Bygdebøker are local history books that contain a gold mine of genealogy information. The word bygdebok is derived from two Norwegian words: bygd - a rural community, and bok - a book (the plural is bygdebøker).
Bygdebøker have been published for several hundred rural communities in Norway. In order to find your family in a bygdebok, you will need to know the area where the farm is located (even better the actual farm name). This is often found in the church records (as a person's location or farm is listed in the register). Bygdebøker are prepared using a variety of sources (church records, census records, probate records, tax rolls, etc.).
Remember that Bygdebøker are a secondary source and always verify the information you obtain with the primary source. Bygdebøker are often several volume sets and include a detailed history of the area, photographs, individual farm information, and the genealogy of the people living of the farm.
|I include the farm name in the suffix area |
an easy way to follow my individuals
|both the farm name and the information |
from the bygdebok is included in my notes
|Peder and Mail's family; Peder's family; Mali's family|
each is at a separate farm and additional family information is included
To learn more about Bygdebøker - how to find them and use them with your Norwegian research - check out these links:
FamilySearch Explains Farm Books
Johan I. Borgos on What is that?
Bygdeboker held at the University of Minnesota
The Bygdeboker Collection at the Chester Fritz Libray (UND)
Online Lookups Using Norwegian Records