunnboksbladet (land record book) by the land surveyers for the land courts.

The land records/property records (Jordebøker) for Norway were in excistance some from as early as the 1100s. More from the 1400-1500s especially 1590 to about 1660 but they do not include all the privatly own propery. Rules on how these records should be kept varied from time to time.

Below you will see an index of some of the terms used in the 1723 matrikkel and which parishes was included in each jurisdiction. As the population grew these jurisdiction changed, and what parishes they included.

Following are links to matrikkels:


 * Matrikkelutkastet 1723 (Available on microfilm at the Family History Library)
 * Matrikkelarbeidet 1723 (Available in a searchable database at Digital Archives)
 * Matrikkelen 1838