Want to get started with genealogy research? Here are some tips
"If you're lucky enough to have a criminal, a priest, or nobility in your family, there's a lot of material to find," says genealogist.
Published
At a table in Øvre Eiker Library sits Ivan Kristensen. A banner shows that the Buskerud Genealogy Association is offering its services here.
“I’ve always been interested in history. My daughter started doing genealogy research, so I followed suit,” he says.
Since then, Kristensen has mapped the family lines of his eight grandchildren, including his own and his wife's family, as well as the families of their sons- and daughters-in-law on all sides.
Every now and then, he encounters surprises.
Paternity changed in parish registers
“A brother of my wife's great-great-grandmother was married to a woman from Lier municipality. They apparently had children together. But one day, the woman went to the priest and confessed that what was written in the parish register – that her husband was the father of the two children – was wrong,” says Kristensen.
The woman from Lier had joined a religious group. Kristensen believes she wanted to confess her sins. The priest corrected the church records and wrote in two different fathers. The couple divorced.
“Neighbours and friends testified at the trial. Later, the woman had more children with other men,” says Kristensen.
He has a clear piece of advice for people who want to start researching their family tree.
Talk to family elders
“The first and most important thing you need to do is talk to older family members. Grandparents in their 70s, 80s, and 90s know a lot about their family. Bring a recording device, because they jump around in their stories,” says Kristensen.
The genealogist encourages people to ask about their parents, grandparents, and siblings. Where did they live? What did they do for work? Ask if they have any exciting or funny stories.
A relative of Kristensen once shared such a story. His father had just installed running water, a bathtub, and a shower. Now you can shower more often, his son told him. No, replied the father. He bathed at Christmas, and that was enough.
Old people also have photographs.
“Most of them haven’t placed the photos in albums. Usually, there’s nothing written on the back to indicate who is in the photograph. You need to ask and take notes,” says Kristensen.
Then you’re ready to start your search.
Population censuses
“Censuses are a good resource. Start with a relative who has recently died,” says Kristensen.
From the mid-1600s, it became important for the authorities to keep track of the population in Norway. They started with electoral registers and population censuses. This provided a basis for taxation and listed men eligible for military service, according to lokalhistoriewiki.no (link in Norwegian).
Norwegian census records are subject to a 100-year privacy restriction. This means the 1920 census is the most recent one available at the Digital Archives.
However, they are not entirely accurate.
“Census officials went door to door and asked: Who lives here now? As a result, family members living elsewhere weren't recorded,” says Kristensen.
Name confusion
If you’re trying to locate someone who moved away, you’ll need to search the area they lived in on the exact day the census was taken. However, names can be an issue, as there was no consistent way of spelling them.
“I've found my wife's great-great-grandmother listed as Inbjørg, Ingborg, Ingbjørg, and Ingebjørg,” says Kristensen.
The archives are also crawling with people named Ole Olsen and Hans Hansen.
“Children were often named after their grandparents. If both grandfathers were named Ole, two children would be named Ole. If one of the children died, the next son was also given the name Ole,” says Kristiansen.
If the father was named Hans, the Oles were called Ole Hansen. Their children’s patronymic surname was, in turn, Olsen.
Because the names were so similar, the place of residence was added. If Kari Olsdatter lived at the tenant farm Berget, she was known as Kari Berget. This information is also recorded in parish registers.
Fixed surnames were introduced in 1923 with Norway’s new naming law. Everyone was required to have a family name with an official spelling. Most people took a surname based on their father’s first name, like Hansen, or the name of the farm where they lived.
Kristensen notes that the archives provide tips on how to search for different spellings to find the right person.
How old is everyone here?
Birthdates in the censuses may also be incorrect.
“The officials who came to the door asked how old the people in the household were. If a servant girl answered, she might not have known the exact ages of all the family members. Conversely, the housewife might not have known the servant girl's age,” says Kristensen.
Parish registers hold information on baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, and burials.
You can also find out who moved in and out of the parish.
However, the parish registers cannot always be trusted.
People lied about children
It was not uncommon for people to lie to the priest about children born out of wedlock.
“The parish registers are the best sources we have, and the mother's identity is generally accurate. But not always. If a man registered a child for baptism, the priest assumed the man's wife was the mother,” says Kristensen.
This is how illegitimate children were concealed. Kristensen recounts the story of a man who married a woman with an adult daughter. The man had children with his stepdaughter, but the wife is listed as the mother in the parish register.
“I know this because everyone in the village knew about it,” says Kristensen.
Single mothers were stigmatised. That is why the parents of an unmarried, pregnant daughter would pretend that the child was their own.
Professor Arne Bugge Amundsen from the University of Oslo highlights another source of error in church records that can be hard to uncover.
"When men from higher social classes fathered children with servant girls, it was not uncommon for them to pay men from the woman's own class to claim paternity," he says.
The King needed to know where he came from
Genealogy is not a new concept. In royal families, genealogy – the study of family origins – was particularly important.
“Princes and kings derived their legitimacy from their lineage. This is why they maintained relatively thorough records of their ancestors, ” says Amundsen.
The nobility also needed to know their family trees.
“Noble status required proof of a certain number of noble ancestors. In the 1600s, noblewomen documented their family histories,” says Amundsen.
Genealogy also aids historians researching the 19th century and earlier periods.
Old handwriting can be hard to decipher
“Historians trace family connections to understand who people were, what they did, and what networks they belonged to,” says Amundsen.
Amateur researchers often use the same methods as academic historians.
"Genealogy involves understanding the sources, assessing the information critically, and interpreting it correctly," he says.
You also need to be able to read the old handwriting. Not until the end of the 19th century did handwriting began to resemble how we write today.
“I think many people give up on genealogy because they’re unable to read the source material,” says Amundsen.
Search far and wide
Local historical societies also have a lot of information about village life.
"But people make mistakes. We can't trust everything we find in local history books or family records. They're not always accurate enough," says Ivan Kristensen.
He advises genealogists to search widely and broadly. For instance, the Mormon Church has a vast database filled with information.
For more than 100 years, they have collected information about people worldwide. The Mormons believe that families will remain together in the afterlife, which is why they map family trees, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FamilySearch.org database is freely available to everyone.
“You need to register to search, but it's completely safe. It doesn’t make you a Mormon,” says Kristensen.
Errors spread through entire families
Many genealogists use the commercial database MyHeritage, but it has its drawbacks.
“There are often many errors. Each user creates their own family tree, which others can copy. If one person makes a mistake, that error can spread throughout the entire family tree,” Kristensen says.
MyHeritage offers DNA analysis, which provides insight into people’s ethnic and geographical origins.
Kristensen also recommends searching old newspapers. Genealogists have extended access to the National Library of Norway's online archive, which contains newspapers dating back to the first publication in 1763.
Names on gravestones
Kristensen recommends anyone interested in tracing their family history join a genealogy group. Several exist.
Slekt og Data (Family and Data) is the largest such group in Norway. They hold courses, meetings, and provide guidance. They also have a database of gravestones.
Most viewed
"They’ve visited churchyards and photographed all the gravestones, recording birthdates, names, and death dates," says Kristensen.
The big question remains: How far back can we trace our lineage?
We descend from farmers
“In Norway, we basically all come from farmers. If they owned their own farm, either through inheritance or as tenant farmers, it’s easier to trace them in the church records and tax lists,” says Arne Bugge Amundsen.
Tenant farmers and others without property moved more frequently and did not pay taxes directly. They therefore left fewer traces of their whereabouts.
Fires have also destroyed many archives. All the older parish registers in Eidsvoll municipality were lost when the parsonage burned down in 1877.
However, it should be possible to trace ancestry back to the 1600s, according to Amundsen.
“Although most people probably won't get further than the 1700s,” says Ivan Kristensen.
More than names and dates
For Kristensen, the goal is not just to trace lineage as far back as possible.
"People are more than just names and dates. What interests me is understanding the lives of the people I find. How did they live? If you're lucky enough to have a criminal, a priest, or nobility in your family, there's a lot of fascinating material to explore," he says.
Local history books and newspaper articles provide stories and insights. Did your relatives live on a large farm or a poor tenant plot? Were they affected by extreme weather? Did they live through wars?
“These are real people, not just names and dates. If you're open-minded and not just focused on names and dates, you gain insight into the living conditions, opportunities, and choices of people in the past. This also provides a better understanding of local and national history,” says Arne Bugge Amundsen.
If you get stuck, Kristensen suggests visiting a genealogy expert at the library.
“We’re stationed at libraries all over Norway. Just drop by for help and advice along your research journey,” he says.
———
Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
Related content:
Subscribe to our newsletter
The latest news from Science Norway, sent twice a week and completely free.
