Danish Amtstue

Denmark

Jurisdictions

Amtstue

In Denmark, the amtstue were financial districts. They mostly had the same boundaries as the original counties that existed 1660-1793.

The amtstue are important for genealogists because they recorded both tax records and some probate records.

Places where the Amtstue are Especially Important

Prior to 1660, about half of all the land in the kingdom was owned by the king. After 1660, the crown sold off about half of this in order to prevent bankruptcy but even so, about 25% of the land was still owned by the crown. The following map marks in green places where the king owned virtually all of the land are in green and places where the king owned large amounts of the land are in yellow. If your ancestor lived in either the green or the yellow marked places, you will want to look in the amtstue for their probate records and they may have many entries in the tax kontributionsregnskaber. Note that one big exception to this is Bornholm. The people of Bornholm had their own unique probate jurisdictions.

Tax Records

Between 1662 and 1700, Denmark repeatedly waged and lost wars against Sweden with the intention of recapturing Scania, Halland, and Blekinge. In order to pay for these wars, the Danish crown repeatedly levied many extra taxes on the population. These are recorded in the corresponding amtstue. They cover almost all of the population and usually at least the head of household is named, but some name all people above the age of 12. Nearly the whole population will be named in the extra taxes. The only exception is those who were tax exempt such as the nobility.

Besides the extra tax lists, the amtstue recorded the regular tax records of those who leased their land from the crown or from an entity owned by the crown. These are called kontributionsregnskaber.

Probate Records

The amtstue usually recorded probates those who leased their land from the crown or from a crown owned entity. If this is the case for your ancestor, you will need to check the amtstue specifically for their probate. This jurisdiction will not come up in the catalog if you simply search for the parish your ancestor lived and then click on probates. You need to know about the amtstue and go looking specifically for them in the catalog.