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Just starting research in Danish records and having a hard time with the letters used both in the printed forms and handwritten entries. In searching for Danish alphabets I am not finding the letters used in an 1859 christening, for example.]

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Argie498
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1 Answers1

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This is Fraktur script, used in countries speaking Germanic languages (Germany : German; Denmark : Danish; mid-1800s Norway : Dano-Norwegian; etc.). In your case, the language looks like Danish or Dano-Norwegian.

The text above says

Forældrenes Navn, Stand, Haandtering og Bopæl

which translates to

Parents' Names, Societal Class, Occupation and Residence

These exact headings are shown in the FamilySearch Wiki page giving a parish birth/baptism register example for 1814 Norway.

If you should happen upon some Danish handwriting that you need to be able to read, FamilySearch has a Wiki page on Scandinavian Handwriting that also has links to some tutorials on reading the handwriting but also about reading the historical documents (christening, death records, etc.).

FamilySearch has a Danish-to-English word list for words commonly found in genealogical records.

Note: Sometimes you will see aa and sometimes it will be å. Likewise, other letters such as æ and œ may appear differently.

shoover
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    “Stand” is more like “position” (in society) here, I think. Or “marital status” (“civilstand”) – Stefan Jul 15 '20 at 14:21
  • Thank you both very much. I did not know that German was used in Danish churches, but have since found that it was also used in Lutheran churches all over the world until not too long ago. Always something to learn. – Argie498 Jul 17 '20 at 14:37
  • @Argie498 The language in your picture is Danish; the script (Fraktur) is used in multiple Germanic countries with multiple languages (Germany/German, Denmark/Danish, mid-1800s Norway/Dano-Norwegian, etc.). – shoover Jul 17 '20 at 15:23
  • I recognized it because I've been doing some 19th century Norway research through the extremely well-kept church records available online. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_language_conflict – shoover Jul 17 '20 at 15:27
  • Thank you. This is my first foray into any Scandinavian research, and the online translators have helped somewhat, but there is a difference between the old records and modern language. – Argie498 Jul 19 '20 at 01:17