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 in the church building.
The second meaning of parish is a geographical or jurisdictional term. In Scandinavia our ancestor’s communities were divided into parishes. The jurisdictional units for Scandinavia are (in order of size)
- Country
- County
- District
- Parish
In the countryside, where most of our ancestors lived, a parish is an area of about 1000 square acres. The population could vary from a few hundred residents to a few thousand. Within the parish we can expect to see small clusters of farms, like tiny villages, and large manor farms. Each of these areas have their own names within the parish boundaries.
The big cities are, of course, very different. In a city like Copenhagen there have been over 50 different parishes. Our ancestors that lived in the city usually chose a parish to attend based on location. But sometimes the largest and fanciest parishes attracted the largest congregations. Sometimes a family in the city would attend different parishes over the years.
The parish records were the vital records and the priest could also be the clerk for what we would call the state vital records department.