Deeds and betting books

The deeds and betting books contain documents that were read to parliament, but they were kept annually by the county. With increased urban development and legislative changes in the twentieth century, census parliaments were abandoned and now documents are read to parliament as soon as they reach the relevant county office. Parliamentary documents are registered in a previously-made register where they are assigned a reference number, also known as a litre number. The litre number refers to a certain deed and betting book and to the number that the document was assigned.

In order to find a document that has been parliamentary, information about the reference number must be available. The county offices have the above mentioned records of documents that have been parliamentary back to the first half of the 20 th century and therefore, as a first step, information about the litre number may need to be obtained from the appropriate office.

You can also apply for a mortgage book certificate at www.nskjalasafn.is. The National Archives of Iceland maintains records of the oldest books of cancellation and betting. A search in the library can also cite when the relevant document was read by parliament.