Friday, October 1, 2010

Websites for Danish Research

I thought it might be handy to list the websites I use and why I use them. 
  1. www.arkivalieronline.dk  This is a collection of actual images from church books and censuses (folketælling).  The site is in Danish and requires registration.  There is a guide in English for first time users.  The images are good quality and it is easy to save the image.  You will want to change the name when you save it.  I put the name of the record I am saving (i.e.:  Brovst 1812-1832 opslag 34).  You may also want to put the name of the person in the file name so you can identify who you have found.
  2. ddd.dda.dk  This is a collection of indexed records:  Censuses, Migration (in and out of Denmark) some Probates (Thisted, Aalborg, Viborg, and Randers), some church books and various other records.  I use it mostly for censuses.  As far as I have found, nearly all of Denmark is indexed for 1787, 1801 and 1834.  Some features of the site are in English but most results will be in Danish.  There are many others and the site is constantly updated as new records are indexed.  Remember, this is not complete and the indexers can make a mistake.  You will always want to check the indexed record against the original record.
  3. www.familysearch.org  The surname searching on the original familysearch site will treat Pedersen and Pedersdatter as the same surname.  It will also include known variances like Kristensen, Christensen, Christiansen, Xtensen, Xsen, and the female equivalents.  Most of my research has been in Hjørring and all of Hjørring has been extracted or indexed through about 1860.  (Brovst, Øster Svenstrup and Sejlstrup are in the Vital Records Index while the rest of Hjørring is in the International Genealogical Index (IGI).  Also available here are research guides, maps, and word lists.
  4.   www.krabsen.dk  There are two indexes on this site that are invaluable:  the probate index for Vendsyssel (Thisted, Hjørring, and northern Aalborg) and the place index.  The probate index does not have the records of every manor, the deanery probates, and records found on the herred and amt level.  You will need to search the filmed copies to review these records.  The place index is not complete but still valuable for helping you determine where a farm is  or how to spell the name.
  5. www.sognetraef.dk  This is a website that allows you to coordinate research with others (usually in Denmark). 
  6. www.kms.dk  This is a site that contains historic maps of Denmark.  You can search by town or village name. 
I use these websites constantly.  I have found them very user-friendly.  Some of them require some knowledge of Danish but you need that to do Danish family history anyway. 

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