Location of churches in Kristiania or Oslo

Pat Lowe

Here is a list of churches where children of Karl Emil Sandersen were baptiszed. All of them except Henny, say on census, born Kristiania, not Oslo.

So I am trying to pinpoint the correct location for each parish record

Paulus church = Krisitania, east of river Aker (I can see on open map clearly)

Aker Kirke = Oslo, west of river Aker (I can see on open map clearly)

But the catalog for Aker Kirke entry says two conflicting locations. ie

Event Place Gamle Aker, Kristiania, Norge

Event Place (Original)Gamle Aker, Oslo, Oslo, Norge

Also another for Paulus Kirke

Paulus Menighet. Oslo, Norge

Paulus Church, Kristiania, Norway

I am confused about why the cataloging is so mixed up. I want to locate the various churches in the time period of the event in this family from 1869-1888.

Thanks,

Pat Lowe,

Gordon Collett

First thing to keep in mind that Oslo and Kristiania are basically synonymous terms. Just consider them the same place with borders that changed through time like most large cities.

For the fine details, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo

which states:

Oslo was founded as a city at the end of the Viking Age in 1040 under the name Ánslo, ... After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, during the reign of King Christian IV, a new city was built closer to Akershus Fortress and named Christiania in honour of the king..... From 1877, the city's name was spelled Kristiania in government usage, a spelling that was adopted by the municipal authorities in 1897. In 1925, the city, after incorporating the village retaining its former name, was renamed Oslo. In 1948 Oslo merged with Aker, a municipality which surrounded the capital and which was 27 times larger, thus creating the modern, much larger Oslo municipality.

To summarize:

1040 to 1624 - Oslo

about 1624 to 1876 - Christiania

1877 to 1924 - Kristiania

1925 to today - Oslo

Original parish registers will give to the name at the time of any particular event.

Catalogs, indexes, Family Tree entries, and other secondary recording of events will variously use Kristiania and Oslo based on the whim of whoever is currently in charge of a project. You are confused because it is confusing. Through the years the preferred method for catalogs and such has flip-flopped between name at time of event and modern name.

For the time period you are looking at, you would use Kristiania, Norway, or, if you want to be strictly accurate, Christiania, Norway for 1869 to 1876 and Kristiania, Norway, for 1877 to 1888, IF the church actually was in Kristiania and not in the surrounding municipality of Aker.

Do keep in mind that each church in the area will have a unique name. So in locating the church, focus on the name. Then you can check in the records at the Digitalarkivet to confirm the parish and therefore municipality of the church.

Here is a search for churches in Oslo/Kristiania (the archive uses modern names): https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb/browse?counties%5B0%5D=03&start_year=1869&end_year=1888&text=

As you scroll these four pages, you will see the parish or prestegjeld (prgj.) which will have the same name as the municipality in the second column, then the local parish or sokn which will have the same name as the church in the third column.

Halfway down the first page you will see that Aker church a.k.a. Gamle Aker church was in Kristiania. At the bottom of the second page the listing starts for Paulus church and you can see that it was also in Kristiania. However, Vestre Aker church was in Aker until about1873 when Aker was divided into Vestre Aker and Østre Aker, then it was in Vestre Aker.

Pat Lowe

Thanks, I really liked that you verified my confusion and the flipflopping of place name policies!

I will check the church names to get thoise correctly too Good point

I do try to put in the place names that existed at the time of the event.

I ppreciate your help.