The 31st International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences

Are you interested in genealogy and/or heraldry? Why don't you come to Oslo between 13th and 17 of August this year, where the 31st International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences takes place?

The theme of the congress is "Influence on Genealogy and Heraldry of Major Events in the History of a Nation", a theme chosen because of the two major jubilees which are marked in 2014 - the 200th anniversary of the Norwegian Constitution and Oslo's 700th anniversary as the capital of Oslo. Whether Oslo really could be defined as a capital 700 years ago or not has with good reasons been a subject of discussion, but the anniversary is nevertheless being marked, although not in the same style as the 17th of May anniversary.

Anyway, there are many interesting topics being presented during the congress, including themes covering royalty and nobility. The timing and venue for each presentation has now been decided, and these can be seen on the Congress website – Program.

Under Presenters you can see the names of the speakers and title of the presentations, and clicking further on the individual names takes you to a synopsis of the talk. In addition to general registration, it is possible to register for individual days for talks of particular interest – contact the Congress at post@congress2014.no for details.

The organizers behind the congress is the Norwegian Genealogical Society (Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening) and the Norwegian Heraldry Society (Norsk Heraldisk Forening).

The blazon of the emblem is as follows: Shield: Azure a Tree eradicated Argent. Supporter: Issuant from behind the Shield Saint Hallvard (Oslo’s patron saint) Azure with a Millstone resting in Dexter Hand and holding three Arrows in Sinister Hand, all Argent. (Source: Slektshistoriewiki - The Norwegian Genealogy Wiki).

The 31st International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences Oslo 2014 is under the distinguished patronage of His Majesty King Harald V of Norway.

Hope to see as many of you in Oslo in August this year!

Closest family and ancestry of the Eidsvoll Men

Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening's (The Norwegian Genealogical Society's) contribution to the celebration of the bicentenary of the Norwegian Constitution was launched at the National Archives in Oslo on Saturday 26 April 2014. The book is called "Eidsvollsmennene - Hvem var de?" ("The Eidsvoll Men - Who were they?"), and covers the closest family and ancestry of the 112 men who were elected to the Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll and passed the Constitution of Norway in May 1814.

To be more exact, in the book you will find genealogical details on the Eidsvoll Men's spouses, children, siblings as well as their ancestry back to their great-grandparents, in addition to a short biography, their portrait (if found) and their seal. It has not been possible to find all the details on all the Eidsvoll Men, but for most of them. The book gives the current research status. Hopefully it will some time in the future be possible to find more information, and hopefully the book can be a useful starting point for future articles and research about various aspects of the Eidsvoll Men. Among the contributors to the genealogy are well-established historians and/or genealogists like Lars Løberg, Knut Bryn, Hans Cappelen, Elin Galtung Lihaug and Torkel Fagerli, to mention a few. The head editor is Anders Bjønnes, while the other members of the editorial commitee are Håvard Blom and Svein Becken. The same men were also main responsible for the book Segltegninger fra hyllingene i Norge 1591 og 1610 ("Drawings of Norwegian Seals from 1591 and 1610") which was published in 2010. Yours sincerely has contributed to the chapter about Arnoldus von Westen Sylow Koren (1764-1854) of Bergen, later Ullensvang.

In additon to the genealogy the reader can find a short introduction to the events in 1814 written by the historian Håkon Andreas Evju, an article about the use of seals in Norway (by Anders Bjønnes), another article about what the seals on the original Constitution of 17 May 1814 can show us (by Hans Cappelen) and a description of each seal (by Anders Bjønnes and Hans Cappelen together). The book is richly illustrated and also has a personal name and place name index. The book is meant to reach out to a wider audience of people interested in the genealogy of the Eidsvoll Men and the history of 1814. The book, which has 269 pages (including the list of illustrations and the presentations of the contributors to the book) in addition to the index (pages 276 to 320), would be too expensive to produce if also the notes (the research material) should be included. The research material will be made available through the Norwegian Genealogical Society.

The book (ISBN 978-82-998428-2-2) costs NOK 495,- + P & P and can be ordered from the Norwegian Genealogical Society by e-mail (kontor [at] genealogi.no) and soon also directly from the website (the online shop is just around the corner).

See also more information about the book (in Norwegian) here.