Daily Ancestorbygdebok
A bygdebok is a Norwegian local history book that describes a rural district farm by farm, often with the families who owned or worked each farm.
Bygdebøker began to appear around 1910. Most were published by or together with the municipality, and local history societies often did much of the collecting. The farm and family volumes give, for each farm, its name, owners or users, divisions and probates, and short life sketches of the people.
The oldest bygdebøker covered only the users of owner-occupied farms, while newer ones include cotters, tenants and the landless. A bygdebok is a compiled source, so check its facts against the church books and censuses it drew on.
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Daily Ancestor. "bygdebok." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/norwegian/bygdebok. Last checked 2026-10-28.