Brief History of Norwegian Birth Records
Norwegian words of the day
Church record-kirkebøker
State church-Statskirken
Baptism-Døpte
Birth-Fødte
Hello everyone, I’m glad to be back again to talk with you more about Norway records. I love talking about the different ways other countries store information and share it. Norway is fascinating to me. I still have fun learning about their culture and record keeping. To begin with, let’s talk about how Norwegians kept church records in the past.
“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.” [1]
The state church is Lutheran and still is today. To understand birth, marriage, and death records in Norway, you must understand or be familiar with the Lutheran church. Remember, parishes are similar to counties in America. Therefore, Norwegians kept church records on a county level. There are four levels of church jurisdiction that you’ll have to know if you want to find church records in Norway. The highest level is diocese (bidpedømme), the next level is deanery (prosti), the next level down is clerical district (prestegjeld), and lowest level is parish (sogn). The clerical district and parish are the ones that genealogists focus on to find church records online. A clerical district may have one or more parishes.
Record keeping varies from parish to parish and minister to minister. Therefore, when searching a new parish, you usually have to learn how the minister handled his records. In addition, laws for record keeping changed over time. Therefore, what we know now may not have been the rules in their earlier record keeping. In addition, ministers didn’t have any set rules for recording until 1814. So take some time to learn the record before trying to find your ancestor. It will help tremendously in the end.
Now, let’s talk about birth records since that is the record we need to find for Johanna Krogh. Prior to 1814, usually only the date of the christening was listed. If you find a record before 1814 with only one date listed, then it’s the christening date. Generally, the children were christened a few days after birth. Here is some fun information about christening a child.
“In the Middle Ages it was punishable by law to wait more than 8 days to have an infant baptized. This is according to King Christian the 5th Norwegian Law of 1687. It was believed that if a child died without baptism this child’s soul would be lost forever, therefore it was very important to the parents of a child to have the child baptized as soon as possible. This law was abolished in 1771, but in the 1800s an infant was usually baptized within 1-3 days after the birth.
Baptism was deemed as necessary to be “saved”, and it was only the clergy who should perform the baptism. However, this caused a problem, as children were usually born at home, many on a farm far away from the parish church, or where the minister resided. It was impossible for the minister to baptize every child in the congregation within a few days unless the child was brought to the church.
This brings up another question. Who should baptize the child? Often a child died shortly after birth, and there was no time for the minister to get there. Therefore it was necessary to give instructions about how an infant was to be baptized. Clean water was to be used, but in some cases beer was used if clean water could not be found. If an infant looked sickly or death was imminent, the baptism could be performed by the father of the child, the midwife or even the mother. In the church records you will often see en entry that a child had been baptized (hjemmedøbt) at home. This baptism, if the child lived, would be confirmed by the minister in the church at a later time.”[2]
Neat, huh? I love learning! After 1814, a column was added that asked whether the child was christened at home or at the church. Anyway, here is some information that you’ll find on a birth record.
· name of child
· name of parents. As you go back in time the mother’s name is not always recorded.
· place of residence (name of farm)
· names of godparents and witnesses
· child’s birth date/christening date
· home christening date if the child was christened at home
· father’s occupation
· records of stillbirths
· legitimate/illegitimate
· smallpox vaccination date
This information is valuable in verifying what you already have about your ancestor and in giving you clues to learn more about their family. The place of residence is very important. This separates a Jens Jensen in Oslo from a Jen Jensen in Stavanger. In fact, this might be the only thing that can distinguish two individuals.
Another tip about birth records is that many ministers wrote in the introduction day of the mother onto the birth record. The Lutheran church believed the mother was “unclean” for 40 days after birth. Therefore, she wasn’t allowed back to church until those 40 days were up. Then she was introduced back into the congregation and the date was recorded. Not all ministers recorded this date, but they all followed this practice. So when viewing a birth record, look for the birth date, the christening date, and the introduction date.
Next week, I’ll talk more about Johanna’s birth record. How I found it on the Norwegian Digital Archives, what the original record looks like, and what information we can glean from it. I hope that it will all pull together seamlessly and we won’t have any digital problems. We’ll see next week.
As always, thanks for reading and happy hunting!
Tiffany
