Norwegian Genealogy Reference Library
Welcome to my Norwegian genealogy reference library — a practical “card catalog” of the most useful pages on this blog. Use it when you want to quickly find a source guide, a method, or a worked example.
Quick navigation
- Start here
- Core tools (Digitalarkivet & archives)
- Church books (kirkebøker)
- Censuses
- Probate (skifte)
- Gothic handwriting
- Names, places, and geography
- Bygdebøker & local history
- Workflow & good habits
- Reference pages on this site
Start here
- Start your family search here
- A brief introduction to genealogy
- 10 questions everyone should ask
- For beginners (category archive)
- Exploring Genealogy: Essential Sources for Tracing Your Family History
Core tools (Digitalarkivet & archives)
- The Norwegian National archives
- Archival institutions in Norway
- How to Use the “Find Source” Feature in Digitalarkivet
- Digitalarkivet’s “Find source feature” (classic walkthrough)
- The Norwegian Digitalarkivet with new design
- What is wrong with Digitalarkivet?
- The “old Digitalarkivet” is now closed
- Digitalarkivet – Newest published
Church books (kirkebøker)
- The Norwegian Church books
- Church records in the “new” digital archives
- Church book chronology
- Missing weddings in Norway?
- Quick tips: When the minister mess up
- A visit from the bishop
- Link to the actual source
Censuses
- Norwegian censuses
- The census 1920 is available!
- The 1891 census “Personseddel” form
- A quick look at the Norwegian 1664–1666 census
- Surprising finds in the Censuses
Probate (skifte)
Gothic handwriting
- Gothic handwriting (category archive)
- The Gothic syllabus
- The Gothic letters i and j
- How to read Gothic handwriting – 3
- How to read Gothic handwriting – 4 (letters to words)
Names, places, and geography
- Find Norwegian place names
- How I record Norwegian locations
- How I record person names
- Norwegian farm structure
- Former municipalities of Norway
- Moveable Feastdays in Norway
- Norwegian patronyms
- Missing patronyms
- Troublesome widows and widowers
- Old Norwegian amt (counties)
- Who was the “Leiglending”
Bygdebøker & local history
- What is a «bygdebok»?
- Bygdebøker Available Online (Outside the National Library)
- Read old Norwegian newspapers
- The big Norwegian encyclopedia
Workflow & good habits
- Make your searches more effective
- Let’s do it right the first time
- Genealogy Research Planner – My Christmas gift to you
Reference pages on this site
Tip: If you can’t find something here, use the site search (top right of the blog) and try one keyword + the parish/farm name. If something is missing or links broken, I’d really appreciate if you sent me a word through the Contact page.
