Danish Immigration to America:
Introduction

By Lee V. Douglas
Research Guide No. 28

Home | Scandinavian Emigration in General | Danish Immigration to America | Danes in America |
Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

This bibliography contains titles that describe Scandinavian emigrations in general, both within Scandinavia and beyond, and that situate Danish emigration within this context. The second section refers specifically to reasons for and means of Danish emigration to North America. Section three describes the Danish immigrant experience in America, and the last section lists handbooks that are helpful for the genealogist and the historian in tracing individual and communal Danish roots from America back to the home country.

The works annotated here have been selected from among a vast number of holdings and are only those that the compiler considers most representative and most helpful; this bibliography is an aid for beginning research in the field. Thousands of other works are available at the Library of Congress and should be sought by using both the bibliographies in the works annotated and the appropriate subject headings in the Library's catalogs.

The present compilation is limited to works that are among the holdings of the Library of Congress; the researcher should be aware that there are other institutions, most of them mentioned in the following pages, that have significant collections on Danish emigration and genealogy.

Works on genealogy listed here deal almost exclusively with Danes who have immigrated to North America. For researchers who have traced a family or a community as far back as Denmark, the Library possesses an enormous collection of works published in Denmark. These may be identified in the Library's catalogs through subject searches by family name or place name. The collection is particularly rich in Danish family histories.

A significant source not listed in this compilation is the FamilySearch database on CD-ROM compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This database is particularly rich in information on Danish immigrants and may be consulted at LDS Family History Centers throughout North America, as well as in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room at the Library of Congress. Researchers in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room are also encouraged to ask for the vertical file folder labeled "Denmark-- Genealogy"; it contains ephemera that will not be found elsewhere in the Library of Congress.

This compiler wishes to express special thanks to Ms. Birgit Flemming Larsen of the Danes Worldwide Archive in Aalborg, Denmark, for suggesting recent titles that have significantly expanded the scope and usefulness of this bibliography.