Background information

Norwegian naming practices is an article that I have written. It explains how farm names were not really surnames, but rather addresses.

Norwegian farms - some background information is another article that I have written. It covers such topics as farm ownership, landskyld, matrikkel, jorddrotte, leilending, husmann, and strandsitter.

Naming Patterns by Stine and Tom Bjørnstad is a helpful article with background information on Norwegian farm names. The article is from the award-winning Medieval Scandinavia web site.

Johan Ingvald Borgos also has some very good articles that you should take a look at, including his articles on Norwegian naming patterns and farm names.
 

The search begins:

Searching in the Matrikkel databases

Matrikkelutkastet av 1950

1. Use the wildcard _ to replace only one character in a name. For example, if you want to search for a farm called Myrold and you are not sure if it is spelled Myrold or Myruld, you can enter the search term as Myr_ld. This will bring up all of the farms that are spelled Myrold, Myruld, Myrild, Myreld and so on.
2. Use the wildcard % to replace more than one character in a name. With this wildcard, you can enter Bl%rud for example. This will bring up all farms that start with the letters Bl and end with the letters rud. You could also do a search for B%r%d% which will bring up all farms that start with the letter B, have a letter r in the middle, followed by the letter d (possibly with some letters in between), and ends after the letter d, but possibly with one or more letters after the d: Baredokken, Biridue, Blikrud, Blekrud, Blåseruden, etc.

     Note: This database uses a case sensitive search function - a search for BL%R%D will not work - you can, however, use all lower case letters - bl%r%d - or you can capitalize the first letter in your search term and use lower case letters for the rest of the search term - Bl%r%d. Thus, the search terms bl%r%d and Bl%r%d will both work.

     In our search for Blackrud we enter Bl%rud as our search term and wind up getting a long list of farms. At least one of the farms is not even close to the farm name we are looking for: Blestrud. It was pulled up because we used a wildcard search - Bl&rud. We can safely discard that one and any other farm that is obviously wrong. We also notice that some of the farms, like the Bliksrud farm in Nittedal kommune, have been subdivided into many different bruk. Keep in mind that this database contains information from 1950, and by that time many of the farms close to the cities had been subdivided into smaller parcels where houses, schools, and parkinglots had been buildt. All we need to know, however, is the names and locations of any farms that appear to be a close match to Blackrud. We are left with:

In Østfold:
Blegerud in Trøgstad herad
Bleikerud in Trøgstad herad
In Akershus:
Blakkesrud (with many bruk) in Eidsvoll herad
Blakkisrud in Nannestad herad
Bliksrud (with many bruk) in Nittedal herad
Blixrud in Nordre Høland herad
In Hedmark:
Blårud in Elverum herad
Blårud, Blårud nordre, and Blårud søndre in Stange herad
Blankerud in Vang herad
In Oppland:
Blækkerud in Gran herad
In Buskerud:
Bliksrud in Norderhov herad

1886 matrikkelen

1. Fornavn = First name
2. Etternavn = Surname
3. G�rdsnavn = Farm name
4. Bruksnavn = Name of bruk, or
5. Sogn = Clerical district/parish.

The search results at the 1886 matrikkel database is displayed in Norwegian. Here is a translation of the words that you will see:

1. "Kriterier for s�k:" = search criteria
2. G�rdsnavn: Bl%rud* = farm name Bl%rud* (the search criteria that we used for this search)
3. Antall treff i databasen for dette s�ket: 31. Viser 31 poster. = Number of matches in the database for this search: 31. Number of matches displayed: 31
4. Trykk p� g�rdsnavn for � se bruk registrert p� g�rden. = click on the farm name to see the "bruk" at each farm
5. Fylke = county, Herred = municipality, Sogn = clerical district, G�rdsnr = Farm number (i.e., matrikkel number), Bruksnr = bruk number, G�rdsnavn = farm name, Bruksnavn = name of bruk, Navn p� eier = owner's name, Skyld i ort og mark = "skyld" in terms of ort and mark. (These terms are explained in my article Norwegian farms - some background information).

O. Rygh Norske Gaardnavne database

Census records

1865 census and 1900 census - University of Bergen

     When I tried to find the BLACKRUD farm in the search field of the 1865 census using the "like" option, it brought up a page with a few Norwegian words and a button that says Submit. When I clicked on that button, another page loaded up that said (with a few typos) "No induvidual withe teh chosen combinatio". I then tried the "Starting with" option to search for Bl and this returned 17 farms. Unfortunately, none of these were the correct farm. From the matrikkel search that we did earlier, we know that there are some farms that have names very similar to BLACKRUD, and the "Starting with" search using Bl as a search term should have brought up a list of at least some of these farms if they existed in 1865. The Blegerud farm in Trøgstad kommune., for example, should have been in the search results, because it is in fact in the 1865 census database: here is a link to it. Two other farms that our search results should have included are Blækerud and Blækkerud, both of which are located in Gran kommune in Oppland. More importantly, the first of these is the farm that our Andrew BLACKRUD came from! So this search function is obviously not very useful for us.

     The problems we are experiencing suggests that we need to use another approach - either the wildcard function or the "Analysis" function that are available once we have selected a "fylke" and a "kommune". For example, we can try to find the Blegerud farm in Trøgstad herad (kommune) in Østfold fylke from the Digitalarkivet 1865 database.
     We already know that the Blegerud farm exists in Trøgstad herad in Østfold from the search we did in the Matrikkel and in the O. Rygh database. So we click our way to the 1865 census, and then click on the word Østfold in the left frame. In the right frame we will see a list of all the kommune in Østfold. We do not see Trøgstad on the list, but "Thrygstad" is listed, so we guess that they are one and the same. When we click on Thrygstad we are brought to a new search screen, and from this screen we can do a wildcard search. This database, however, uses a different character as a wildcard, namely the * sign. A the top of the page we see the words Find records where and a drop down menu. From this drop down menu we select "Gardsnavn" (farm name) and type in Bl followed by the wildcard, i.e., the * sign. Then we click on Search The search for Bl* brings up a new screen with a small window that displays all of the possible matches. For our search the window displays only one match: Blegerud. We click on the Blegerud name to highlight it, and then click on the button that says Finn postane (Find the matching entries). The screen changes again, and we see the one matching entry. We then click on the number to the left of the matching entry, and find the 1865 census entry for the Blegerud farm in Thrygstad kommune.

     In addition to the wildcard approach using the * sign, we can also use the "Analysis" function to find all of the farms in a particular kommune, and from this list select the ones that match the farm name that we are researching. For example, once we have clicked our way from Østfold on the opening page to the first screen for Thrygstad, we can click on the text that says Analysis. It is on the line of links (blue text) that says
Alle Previous Next Home Help Analysis Dictionary Documentation Print format Show/hide variables.
This brings up a page with a couple of sentences in Norwegian and two pull-down menus. This search screen is used to create tables of the data in the database. We will use it to create a table of farms in Thrygstad kommune. We only need to fill in one of the drop down menus, the one next to the word Nedover (downwards). Click on the pull-down menu and select "Gardsnavn", and then click on the button that says Lag tabell (Make table). (You should not do anything with the pull-down menu next to the word Bortover (Across) - that will simply create a larger table with additional fields that we do not need). The result of this "Analysis" is that a table is created for us with all of the farms in Thrygstad kommune in 1865. As you scroll down this table you will see the Blegerud farm, the only one that looks anything like the BLACKRUD farm that we are looking for. We can now return to the first initial search screen for Thrygstad and search for Blegerud. This "Analysis" method can be used to obtain the correct spelling of any farm name in the 1865 and 1900 census records from the Digitalarkivet web site. As we will see, the census database from RHD uses a different approach.
 

The 1865, 1875, and 1900 census records - RHD, University of Tromsø

1801 census

     The search results show us a long list of farms in 1801 where the name starts with the letters BL, starting with Blaaberget and ending with Blørstad. Only 4 of the farms, however, have names that are anything similar to Blackrud farm that Andrew Blackrud came from:

Blaarud farm in Stange parish in Hedemarken amt
Blekerud farm in Gran parish in Christians amt
Blexrud farm in Høeland parish in Agershus amt, and
Blixrud farm in Nordrehoug parish in Buskerud amt.

Where is Blackrud farm?

     Using the 13 farms we identified in our matrikkel search (and any other close matches that we identified in our census searches), we now turn to the 1865 census and look up each of these farms. Andrew Blackrud was born around 1850, so he would have been about 15 years old when the 1865 census was taken. When we look at each of the farms we see that there is only one possible match: on the Blækerud farm in Gran kommune in Oppdal we find an Anders Larsen, age 15, the son of Lars Olsen and Mari Christensdatter. If he emigrated from Norway to America around 1880, he would have been about 30 years old when he left. We can now turn to the online Emigrasjonsprotokoll to see if we can find him there.

The Emigrasjonsprotokoll

     We can now turn to the Emigrasjonsprotokoll to see if we can find out if Anders Larsen Blækerud from Gran kommune in Oppdal emigrated to America. We will use the wildcard search function using the * wildcard sign. Go to the Digitalarkivet, click on Source categories then Emigrants, and then Registers. From there, click on Oslo - Emigrants from Oslo 1867-1930. Next to Find records where, we select "Given name" and enter A* to get all emigrants whose first name starts with A. This will get you a very long list of names displayed in a small window, and from this list you can select the ones you want to take a closer look at.      When you get the list of names (it will take a little while), select all of the AN(DERS), ANDERS, ANDEREW, ANDERS, etc. from the list by clicking on the names and holding down your 'Shift' button while you click. (As you scroll down the list of names you will realize how many typos there are in these databases). Once you have selected these names, click on the button that says "Finn postane" to get to the next search screen. You have now narrowed down the list of emigrants considerably - you have a list of emigrants whose first name was AN(DERS), ANDERS, ANDEREW, or ANDERS. More importantly, you can narrow down this list even further by doing a search within this list - you can, for example, search for "Last name" = L*  This will bring up those emigrants whose first name was first name was AN(DERS), ANDERS, ANDEREW, or ANDERS, and whose patronymic name started with the letter L.
     When you do this search you will get a screen that says "Record 1-10 of 84 chosen in the data base". 10 matches are displayed at a time, and you can click your way through the search results by clicking on the link that says Next at the bottom of the screen. Look at each entry to see if you can find an Anders Larsen whose residence is listed as Gran, and who is about 30 years old. There are 5 or 6 possible matches, but you should fairly quickly find Anders Larsen Blikkrud, age 27, from Gran, Hadeland. It is the Anders Larsen who we saw at age 15 on the Blækerud farm in Gran kommune in Oppdal, the son of Lars Olsen and Mari Christensdatter. Anders, it turns out, emigrated to America on 09 May, 1879.

     Do we have a match? Is Anders LARSEN BLIKKRUD our great grandfather Andrew BLACKRUD who was born around 1850, who came from somewhere in Norway, and who emigrated to the US around 1880 or so? Hopefully we will be able to find documents and other materials that will provide additional proof that we have the correct match. Until we do, I hope that this article has helped to explain some of the ways we can use the Norwegian databases to assist us in our search for our ancestors.