Gaardsdriften Aaret rundt (1891): Stepping Into the Living Rhythm of Your Norwegian Ancestors There is a quiet distance that often settles between our ancestors and us. We learn their names, we trace their movements across parish registers and census lists, and we note the farms they occupied. Yet…

Parents names in illegitimate children’s baptism records Anyone who has spent time in Norwegian parish registers knows that the layout of a baptism entry is not always as straightforward as we might wish. This becomes particularly evident in records of children born outside marriage.

What DNA Research Can Tell Us About Internal Migration in Norway When genealogists think about migration, we often think first of emigration. The journey to America is dramatic, visible, and often well documented. But internal migration in Norway is just as important for understanding family…

When the In-Migration Page Is Really an Out-Migration Page If you work much with Norwegian church records, you eventually learn that the page headings do not always tell the whole story. In some cases, when the In-Migration Page is really an Out-Migration Page, it can create confusion for…

Norwegian Easter: Murder, Chocolate, and a Bit of Fresh Air 🐣 Let me just say it straight: Norwegian Easter is wonderfully confusing the first time you experience it.

Following My Ancestor Back to Norway A family story of emigration, war, and returning to Norway generations later.

Internal Migration in Norway in the 1700s–1800s: From Valleys to Frontiers Between the 1700s and 1800s, Norway underwent significant demographic, economic, and social transformations. Internal migration—that is, movement of people within Norway rather than overseas—played a central role in these…

Lensmann on the Edge of the Lake: A Microhistory of My 8th Great-Grandfather Jens Nilsen Nedrebø On a cold December evening in 1680, the sky over Jølster refused to behave. That night, Jens Nilsen Nedrebø, the sheriff in Jølster, recorded the unfolding events.

Digitalarkivet’s New Service for Scanned Church Books: What’s Changing and How We Can Adapt Nasjonalarkivet has launched   Digitalarkivet new service for searching and viewing scanned church books (skanna kirkebøker). The rollout began in mid-December, and the service is still being improved based…

Book Review: The Craft of Historical Research Most genealogists begin with names, dates, and places. Historians, on the other hand, usually begin with questions about societies and historical change. Yet the methods used by both groups are remarkably similar. This book review, The Craft of…

Using Flickr to Share Family Photos: A Digital Album for Our Family History For many family historians, photographs are among the most treasured pieces of evidence we possess. Names and dates tell us who our ancestors were, but photographs show us their faces, their clothing, their homes, and…

Why Your Story Matters When we do genealogy and local history, it’s easy to get caught up in dates and names: born, baptized, married, buried. Important, yes – but a life is more than a line in a parish register.

The “Eiendom” Sources in Digitalarkivet: A Complete Guide for Genealogists If you research Norwegian family history, you already know the “people records”: baptisms, confirmations, marriages, burials, and censuses. But serious genealogical research in Norway eventually leads to something even more…

Archives Portal Europe — A Practical Gateway to Europe’s Archives If you’ve ever tried to research outside one single country, you know how quickly things become complicated. Different archive systems, languages, and catalog structures. And sometimes, different historical borders altogether.

Exploring Norwegian Genealogy, a Book Review skcgs.blogspot.com/2025/07/exploring-norwegian-genealogy-book.html #BookReview #Norwegian #Genealogy #Research #Census #ParishRecords #FarmNames #Patronymics

Why I’ll Always Come Back to Norway | Senja After years of choosing warm, sunny destinations, Dravis and Anna traded beaches for snowstorms and headed to Senja, Norway.

Daniel, thank you for introducing yourself. I specialize in Norwegian genealogy. I’ve been conducting research for someone whose ancestors hail from Ireland. I must admit I’ve hit a brick wall with my research there. Would you be willing to provide me some guidance?

1 Mar 2026 Trick for finding where your ancestors lived #genealogy

Genealogy à la carte's weekly crème de la crème never disappoints. #genealogy #FamilyHistory via @genealogyalacarte.bsky.social genealogyalacarte.ca?p=47098

The Norwegian Property Numbering System Before we can use the Eiendom sources in Digitalarkivet confidently, we need to understand how Norwegian property is identified. To do this, it's important to have some knowledge of the Norwegian property numbering system.

Soothing Saturday: The Great Snow Showdown Big snowfall overnight, and the neighborhood is out in full force. Snowblowers roar, shovels clash, and snowbanks rise like fortresses. Join me for this week’s Soothing Saturday — The Great Snow Showdown. Soothing Saturday — is my little corner for…

#Genealogy #FamilyHistory #FREE I'm excited to present a live webinar on March 24 hosted by the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center: "Free Genealogical Resources for New York (and Beyond)" - Please mark your calendar, watch for registration soon! acpl.libnet.info/event/15848150

Gentle reminder: it’s okay to not be productive with your research when you’re stressed or overwhelmed. It’s okay to take a break. Closing the laptop is sometimes the most productive research choice. #Genealogy #FamilyHistory

The Black Death in Norway (Svartedauden): population collapse, social change—and how we glimpse it in the sources The Black Death is often described as a single, terrible event. In Norway, it was both an event and the beginning of a long, uneven era of recurring plague. The Black Death reshaped…

Friday Finds – Week 8, 2026 Here are some articles I have read over the last week.

