Find Norwegian Census Records in 3 Simple Ways
Census records will be one of the first places you will look when starting on your Norwegian ancestor search. The other one will be church records. But I like to start with the census records because it gives me a feel for the family dynamics. I learn who is in the family, where they resided, when they were born, and a whole bunch more information. It’s important to know how to find these Norwegian census records.
One way to find original Norwegian census records is by searching the major genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, or MyHeritage.com. Norway has given most of their genealogical records to these website companies. So many of the original Norwegian records have been digitized and can be seen on these websites. This is where I would start because many of these records have been translated into English so it’s just easier to find. I explain how to find these Norwegian census records for each of these websites in the following paragraphs.
Norwegian Census Records at Ancestry
You can either do a general search for your Norwegian ancestor on Ancestry or you can go to the Search tab, then click Census and Voter Lists. Then scroll down until you see the Collection Focus tab and select Norway. This eliminates all but Norway censuses from your search. And then just enter your ancestor’s information into the appropriate fields. However, this can be tricky because Norwegian censuses use the original Norwegian name for your ancestor and they may have Americanized it when they emigrated. So just be aware that researching in Norwegian records may be different.
Norwegian Census Records at Family Search
Again you can do a general search for your Norwegian ancestor and you will probably get a lot of information. But if you want to search for just Norwegian censuses, then go to the Search tab and then click on the Records tab. Scroll down to the Find a Collection box on the bottom of the page. Then type in Norway Census and you will find a list of everything that Family Search has.
Or you can use the Search by Place box just across from the Find a Collection box. Just type in Norway and it will take you to the Norway help page. This help page has more than just census records, which I have found very useful when researching my Norwegian ancestors. But don’t get distracted by searching the other goodies on this page! You’re there for census records so stay focused!
Norwegian Census Records at Norway National Archives
This way is a lot of fun, but it does take some effort to learn. The Norway Digital Archives gives you a different experience especially if you can’t find your ancestor using the websites mentioned earlier. This website has all original records. You will need to know your ancestor’s Norwegian name before it was Americanized to search this website. And it wouldn’t hurt to know their birthdate and birth place as well if you can.
Luckily, the website can be translated into English so you don’t have to guess where the search button is located. Again, you can do a general search by using your ancestor’s name, birthdate, and birthplace if you have it. Or you can search the Norway census collections that they have.
For that you click the Advanced Person Search tab and click on the Category, then Censuses. You can select all if you want to find your ancestor in all of the censuses or you can select a certain census year. Then put in your ancestor’s information to see what the website has to offer. You’ll have to do that for each census year if you selected just one. This is especially helpful when your general search only brings up a few census years and you want to make sure you’ve searched in every year. You can also type in your ancestor’s geographical location to narrow your search even more.
Important Census Tips to Remember
- Use different name spellings no matter if it’s American or Norwegian census records.
- Try to find your ancestor in every census record. This will help you learn many things about the entire family.
- Use wildcard symbols if you don’t know how your ancestor’s name was spelled. For both Norwegian and American records the “*” is the wildcard. You can also add the wildcard symbol in the middle of a name, such as “Ash*y”
- Try to use the first letter of the first name with the whole surname to see if any new census records come up.
- Learn the common Norwegian names for census headings such as head of household, residence, birthplace, etc.
Conclusion
You can learn to use the census records for your advantage. Start your journey here with the tips that I have offered. You will learn more about census records as you continue your search. There are many more interesting things to discover as you go along.
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In the meantime…good luck and happy hunting!
Tiffany
P.S. Sign up for my weekly email and receive more of the genealogy websites that I use to find both American and Scandinavian records.
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