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Rogaland

    Formerly called "Stavanger amt", Rogaland 'fylke' is located on the southwestern coast of Norway. It includes such places as Egersund, Jæren, Haugesund, Ryfylke, Sandnes, and Stavanger. Today the population of Rogaland is approximately 374,000 - about 8% of the population of Norway. It has some of the best agricultural land in Norway, and produces more agricultural products than any other county in Norway. In addition, this county has the largest number of employees in the manufacturing sector of any county in Norway, and it is also the center of North Sea oil and gas activity. Stavanger, the administrative center of this 'fylke', is the oil capital of Norway.
    Rogaland has historically been divided into four regions: Dalane, Jæren, Nord Rogaland, and Ryfylke. There are 26 'kommuner' (municipalities) in Rogaland, 4 of which are cities: Eigersund, Haugesund, Sandnes, and Stavanger. The official Rogaland county web site has some information in English about Rogaland.

 

1. Genealogy organizations

DIS-Rogaland is a local chapter of the Norwegian genealogy organization DIS-Norge. The web site is in Norwegian, but there is a link for "Etterlysninger / Research" where you can post queries about your Rogaland ancestors.

DIS-Haugaland is a local chapter of the Norwegian genealogy organization DIS-Norge. (The web site is in Norwegian).

Slektsforum Karmøy was founded in November, 1996. This genealogy club focuses on genealogy, family history and all kinds of information related to Karmøy, a "kommune" located north-east of Stavanger. (Karmøy kommune includes the two towns Kopervik and Skudeneshavn, and such smaller places as Åkrehamn and Norheim).

Rogalandslag - a bygdelag of the descendents of Rogaland that emigrated to the USA. It meets yearly with several other bygdelag for a stevne (meeting) that combines genealogy and heritage.


 

2. Rogaland resources


 
 
 Avaldsnes  Høyland  Nedstrand  Stavanger - St. Johannes
 Eigersund  Hå  Rennesøy  Strand
 Finnøy  Håland  Sand  Suldal
 Haugesund  Jelsa  Skjold  Torvastad
 Helleland  Klepp  Skudenes  Tysvær
 Hetland  Kopervik  Sokndal  Vikedal
 Hjelmeland  Lund  Stavanger - Domkirken  Dissentersamfunn
 Høgsfjord  Lye  Stavanger - St. Petri  ----

 

3. Rogaland regions and 'kommuner'

As noted above, Rogaland has historically been divided into four regions: Dalane, Jæren, Nord Rogaland, and Ryfylke. There are 27 kommuner (municipalities) in Rogaland, 4 of which are cities: Eigersund, Haugesund, Sandnes, and Stavanger. Ølen kommune is the newest municipality in Rogaland. It was part of Hordaland fylke until 01 January 2002 when it was transferred to Rogaland fylke: The 'kommuner" by region are as follows:
  1. Dalane Region: Bjerkreim, Eigersund, Lund, and Sokndal.
  2. Jæren Region: Gjesdal, Hå, Klepp, Randaberg, Sandnes, Sola, Stavanger, and Time.
  3. Nord-Rogaland Region: Bokn, Haugesund, Karmøy, Tysvær, Utsira, Vindafjord, and Ølen.
  4. Ryfylke Region: Finnøy, Forsand, Hjelmeland, Kvitsøy, Rennesøy, Sauda, Strand and Suldal.

 

4. Rogaland maps

Small interactive map of Norway - shows where Rogaland is located. Click on Rogaland and you can see a small map of Rogaland showing the 'kommune' (municipalities) of this 'fylke'.

Large map of Rogaland from the NORWAY LIST Web Site. Kommune names are underlined.


 

5. Rogaland genealogy query pages

Rogaland queries from Rootsweb.com Message boards.

Slektsbiblioteket Queries is a new and very promising Norway query page.

Rogaland genealogist from Slektsforskerbasen (in Norwegian)

Norway-L@rootsweb.com mailing list archives is another often overlooked resource. You can search the archive to find out if others are researching the same families or places in Norway, and then contact them.
 

6. Rogaland museums

Stavanger Emigration Museum is a museum dedicated to emigration from Norway to the USA.

Krossens Havremølle Museum - The Krossens Oats Mill museum in Sandnes.

Stavanger Museum. The museum consists of four separate departments: the Zoological Department, the Ethnological Department, Stavanger Maritime Museum, and the Norwegian Canning Museum.
 

7. Miscellaneous Rogaland web sites

Stavanger History Guide is absolutely fantastic! This is the web page where you can read about the copper used to build the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor!

Terje Bakkalia has a very nice home page, with an ahnentafel as well as an alphabetical list of his ancestors.

Michael Van Baaren's home page with ahnentafels of his ancestors.

Willy's genealogy web page has a great deal of genealogy information about his ancestors from Hordaland, Rogaland and Agder. You will find 2,500 names on his family tree on this web page!

Stein Norem Wisted has a great genealogy page about Sokndal in Dalane, Rogaland. Here you can read about two women who, in 1620, were accused of being witches in Sokndal. On the Norwegian version of his web page you can read old census and tax records from Sokndal, farm histories from Sokndal up to 1800, and the incredible story about a child that was snatched by an eagle in 1879!

Welcome to the Norwegian Riviera - local history and genealogy information from Tananger, the biggest community in the municipality of Sola.

Ket Henriksen's genealogy page with ancestors from Rogaland, Hordaland, and Vest-Agder. (In Norwegian).

A Family Tree From The Western Norway by Gudny Ferkingstad and Olaf Lund from Karmøy.

Slekts side for Ivar Vølstad includes surnames from Sandnes, Høyland, Gjesdal, Høle, and Jæren. (In Norwegian)

Unofficial home page for Egersund by Bjørn Roger Rasmussen includes many photos and a brief history of the town of Egersund.

Karmøy kommune - history, coastal culture, tourist information and more.

Bilder fra Karmøy photographs from Karmøy (text is in Norwegian)

Stavanger akkurat nå! web cam showing Stavanger.

RogBase contains comprehensive information about Rogaland, including a web page on the Municipalities of Rogaland.
 
 
 

Please notify me of any links that are not working
properly as well as any suggestions for additional links.

Unfortunately my schedule does not permit me to answer
individual requests for assistance with genealogy research

 John Follesdal
Copyright 1996 - 2002
This page was created 12 December 1996
Last updated on 10 October 2002