In most families there is a solid preponderance of fishermen and farmers, but some made more of a name for themselves and got an article in biographical encyclopedias. These can be a solid source of information about individuals in the family.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to find direct ancestors in biographical encyclopedias, but you might find an uncle, cousin, second cousin or first cousin?
In Norway, Sweden and Denmark, biographical encyclopedias have long since become digital and searchable online. So even if your family has moved between the Nordic countries, you will be able to find biographical data on individual relatives who did something more than the average man in the street.
Feel free to look in all three, maybe you'll find a relative you didn't know about?
Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia
Norsk biografisk leksikon is a digital version of the paper version, published in the period 1999-2005. Unfortunately, the content of the Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia is no longer updated.
The encyclopedia is part of Store Norske Leksikon and collectively has more than 3 million users every month. Every day, over half a million articles are looked up.
Go to the Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia
Swedish Biographical Dictionary
Swedes were able to look up the Swedish Biographical Dictionary for the first time in 1917. In March 2012, 95 years later, Swedes were able to look up the encyclopedia online for the first time. Three years earlier, it had become part of the Swedish National Archives.
Go to Svensk Biografiskt Lexikon
Danish Biographical Encyclopedia
The encyclopedia is part of lex.dk, which collects several specialized works from Danish literature. Lex.dk has more than 1 million users a month, who each read an average of three articles each.
