Map Poster: Knowing your geography is a must when researching Norwegian genealogy. Deb Nelson Gourley, Astri My Astri Publishing originally published maps of Norway's 18 fylker (districts) and the 433 kommuner (municipalities) in the 2006 book "History of the Norwegian Settlements" by Hjalmar Rued Holand. In 2009, she designed and published an 18" x 24" map poster containing all of the fylker and kommuner in order to have a working copy (something to write on) when researching genealogy and documenting were those elusive ancestors lived. The copyrighted maps in the book and on the poster were printed by Astri My Astri Publishing with permission from the Norwegian Automobile Federation (NAF).
The map poster has became an invaluable tool when researching the FREE Norwegian Arkivverket Digitalarkivet — Digitised Parish Registers (old handwritten church books from Norway).
Deb found the need for such a map poster after researching her own 7/8 Norwegian ancestry since 1976. In all, Deb had 27 ancestors (1 g-grandparent, 10 gg-grandparents, 15 ggg-grandparents and 1 gggg-grandparent) who began emigrating as early as 1845 from various areas of Norway including Hallingdal, Numedal, Telemark, Voss, Sognefjord, Valdres and Selbu near Trondheim. After attending numerous book signing at various Norwegian genealogy events, Deb also found the need for and designed a kid-friendly five generation genealogy chart along with easy step-by-step instructions to use the Digitised Parish Registers.
5-generation genealogy chart: Kids of all ages will love the self-guided genealogy chart so they know where to enter one's self, father, mother, father's father, father's mother, mother's father, mother's mother etc. You'll be amazed to see how kids of all ages enjoy filling in their own 5-generation chart from scratch, making it theirs!
2 pages of easy step-by-step instructions: The original old handwritten Norwegian Church Registers for birth, baptism, vaccination, confirmation, banns, marriage, immigration, death and other records can be found FREE on the internet, instead of having to use microfilms. What used to take hours, days or weeks on the microfilms can now be done in minutes! The Norwegian Arkivverket Digitalarkivet images are not only clearer, but you can save them as high resolution jpgs and/or pdfs. The Digitised Parish Registers are a tremendous primary resource to verify the data found in the bygdebøker (Norwegian local history book). Just go through the step-by-step instruction sample filled with time saving hints and then you're on your way. No memberships, no signing up and no fees to use the website!
Over the past few years Deb sold her the Norwegian Genealogy Kit at various events. Now for the first time the kit is being offered on the new high-tech Astri My Astri Publishing website.
Norwegian Genealogy Kit contents: