Church Records

Ribe Dom. Credit: Lucyanna

Baptismal Font - Kristkirchen, Vesterbro, Copenhagen

Credit: Ib Rasmussen

Link to other photos of Baptism Fonts

CHURCH RECORDS

Index to church christening records on FamilySearch. Type in the first name, last name of the person being christened OR do a parent search by typing in the names of the parents.

Index to Denmark marriages on FamilySearch

Digitized Church, Census, Probate, Fire Insurance and other records for Denmark are available at the Danish archives website: www.sa.dk/ao.

Digitized records are also available at Danish Family Search

See batch number indexes on Web Links this site.

FAMILY SEARCH

This helpful information was posted on the Danish Research Facebook page:

Searching an Image on www.familysearch.org

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Notes from Nordic class:

FamilySearch microfilmed the Danish records in the late 1950s. It was, of course, restricted to what was publicly available at that time. Compared with the images of Statens Arkiver, www.sa.dk/ao) they are generally, but not always, of a better quality. You will also find that www.sa.dk/ao has many more records available as they have filmed what is available now.

Since some time long ago one or several parsonages (with thatched roofs) burned down and the church records were lost, the king decided that there were to be always two sets of church records, one set of records to be kept by the minister, called "Ministerialbogen", and a copy to be kept by the parish clerk, (usually the school teacher), called "Kontra Ministerialbogen".

The two books could well be placed on the same table for "conferencing", seeing that each entry was correctly shown in the other book, but they were n e v e r to be left over night under the same roof.

That rule has preserved many a church record.

When FamilySearch microfilmed the Danish records, they mainly had access to the minister's copy, the "Ministerialbog". When Arkivalieronline microfilmed the records a (relatively) few years ago, they mainly filmed the parish clerk's copy, the "Kontraministerialbog" - I believe.

To search for a record I always start in www.sa.dk/ao as I can "turn" the images much faster here. If I feel I need a better copy then I go to www.familysearch.org and already knowing the Opslag Number from www.sa.dk/ao I use the same to get near the image in www.familysearch.org. If I am looking for what is Opslag 179 inwww.sa.dk/ao it will take a very long time to go page by page in FamilySearch.

In FamilySearch I jump to image 179 and may be one or two images off.

It will not always work, but it often does.

To see the images on www.familysearch.org, you will need to know the "Herred" (read "District" or "Judicial Area") as well as the county and parish. You can find it easily in www.sa.dk/ao, but also in www.krabsen.dk/stednavnebase.

So here it how it goes in www.familysearch.org:

1. www.familysearch.org

2. on the command line above the large picture click "Search" and then "Records"

3. Scroll down until you see "Browse All Published Collections"

4. Click "Continental Europe"

5. Fastest way is to use the left column headlined "Place"

Click "Denmark (6)"

6. Click the County

7. Click the District

8. Click the Parish

9. Search and click the appropriate collection.

10. In the field "Image" enter the Opslag number.

11. Adjust with the arrows left and right of the Image number until you have the correct image.

12. Please note the tools floating around on or next to the image. The fourth from the top will Save the record to your hard disk.

I hope this will help you. [Posted by Jens]

PARISHES

An alphabetical lists of parishes in Denmark.

Photos of most of the parishes in Denmark

PARISH INVENTORY

Inventory of available church records. Detailed listing of parishes by Herred. Maps of various time periods. Archive number. Missing records.

List of parish registers to the year 1891 in the various archives: https://dis-danmark.dk/bibliotek/800086.pdf