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I think I have ancestors from Sor-Trondelag born in 1830s. Hanson, Larsdatter, Olsen and Larsen to name a few. AncestryDNA says the specific regions are

Southeastern, Central & Northern Norway

Trondelag, Northern Hedmark &

Jämtlands län

Central Norway

Smola, Aure, Kristiansund, Halsa

& Surnadal

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I have been doing my best to untangle these families, but I find it challenging to figure out which names they used at different times. The rule for Scandinavian names on WikiTree say to use the Name At Birth (NAB) when you create their profile... but that is rarely a straightforward thing!

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Yep! Super frustrating! This was the first branch of my tree that I started researching when I got into genealogy. I had no clue what I was doing. I quickly moved on to a different branch, but I still haven’t gone back to take another stab at it. The Scandinavians were meticulous record keepers back then too so you would think it would be so easy, but I find it nearly impossible to read the handwriting. My grandmother had a family bible so I at least have that as a starting point.

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I have the World membership on Ancestry, and they have a good selection of Swedish and Norwegian records.

The trick is to find a whole family that matches your target family in the census records, and then look for precise birthdates on church records that match the child's and parents' names *for that village* for all of the children in those families. Hopefully your family didn't move very often or very far. :)

As you get more comfortable with the information you have, you can look for immigration and emigration records that match the siblings and parents. It's quite a puzzle!

I do have to rely on the transcriptions more than I like, and it takes up a lot of time, but I eventually get what I'm looking for.

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*I have

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Ok, thanks for the tips! I whatever tier is below the world membership. What extras do you get with the world tier? Perhaps I should upgrade?

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I would have to look up their current plans - but keep an eye out for a discount. I think they run specials around the holidays.

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Scandinavian names can be such a challenge!

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They have been a lot of fun to learn about, and the records are very good (once you figure out how to tell people apart by the farm names).

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