Norway Handwriting

Norway Handwriting Helps

Parish Registers Pre - 1814

• Birth and Christening
• Confirmation
• Engagement
• Marriage
• Death and Burial

Parish Registers Post - 1814

• Birth and Christening
• Confirmation
• Engagement
• Marriage
• Death and Burial
• Moving-in List
• Moving-out List

Language Characteristics

Norwegian Genealogical Word List

Variant Forms of Words

In Norwegian, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries— married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. For example:

Mann man Kone wife Mannen the man Kona the wife Menn men Koner wives Mennene the men Konene the wives

Alphabetical Order

Written Norwegian has three letters not found in the English alphabet: Æ (æ), Ø (ø), and Å (å). In most record sources prior to 1915, Å (å) is written as Aa (aa) and filed at the beginning of the alphabet. Modern Norwegian dictionaries, indexes, the Locality section of the Family History Library Catalog, and this word list use the following alphabetical order:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z æ ø å

Spelling

Spelling was not standardized when most early records were made. The following spelling variations are common:

aa used for å b used for p c used for k ch used for k d used for t e used for æ

f used for v g used for k hj used for j i used for j j used for gj ld used for ll

nd used for nn q used for k tj used for kj  u used for v w used for v x used for ks

 

Examples:

gjørtler spelled as giørtler

mann spelled as mand

kvinne spelled as quinde

 

Genealogy Key Words

In order to find and use specific types of Norwegian records, you will need to know some key words in Norwegian. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Norwegian words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Norwegian words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Norwegian records to indicate marriage.

 

English	Norwegian
banns	lysninger
birth	fødte, født
burial	begravelse, jordet
census	folketelling
child	barn
christening	døbte, døbt
clerical	district prestegjeld
confirmation	konfirmasjon, konfirmerede
death	døde, død
engagement	forlovelse, trolovelse
father	far
female	kvinnekjønn
husband	ektemann
index	register
male	mannkjønn
marriage	copulerede, egteviede, gift, vielse
military	militær
mother	mor
moving in	innflyttning
moving out	utflyttning
name, given	fornavn
name, surname	etternavn
parents	foreldre
parish	sogn
probate	skifte
vaccination	vaccinerede, vaksinert
wife	hustru
year	år