These records show the registration, value, and division of real estate and property of all kinds left by deceased individuals. They also list the names of heirs and guardians and a great deal of other family information. The registers also contain interesting data of an economic and cultural nature.
The oldest registers date back to about 1660. They were kept by the probate court (skifterett or skifteforvalter), that is to say by the chief magistrate (district court judge or sorenskriver) in the rural districts and by the corresponding official (magistrat, byfogd, or byskriver) in the towns. These registers are now preserved in the regional archives. They are usually quite voluminous, and only some were originally indexed. Lately, however, quite a number have been indexed on cards, and some have even been processed by computer.
The probate registers do not cover the estates of all deceased individuals. An estate was administrated officially only in certain cases; for instance, when there were heirs who had not yet come of age.
What you find on Digitalarkivet are mostly only the registration with a name of the deceased, a date and a number. But this is very useful information to give to the person that are going to look for this information. Instead of looking up this info in the books which is very time consuming.
I would say that this is besides censuses and church records the most important source of information. But it is not the place to start.
These are all the databases concerning dividing of property at death or sale of property
