A researcher may access the National Archives of Norway in two ways: (1) the scanned archives, which provide online access to scanned images of many primary source documents, including church, census, probate, and land records, and (2) the digital archives, which permit searching digitized data across multiple sources. Both are helpful tools for the researcher.
Scanned Archives
A farm book may, for example, list Jens Jensen as the father of Bersven who was born in Singsås in 1811. In such a case, a researcher may go directly to the scanned archives of the National Archives of Norway at https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/ (scanned archives).
In the “Parish Registry” field, click on “Browse in parish registry Norway.” Type in the name of the parish of interest (Singsås in the example) and a date range. Don’t worry about the Norwegian letters, a drop down list will appear from which you may select the appropriate parish. Then press “Search.”
A list of records will appear for the parish and date range you entered. Click on “Content” for the appropriate record from the list. You can then click on the year (1811) in the parish baptisms to look for Bersven’s christening record.
By looking at the christenings for the year of birth (1811) indicated in the farm book, you may discover the actual christening record, like that here in December.
Jens Jenss. Busaets og hustrue [and wife] Guru
Andersd. Drengebarn [male child] Bersvend.
Fædd. [witnesses] Dorethe Busæt, Inger ibid, Beret ibid,
Ole Busæt, Svend ibid. Bernt Singsaas.
Digital Archives
If the place or date is not known, a name search of indexed records on the National Archives of Norway may be conducted at https://www.digitalarkivet.no/en (digital archives). You may then conduct searches in various databases.
Doing this search for Bersvend Jensen born in Singsås from 1805 to 1815, however, only turns up one result, which is for an older brother, also named Bersvend, who died in 1807. This illustrates the limitations of reliance on digital data, the value of the Norwegian farm books, and the importance of looking at original records.
For additional insights in using these two sites, see “How I use Norwegian Archives to do Norwegian Family History Research,” by Richard Busath, which is available here . (click here to see PDF)