Daily Ancestortjenestepige
Tjenestepige (modern tjenestepike) means a maidservant, a girl or woman hired to work in a farm household or a town home.
FamilySearch translates tjenestepige as a female servant or employee. In Norwegian town households it was fairly common to keep one or two servants, as a rule girls from the countryside, and farms had their own servants as well.
A servant is listed in the household where she worked, not with her parents, so her family may live on another farm or in another parish. Over time the word gave way to hushjelp, housemaid.
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How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "tjenestepige." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/norwegian/tjenestepige. Last checked 2026-10-28.