Norwegian military
Leplin	I recently found a picture of my father in a picture that appears to be a military photo. There is a group of 20 "soldiers" in uniform with rifles. This would be about in 1920-1924 ? He came to the United States in 1925. He was born in 1903 Jacob Olaf Farsund (Ludviksen) . He never mentioned to any of my brothers or myself that he was in the army. How would I go about finding out if he was in the "army" or what the picture could represent? Was there a national guard or reserve army in Norway ? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I tried emailing the Norwegian archives and the emails came back "undeliverable". Thanks, Linda Eplin Illinois
Hopkins	From 1700 to the early 1900s, the parish pastors kept lists of all men the right age for military service. On the basis of those lists, the military authorities worked out protocols of young men to be called in, and kept "rolls" in which the soldiers were listed as long as the service remained and issued various papers or certificates, including very interesting descriptions of each individual. Officers and seamen may be found in separate listings - and in printed books. In regional Statsarkivene and in Riksarkivet in Oslo, you will find both military- and civil archives. Also check the LDS library catalog for Norwegian military records for the various locations pertinent to your particular individual of interest. Information of Norwegian military records is very extensive, and a lot of explanation of how to access the records has been published (in Norwegian ). The matter is rather complicated or specialized (much the same as deciding to thoroughly investigate a US ancestor's military service) and information may be found in various places. Which 'Norwegian archives' did you attempt to email? This topic has been brought up nearly every year of the existence of the Rootsweb mailing list - the Norway-List. They also have an online archive that you could search through - at http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/NOR/NORWAY.html