A local history book (also known as a (rural) farm book or local chronicle; no, bygdebok), is a Norwegian publication genre describing the history and population of one or more rural settlements. Many local history books feature a short history of each farm and a chronology of its owners dating back several generations or centuries. Norwegian local history books have usually been published under the auspices of or in collaboration with the municipality. Such local history books began being published in Norway around 1910 starting with the work of

Lorens Berg Lorens Berg (January 18, 1862 – September 14, 1924) was a Norwegian teacher and local historian. Life Berg was born in Kodal, the son of Amund Andersen (1827–1868) and Anne Kristine Sørensdatter (1822–1870). He worked as a shepherd and ...

, but one can trace the roots of the phenomenon back to the topographic literature of the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

. Local history books can be divided into three main categories, and many local history books contain volumes of several types: * General rural and cultural history; * Topic-based rural history with chapters on building practices, geology, dialects, school, churches, and the like; and * Farm history and genealogy history, where the village is described based on the properties. For each farm, information is provided on its

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

, property tax, operating statistics, inheritance, division, and ownership or user change. In addition, with some variation, information about the inhabitants from historical archives (from the 15th or 16th century) is often presented by family based on the owner or user of the property. As a rule, a very brief presentation of individual biographies follows. It is common to list years of birth and death, years of marriages, spouses, and possibly destinations of emigration. The oldest local history books only presented farm owners, whereas newer local history books describe entire families and also crofters, tenants, and the homeless.

References

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External links

Overview of local history books in Norway
at th
Slekt1
genealogy research organization
List of digitized local history books
at the

Norwegian Genealogical Society Norwegian Genealogical Society ( no, Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, NSF) is a genealogical society in Oslo, Norway. It was founded on 22 October 1926 as the first exclusively Norwegian genealogical society. Among the founders were Stian Herlofsen ...

What is a "bygdebok"?
by Martin Roe Eidhammer Local history Genealogy publications Demography History of agriculture