Transcribed material

Transcribed sources are archive sources whose content has been intepreted from the handwritten pages, and re-entered into a searchable digital database.

There can be a number of reasons that a search generates no results.

• We may not have the data from the period of time you have specified. The data in The Digital Archives is primarily from the period 1801-1910, though there may also be some data older than 1801 and younger than 1910.
• The spelling you are looking for may be different in its older form. The data is transcribed exactly as it was in the source. A name such as "Christoffer", could have many different spelling variations for example, "Kristoffer", "Krestofer" and "Christopher". To cover all variants, it is advisable to use our special search symbols. For example; a search for "Christoffer" can be performed in the following way: *risto*. For more search methods, please consult the user guide: Søk med spesielle søketegn
• You have used too many parameters in your search. Our search system will only return results where all of the information you have provided matches a record in the archives. A search for person, exact date of birth, birthplace and abode will rarely produce a result. Only the information present in the source has been transcribed, and older sources tend to be less detailed. It is therefore advisable to begin with few details and narrow your search if you receive too many results

In The Digital Archives, you will find generic search forms for persons and property - these will search through all data in the Digital Archives, in addition to the source and list-specific searches. If when using a search form, you receive too many results, we advise you to reduce the number of details you are providing in the form; for example a name, a place, or some form of event such as a birth/death/marriage.

Please note that if you add more information in the free-text search, you will generate even more results. A free-text search is a "OR-search". Thus, if you search for "Anne Kari", this will generate results for both "Anne Kari" or "Kari" alone, or "Anne" alone (This in addition to the different spellings of these names). However, the results are ordered by relevance such that results for "Anne Kari" will be most prominent.

Det is a good idea to use the special search characters to limit the search. Read more here: Søk med spesielle søketegn.

To search for all names which begin with, for example "An", you can use the * as a wildcard. Enter "An*" in the search box. This will work in all name fields, such as first name, last name and place names. Read more about wildcards and other special search characters in this guide Special Search Characters. Please note that searches which use * must contain at least 2 characters. For example, you cannot search for "A*", as this would be very slow, and return many irrelevant results.

To search for all names which contain, for example "risto", you can use the * wildcard character. Enter "*risto*" in the search box. This will work for all name fields, such as first name, last name and place names. Entering "*risto*" in the search box for first name will generates results for "Kristoffer", "Christoffer" etc. Read more about wildcard characters and other special search characters in this user guide: Special Search Characters. Please note that searches which use * must contain at least 2 characters. For example, you cannot search for "*r*", as this would be very slow, and return many irrelevant results.

Search for individuals on the front page uses a special name database which contains alternative spellings of names you enter in the search box. For example, a search for "Kristoffer" will return results for "Christopher", "Kristofer", "Christofer" etc. Searching for place names and other types of information do not have such a list of alternatives. In these cases, we encourage you to use a wildcard search Special Search Characters to find what you are looking for.

With Advanced person search, you can search for people or related people simultaneously. Please note that special search characters (with the exception of "|") cannot be used for related people.

When viewing the results window of a search, you will see a box to the left which says "Customize search", where you can change your search parameters without resetting the form.

Simpley enter the initials into the search field without using a * (asterisk).

We currently have no information regarding the scheduling of scanning or transcription of archive materials. For a list of volunteer digitilisation tasks, please visit this page: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/en/content/contribution-tasks