Sources of information on adoption and children who were put into care

In earlier times, many children were adopted or put into foster homes. Here are some potential sources of information.

Sources of information on adoptive children

Generally speaking, legislation in cases of legal adoption is quite strict. The adopted person may apply to the County Governor for information about his/her birth parents. It’s customary in Norway that only the adopted person himself/herself may apply for access to the adoption documents, not his descendants nor his parents. General access to the case documents is restricted for 100 years. 

Who is recorded as being the parents in public registers in cases of adoption?

When the child has been legally adopted, the adoptive parents, and not the biological parents, are to be recorded on birth certificates, in parish marriage registers etc. But if the child had not been adopted by the time it was christened, the biological parents would be recorded in the parish christening register, but annotations might have been made in the margin. This is the main reason that access to many parish records is restricted for 100 years.

Sources of information on children who were put into care

Many children were not legally adopted, but taken into care by institutions such as the Poor Law Board, the Board of Guardians/Child Welfare Authorities or in private homes or children’s homes (in which case the Public Health authorities were responsible for supervision). These records are in the respective municipal archives and access is generally restricted for 100 years. Applications for access should be sent to the archive, and a decision is then made at the discretion of the archival authorities, taking into consideration the rights of descendants to access confidential information.

Source: Slekt og Data 4/2017

Sources of information on unmarried mothers

For centuries, single mothers were generally treated badly, and this is reflected in public records.

Sources about penalties for illicit sexual relations

Sexual relations outside marriage, called Leiermål in olden times in Norway, were for a long time a punishable offence. But often this was discovered only when a woman became pregnant.

The punishment could be incarceration, so both municipal court records and prison archives are potential sources of information on people who were jailed for this reason. Later, according to the penal law of 1842, third offences were punished with “bread and water” or custody. Records of trials and prison records would then be possible sources of information.

In addition to the punishment, public absolution was required up to 1767. In many parish registers there are lists of persons who were “publice absolveret”.

Sources of information on paternity issues and child support

In Oslo, case files from the child maintenance authorities (Bidragsfogden in Norwegian) are kept in either the Oslo City Archive (Oslo Byarkiv) or in the Regional Archive (Statsarkivet) in Oslo. In other areas the Regional Archives are the repositories for child maintenance documents.

The Oslo City Archive has a card register from 1915/1916, when the Castbergian legislation (granting rights to children born out of wedlock) was introduced in Norway. Before that, there are some child support documents from as far back as the 1700s in the Oslo Regional Archive. The Poor Relief archives also contain some paternity cases. 

If a mother required financial support during the birth of the child or for her keep, the father was obliged to pay support to the authorities. Public access to maintenance files is generally restricted for 60 years, according to the Public Administration Act. The regional archives have an 80-year restriction on these, except in adoption cases where a 100-year restriction is imposed.

Sources of information about women who served in the mission fields

Most Norwegian missionaries were women. Here are some suggestions as to where you may find information about them.

The Mission Archives in Stavanger

If your ancestor served as a missionary for the Norwegian Missionary Society (Det Norske Misjonsselskap, abbreviated to NMS), you may consult the Mission Archives in Stavanger. This repository has all the documents from NMS and affiliated organizations, as well as archival material from other societies and private collections.

Their material includes hand-written and printed documents, microfilms, photos, films, videos and tapes; as well as diaries, collections of letters and photo albums. In addition, they have an online index, NMS: People & Places www.mhs.no/arkiv/?351 where one may search for information about missionaries (the index contains references to archival material about the respective missionaries).

The Norwegian Lutheran Mission (Norsk Luthersk Misjonssamband, NLM)

The Norwegian Lutheran Mission has its own archive in Oslo, with records from its history, its undertakings and about its missionaries who served at home or abroad from 1891 onwards. There is a lot of information about people employed in various capacities, but mostly about the men and women who served as missionaries and preachers. Most of the material is from official mission business, but many individuals have contributed their personal archives. Only a small proportion has been digitized.

Their material has the normal restrictions on access (to comply with The Data Protection Act), depending on the type of record the respective files contain. If one requires access to a particular file, one may submit an application and sign a confidentiality agreement. The archive will provide you with the necessary forms.

Norsk misjonsleksikon (The Norwegian Encyclopedia of Missionaries)

This 3-volume reference book contains biographical information and photos of Norwegian missionaries. These have been digitized and published online by the National Library of Norway, unfortunately access is restricted to Norwegian IP addresses due to copyright restrictions.

(Kilde: Misjonsarkivet i Stavanger og Norsk Luthersk Misjonssamband)

Sources of information about women who were members of a trade union

Do you have a trade union member or activist in your family tree? Here are some potential sources of information about her.

Census records

If you’re searching for information about an individual, census records are a good place to start. They usually contain information about a person’s occupation or place of work. If the person in question worked in a specified factory, it’s possible to search for union records in one of the relevant archives.

Company records

Some businesses and organizations have kept records of their employees or members. These collections are in the National Archives of Norway, or in the Technical Museum (Norsk Teknisk Museum). Some material may be kept locally by the company in question. But keep in mind that many of the workplaces which employed a lot of people in the 19th and early 20th centuries no longer exist.

Union archives

The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Arbark) contain archive material from the union of women cleaners in Oslo (Oslo rengjøringskvinners forening) 1901-1974; Bryn weavers’ union for women (Bryn veveris kvinnelige fagforening) 1908-1910; Aker municipal cleaners’ union (Aker kommunale rengjøringskvinners forening) 1941-1948; Kristiania young washerwomen’s and cleaners’ union (Kristiania yngre vaske- og rengjøringskvinners forening) 1913-1918; the typographical women’s union of Oslo (Oslo grafiske kvinneklubb) 1918-1995; and the matchmakers’ union for women (Den kvindelige fyrstikkarbeiderforening). The years in brackets are the periods from which the archive has relevant records.

Documents from unions in the rest of Norway may be found in either the Regional Archives or in the National Archives of Norway. A search in Arkivportalen (the online catalogue of the Norwegian archives) will help you find out what is available and where.

Union magazines

The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Arbark) has all issues of the union magazine Kvinden (The Woman), which was published by the Labour Party’s organization for women from 1909. If you can read Norwegian, these are a good source of information about the issues women were preoccupied with at that time.

In addition, the union magazines often contained obituaries of their members, both of ordinary workers and of union representatives.

Newspaper archives

Newspapers generally contain more historical than genealogical information, but they do have some information about individuals. Maybe a reporter visited a factory or company where one of your female ancestors worked? The National Library of Norway has a large collection of digitized newspapers, searchable by name, but these are only accessible from Norwegian IP addresses. It is possible to apply for access from abroad for a limited period.

The Labour Party newspaper, Arbeiderbladet, was good at interviewing elderly workers in the post-war years. All editions of this newspaper are to be found in The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Arbark), and many of them are available via the aforementioned National Library of Norway.

Photo archives

Photographers sometimes visited factories and other places of work. Maybe a picture was taken of one of your foremothers? Read more.

The Norwegian Labour Movement Archives and Library (Arbark) has a large collection of photos from various factories. And you may also search for a person’s name, or the name of a place of work, in the Digital Museum of Norway database (DigitaltMuseum), which contains photos acquired from almost all of the museums and archives in Norway.

Source: Slekt og Data 4/2016