Vestre gravlund (Western Cemetery), Oslo, Norway, Part II (Tombstone Tuesday)

Yet another Tombstone Tuesday, and today I have decided to continue my Vestre gravlund (Western Cemetery) series. Part I was published in September 2015, but I have published other photos from the cemetery earlier, for instance here,  here and here. As I said in part I, Vestre gravlund was inaugurated in 1902 and is the largest cemetery in Norway (243 decares, close to 61 acres).

Langaard family grave.

Godager shipping family.

Grave of the cardiologist Monika Maria Semb Bernadzikiewicz (1966–2014).

Grave of the opera singer Jon Bratt Otnes (1919–2004), who claimed to be the pater familias of the medieval noble family of Bratt and a descendant of the old Norwegian kings. The claim has repeatedly been refuted by leading Norwegian genealogists, including the late Tore Vigerust.

Grave of the artist Severin Grande (1869–1934) and his wife Sara Svensson, née Edlund (1896–1976). (The name Svensson was from her second marriage.)

The Collett family grave,

Grave of the art historian and factory owner Harry Fett (1875–1962) and his family. For information (in Norwegian) and photos of his property Christinedal at Bryn in Oslo, go here.

Grave of the Bull and Wyller families. Henrik Johan Bull (1844–1930) initated the first Norwegian hunting/fishing expedition to Antarctica 1893–95.

Engelstad grave. Berna Engelstad, née Ulrichsen (1894–1993) was an aunt of Queen Sonja of Norway.

Grave of instrument maker Jakob Jakobsen (1828–1916) and his family.

All photos: © 2016 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth.

Urn grave of Holger Drachmann, Skagen, Denmark (Tombstone Tuesday)

 © 2011 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth.

© 2011 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth.

The urn grave of the Danish poet, dramatist and artist Holger Drachmann (1846–1908) just south of Grenen (Skagen Odde) outside Skagen in Jylland (Jutland), Denmark.

Siste trykte utgave av Norsk Lovtidend (Last printed edition of the Norwegian Legal Gazette)

I dag ble det skrevet historie – i dobbel forstand – på arbeidsplassen min, Lovdata. Den trykte utgaven av Norsk Lovtidend ble i fjor besluttet avviklet etter at årgangen 2016 var avsluttet, og i dag ble den aller siste utgaven, hefte 19 i avdeling I, publisert.

I den forbindelse har jeg skrevet en artikkel som forklarer bakgrunnen for avviklingen og litt om utviklingen av Norsk Lovtidend fra 1877 til i dag. Det ble til og med plass til litt genealogi! Artikkelen ble publisert på Lovdata.no i dag tidlig.

Den elektroniske kunngjøringen av Norsk Lovtidend ble offisiell versjon i 2001. Jeg har jobbet i Lovdata siden mai 1998 og arbeidet med Norsk Lovtidend har vært og er fortsatt en av hovedoppgavene mine.

Last year it was decided that the printed edition of Norsk Lovtidend, the Norwegian Legal Gazette, was to be discontinued after the publishing year of 2016 was finished. The last printed edition – no. 19, section I – was published today.

In this connection I have written an article (in Norwegian only) which explains the decision for discontinuing the printed edition and which also gives a short outline of the developments of the Legal Gazette from 1877 until today. There was even room for some genealogy stuff! The article was published at Lovdata.no today.

The digital issue became the official version in 2001. I have worked for the Lovdata Foundation since 1998, and the publishing of the Legal Gazette has been and still is one of my main tasks.

Eurohistory. The European Royal History Journal, Vol. 19.3, Fall 2016

The latest issue of Eurohistory. The European Royal History Journal, issue CXI, volume 19.3, fall 2016, which I received two weeks ago, has on its front cover a photo of the late Queen Anne of Romania, née Princess of Bourbon-Parme. An obituary of the queen, who died on 1 August 2016, is published in the magazine, written by its publisher and editor Arturo E. Béeche. Queen Anne was married in 1948 to King Michael (Mihai), who rather unvoluntarily abdicated the throne of Romania the previous year.

Traditionally each issue of the ERHJ includes a photo article written by Ilana D. Miller, and this time her Who Is In the Photograph presents a photo of  The Battenberg Brothers, i.e. Prince Alexander of Bulgaria (1857–1893, r. 1879–1886), Prince Louis (Ludwig) (1854–1921), Prince Henry (1858–1896) and Prince Franz Joseph of Battenberg (1861–1924), sons of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine (1823–1888) and his wife Julia von Hauke (1825–1895), who was created Countess of (von) Battenberg when they married in 1851 and in 1858 Princess of Battenberg with the style of Serene Highness. Alexander and Julia also had the daughter Marie Caroline (1852–1923), who married Prince Gustav of Erbach-Schönberg (1840–1908) in 1871. The article is based on the talk Miller gave at the XIX Eurohistory Conference in September 2015.

