Danish Demographic Database

Overview

The Danish Demographic Database was created by the Danish State Archives. It is designed to be an every name index for searching the Danish censuses. It is not linked to the original census images. The data input is accomplished primarily by committee efforts. Although the project has goals of accomplishing certain years first, a committee can focus their efforts on a specific locality. Some localities have the majority of national censuses complete, others are limited to the years of the project goals.

Although the census database does not include all parishes for every year of national census, the 1801, 1834, 1840,and 1845 are complete for the entire kingdom. The next year to be complete for the entire kingdom is the 1880 census.

Content

The Danish National Censuses are rich in genealogical information. The content found within each census varies year to year depending upon the original census format. You will find information such as:

Place of Residence

City, street name and number, parish, village, hamlet, and larger farms.

Name

The full name of every person in each household; a woman's maiden surname is always included.

Age

Each persons' age, e.g., 1st year or 45th year.

Position in household

The relationship in the family, or the position within each household; children of first or subsequent marriage of either parent; illegitimate children.

Occupation

The person's title, profession, or occupation.

Marital Status

The marital status (and whether this is the first or a subsequent marriage) is included on the 1787 and 1801 censuses. Marital status without subsequent marriage information is on every National Census after 1801.

Miscellaneous Information

Miscellaneous information, which includes things like visiting at home, blind, or living on parish relief.

Using the Site

• Click on the Danish flag to run in Danish or the British flag to run in English.
• Whether you are running it in Danish or English, you must represent the Danish letters of Æ, Ø, and Å. (where appropriate). For example: Sørensen uses the Danish letter Ø. If you type Sorensen, you will get zero hits.
• As an alternative, you can type _ in the middle of a word for single letter replacement. For example: S_rensen as an alternative for ø. You can type % to replace one or more letters. For example: Niels% allows you to search for all the Nielsens' and Nielsdatters.
• Type in at least 3 letters for the name you are searching for (first, last or both). Remember to consider the variations of a name such as Sven or Svend. There are also variations on the surnames such as Svensen, Svendsen, Svendsdatter, or Svensdtr. As a researcher the challenge is to figure out how the census taker wrote it.
• On the search page, click on underlined map or kort for the county maps.

Internet Address

http://ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm

or search Google for "Danish Demographic Database."

Cost

Free

Tips

• Use the Danish Word List on FamilySearch to translate words such as gift–married or ugift–unmarried; kone–wife, børn–child; tjeneste–servant.
  
• The less you enter the better. Use other fields only if you get more than 100 hits for a name. Then delimit your results using age, sex, or parish if known.
• If you are unsuccessful with a male’s name, try a wife by maiden name or a child’s name. Try only a first name or only a surname or part of a name. Try sound-alike letters such as G, C, K for Groneman, Cronemand, Kronnemann.