How To Trace Norwegian Family Roots
Our guests often ask on how best to trace their Norwegian family roots. Cruise Norway’s Senior Expedition Advisor, Diana Akopyan did some research and reached out to Professor Terje Leiren, who is in Norway for the summer.
Dr. Terje Leiren is Professor Emeritus of Scandinavian Studies and History at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was the first holder of the prestigious Sverre Arestad Endowed Chair from 2007 to 2017. With a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Texas and years of teaching at the University of Oslo and the University of Washington, Professor Leiren’s research and writing focus on Nordic countries with a special emphasis on the history of Norway. His expertise and passion for the region will enrich your Arctic adventure.
Dr. Leiren is the author of four books and more than forty scholarly articles on Scandinavian history and culture. His latest book, Historical Dictionary of Norway (2nd ed.), was published in 2019. Terje has lived in and traveled extensively throughout the Nordic region and loves sharing his knowledge of the North with his fellow travelers.
Terje shared a few ideas and resources with Diana and mentioned that the best research you can do at the beginning is online, before trying to arrange anything in person.
A good starting point is to build a basic family tree with any known names, birthdates, marriage details, immigration years, and possible locations in Norway. From there, the most useful official resource is the Digital Archives of Norway, known as Digitalarkivet. It includes digitized church books, birth, marriage, and death records, as well as nationwide census records. The 1801, 1865, and 1900 census records can be especially helpful when trying to track Bergen-area ancestors.
It is also important to keep in mind traditional Norwegian naming patterns. Many older Norwegian surnames were patronymic, meaning a person’s last name was based on the father’s first name with “-son” or “-datter” added. Farm names were also often used as addresses or identifiers, so names may appear differently in various records.
For local help, Slekt og Data is Norway’s largest genealogical society and has very useful information for starting Norwegian family research: https://slektogdata.no/nb/start-med-slektsforskning/how-find-your-norwegian-ancestors
The Norwegian American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library and Norwegian American genealogy groups may also be helpful, especially for translating old Norwegian documents or connecting with others researching similar family lines.
Another possible resource is Sons of Norway, which has several genealogy resources and an online Genealogy Guide: https://www.sofn.com
He was not sure whether membership was required to access all their materials, but it may be a good place to start.
It would be helpful to gather the following details first:
Names of known Norwegian ancestors
Approximate birth, marriage, or death dates
Immigration year, if known
Known towns, parishes, farms, or neighborhoods connected to the family
Any old documents, letters, photos, or family stories
If the guests have a specific parish, neighborhood, or family name connected to Bergen or Hordaland County, that will make the search much easier and more focused.
Another option to consider is DNA testing. An autosomal DNA test through AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, or MyHeritage may help identify distant cousins who already have family tree information or possible living relatives in the Bergen/Hordaland area.
