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1940 Confirmation at Bethel Lutheran Church near Leinan, Saskatchewan - author's father Ken Bardahl back row centre |
The Evangelical Lutheran Church was the state church in Norway from 1537 until 2012. It was mandated to keep the official state records including births/baptisms, marriages and deaths/burials. All of these entailed church matters as well as vital statistics. The church records are mostly available online through the Norwegian national archives, albeit only in a browsable format in challenging Gothic script in old Norwegian.
One other church record that is often available is the list of those confirmed into the Lutheran Church as an affirmation of the baptism done in infancy. From 1736 on, it was a requirement that young people be instructed in the catechism and pass a test before taking their first communion. Confirmation traditionally occurred at around 14-15 years of age and can often be found by searching the church records 14-16 years following a person's baptism record; sometimes confirmands were as old as 20 so scrolling through a few years' records might be required. Confirmations are fairly easy to spot even in chronological church records as lists of young people of about the same specified age. Sometimes it lists the father and, occasionally, the mother. It does not often provide much in the way of new information but is another piece of the genealogical puzzle to map out a person's life in a given location.
For example, after finding the birth record for my paternal immigrant ancestor Hans Olai Johnson Bardahl in 1841, it was fairly easy to find his Confirmation record from 1857.
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1857 Confirmation Record for Hans Olai Johnson (blue underlining) from Nesna, Nordland, Norway church book |
Hans's Confirmation record is unusual in containing a generous amount of genealogical information including his name, date and place of birth, father's and mother's names, his religious knowledge and diligence (which I wish I could decipher) and finally the date on which he had been vaccinated for smallpox. Smallpox vaccine was mandated in Norway from 1810 and often shows up in the church records alongside births/baptisms, confirmations or marriages. Hans had been vaccinated 18 September 1845 at age 4.
Both paternal grandparents were Confirmed as Lutherans in the United States; much of the same record-keeping persisted in the Church although not mandated in America. My favourite record is the certificate in Norwegian for my paternal grandmother Louise Nelson, confirmed in 1897 in Erdahl, MN.
My paternal grandfather John Bardahl was confirmed in Elbow Lake, Minnesota in 1893.
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1893 Confirmation of John Bardahl from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Records for Elbow Lake, MN |
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My brother's copy of our first year Confirmation book containing much of the Catechism that was to be learned by memory |
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My Dad's sister Inez Bardahl's Confirmation Photo c.1932 |
Some Resources:
- Research Outline Norway, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah (a precursor to materials now available on the familysearch.org website Research WIKI), pages 14-16
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