This Internet site is to help genealogists learn to research Danish sources.
The parish of origin is the most important piece of information needed for
research in many foreign countries, including Denmark. Often, to determine a
locality is more difficult than adding four or five new generations once the
location is known. Even though the parish is an ecclesiastical boundary, many
civil records also relied upon this same jurisdiction.
If the parish is not known, research requirements will vary. There are no
indexed sources allowing country-wide searches for inhabitants or surnames.
Although emigration resources and a variety of records from families living in
Denmark today can aid the researcher, interviews with family members and a
careful search of all home sources are often the greatest help in finding clues
to a more precise locality in Denmark. U.S. sources such as immigration records,
naturalization, and even culturally-oriented church records will also be of
tremendous value.
Danish Genealogy Sources
The most valuable sources for research in Denmark prior to the
twentieth century were ecclesiastically generated. The Lutheran church was the
primary recording authority for vital information such as births, marriages, and
deaths.
Birth and christening records may record the date of each
event, name of child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, names of parents,
the farm or village of residence within the parish, witnesses to the
christening, etc. Early records, however, will often show only the name of the
father. Birth/christening records are found chronologically organized. They
have been microfilmed for most parishes from the earliest records into the
1910s, with additional years becoming increasingly available.
Engagement and marriage records will usually show the name
of bride and groom, their residences, prior marital status, witnesses,
marriage date and dates of banns. Many records show ages of the bride and
groom, and later records also provide the names of the parents for each.
Residences can lead to outside parishes of origin, when births did not occur
in the same parish being researched. Engagement/marriage records are found
chronologically organized. They have been microfilmed for most parishes from
the earliest records into the 1910s, with additional years becoming
increasingly available.
Death and burial records will help identify the age and
residence of an ancestor. At times, the records will also identify the cause
of death, whether a widow or widower, record the specific relationship to a
father if a small child, and occasionally even record information about
origins if a notable individual. Death/burial records are found
chronologically organized. They have been microfilmed for most parishes from
the earliest records into the 1910s, with additional years becoming
increasingly available.
Moving-in and out records were kept to document the
movements of individuals and families from parish to parish. Record was made
of the moving-in/out, which parish to/from, which farm/village within the
recording parish moving to/from, names, and sometimes ages and birthplaces.
Moving-in/out records are usually kept in a separate part of the church book
from births, marriages, and deaths. They were generally recorded in earnest by
the 1830s, and have been microfilmed for most parishes into the 1910s, with
additional years becoming increasingly available.
Introductions recorded the readmission of the mother into
the congregation after giving birth to a child. These records, though
seemingly unimportant in most research, can help identify a mother’s name as
“the wife of ....,” when the birth record only recorded the name of the father
of the child. Included are the name and date of re-admission. The
introductions have been microfilmed for most parishes for the periods of
existence into the 1910s.
Confirmations are religious actions generally bestowed upon
males and females ages fourteen and over. The majority of the population was
included by age sixteen. The records show name and place of residence, and
later records often show father’s name, and birth date or age of the
individual being confirmed. These records can help identify the name of the
father and, at times, even a birth place of the child when searches of the
births in that parish have proved unsuccessful. Confirmations are generally
available from as early as 1736.
Military Levy Rolls are assessment lists of eligible males
for potential military service. They include most males from birth to
mid-forties from 1789-1850. Beginning in 1850, males were first placed on the
list at age fourteen. In 1869, the age was again changed, this time to
seventeen. The lists, assembled every three years, show name, age, father’s
name, birth place, current residence and other, miscellaneous information. For
those that moved in or out of a levying district between the every-third-year
periods, supplemental rolls were taken, but only of those individuals. The
lists involved the rural areas of the country, and are organized by district,
which uses the same jurisdictions as the parishes.
Censuses have been better preserved and hold more value for
Denmark than any other Scandinavian country. They provide excellent
information in almost all existing enumerations. Microfilmed censuses exist
for:
There were also early school censuses and a 1700 census of males. These can be
of considerable assistance in the research project. This website includes
abstracts for the 1700
Census of Males Project and abstracts for several
1730s School Censuses.
The key year in the censuses was 1845. At that time the
returns included the place of birth for each member of the household. When
born in a distant parish, the entry is often accompanied by the name of the
county as well. The censuses are organized by parish within each county, and
generally found under the listings of the county in library catalogs.
Probate records are also a valuable tool for research in
Denmark, though require more mastery of the language than other sources. The
information provided includes names, dates of death, relationships, residences
of those contained in the document, ages of children when minors, inventories
of estates, signatures, etc. The jurisdictions vary widely within time
periods, places and classes of people, and are often organized by the estate
on which they lived and leased their farms. For detailed descriptions of both
rural and city jurisdictions see Finn A. Thomsen’s Scandinavian manual listed
under “For Further Reference.” Review a
probate index for Thisted, Viborg, Aalborg, Randers Counties.
Immigration/Emigration records for Denmark are scarcer than
those of other Scandinavian countries. Passenger lists from the port of
Copenhagen are divided into two separate categories with indexes; direct and
indirect. The direct list includes those individuals traveling directly from
Copenhagen to North America. The majority of passengers were recorded in the
indirect lists, indicating they were shuttled to one or more additional
harbors en route, (such as Liverpool). Information includes name of emigrant,
age, origin, destination, and date of departure. These emigration lists
encompass from 1868 through 1959. They are available on microfilm and/or
microfiche through 1940, and are being assembled in a database by the Danish
Emigration Archives (through 1903 as of mid 1998).
This wonderful Denmark web site was originally developed by Gary Horlacher. He
has since handed it over to ProGenealogists's care and it is being further
developed by E. Wade Hone. Mr. Horlacher is still
working on a project cataloguing information on
LDS Emigration for Danish and
other nationalities.