Norske Gaardnavne (Oluf Rygh): the old master key to Norwegian farm names If you do Norwegian genealogy for any length of time, you’ll meet the same problem again and again: the place is there in the record, but the spelling is… creative. Norske Gaardnavne (Oluf Rygh): the old master key to…

Norwegian Administrative Units Through Time When you research Norwegian ancestors, “where” can change depending on the year. Norway’s local identity is stable, but the official administrative units—both civil and church—shifted over time. Understanding Norwegian administrative units is crucial, as…

From Name Collector to Careful Researcher: Embracing the Genealogy Do-Over A “genealogy do-over” is precisely what it sounds like: deciding to start your family history research again from the beginning – on purpose – so you can do it better this time.

The big Norwegian encyclopedia martinroe.com/blog/the-big...

When Two Oles Share a Birthday Avoiding the wrong ancestor in your family tree can be harder than it looks, even when you feel you have “solid” facts in front of you.

Norwegians in the Boer War: A Small Nation in a Distant Conflict When we think about Norwegian emigrants, our minds usually go to the American prairie, not to the dusty battlefields of South Africa. Yet during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), a small but colorful group of Norwegians found…

Soothing Saturday: When the Light Comes Back (And We All Pretend We’re Fine) If you live in Norway, winter teaches you a very specific kind of patience. Not the heroic, mountain-trek patience. More the everyday kind where you put on your jacket, look out the window, and think, “Ah. Darkness again.…

Norwegian church books: a practical, traditional guide for genealogists If you research Norwegian ancestors, Norwegian church books are where most solid proof begins—and where many good family stories become verifiable history.

A Few Forgotten Women article by Margaret Roberts in this month's Really Useful Bulletin www.fewforgottenwomen.com/post/forgott... Do check it out #WomensHistory #FamilyHistory #Genealogy

24 Jan 2026 When a birthdate is blank #genealogy

Free Online United States City Directories An excellent source of #genealogy info is Historical City Directories. They provide substantial info between censuses, such as addresses, occupations, spouse's name, etc. For the country, there are 27,870 Free City Directory Collections buff.ly/vVGxIYr

Tonight's #genealogy - using ChatGPT on old documents youtube.com/watch?v=9u0Y...

Old Tour #Scotland #Ancestry Travel Visit #Genealogy #Scottish Family #History Blog #photography of a steam train in the railway station in Dalnaspidal in the Highlands. This intermediate station was opened in 1865 tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com/2015/05/old-...

Your 4-Day Genealogy Outlook #winterstorm #GenealogyForecast

Friday Finds — Week 4, 2026 Here are five reads I’ve bookmarked this week, chosen to be both useful and thought-provoking.

The Dear Paul column is looking for two kinds of hidden gems this year: newspaper stories and parish register curiosities. Did your ancestor make the headlines for something unusual. Plus what did you discover hidden in those parish registers. If you’ve uncovered a story, I’d love to hear from you.

21 Jan 2026 Not everything is on Google Maps. Sometimes you need a satellite view. #genealogy

Digitalarkivet Search Guide: Which Search Should You Use? Digitalarkivet is wonderful… but also capable of making a sensible person stare at the screen as if it personally offended them.

Soothing Saturday: The Blog You See… and the Blog Gremlins You Don’t Soothing Saturday is usually where I slow things down a bit—coffee in hand, shoulders unclenched, and a gentle reminder that not every problem needs solving today.

Introduction to the Digitalarkivet If you do family history in Norway, Digitalarkivet for Norwegian genealogy is one of the best places to start. It’s Arkivverket’s (the National Archives of Norway) public publishing platform for digitised and transcribed archive material, and it’s free to use.…

Old boathouses #Norway ##photography #black/white

#genealogy - www.searchformygrandparents.com/home/mothers...

The SRS is a scholarly publishing society, taking transcriptions of Scottish manuscript records and publishing them to disseminate them around the world. Each year a new volume comes out, with copies sent to members. Why not join us? www.scottishrecordsociety.org.uk/membership/

Genealogy for beginners: start the right way Genealogy for beginners can feel overwhelming: names, dates, places, websites, family stories, old letters, photographs. Before you know it, everything is in a heap on your desk or scattered across folders on your computer.