Genealogy Links
The Family History and Genealogy Center:
Help and Inquiries: genealogy@danishmuseum.org
Library Manager: Michele McNabb
For a brief list of some common Danish genealogical terms, click on "G is for Genealogy."
The Danish Brotherhood/Sisterhood
Helpful Facts
Be aware that many Danish immigrants Americanized their names, and consequently their original names in Denmark may have been different. One must have some idea of what the original names were before searching in Danish records. This is sometimes simple (Jørgen and Marie/Maren often became Jorgen and Mary in North America), but is sometimes more difficult to figure out (Jørgen changed to George, Kjeldgaard to Kelgor; Østerbro to Easterbridge, Bruhn to Brown). In addition, not all family members may have kept the same surname or surname spelling.
Prior to about 1850 many Danish surnames were patronymic and not ‘fixed,’ particularly in rural areas, and most women kept their birth names throughout life until late in the 19th century. In addition, there are 3 Danish letters not found in English - æ, ø and å (commonly found as ‘aa’ in older records) – which get rendered in various ways in English.
Websites for Genealogical Research
General Sites
- www.familysearch.org -- searchable LDS Church databases, including the 1880 US census, Family History Library catalog, 1881 British and Canadian censuses, research guides, and digitized
collections - www.glorecords.blm.gov -- Bureau of Land Management: federal land sale records, including homestead grants and railroad purchases.
- CyndisList -- a gateway site to thousands of genealogical webpages arranged by topic (a first stop for finding resources)
- www.rootsweb.ancestry.com – a general free query, resource and gateway (links) site
- USGenWeb project – provides links to sites by state and county
- National Archives Genealogy Resources home page
- National Archives Access to Archival Databases (AAD) -- site for searchable electronic records
- www.germanroots.com -- searchable US birth & marriage indexes
- Social Security Death Index -- primarily deaths since 1962 (RootsWeb version; others are available)
- Deathindexes.com – searchable online death indexes and similar records
- Deathindexes.com/obituaries - searchable obituary indexes
- Interment.net – online cemetery records
- Findagrave.com -- online cemetery and burial records
- Militaryindexes.com – source for online military indexes and records
- Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Index
- Mocavo.com - search engine covering free genealogical webpages
Emigration & Immigration:
- Castle Garden immigrants - (1820-1892)
- Ellis Island passenger lists - 1892 to mid-1920s
- www.emiarch.dk/search.php3?l=en - The Danish Emigration Archives. Records of 394,000 emigrants from Denmark (and some returnees) who purchased tickets from Danish emigration agents from 1868-1908 that were registered with the Copenhagen police
- Vejle Emigration List -- over 4000 names of emigrants leaving from 1879-1887 not in the Danish Emigration Archives
- Canadian passenger arrivals -- 1865-1922
- Immigrantships.net - homepage for the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
- Theshipslist.com – information about ships and international migration routes
- Ancestorsonboard.com - searchable index of UK outbound passengers; currently indexed from 1890-1960 (payment required to view actual records)
- Ancestry.com/AncestryLE - this subscription site now includes the Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1935 (note: only 1874-1914 are currently indexed).
- Finding Family - A list of ship's passenger lists
Danish-American Genealogy and History
- LDS Family History Library catalog (Salt Lake City UT) -- the world's largest genealogical library
- kinquest.com -- entry point for a variety of databases related to Danes living in the US.
- Danish Archive North East (DANE) home page -- concentrating on settlements in the northeastern US (Edison NJ)
- Danish American Heritage Society – Publisher of “The Bridge,” a semi-annual research publication (indexed in PERSI)
- Danish American Archive and Library (Blair NE)
- Danish Immigrant Archives -- Grand View University (Des Moines IA)
- The National Danish-American Genealogical Society, a branch of the Minnesota Genealogical Society
- Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb - contains over 2,000 Scandinavian obituaries from western WI
- Epodunk.com - locates major Danish settlements in the US
Research in Denmark:
Danish websites usually require the correct Danish spelling of place- and personal names. The following is a key for making the three Danish letters of the alphabet not found in English on many PCs: Hold down the Alt key (or Fn+Alt on many laptops) + the following 4-digit numbers:
Æ : 0198 Ø : 0216 Å : 0197
æ : 0230 ø : 0248 å : 0229
- Danish Data Archives -- gateway to Danish Emigration Records, online Danish census records, as well as some immigration and probate records. Click on Union Jack for English interface.
- Arkivalieronline.dk – (AO); an expanding collection of online images of original church records and census records. No indexes, but accessible by parish, year, and type of record (mostly in Danish; click on In English and Generic Instructions for explanation. Note: User name and password are no longer needed.)
