Published articles and Slektshistoriewiki contributions, 2022

We have entered a new year and it's time to look back on my «achievements» as an historian and genealogist in 2022.

Published articles in 2022

• «Biografi om Didrik «Dixe» Cappelen (1900–1970)», book review of Cappelen, Hans Arne K.T. En blid mann og tre dødsdommer. Dixe Cappelen (1900–1970), Byminner 43, Skien: Historielag, 2021, in Genealogen no. 1/2022, pp. 51–52.
• «Slektsbok om to reisende slekter», book review of Vigardt, Kai-Samuel. En meget tallrik familie. Om slektene Torp og Bodin, Oslo: [Privat], 2019, in Genealogen no. 1/2022, pp. 53–55.
• «Genealogisk fellesskap på Twitter», Genealogen no. 1/2022, p. 56.
• «Kunngjøring av regelverk i Norsk Lovtidend under pandemien del II»  [«Announcing [acts and] regulations during a pandemic part II»], Lovdatas årsmelding 2021 [The Lovdata Foundation's Annual Report 2021], pp. 10–12. Published at Lovdata.no 30 June 2022.
• «Det norske kongehuset og dronning Elizabeth II» [«The Norwegian Royal House and Queen Elizabeth II»], Genealogen no. 2/2022, pp. 4–6.
• «Medlemstur til Finnskogen» [«Members' trip to Finnskogen»], Genealogen no. 2/2022, pp. 43–46.

Genealogen is the bi-annual newsletter (periodical) of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, the Norwegian Genealogical Society. In addition to the above I wrote the minutes of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening's annual meeting, which was publishd on pp. 47–48 in no. 2/2022.

Slektshistoriewiki

I am the editor and main administrator of Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian Genealogy Wiki, and besides fulfilling my duties in those roles, including editing quite a few contributions made by other wiki users, I have also written a few articles – genealogies, biographies and other articles.  Here is a survey of my most important contributions at Slektshistoriewiki during 2022:

Genealogies

• Major-slekter
• Blom (fra Larvik) (slekt)

Biographies

• Helen Schatvet Ullmann

Others

• Gravplasser – ordforklaringer
• Slektsforskning på Barbados
• Liste over kjente feil og mangler i Løtenboka. Garder og slekter, bind 3
• Flerspråklige fylkes- og kommunenavn
• Liste over kjente feil og mangler i Åmot bygdebok. Garder og slekter, bind II ‎
• Liste over kjente feil og mangler i Åmot bygdebok. Garder og slekter, bind I 
• Fylkesinndeling, fylkesnavn og kommunedelinger fra 2024
• Grensejustering
• Carricks (bark)
• Minnesmerke over skogfinnene, Røgden, Grue Finnskog, Grue kommune
• Slektsforskning på Island

In 2021 I published a large article about the Lorentzen shipping family of Drammen. In my article summarizing my «achievements» in 2021, I mentioned that I had also made some updates to the article about the Lorentzen family from Holmestrand, «but far more has to be done in 2022». Well, I have done some updates during 2022, something the View history part shows, but obviously it is a long-term project which I doubt will be completed in 2023. But I will make an effort of it. 

In 2022 I started to work on an article about my Hoelseth family, but it is still a lot to cover before I can finish it. Hopefully I will be able to get it published in late 2023 or early 2024. In addition to this I am involved in many genealogy projects, not all of them can be mentioned here as yet. 

I have mentioned the Cappelen project earlier. My contributions in 2020–2022 lead to an updated family tree being printed and published in late 2022. But I will continue to do research on the family and it might end up in a published book some time in the future. Among my other projects is researching and updating genealogy of the Norwegian branch of the Lowzow family, but that is also something which will take some time to finish.

I wrote 48 blog articles during 2022, compared to 41 articles in 2021. I am quite happy with that number. In some parts of 2022 I had little time to make contributions to my blog, while some events just demanded a series of articles, for instance the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I hope to write around 48–50 articles in 2023 as well, but as always I will not make any promises!

Published articles and Slektshistoriewiki contributions, 2021

I open my blog account of 2022 with a short survey of my «accomplishments» as an historian and genealogist in the previous year. 

Published articles in 2021

• «Praktverk om Heftye-slekten», review  of Heftye, Rolf Erik, Kapitalsterke innvandrere. Christianiaslekten Heftye fra 1769, Bærum: [Private], 2020, in Genealogen no. 1, 2021, pp. 42–43.
• «Kunngjøring av regelverk i Norsk Lovtidend under pandemien» [«Announcing [acts and] regulations during a pandemic», Lovdatas årsmelding 2020 [The Lovdata Foundation's Annual Report 2020], published 29 July2021, pp. 8–10.

Genealogen is the bi-annual newsletter (periodical) of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, the Norwegian Genealogical Society. I didn't make any contributions to Genealogen's second issue in 2021, but I was responsible for the proof-reading as well as writing the minutes of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening's annual meeting, which was printed on pp. 50–51.

I have also written many new articles at Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian Genealogy Wiki, during 2021 – genealogies, biographies and other articles.  Here is a survey of my most important contributions at Slektshistoriewiki during 2021:

Genealogies

• Sandefjord-slekter
• Ringerikske slekter (bokserie)
• Lorentzen (fra Drammen) (slekt)

Biographies

• Olaus Heinrich Moller

Others

• Lappekodisillen
• Slektsforskerkonferansen 2021
• Herr Jon Darris Slægte-Linnie (slektstre) 
• Samiske flaggdager
• Godfar
• Ættlegg
• Konungatal
• Reidemeister
• Slektsforskning i New Zealand

I spent a lot of time researching for and writing the Lorentzen article above. I commented on it in a blog article published in November 2021. I have also made some updates to the article about the Lorentzen family from Holmestrand, but far more has to be done in 2022. The number of older articles being updated is in the hundreds. As editor of Slektshistoriewiki, I have also edited contributions made by other wiki users, including helping out with images etc. I have also helped out with genealogical research for a few articles published in Lokalhistoriewiki.

In March 2021 I delivered my work in connection with the Cappelen family project. I have also done more research on the Cappelen genealogy, which I hope will lead to a book, but that is a project that will take years to finish.

I have also worked on several other genealogical projects and plan to at least publish something on the Hoelseth family during 2022.

Concerning the blog, I wrote 41 articles in 2021, which was one less than in the previous year. The blog year started well with 9 articles in January, but I was too busy in November and December to write much. I hope to increase the number of blog articles in 2022, but will not make any promises!

The shipping family Lorentzen of Drammen, Norway

Last week I published an article about the shipping family Lorentzen of Drammen, Norway at Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian genealogy wiki. I started on the project in June this year after I had received an interesting question to my blog article Erling Sven Lorentzen (1923–2021). The question was: "In "Underwater Saboteur", Max Manus mentions "James Lorentzen" who directed work on underground newspapers and propaganda. Gunnar Sonsteby, in "Report from No 24" mentions Erling Lorentzen, the youngest member of the Oslo gang. Is "James Lorentzen" a code name for Erling Lorentzen? Is James Lorentzen a relative of Erling Lorentzen?" 

My first reply was that James Lorentzen was James Stove Lorentzen (1921–1998), son of Axel B. Lorentzen (1884–1952). My source regarding James' grandfather was wrong, but I corrected this in my second reply, where I gave more details. I had heard about the said James Stove Lorentzen (one of several members of the family who had this name) and his son, who is an active member of the Conservative party here in Oslo, before, but I had not paid much attention to him. Because the Lorentzen family of Holmestrand is large, I had just assumed that Erling and James Stove belonged to the same shipping family, but from different branches. Now I know that the two shipping families with the same name and who both come from Denmark originally, have no connection to each other.

At least two books have been published about the Lorentzen of Drammen family, but so far I had not seen any genealogical work that covered all the branches. Because I wanted to know for sure which people belonged to the Holmestrand family and which people belonged to the Drammen family, I decided to do the research and set up a survey myself. The Drammen family has many interesting connections to other well-known Norwegian families, including Gude, Tidemand, Bache, Bruun, Ditlev-Simonsen and Lange. The oldest branch is still involved in shipping.

It was the Danish-born Jørgen Lorentzen (1788–1861) who settled in Drammen in the early years of the 19th century, who is the family's progenitor here in Norway. In 1828 he married Jean «Jane» Campbell of Leith, Scotland (1798–1878), widow of Arthur Stove (d. 1828), and adopted her son James, who took the name James Stove Lorentzen. Jørgen and Jane had 3 sons together. There are today agnatic descendants of James (1821–1901) and Thomas (1829–1890).

The project gradually changed from only containing genelogical details to also including short biographies, some larger than others. Of course the biographies depend on how much information it has been possible to gather. It has been a challenge to find details about some of the female members. Some of them surely have interesting stories to tell, but I haven't found much about them in print. Another challenge has been to find photos which are not copyrighted. I hope to add more later, but I guess I would have to ask some of the famili members directly. But I have found two free-licensed photos and also received permission to publish two photos of Ragna Gundersen, née Lorentzen (1904–1995) and Oscar Christian Gundersen (1908–1991). The latter was among others Miniser of Jusstice in the second and fourth Gerhardsen government and was a Supreme Court Justice in two periods. In the article the living members are excluded for privacy reasons.

I am already working on a larger update to include more details about Jørgen Lorentzen's Danish ancestors, and have also updated a few minors errors, one of the advantages of the wiki format. The article can be updated and improved whenever deemed necessary.

It always give me pleasure to compile genealogies like thios one, even if I have no personal connections to the family. Then Lorentzens of Drammen have been among the major shipping families in Norway for generations and I am sure the genealogy will also be of interest to others. And of course I am already thinking about new genealogy projets. I hope, among others, to publish an article about the Hoelseth family some time next year (in a genealogical periodical, not Slektshistoriewiki), and I have several ideas for genealogies at Slektshistoriewiki as well.

Photo: Portrait of Aage Blom Lorentzen (1891–1920), 1911. © Ernest Rude/Oslo Bymuseum.

Updated on 1 February 2022 at 10.10 a.m. (in the fourth paragraph second last sentence I had written "Jørgen and James had 3 sons together", but of course I should have written "Jørgen and Jane had 3 sons together".)