Sogne Træf Danish Genealogical Message Board

Sogne Træf a Danish website available for genealogical research has been a success for me. This site was where I stumbled upon meeting my newest distant cousin Gil Nielsen who I blogged about previously. This site Sogne Træf translated into English from Danish using the GramTrans, sogne means Parishes; træf means meet, happy, and coincidence. This is a perfect description of the site in that it is organized by parishes and is a happy coincidental place to meet new cousins. Sogne Træf is a message board organized by parishes located in Denmark and membership is not required in order to utilize the site. Having said that, membership is free and allows you to submit the information you want others to see. You will get your own profile: e-mail address, homepage link or snail mail address. As with most message boards, the more members that join, the more effective the board becomes. It is the law of critical mass that applies to this social networking site as it does with other social networking sites. The Law of Critical Mass means the minimum amount of force needed to cause a runaway chain reaction sustaining a continuous sharing of data between the members of the site. Or as the site SogneTræf states to "become a usefull tool for Denmark Genealogy it is important that as many genealogists as possible join SogneTræf and provide knowledge. Without members sharing knowledge: no SogneTræf."

The website is in Danish, but it does have an English version of the site that is easily found by clicking on the appropriate flag that is located on the upper right hand corner of the page. You can browse through the message boards by county or parish (if known)reading what other posters have posted to the boards. The majority of the message board posts are in Danish, but utilizing the Gramtrans website this hurdle is easily overcome. The nice options of these message boards are that you can contact the individual poster by email, snail mail, and/or phone. You also can view the poster's personal website if you desire. These options are great allowing for one on one contact with the poster to share information directly. The member chooses how much contact information is allowed to be viewed, but it is a must for poster to allow contact via email. Another great feature of this site is the Parish location map. The map covers the time period from 1793 until 1970. This is a great tool for the genealogist, providing critical information in locating your ancestor.

If you would like to research this site further, click Sogne Træf. Have Fun!