Norwegian-American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library

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The Norwegian-American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library (NACGNL) is a not-for-profit genealogy center and library in Madison, Wisconsin. It serves both beginners and expert researchers through membership and service fees. The address is 415 West Main Street.

The library holds many records, including Norwegian parish records, census and government records, bygdebøker (local Norwegian histories), and family histories. It also has American records such as obituaries, immigration records, government records, and church records from the American Lutheran Church. Some records are available online to members.

NACGNL was founded by Gerhard Brandt Naeseth (1913–1994), a renowned Norwegian-American genealogy scholar. It began with the Vesterheim museum in Decorah, Iowa, from 1974 to 2006. Naeseth’s work was published in Norwegian Immigrants to the United States: A Biographical Directory, 1825–1850, and NACGNL staff continued that work in the 1990s. The center moved to Madison in 1992 and has operated independently from Vesterheim since 2007.