Norway Church Records

The Lutheran church records are the primary source for genealogical research in Norway. Church records [kirkebøker] provide excellent information on names, dates, and places of births, marriages, and deaths. Almost everyone who lived in Norway was recorded in a church record.

Records of births, marriages, and deaths are commonly called vital records because critical events in a person's life are recorded in them. Church records are vital records made by the pastor or his assistant. They are often referred to as parish registers or church books and include records of christenings, marriages, and burials. In addition, church records may include lists of members, confirmations, marriage banns, and accounts of people moving in and out of the parish.

Church records are crucial for Norwegian research. The Evangelical Lutheran Church became the state church (Statskirken) or national church (Den Norske Kirke, lit. The Norwegian Church), after the Reformation in 1536. As such, it is an arm of the national government. The church keeps the vital records for the government.

General Historical Background

Christianity came to Norway around 1152 to 1153 in the form of the Catholic church. The church was organized with an archbishop in Nidaros (now Trondheim), with ten bishop seats under him: four in Norway, two in Iceland, one in Greenland, one in the Faeore Islands, one in the Orkney Islands, and one in the Hebrides Islands and Isle of Man.

From the time of the Reformation in 1536, Norway became a Lutheran nation. From then until 1843 it was against the law to practice the Roman Catholic religion in Norway. Notable exceptions include Catholic congregations in Fredrikstad (since 1682), Kristiansand (since 1686), and Oslo (Kristiania) (since 1843). A few Quakers were also allowed to live near Stavanger in 1826, provided that they did not move out of the area.

The Norwegian government recognized only the state church prior to 1845, when it became legal to organize churches of other denominations. St. Olav's Catholic congregation in Oslo was organized that year. Its church building was completed in 1856, the same year Catholic missionary work was started in Northern Norway, the Alta as its seat. This work, also called the North Pole Miswsion (Nordpolmisjon), was abolished in 1869, and resumed its seat in Oslo.

There are no church records from the pre-Reformation times in Norway. Therefore, the earliest church records available are the Lutheran church records.

At a Congress of Deans held in April 1668, a resolution was adopted to introduce keeping parish records in Norway. However, it was not until 1688 that record keeping was required by law. Some pastors began keeping records much earlier. The earliest parish record dates from 1623. Church records for the state church are available in most areas beginning about 1700.

In 1845, the Nonconformist Act recognized Christian dissenter churches; however, the act required that everyone from all denominations notify the pastor of their local Lutheran parish of all births and marriages. The Nonconformist Act did not apply to Jews until 1851, when a constitutional provision repealed the exclusion. Few Norwegians belong to nonconformist religions. In 1989, only six percent of the population listed their religion as other than Lutheran.

A uniform system for keeping church records was introduced by royal ordinance in December 1812. The use of a standard form began during the winter of 1814. This form was replaced by a new one in 1820, and another in 1870. The form adopted in 1870 is basically the same one still in use today.

Because of concerns over possible destruction of church books by fire or loss, the Ordinance of 1812 required that a duplicate register be kept in a separate place. These records, called klokker bøker (clerk books), were kept by the parish clerk. The clerk books are designated as such in the Family History Library Catalog by the use of "kl" to the left of the volume and time period of the record.

Information Recorded in Church Records

At first, the record-keeping requirement was limited to baptisms, marriages, and burials. Confirmation registers of many parishes date from as early as 1736. Until a standard form was established in 1814, no directions were given on how to keep church records, so the records before that date vary greatly.

Baptisms [Døpte]

Prior to 1814, usually only the date of christening was listed. Children were generally christened within a few days of birth. Christening registers usually gives the name of the infant and father and the place of residence. In some cases the mother's name is listed, and often the names of godparents and witnesses were recorded. You may also find the child's birth date and the father's occupation in the baptismal records. Baptism records may also include records of stillbirths.

The spelling of a name was determined by the recorder, so many variations resulted. For example, the given name Sivert might be spelled as Syver, Sjur, Siver, Sifuer, or Siffuer.

After 1814 a standardized form was generally used in recording the event. On this form was listed both the birth and christening date, both parents' names and place of residence, the child's legitimate or illegitimate status, and the names of godparents and witnesses. In larger cities, street addresses were also listed.

See Baptism (Døpte) for more detailed information

Marriages [Viede]

Marriage registers give the bride's and groom's names, marriage date, and sometimes their place(s) of residence. Usually the record also indicates whether the bride and groom were single or widowed before marriage and gives the names of bondsmen (two men who knew that the bride and groom were eligible to be married; in later records these were often the fathers of the bride and groom). Sometimes a separate record of a couple's engagement [trolovelse] appears in the earlier records.

