Genealogy Resources

Category 1: Preparing and Beginning Your Search

• The Official 1950 U.S. Census Website. The 1950 census records were released by the U.S. National Archives on April 1, 2022. This website provides full access to the 1950 census images, including population schedules, enumeration district maps, and enumeration district descriptions.
• National Archives Genealogy. This excellent page contains links to a remarkable amount of information, tools, and sites of interest to the genealogist. It makes a good starting place for beginning genealogy researcher.
• The about.com one-stop  beginners guide to genealogy. It contains good beginner information and excellent links to some sites not commonly referenced.
• Forebears.io. Enter a surname for your family and the site will show the distribution of people with that surname around the world both on a map and on a chart. There are links to genealogical information for people with the selected surname.
• Home Advisor Guide to Genealogy. Good starting guide with some very good links.
• The Promise of America. Excellent collaborative effort site is back on the air again!
• Ultimate Beginners Guide to Genealogy by Mark Orwig
• Genealogy & Ancestry Guide. How to Find your Family History. A very good starting guide by Home Guides.
• Genealogy for Kids: Building a Family Tree. How to make a family tree with kids; types of family trees; charts and forms; tracing your ancestors and much more. By Kim Hart.

Category 2: More Resources (alphabetical)

• Acrevalue.com. This tool is about more than acre value. Excellent tool to locate land parcels in USA and to find townships defined only by township number and Range number. Is a completely zoomable tool. With the “Hybrid” option, as you zoom in on a state, the tool will display communities,  townships by common name, township sections defined by numbers, roads, land formations and more.
• Ancestors from Norway. By John Føllesdal, this site has many Norway and USA genealogy resources and links.
• Ancestry.com . Research and locate documents, build family trees and search for other family trees. This site requires a paid subscription, or, it can be accessed free at public libraries and other locations, LDS History Centers included. It is available free at the Ramsey County, MN libraries and likely more libraries nationwide. Ancestry.com also offers DNA test options.
• Bureau of Land Management. U. S. Department of the Interior General Land Office Records. Search for documents by township, county and state; by owner name; specific documents. Good search feature for homestead records.
• Canada Archives Library, Genealogy and Family History.
• Cemeteries in Norway. Find a grave in Norway.
• Cyndi’s List. Excellent site, with links to genealogy, government, history, culture, language, maps, newspapers, etc. for each Nordic country.
• DNA Anyone? A 4-page April 2021 document to guide you in using DNA Test results along with traditional genealogy search. Information to help choose a DNA package and much more to guide what you do.
• Dictionary (on line) Norwegian/American translation + other links and information. Makes a very good pairing with Digitalarkivet, which is all in Norwegian after you drill down to the actual records
• Digitalarkivet: Norway’s archives, free and on line searchable church, census, emigration and other records. By far, the best site to use when searching for Norwegian ancestor records in Norway.
  • Digitalarkivet Emigration Search: How to.
• Ellis Island. Recently opened link to records of nearly 23 million American immigrants entering through Ellis Island and the Port of New York 1892-1924.
• Family Search, the LDS website.  An excellent free site to begin, continue and document your search for family records. LDS has the largest collection of world wide microfilmed records.  They steadily convert microfilm to digital searchable records and also partner with to bring more records on line. Based in Salt Lake City. By the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). At the above FamilySearch.org WEB site is a “Family Tree” feature which is as LDS bills it, “The World’s Largest Shared Online Family Tree”:
  • This feature is on the familysearch.org HOME Page and just right of the FamilySearch logo.
  • Choose Family Tree and there are six (6) options: Overview, Tree, Person, Find, Following and My Contributions.
  • Here is the Link to Family Tree Basics, a step by step learning tool for “Family Tree”

• FamilySearch Norway Research Guide from the LDS Family Search (Wiki) website. An excellent place to begin learning Norwegian genealogy tools.
• Find a Grave in cemeteries by people or cemetery search.
• Legacy Family Tree. One of a large number of genealogy programs for your PC, and one that you can try free of charge.
• Linkpendium contains a wealth of genealogical information including access to plat maps. It provides information at the county level.
• Map of Norway. A remarkably detailed interactive & zoomable map of Norway
• Minnesota Genealogical Society
• Minnesota Historical Society: People Finder. Genealogy page, containing many interesting links to sites in Minnesota of interest to genealogists.
• Minnesota Historical Society: This is the new version for finding birth and death certificates on the Minnesota Historical Society website. They have added other indexes to the site.
• Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS). Links to marriage certificate records by county.
• Nordic Names: Search for Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and other Nordic Names and their meanings, origins and usage in the Nordic countries.
• Norway-Heritage. Passenger lists and emigrant ships from Norway Heritage, with links to articles for newbies to genealogy, help using the site, and many general links as well.
• Norway Emigration and Immigration by FamilySearch.org.
• NorwayParishes.com Allows one to search and view the boundaries of the parishes in Norway. It also contains a farm search tool.
• Norwegian-American Genealogical Association
• Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA) Genealogy Resources. Genealogy research tools from the Norwegian American Historical Association.
• Norwegian Genealogy and then some. Genealogy, culture and history from Norway. Norwegian to English genealogy dictionary; causes of death found in Norway church records described in English and more. Access to some bygdeboks available on line; alternative spellings of Norwegian names; Norwegian Genealogy Dictionary; Causes of death explained in English and more.
• Norwegian-American Bygdelagenes Fellesraad. The most complete guide to bygdelags on the Internet. This is the only source with local area specific genealogists. Each bygdelag has at least one genealogist for their specific area of Norway. This Link has within it, many other Norway genealogy resources and Links.
• Norwegian Genealogy Facebook Groups – Free. Require Facebook membership. At these sites, members are both professional genealogists and people asking for help with their family research. Members help each other with their research:
  • Norwegian Genealogy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NorwegianGenealogy
  • Wisconsin Norwegians – Genealogy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1375592246052185
  • Minnesota Norwegians – Genealogy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190276084468870
  • Norwaylist Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Norwaylist
• Norwegian Historical Data Center: Norwegian Census Search: Easy Search or Advanced Search in Norway Census
• University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Bygdeboker Collection. Does not lend, but best way to find availability and Library of Congress call number.
• RootsWeb.com this resource has been around for years. RootsWeb recently revised its Web site and services. Access to family trees, message boards, mailing lists and more.
• St. Olaf College Libraries. Does lend. Find the author’s names at UND (previous link), then search. (Library of Congress call number)
• Swedish Genealogical Society of Minnesota. Researching Sweden and Swedish America. Key to getting started; research tools; alphabet chart of old characters; naming patterns and more.