How to Use the New Norwegian Databases at the Digitalarkivet Website

by Knut Bryn from Norway-L mail list

By clicking "Folketeljinger" in the red bar you will see a list of different census data. At the end of this message you will find a list of some of the databases with translations. The interface for these census databases are mostly the same although the searchable data fields varies quite a lot.

To show how this works, let us take a look at "1701-manntalet for Søndre Bergenhus". This is the complete 1701 census for Hordaland. I say complete even the census only covers the main persons in each household (mostly men) and his/her sons. The database contains 17830 records.

STEP 1
In the upper left of the main screen you will see a scroll box which you can use to choose what kind of data you will search for. The options are: NAME (navn), AGE (alder), POSITION IN HOUSEHOLD (stilling), OCCUPATION (opphald), FARM (gard), REMARK (merknad) and PARISH (sokn).

Let us now use an example where the aim is to have a look at the people who lived at a farm called Erdal in Fana parish. Then we start with putting "Gard" in this scroll box.

STEP 2
The next step is to write the farm name in the input box to the right. IMPORTANT: Do not try to write the whole name. In the database the names are stored as they where written in 1701. With our example we just write "Er*" IMPORTANT: The first and only the first letter must be a capital letter. The asterix is necessesary for trunkating the search. Then click the search button ("Finn postane").

STEP 3
The result is a list of all farms with names starting with "Er-". On the list are 11 records from farms written Erdahl and 4 records from farms written Erdall. We may now choose either of these alternatives or both and click the search button below the list.

STEP 4
The result is a list of the first 10 records which fit your search. If you don't see the right farm, you may go to the next 10 records by clicking the green button marked with "NESTE". With our example we now have the records from Erdal in Fana on top. The parish name was written Phanne in these records. We may now click on the record number to the left of the table and then we come to the right place in the 1701 census for Fana parish. From here we may take a look at the other farms in the parish by clicking on the green buttons marked with "NESTE" (next) or "FØRRE" (former).

SOME COMMENTS

1. You may search people by name, but only by their first name!
2. If you have a rather large number of hits in your first search, you may refine the search by using the scroll and search box on the top once more. If you f.ex. search for a Lars from Haugs parish, you start with choosing the parish criteria in the scroll box (sokn), then type "H*" in the search box. You will see that Haugs was spelled Hougs those days. When you have the records from Hougs on the screen, choose name as a criteria (namn) and type Lars* in the search box. The result is a list of all the Lars in Haugs.
3. Instead of "bonde" or "husbonde" the farmer is called "ops".
4. The same farm name or parish name may be written in many ways. Therefore you are advised to use quite a few letters in your search.
5. The people at one farm may be found at different pages in the census. The database is quite like the original census and the census people did not always have a very good system in their papers.
6. 6. Do not trust the information about age too much. For instance you will see that there are remarkably many individuals at 40, 50 and 60.

SOME AVAILABLE CENSUSES

Koppskatten 1645-46 for Sunnhordland, Nordhordland og Voss
(a tax list for Hordaland 1645-46)

Militærrull for Bergenhus len 1653
(soldier list Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane and southern part of Møre og
Romsdal from 1653)

Militærrull for Bergenhus len 1655
(ditto for 1655)

Formuestaksering for Bergen 1653
(a tax list from Bergen 1653)

Prestemanntalet for Smaalehnene 1664-6
(census for county of Østfold 1664-1666 (not complete))

Prestemanntalet for Søndre Bergenhuus 1664-6
(census for county of Hordaland county 1664-1666 (not complete))

Koppskatt for Bergen 1683
(a tax list for Bergen 1683)

1701-manntalet for Søndre Bergenhus
(1701 census for Hordaland (only males))

1701 manntalet for Nordre Bergenhus
(1701 census for Sogn og Fjordane (only males))

Matroser i Bergen 1754 - 1800
(a military list (marines) from Bergen 1754 - 1800)

