It should be obvious to you why more than one set of records is useful in research. I speak here specifically of Danish records in the 1800s.
In previous posts I have mentioned the military records. These are quite useful in tracing the boys and men through years where there are no census records. To review, as a male child is born, he is very soon included in the military records, listing his father (usually) and his birth information, and the record travels with him regardless of where his other family members are. This post does not deal with those important records.
The records I wish to discuss here are the double set of records kept by the Lutheran church over the years of about 1813 through the latter part of the century. These are the "main" records, or Hovedministerialbog and the clerk's copy or "counter" copy, the Kontraministerialbog. Generally, the Kontraministerialbog records are more readable and are therefore the ones used in name extraction or indexing. Also, the Danish state archives made a "new scan" of these records, in color, so they are the better ones to use, in general.
Almost always, I use the Kontaministerialbog records. They continue well into the mid-1900s. The Hoved- records can be useful to verify some confusing points in the Kontra- records, though they do not always continue past the 1890s.
Here are two examples based on recent research:
I found a previously unknown child of the family of Lars Hansen in Værløse. She was born in 1809, so that birth and christening was not found in either the Hoved- or Kontra- records, but in the Enesteministerialbog, or older records. That is not really the point I wish to cover here. The thing I was searching for was her death, because she does not appear in the female confirmation records where she would normally appear as a 14-year old, or in about 1823.
According to the christening record, she was named Birte, born in October 1809.
As I search the death records, starting in 1813, when those records began in the Kontra- records for Værløse, I eventually found what I thought was the death record for Birte:
The record is difficult to read and seems to say her name was Birgithe Larsdatter and says that she was 10 1/2 years old. The age is off a bit since she was not much older than 10, but the matter of her name puzzled me. It could be someone else.
It was then that I decided to take a look at the Hoved- records. I found her there and the record made more sense.
Here I saw the information more clearly and it does say her name was Birte and her age was 10.
In another recent research example, I found that additional details of a marriage record gave more credence to the person's identity. In this case, the name, being fairly common, was verified by the vaccination records, sometimes recorded in the Hoved- records and not the Kontra- records.
This Kontra- marriage record shows Jørgen Jensen, age 27, marrying Maren Nielsdatter, age 26.
The Hovedministerialbog record, however, gives some important details to help make sure we have the correct person:
Here it says that Jørgen was 26 3/4 and he was vaccinated on 21 June 1819 and Maren was 26 and vaccinated on 22 May 1818. (You can click on the images to see details enlarged.)
The best place to find vaccination records is usually in the confirmation records. Here again, I found the best detail in the Hoved- records for Maren:
To show you why the Hoved- is better, here is the Kontra- record for comparison. The handwriting is actually quite beautiful, but they chose to not include the vaccination details:
In summary, it is good to know that there are additional records, especially in clearing up some doubts. Still, for the most part, in your research, the usual sources work well, just know that they are not the final word in your research.
NOTE:
Since writing this entry, I have worked on some research in Ålborg and see that there are no Hovedministerialbog records available there. The Hoved- records seem to not be available everywhere in Denmark. - jfb
