University of Minnesota

Family History Sources
The Family History Collections on Immigrant History focus primarily on the experiences of the immigrants and generally consist of documentation they themselves generated as opposed to information recorded by government officials or others involved in processing newcomers through American ports or assigning them citizenship.

The collections span the period between the mid-1800s to the present, reflecting more recent migration activity and manifestations of ethnicity as well as the mass migration period.

Internet Resources
List of some of the communities covered by bygdebøker held in the University of Minnesota Libraries.

The Norwegian bygdebok is one of the best sources of Norwegian genealogical information. It is a history of a specific community, recording who lived where, and when. It may also include birth, marriage, and death dates; landholdings and chattels; physical descriptions of the farms, buildings, and residents and their possessions; and accounts of historical events. Some may trace family lines back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Bygdebøker are published in Norwegian and often do not have indexes.

Norwegian geographical and administrative divisions

Return to Norwegian American page