10 tips for genealogical research in Norway

The collection of "10 Tips" page for the Nordic countries is operated by the participating countries in Nordgen. The tips for Norway is also here.

1. Talk to relatives and acquaintances to gather the most information from older relatives before you start looking elsewhere.

    1.1. Be sure to write down everything they know from old information about name, place of birth - date and all of general interest.

    1.2. Get the old relatives to put names in the photo albums. Often this old heirloom is guarded carefully, but without names and other information.

2. Get a genealogy program. Check this page www.disnorge.no / cms / slektsprogram.html. Participate in user group meetings if there is such a local team.

3. Plan your research

    3.1. Think through how you will record your data.

    3.2. Register sources for all information and consider the sources

4. Start searching for more information about your family

    4.1. Use the Digital Archive www.digitalarkivet.no; especially scanned censuses and parish records, to anchor your related branches for example in the Population Census 1900. Alternatively, you can find information on the Central Register of Historic Data: www.rhd.uit.no

    4.2. Gravestones in Norway has an overview, of buried in several cemeteries in Norway, with information on birth and death dates, and in some cases photos of tombstones; DIS Tombstone-service

    4.3. Go to the geographical area of the DIS-Norway's site with genealogical resources: DIS Norway's Genress and get an overview of what's available on the Internet, library or elsewhere.

    4.4. Check if there is a local history book for the area at: www.lokalhistorie.no / bygdebok.html

    4.5. Make a search for your relatives at  Family Search:

5. Ask for help and help others

    5.1. Enter an inquiry in the Family Forum at DIS Norways's webpages:

    5.2. Take a trip to DISchat which is the forum where you might get answers to your questions with the researcher once

    5.3. Once you have data from the 1920's or older you should send this as a GEDCOM file to the DIS-Norges DIStreff database and search for it on: www.disnorge.no / distreff. When you get the results of your contributions to DIStreff, contact the family researchers who have submitted contributions to the same relatives you work with to exchange more information.

    5.4. Contact with other genealogists who are interested in the same geographical area that your ancestors belongs to. An overview can be found on the DIS-Norge's Genealogy Researcher Database Click on the english flag to get to the english pages.

6. Expand efforts to learn more about genealogy

    6.1. Attend meetings of the regional and local branches; overview of the regional branches can be found here. Overview of the meetings and topics of these regional branches can be found on this Activity Calendar:

    6.2. Check if there is something written in "Slekt og Data" (Genealogy and Computers), DIS Norways magazine on genealogy, that can give you tips or information: The list of content for the years 1991 to 2001 can be found here.

    6.3. Check out the book "Våre Røtter" (Our Roots) and consider whether there are other sources you can use to find out more about the family. The book can be bought from DIS Norways DISbutikk . The book is only available in norwegian.

    6.4. A review of related literature is available at: Family History literature ¦ Slektslitteratur

If there is a simple lookup, you can try to find someone who can help on: Genealogical Resources for Norway . Browse to the wanted geographical area and see if any can do a lookup for you in local history books or other resources.  Or you can check Rootswebs list of Resource owners for Norway: Inquieries for resource lookup can also be done to Digital Archives User Forum.

7. A genealogist needs to access maps with the ability to search the names and addresses, both contemporary and historical maps, and it is available at kart.statkart.no. Modern Map is also available at: www.hvor.no

8. Keep information about you as a member of the DIS-Norway up to date on your member page.

9. Share information with family, make reports and surveys on paper or CD, consider posting the information on this, maybe you have enough to write a book in a little time.

10. Remember to check the information you find online with the original sources and keep your DIStreff contributions up to date.