The Norwegian historical cadasters

Abstract

Norway was quick off the mark with digitization of its basic national source materials, including key cadastral records such as the 1886-cadastre and the cadastral draft of 1950 – both which have been searchable online since the late 1990s. However, since then, only the 1838-cadastre has been added to the portfolio of online and searchable cadastres. In addition, none of the Norwegian cadastres have so far been viewed in an interrelated context. No attempt has so far been made with linking cadastres, neither for the historical cadastres in between nor with the current Norwegian cadastre. Moreover, a spatial-temporal historical cadastre has never even been considered as a research dataset either. This is largely due to factors such as the structure of the cadastre and the peculiar time-dynamic cadastral code key. As the Norwegian cadastral records constitute a unique source for the exploration of the temporal development of land and estate in Norway, this article presents the advances in linking and geocoding historical cadastral records. As digitally linked and georeferenced historical registers gradually become available, the appreciation of their value as a research resource will increase. Then, hopefully, the interest in historical geography and retrogressive methods in historical-demographic research will be strengthened in Norway.