- Danish State Archives genealogy home page
- An alphabetical dictionary of Danish genealogical terminology with English translations
- Progenealogists.com/denmark -- a useful site for beginner and intermediate family historians interested in Danish research, including Bornholm and Slesvig-Holsten (in English)
- Danish church pictures -a collection of beautiful non-copyrighted images of Danish churches (in Danish, but easy to navigate)
- Dansk Demografisk Database - Index to probate records for old counties of Randers, Thisted,
Viborg and Aalborg (in English) - Association of Danish Genealogists (Slægt og Data) -- page for placing queries (English)
- Hvemforskerhvad.dk - query page for Hvem Forsker Hvad (Who is Researching Whom), annual Danish genealogical publication (Danish)
- Regional Archives for Eastern Denmark (Sjælland, Lolland-Falster & Bornholm). Collection has moved to Danish State Archives.
- Regional Archives for Funen and surrounding islands
- Regional Archives for Northern and Central Jutland
- Regional Archives for Southern Jutland (formerly north Slesvig)
- Local and regional Danish archives -- contact information and current administrative map of Denmark (in Danish, requires Adobe Reader to view)
- Genealogical mailing and discussion lists related to Denmark
- Society for Danish Genealogy & Biography home page; includes index to 110 years of Personalhistorisk tidskrift (index in Danish)
- Danish national private archives database. Click on Union Jack for English version.
- Danish Association of Family Farms -- includes database of more than 11,000 farms (in Danish; click on English name of organization; information not as complete in English)
- Danish Calendars -- contains Danish calendars for 1500-2099
- Infobel.com and Eniro.com -- online Danish phone directories
- Kindo surnames - a site for finding out how common one’s Danish name is and where people in Denmark with the name are living
- Danskebilleder.dk – Danish historical photograph collection, searchable by place, topic, person, organization or photographer
Some Regional Sites:
- Island of Ærø genealogy (Svendborg County) -- English page
- Bornholm Society for Family & Local History homepage
- Lolland-Falster genealogy -- (Maribo County)
- Aarhus city genealogy -- census, marriage & citizenship data for city of Aarhus, 1760-1862
- Nygaards-sedler.dk – note cards on Jutland families (in Danish)
- Slaegtshistorisk forening for Aalborg egnen - Aalborg area links
- Slaegtshistorisk forening for Viborg og omegn -- Viborg area genealogy
- Fogsgaard.org – Copenhagen police death index, 1892-1923, Copenhagen street locator & several other databases
- Landsarkivetkbh.dk -- useful Copenhagen street & parish locator (Danish)
- Copenhagen Police census cards (1892-1923)
- Copenhagen message board (one of several for Denmark through Ancestry.com)
Slesvig-Holsten/Schleswig-Holstein Sites:
- Rostra.dk -- Slesvig place names in Danish, German and Frisian
- Rootdigger.de -- extensive emigration index to emigrants from S-H
- Wiki-en.genealogy.net -- a good site with lots of information and references, including volunteers who will do lookups (in English)
- Rootsweb.ancestry.com -- WorldWide GenWeb page for Germany (in English)
- Cyndislist.com/germany -- gateway site to German genealogy pages
- Germanroots.com -- online German emigration records
- Data from S-H census registers from 1769-1946 (in German; an on-going project; registration necessary)
- Ashhs.org - home page of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society (Davenport IA)
- Schleswig-Holstein State Archives -- (in English)
- Genealogical research in S-H (resources and some data)
- http://syltgen.org -- English-language site for the island of Sylt
- http://ortsfamilienbuecher.de/sylt/ -- German-language genealogical information for Sylt (no English interface yet)
Geographical Sources and Maps:
- Krak.dk -- online Danish maps
- Krabsen.dk -- over 40,000 Danish place names with their location in parish, district and pre-1970 county + modern locations
- Amt-herred-sogn – clickable listing and map of parishes and their locations by district & county (in English)
- Kortpaanettet/kvikssoeg - A site for locating specific addresses in Denmark, finding their location, as well as present-day and historical maps of an area, and land ownership maps by property tax (matrikel) numbers
Miscellaneous:
- Gramtrans.com -- webpage for short Danish-English translations. Sources such as Google Translate may also be helpful for modern Danish.
- Learn how to read Gothic Danish handwriting. Very usuful for researching your ancestors in old church books.
Finding Living relatives:
- www.danskearkiver.dk - click on ‘Arkivvejviser’ to find an archive in that locality (listed by current administrative breakdowns of regions (regioner) and municipalities (kommuner).
- www.slaegtogdata.dk/forum - Place a query on the webpage of the Association of Danish Genealogists
- www.slaegtogdata.dk/ andet/forum-help-english - An English-language guide to using the site.
- www.avisoversigten.dk - For rural areas and small towns, write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.
- Danish telephone directories: Eniro.dk, Infobel.dk or Krak.
- For helpful hints click here.
Planning a visit to Denmark
- www.visitdenmark.com
- See also our useful links to Danish language courses etc.