The Battenberg article is followed by Ludmila Prokopova's presentation of the Livadia Palace at Crimea, the former summer retreat of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. The article is titled Tours to Imperial in the 19th Century.

In 2016 it was 110 years since King Christian IX of Denmark (1818–1906, r. from 1863) died. This is probably why Coryne Hall has contributed with her article APAPA. King Christian IX of Denmark and His Descendants. King Christian has been nick-named «the Father-in-Law of Europe» due to the great dynastic matches two of his daughters made – Princess Alexandra, who married the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, and Princess Dagmar, who married the future Emperor Alexander III of Russia and became Empress Maria Feodorovna. His eldest son Frederik became King of Denmark, his younger son Prince Wilhelm became King Georgios I of the Hellenes, while his grandson Prince Carl was elected to the throne of Norway in 1905 and took the name Haakon VII. Descendants of Christian's children, who also included Princess Thyra, who married Ernst August of Hannover, Duke of Cumberland, and Prince Valdemar, who married Princess Marie of Orleans, are spread into the courts of Europe. Reigning descendants today include Queen Margrethe of Denmark, King Harald V of Norway, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, King Felipe VI of Spain, King Philippe of the Belgians and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg.

Coryne Hall and Arturo E. Beéche's book APAPA: King Christian IX of Denmark and His Descendants was published by Eurohistory in 2014.

On 8 October 2016 Prince Leka of the Albanians married his long-time fiancée Elia Zaharia in Tirana. Seth B. Leonard was lucky to be present and he has written a nice account of his impressions for the ERHJ. The wedding was also covered by Netty Leistra in the latest issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly.

The ERHJ also includes a second obituary, that of  Marco de Hohenlohe-Langenburg y Medina, the 19th Duke of Medinaceli (1962–2016), also written by the editor, Arturo E. Beéche.

The last main article in the latest issue is written by Joe Spiteri and is titled The Royal Governor of the Rock of Gibraltar. The only royal person to be governor of Gibraltar was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (1767–1820), the fourth son of King George III and Queen Charlotte, née Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Coryne Hall has written reviews of the following titles:

• British Nannies and the Great War by Louise Heren (Pen & Sword, 2016), ISBN 9781473827530.
• Franz Joseph, 1830-1916. Exhibition Catalogue, edited by Karl Vocelka and Martin Mutschlechner (Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna, 2016), ISBN 9783850339902 (German),
  ISBN 9783850339988 (English)
• The Hohenzollern Case File. A Story of Royal Rivalry and High Court Forgery that Divided a Dynasty by Marco Houston (Leppi Publications, 2016), ISBN 9780952164456
• The Countess. The Scandalous Life of Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey by Tim Clarke (Amberley Publishing, 2016), ISBN 9781445656267
• Mrs Keppel, Mistress to the King by Tom Quinn (Biteback Publishing, 2016), ISBN 9781785900488

The first and fourth and fifth titles are thankfully also available as e-books.

The ERHJ also includes a Royal News section, this time with news from the royal, princely and aristocratic houses of Albania, Luxembourg, Norway, Prussia, Serbia (Yugoslavia), Isenburg, Stolberg-Stolberg, Wurmbrand-Stuppach, Medinaceli and Westminster.

The publisher of The European Royal History Royal can be reached at erhj [at] eurohistory.com.

For earlier articles on the magazine, please go here, while the ERHJ blog can be read here.

Stenset grave, Orelund Cemetery, Sandefjord, Norway (Tombstone Tuesday)

 © 2005 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth. 

© 2008 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth. 

The photos show the urn grave of Rudolf Stenset (1920–1975) and Sigrid Stenset, née Hoelseth (1921–1975) at Orelund (Nybo) gravlund (cemetery), Sandefjord, Norway. Their names and dates are inscribed (or rather attached) directly on a natural stone. The lease of the urn grave expired in 2015, I think, so I don't know if anything has happened to the letters and numbers. I will have to check it out next time I visit Sandefjord, the city where I grew up. At least I have several photos of the grave. There are several similar urn graves at Nybo ( as well as ordinary graves), and I might return with a presentation of the cemetery as a whole later on. 

Sigrid was a younger sister of my grandfather Arne Hoelseth (1916–2007).

Updated on Monday 5 June 2017 at 10.10. to reflect that Orelund gravlund (cemetery) seems to be the official name of the cemetery, while many still refer to it as Nybo gravlund, maybe because the old grave chapel had the name Nybo kapell (Nybo Chapel).