The 1891 census “Personseddel” form

This is a translation to the “Personseddel” 1891 census form.

I often see questions about this form in web forums. I decided to make a translation and add a few comments.

As we today find the person we look for through a search in Digitalarkivet, I will only briefly mention how this census is built up.

• Hovedliste is the “main form”. One is kept for each census district in the municipality. If the census district is big it might be divided into several main  forms. The main form lists the farm names in that particular census district. In towns, this lists the street addresses.
• Husliste → the “house list” records the name of the head of the household and states how many persons belong to that household. In rural districts there are normally one person listed here. In towns, there are frequently more than one household at the same address.
• Personseddel → Individual form. One such form was produced for each person contained in the census.

This is how the form appears in the Digitalarkivet (By hovering your mouse over the picture you get an enlargement).

This form is for my G-Grandfather Baard Hansen. As we here are looking at the form itself, I will not be commenting on the actual recordings on the form.

The title states that this is Census for the Kingdom of Norway January 1st 1891

It goes on to list “Herred” → Municipality. “Schema 2” is the the name of this particular form in the package of forms that was used in the 1891 census.

“Personseddel no.” → Individual form number. “Tællingskreds No.” → Census district number. “Husliste No” → Houselist number.

For the tranlation I follow the numbering on the form:

1. Full name
2. Gender: Male, Female.
   Here we see a footnote 1) that appeare on several of the items on this list. This is listed at the bottom and says that The suitble word should be underlined.
3. Relation to the head of the household: Head of the household, Wife, Son, Daughter, Servant, Lodger belonging to the family, Single lodger, Visitor
4. Marrital status: (For persons older than  15 years) Single, Married, Widower, Widow, Granted separation, Legally divorced.
5. For married women: Are you and your husband related to each other as second cousins or closer? Yes, No.
6. Birthyear: 18….. For children under 2 years of age: Birthmonth:………………………………….
7. Birthplace: Municipality, parish or town………………………………………………………………………………
   If municipality were underlined with no further comment one are to assume that the person was born in the municipality where he/she lived at the time of the census.
8.  Under which country are you a subject? (For those who are not Norwegian subjects).
9. What religious denomination do you belong to? (For those who do not belong to the Norwegian Statechuch).
10. For self employed or those in a subordinate position: What kind of profession and your position in this.
11.  For those who are fully or partly supported by others: The profession of the supporter.
12. Mentally challenged, Deaf and mute or Blind:…………..
13. Was the mental challenge, the deaf-, mute-, or blindness present at birth (to this category is counte those where the conditions appeared in the first years of life), or did it occure later.
14. For those temporarily present: Permanent place of residence.
15. For those temporarily absent: Persumed place of residence

I hope this can be of some help. If you have questions or comments, comment below or send me a word through my contact page. 

You can use this contact form to ask me any question about Norway or Norwegian genealogy. I will try to answer to the best of my abilities.