Since the holidays are quickly approaching, I thought I would write about Feast Days this week and explain why we as genealogists care about them. Every Sunday of the liturgical calendar is associated with some type of feast or “church holiday.” This may be something like Easter or it may Read more…
The term parish has several different meanings in our research. The first and most basic meaning is the actual church building. We say things like, “The marriage took place in Vor Frue Parish,” or “The child was christened in the parish,” and both of these mean the event took place Read more…
A few weeks ago I posted a short description of the Danish Estate system. This is a tricky key to being really proficient in Danish research, and if I’m being honest, I feel like it’s my Achille’s Heel. I still get very intimidated by using the estate records because I Read more…
It was only a few years ago that I really began to understand how important the estates were in the lives in our Scandinavian ancestors. An estate consists of one main, large farm and manor with many other smaller farms supporting it. While we may think of this just as Read more…
Typically when we think of family history, we think in terms of a pedigree chart, which extends the direct line. But if we focus only on that direct line, we will be missing out on so many ancestors! In previous generations, the line of thinking about family history research was Read more…
A christening is infant baptism. Children in Scandinavia and most of the Christian world were brought to the church as infants to be baptized as a way to find relief from original sin. Our ancestors’ christenings typically took place within weeks of birth. Sometimes a child was christened at home Read more…
Most of us trace our ancestry back to farmers at some point in time. Did you know there are several different words to describe different types of farmers? Church records, census records and any other records you look at often times give the individual’s occupation. If you watch, you will Read more…
The concept of a State Church is rather foreign today, especially here in the US where we try to have a firm barrier between Church and State. When we talk about a State Church, this implies that The Church (whatever religion that may be) is supported by the government. The Read more…