What is wrong with Digitalarkivet?
Many people complains about the “New” Digital Archives. I sometimes receive requests from people who are frustrated with the “new” Digitalarkivet. As I often struggle with updates to websites or software, I can understand this frustration. With the Digitalarkivet I have adapted and written some articles about how to use it.
Here is an article with a short introduction the Digitalarkivet
Here is an article that points you to the scanned church records. The interface works in the same way for all scanned records.
While new searchable records are added to the Digital Archives all the time, we are still dependent on searching the scanned records. Here is an article that shows how to find the record we need.
Finally, an article on how to get more relevant hits when we use the “Advanced person search” feature.
I am sure there are many other topics that could be covered when it comes to the Digital Archives. Please comment below or og to the contact page and send me a word, and I will try my best to address your problems.
Thanks for this! I used to use the D A all the time but find myself just avoiding it these days — almost forgetting it exists because of all the time I’ve lost trying in vain to make it work for me. I shall try again armed with this info!
Do you remember the indices for each fylke in the first Digitlarkivet web site? If I had a Wish List, it would be for an index listing of transcribed records for each fylke like DA#1 had.
http://gda.arkivverket.no/cgi-win/WebMeta.exe?spraak=e
http://gda.arkivverket.no/cgi-win/WebMeta.exe?slag=vismeny&katnr=&emnenr=&aar=&dagens=&fylkenr=17&alle=true
http://gda.arkivverket.no/cgi-win/WebMeta.exe?slag=vismeny&fylkenr=12&katnr=&emnenr=&aar=&dagens=&knr=1201&alle=true
Those links should get you the Nord-Trøndelag page I’m talking about on the second link (I found records going back to 1620 for the earliest ancestor in NT), and the Bergen index page for the third one (a Danish matros married a local Bergen woman; their eldest son also became a matros, was sent to Trondheim where he married a local woman, and one of their daughters married a man from Ytterøy/Verran – now Inderøy in the last year). These fylke indices have transcribed info for several different kinds of info used in genealogy research, from census data to tax rolls to church records and in/utflytting records, and military (local militia) information. I know where my people came from. I don’t need to do searches throughout the whole country and get back “hits” on a long list of people with the same names from other fylkes (I can search those records if utflytting info indicates they moved). I still go back to DA#1 when I need to find information quickly.
The emigration database from DA#1 was ideal because I could see at a glance who sailed with my ancestors (relatives, neighbors, or if they sailed alone) and settled near people they knew by the destination listed. I’ve also researched Norwegian ancestors of spouses of siblings of my parents, grandparents, gr-grandparents, and assorted cousins of varying degrees. Just turning up one name at a time without the context of other people who were listed before or after loses the overall picture, or I might lose someone if an entire family emigrated – in DA#1 emigration database I can scroll back and forth and not miss large groups of people traveling together (as indicated by an utflytting record).
The DA#1 search engine was so much simpler to use than the current one for transcribed records, and the formats were much more efficient. I’ve never had much of a problem with the microfilm or digital images since the indices for them are pretty simple.
It’s the lack of fylke indices I miss! I also miss the fact that a few years ago when they stopped updating DA#1 the language choice selected on the home page reverted back to Norwegian after the first search. I can understand the headers because I’ve worked with the original database so much, but assorted cousins don’t understand.
So, on my Wish List for what I’d like to see on DA#3: an index of available transcribed records for each fylke, and having the DA#1 emigration database. Oh, and for the DA#! search language to stay on English throughout the time searching like it used to.
Hello Bev
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I will send you a private email and discuss your comment and see if we can come up with solutions.
Martin, Your series of articles on how to use the new DA was a tremendous aid to my using the search tools successfully. I highly recommend that anyone having trouble with DA take the time to read ALL of these articles
One basic point that so many people seem to miss: if a set of records (for example: the baptism records of XYZ parish from 1805-1825) has NOT been indexed yet, the person search will result in zero hits. But a researcher can still scroll through the records page by page to find the digital copy of the records. That search process is completely explained in your articles.
Thank you so much. I really enjoy your blog.
Linda ini Iowa
Hello Linda
Thanks for visiting my blog and for taking the time to comment.
You are so right. I worry that many who are frustrated about the Digitalarkivet, don’t realize the fact that not all records are indexed yet.
At the Tre Lag stevne last August, a talk was given on some basics of the 3 DA sites and the RHD site. Copies of the writeups are available at nhohlag.org and then going to the ‘Stevne’ tab. and clicking on the 2018 handouts.
Suggestions for improving these papers are most welcome!
Hello John
Thanks for sharing this information. I will certainly check it up!