Danish Birth Records-A Closer View

Hello everyone! How’s your week going? Are you getting into a groove with your life or is it in chaos? My life is finally settling down now that my daughter is back in school and I can have a more structured life. Summers are fun, but they are hard for me when I need structure.

So let’s shed some more light on Danish birth records because I feel that these records and the other vital records need their own blog post to shine. In my previous post about Danish church records, I explained how these records are more in depth than other Scandinavian records. I want to show you what I was talking about using examples.

How to Find Danish Birth Records

The easiest way is to go to the National Danish Archives and click on Parish Registers. Then go to Church Books from all over the Country. Select the County and the Parish name where your ancestor lived. Then select the year that you want to search. I chose Frederiksborg County and Annisse Parish in 1894 for my example.

What Do You See on a Danish Birth Record

When I’m looking at an original church record, I notice a few things right away. First, I can’t read any of it because it’s in a different language. Second, how was the record formatted or how was it organized by that church priest. Third, what resources do I have that can help me understand this better.

When I’m looking at a birth record, I have two resources open along side the scanned record and I flip back and forth between the two. I have the Danish Genealogical Word List on Family Search open in a new tab and I have the English version of the Danish Parish Register Headings also found on Family Search. These two help me understand what I’m looking at. Then it’s just a matter of working word by word to untangle the writing. I sometimes also have Google Translate open to help me decipher the words.

Here is the first page of a Danish birth record from 1894. This record is organized by birth date and year, where was the child born, the child’s full name, then the parent’s full names, ages, occupations, and residence. Again, I only know this because of the English translation of the headings.

Here is the second page showing the child’s christening date, who performed the ceremony and at what church, and the witnesses with their occupations and residences. Then the last column is for notes. You can’t see it on these pictures, but these births are organized into all male births on one page, then all female births on another page for that month and year.

Now this is a very basic birth record. Some earlier years you will find less information while later years will ask for more. Therefore, be careful about assuming anything on these records.

I hope that helps a little bit. I hope in the near future to have an online course available to you to make this information even clearer. Stay tuned for updates on that! In addition, learn more about Denmark by going to my other blog posts starting with Danish Towns of Origin. In the meantime…

Good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany