200 years ago, 112 men formed the Norwegian Constitution at Eidsvoll. Recently, The National Archives of Norway, The Genealogy Society of Norway-DIS and The Norwegian Institute of Local History has started searching for the identity of the so-called Eidsvoll Men’s descendants.
Christian Magnus Falsen, “father of the Norwegian Constitution”: Are you related to him or one of the other 111 Eidsvoll Men?
– Many people have shown their interest and we have nearly 60,000 names of descendants – of which around 30,000 are alive today. We know, however, that there are even more descendants alive so we hope to get thousands more, says Eli Fure, deputy director of the National Archives to newspaper VG.
In collaboration with the three departments mentioned above, VG has published “Are you related to one of the Eidsvoll Men?” where readers can check if they are among the thousands missing in the database.
Many volunteers
In the beginning of the project, over 100 volunteer genealogists worked to locate descendants, but last year they opened for the public to be able to enter their family data.
– There may be inaccuracies in dates and names, we can all be wrong, but the advantage of Internet is that mistakes can be corrected. In the old days, names were written in different ways, even by the ones who had them – so if a spelling looks unfamiliar, it does not have to be wrong, Fure says.
If anyone discovers obvious errors, Fure asks that they notify administrators of the base.
Descendants in the U.S.
Today there are over 30,000 living persons that are registered in the database. Over 70 of the Eidsvoll Men have descendants in the United States, while others have spread to countries such as Canada, Spain, Sweden, Germany and England.
Of the 112 people who were at Eidsvoll in 1814, 11 who did not have children and therefore have no direct descendants.
To find out if you are a descendant, simply enter your first and last name in the blank field and then press “søk”. It is also possible to search after birthplace and year of birth. One tip is to search for grandparent’s or great grandparent’s names.
Find out if you are related to one of the solemn Eidsvoll Men.
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Text by: Anette Broteng Christiansen, ThorNews
Source: VG
thornews.com 
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