Records after 1814 often include other information about the bride and groom, such as their ages, place of residence, and occupations. After the 1830s, the records also include the names of their fathers and birthplaces.

Marriage registers sometimes give the date of the engagement and the three dates on which the marriage intentions were announced. These announcements, called banns, allowed anyone who knew of any reason why the couple should not marry to come forward.

Couples were usually married in the bride's home parish. Typically, the bride and groom were in their twenties when they married.

Burials [Begravede]

Burials were recorded in the parish where the person was buried. The burial usually took place in the parish where the person died, one to two weeks after the death occurred. In the wintertime the actual time between death and burial could have been weeks or even months.

Burial registers list the name of the deceased and the date and place of burial. After 1814, the deceased person's age, place of residence, and occupation were listed. For young children, the name of the child's father is usually given.

Burial records may exist for individuals who were born before birth records and marriage records were kept. Stillbirths were usually recorded in church burial registers.

Some of the birth, marriage, and death records (mainly Bergen and a few other parishes) are also available on the Internet at:

http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/WebFront.exe?slag=vis&tekst=meldingar

When you find the address, click on "Kirkebøker" (church books). Hard copies of these records in both Norwegian and English are also available for purchase. They can be ordered through the following address:

Registreingssentral for historiske data
Det samfunnsvitenskapelige faktultet
Universitetet i Tromsø
N-9037 Tromsø
Norway
Telephone: 47 77 64 40 00
Internet: http://uit.no/informasjon/52/

See Norway: Burials (Begravelse) for information on burial customs.

Confirmation [Konfirmasjon]

Although a person's first communion was important, before 1736 little formal religious instruction was given regarding it. However, in that year the Lutheran state church required that young people be instructed in catechism and pass a test before taking the first communion. This test and the first communion was called confirmation. No one was permitted to marry in the Lutheran church unless they had been confirmed.

Confirmation usually took place when a young person was between the ages of 14 to 20 years old. The candidate was usually nearer 19 years of age in the period close to 1736 and 14 to 16 years of age later. In pre-1815 confirmation records the age and place of residence was often recorded. After 1814 the name of the head of household where the youth lived, the age,birth and/or baptism date, and the place of residence and birth were listed. Since the 1830s, the parents' names were also listed.

See Confirmation (Konfirmasjon) for more information.

Vaccination (Vaksinasjon)

Smallpox vaccination was encouraged in Norway, and records of those vaccinated can be found in the parish register. In the early records the pastor listed all the children vaccinated on a particular day. These records may also list the person who performed the vaccination. After 1814 this information was sometimes added as a notation on the christening record. The main genealogical value of vaccination records is to show that a person resided in a parish at a given time.

Arrival/Departures (Innflyttede/Uttflyttdede)

Some records of arrivals to and departures from parishes were kept prior to 1814. The printed forms in 1814 included information about people moving into a given parish and their departures to other parishes. The arrival records may list the person's name, age or birth date, occupation, former residence, and new residence. The departure lists give similar information. These records are important sources for following the movement of the working class. They often include citations given to people leaving a parish for North America.

Locating Church Records

The parish registers are kept at the local parish church until 80 years have passed since the date of the last entry. The registers are then sent to the state archive for the area. (See the "Archives and Libraries" section.) The duplicate copy of the register is sent to the state archive as soon as it is filled.

You must determine which parish your ancestor belonged to so that you will know which parish registers to search. Small villages that did not have their own churches were part of a larger parish, which is referred to by the town where the church was located. To identify the parish a farm or village belonged to, see the "Gazetteers" section.

Parish boundary maps can also be extremely helpful when determining which parish church records to search. They can also help you identify neighboring parishes if you need to search more than one parish in a region.

Records at the Family History Library

The Family History Library has many Norwegian church records on microfilm. The collection includes all existing parish registers from their beginning until about 1920. This collection continues to grow as new records are microfilmed.

To find these church records in the Family History Library Catalog, look in the Place search under:

• NORWAY, [COUNTY], [PARISH] - CHURCH RECORDS.

Records Not at the Family History Library

Baptism, marriage, and burial records with entries from the last 80-year period are located at the local parish church. Occasionally, pastors delay sending their old church books to the archives, so some local parishes may have records that are older than 80 years. You may write in English to local parishes for information from this most recent time period. When writing, always include a self-addressed envelope with three international postage coupons.