Folketeljinga 1801 for heile landet
(1801 census for Norway (not new))

Undersøkelseskommisjonen 1803 - Stavanger
(a military list from Stavanger 1803)

Undersøkelseskommisjonen 1804 - Bergen
(a military list from Bergen 1804)

Stamrullen for det Østerdalske kompani
(a military list of young men in Østerdalen 19th century)

Stamrullen for det Fronske kompani
(a military list of young men in Fron (Gudbrandsdalen) 19th century)

Stamrullen for det Gudbrandsdalske kompani
(a military list of young men in Northern Gudbrandsdalen 19th century)

Folketeljinga 1815 for Bergen
(1815 census for Bergen)

Folketeljinga 1825 for Manger
(1825 census for Manger)

The Church book Database

You will get to the church book data by clicking on "Kyrkjebøker" in the first screen.

As for the census data most of the content is from Bergen and Western Norway. However, as you will see from the list at the end of this message, there are also church book records from the county of Oppland (Aurdal, Slidre, Lesja, Fron, Fåberg and Gran). Perhaps there are even more to come.

The interface for these data corresponds to that of the census data, and I will not explain that in detail here.

For Bergen the church book data for Bergen includes an impressing series of records of burials. You will find burials in Bergen for 1668-1972 except for the short period 1880-1912. This means close to 200.000 individuals! There are also a list of baptized children 1668-1815 and marriages between 1663-1814. The use of these church book data are quite straight forward for most of you, but here are some translations of the Norwegian words in the table headings:

Førenamn = First name
Etternamn = Second name (patronym, heritage name or both)
Farsnamn = Patronym
Forsørger = This field contains information about the head of the family
Stilling = Occupation
Bustad = Address (First number may refer to a street list?)
Merknad = Remarks

In the list of the church book data you will see something called "Ekteskapsløyve Bergen stift 1717-1804". This may be a valuable source for some of you. Let me use some lines to explain what that is:

At first I hurry to say that this database is not limited to Bergen, but covers Bergen, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane and also a part of Møre and Romsdal. "Ekteskapsløyve" means marriage permission and it deals with permission given by the Bishop in Bergen. In those days several reasons might necessitate a permission from the bishop. For example any close relationship between bride and bridegoom was such a reason. And this is one of usual thing with this database. If you find one of your ancestors in this database, it might be a proof of a relationship between this ancestor and his/her spouse. This might be a clue for further research.

Here are some translations of the datafields in this table:

Mannens/Kvinnas fornamn = First name of bridegroom/bride
Mannens/Kvinnas farsnamn = Patronym of bridegroom/bride
Mannens/Kvinnas prestegjeld= Parish of bridegroom/bride
Årsak = Reason for the application

Some usually reasons were: EF = close relationship
EL = offense connected to out of wedlock birth

LIST OF AVAILABLE DATABASES (may be expanded)

Gravlagde i Bergen
(Burials in Bergen)

Døde in Bergen 1912-1972
(Deaths in Bergen 1912-1972)

Døypte in Bergen 1668-1815
(Baptized children in Bergen 1668-1815)

Vigde in Bergen 1663-1814
(Marriages in Bergen 1663-1814)

Ekteskapsløyve in Bergen stift 1717-1804
(Marriage permissions in Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane 1717-1804)

Kommunikantar in Askøy, Korskirken and Nykirken
(Participants at Holy Communion)

Gravlagde i Aurdal, Slidre etc.
(Burials in Aurdal, Slidre etc.)

Utflytta frå Gran 1825-1900 og Jevnaker 1837-1901
(Emigration from Gran 1825-1900 and Jevnaker 1837-1901)

Back to Norway Genealogy

Last Updated: 03 September 1999 07:54 AM -0500

Webmaster and Coordinator for Norway GenWeb
WiGenWeb CC for Dunn, St. Croix, Polk and Douglas Counties/Linda Schwartz/Grandville MI

© 1998 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED