Published articles and Slektshistoriewiki contributions, 2018, plans for 2019

Here is a survey of the articles I have written and got published during 2018. Both articles (book reviews) were published in Genealogen, the newsletter of Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, the Norwegian Genealogical Society.

•  ««Helt til jordens ende». Bok om de mange norsk-amerikanske misjonærene», book review, Genealogen no. 1/2018, pp. 47–49.
• «Ny kildeutgivelse fra Riksarkivet: Lofthusoppreisten», review of Løyland, Marit (publisher). Lofthusoppreisten. Rettsmateriale frå kommisjon og høgsterett 1789–99, Oslo: Riksarkivet, 2018, in Genealogen no. 2, 2018, pp. 55–56.

I have also helped out with proofreading all issues of Genealogen and Norsk Slektshistorisk Tidsskrift published in 2018. My bibliography, although still not complete, can be viewed here.

I have mentioned earlier in my blog that I am one of the administrators of Slektshistoriewiki, the Norwegian genealogy wiki, which is administered by Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening (the Norwegian Genealogical Society). Besides administration work I have contributed with many articles over the years.

Here are some (but far from all) of the articles I written (both initiated and written most, if not all, of the updates) during 2018:

Genealogies

• Angrimslekta (Angrim Vetlesen (ca. 1629–1708)) (fra Tønsberg) (etterslekt) 
• Bull-slekter
• Bull (fra Tønsberg) (slekt)
• Bravik (slekt)
• Dorg (slekt) 
• Glassblåserslekter
• Rosenkilde (slekt) 
• Selmer-Olsen (slekt)
• Werenskiold (slekt) 

Biographies

• Deb Haaland
• Guri Trygsland (1880–1952)

Book presentations

• Elämää vieraalla maalla. Norjalainen yhteisö Kotkassa 1800-luvun lopulla (masteroppgave)
• Lehmkuhl-familien i Norge. Fra Tyskebryggen til Timex (bok) 
• Stamtavle over den norsk-danske slægt Bie (hefte) 
• Svenska kvinnor. Pionjärer och förebilder (bok)

Other

• The American Genealogist (tidsskrift)
• Danske Slægtsforskere
• De Zee Ploeg
• Norsk prestehistorie
• Western Pennsylvania History (tidsskrift) 

The articles above come in addition to the updating of many articles which I have initiated earlier. I am mostly proud of finishing (with the help of others) the project Ordliste for ættegranskere (bok) («Dictionary for genealogists»), which was started in 2015. Cato Krag-Rønne published the dictionary in 1946. He had made a collection of explanations to words and expressions which one encounters during genealogy research. We got the permission from Krag-Rønne's daughter, Bodil Gjetanger, to add all the explanations to the wiki. It took a while to finish the project, though, but I am pleased that the work was finally done. Unfortunately Gjetanger died just before I did the finishing touch on the project.

The teacher and author Guri Trygsland mentioned above was the sister of my great-grandfather Søren Trygsland (1878–1967). I have done a great deal of research on Guri's life and work, so I hope to update the article soon. I have also done the needed research on the Norwegian ancestry of Rep. Deb Haaland, so I just have to get my act together and get the work done! The article Norsk prestehistorie (is «History of the Norwegian clergy» a good translation?) is just the first step of transferring the project from the website of the Norwegian Genealogical Society to Slektshistoriewiki. Hopefully I will finish the move during 2019. I was also happy to add more details about the noble family of Mund (which died out in the male line in 1915), especially the cognatic line (non-noble, of course) which still exists today.

By the way, a survey of all my contributions to Slektshistoriewiki can be viewed here. Most of the Slektshistoriewiki articles initiated in 2018 are rather short, but believe me, it takes time to do the research needed, in addition to the writing process.

Still, I am not too satisfied with my «achivements» in 2018. I would like to have done more. Of course I can use my family and work commitments as an excuse (I don't get that much time every day to research and write), but if I could be more disciplined and focus on less projects at a time I should be able to publish more. I have done lots of research during 2018 (as in previous years), but I have too many ongoing projects, and would love to focus more on writing and publising.

David Allen Lambert, the Chief Genealogist at NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society) in Boston, Massachusetts, asked on 1 January 2019: «What #GenealogicalNewYearsResolution are you planning for 2019? Sort, organize, publish, research, visit a grave?»

I plan to do lots of research and have several publishing ideas, just hope that I will have enough time for it! #GenealogicalNewYearsResolution Godt nytt år! Happy new year! 🎆

— Dag T. Hoelseth (@DagHoelseth) 1. januar 2019

This made me thinking! Yes, of couse I will do all the things he mentioned – sort, organize, publish. research, visit a grave – during 2019! But it is the publishing part which is most challenging. I really hope, if my time allows it (here I go again!), to publish more than the two book reviews and thus ad more to my bibliography. The quality is of course more important than the number of publications. But still ... So, what are my publishing plans for 2019? In the late fall of 2018 I was asked to «update» the genealogy of an old Norwegian family of German origin. It will be a time-consuming project which will certainly not be finished in 2019. The question whether I will take on this project or not has not been settled yet. Therefore, in the meantime I am thinking of working on the genealogy of one of the other families I descend from, with the possible publishing date some time in 2020. In addition I am working on a surname project which I think I can be able finish in 2019. My goal is both a printed edition as well as an e-book accessible for members of the Norwegian Genealogy Society. It all depends on what will happen with the old Norwegian family genealogy I mentioned above. Time will show ...

So, what about my blog? Obviously I have made far less updates in 2018 (48) than I did in the first years, but still I am happy with four blog articles a month on average. I think I will be satisfied with 48 blog articles in 2019 as well.

Updated on 10 March 2019 at 13.10 (correcting a mistake in the last paragraph).

Harkmark Church and Cemetery, Mandal, Norway

Grave of my great-uncle Jakob Trygsland (1910-2001) and his wife Martha Trygsland, née Eikså (1912-2010).

One of the oldest graves at the cemetery - shopkeeper Thomas Knuthsen, who was born at the farm Dosta in Harkmark 16 December 1786 and died the same place on 11 October 1863.

Grave of Andrea Jørgensdatter, b. 18 July 1830, who after 15 1/2 years of marriage to L. Fredriksen, died on 25 December 1865.

The war memorial outside the cemetery walls. Engraved are the names of Thomas Skeie (d. 6 March 1943, he was in the US Army), Alf Fredriksen Harkmark (died in the concentration camp of Natzweiler(-Struthof) 5 January 1944) and Tarald Osnes (died in Dachau 31 March 1945). The red sign, if anyone wonders, says "The children's flower garden. Here all children can plant and water [the flowers]." It seems to be a project for local pupils. I have seen similar signs at other cemeteries.

Harkmark Church in Mandal in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway, celebrates its 400th anniversary this year. I have visited the cemetery on several occasions, but this was the first time since my great-aunt died. The church, which has 135 seats, is protected by law. A book about the church in connection with the anniversary will be published later this year. For photos of the church inside, go to the official website of Mandal parish. The anniversary service will take place on 22 September 2013, to be conducted by the bishop of Agder and Telemark, Stein Reinertsen.

Easter break summary

Statue of police inspector Sigvard Larsen (1948-1928), "father of the police act", outside his home in Storgata, Lillehammer.

This year's Easter break was spent with family and friends at Hafjell and Mandal, and I decided to take a little break from my blog as well. The only exception was the addition of a photo and a postscript to my blog article of 20 March 2012, The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in Norway. The addition was made the only evening I spent in Oslo after the stay at Hafjell and before I travelled down to Mandal. Here is a summary of various news etc. I most likely would have written about (not necessarily in a chronological order, though) if I spent the whole vacation in front of my computer instead of being with my family:

• A few days before I travelled up to Hafjell I thought about the expected birth of Peter and Autumn Phillips second child. It would be so typical if the child was born when I was not able to write about it right away. And of course, the news of the birth of Isla Elizabeth Phillips, the second great grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, came on 30 March, the very day I was driving up to Hafjell. The baby girl was born the day before, 29 March 2012, at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Peter Phillips is the son of the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) and Mark Phillips.
• 30 March 2012 was the 10th anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002). Earlier the same day (Saturday 30 March 2002), I lost my grandmother, Aslaug Trygsland, née Ramstad (1915-2002), so naturally at the time - and also this year - the royal event came in the background.

My grandmother Aslaug Trygsland (1915-2002). This must be her confirmation photo taken in September 1930 (see no. 29).


• 8 April 2012 would have been the 100th birthday of Sonja Henie (1912-1969), the Norwegian figure skater and Olympic champion.
• Another anniversary that got some attention this Easter was the Titanic disaster of 15 April 1912. Yes, still a few days until the anniversary, but at least two documentaries were broadcasted on Norwegian TV this Easter, hence my comment. A survey of the Norwegian passengers at Titanic can be viewed here.
  
• During my Easter break at Hafjell, I visited Lillehammer, which hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1994. In Storgata I passed the statue of police officer Sigvard Larsen (1848-1928), who is regarded as the "father of the (Norwegian) police act". According to the information plaque, Larsen, who was Lillehammer's first police inspector, was a pioneer in the struggle for more rights to the police employees. In 1906 he even forwarded his own law proposal for a national police act to the Norwegian Storthing. Nothing came out of it at the time, but 6 years later a committee was appointed to review the question. But Norway had to wait until March 1936 before the police act was sanctioned. Why it took that long is another matter. I might look more into in in connection with my work at Lovdata.
• Concerning Easter, GD.no published a photo of the king and queen of Norway as well as Princess Märtha Louise and the Behn family arriving at Vinstra Station in connection with their vacation at the royal mountain chalet ("Prinsehytta") in Sikkilsdalen. I am not sure where the Crown Prince family spent their Easter vacation, though. It could have been at their own cottage in Uvedal or at Dvergsøya outside Kristiansand. Or somewhere else...
• GD.no published the photo to illustrate a NTB article which told about a poll Ipsos MMI had conducted for Dagbladet on the Norwegian royal family. The poll revealed that 93% believes King Harald does a good job, while only 1% says the opposite. The numbers for the other members of the royal family were 81% (Queen Sonja), 89% (Crown Prince Haakon), 75% (Crown Princess Mette-Marit), 25% (Princess Märtha Louise - 27 % actually think she does a bad job) and 5% for Ari Behn. Not sure why the latter, who, although he is considered a member of the royal family, never performs official duties on behalf of the royal family on his own. Princess Märtha Louise seems to get negative ratings because people can't see the difference between her official role and her private business (her "angel school" etc.). Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner could have been included in the poll, but is not very well known and was probably left out because of this.
  
• During the first days of the Easter break the news that the Norwegian Genealogical Society (NSF) had terminated an agreement with the other Norwegian genealogical association, DIS-Norge, concerning the hiring of office services, was announced. NSF has stated financial reasons for its decision. It has not been received well by the DIS-Norge leadership and surely lead to some debate among the Norwegian genealogists, but hopefully the two associations will be able to co-operate on other matters later on. I have been a deputy member to the NSF committee since 2009.
  
• Buckingham Palce announced yesterday, 9 April, that the Duchess of Cornwall had been appointed (to be a) Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). Awards in the Royal Victorian Order are made personally by The Queen, for services to the Sovereign.

Painting Canada

A.Y. Jackson: Winter, Quebec, 1926 (National Gallery of Canada. Courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves. Photo © NGC)

F.H. Varley: Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay, 1921 (© Varley Art Gallery / Town of Markham. Photo © NGC)

Tom Thomson: The Jack Pine, 1916–1917 (National Gallery of Canada. Photo © National Gallery of Canada).

Franz Johnston: The Fire Ranger, ca. 1921 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo © NGC)

The images are made available for the press at the National Gallery's website.

HM Queen Sonja Norway attended the opening of the exhibition "Painting Canada. Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven" at the National Gallery (a department of The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design) in Oslo on Thursday 26 January 2012. She was accompanied by the charge d'affaires at the Canadian embassy in Oslo, Gilles Normann, the vice director of the National Gallery of Canada, Karen Colby-Stothard, curator at the National Gallery of Canada Charles Hill, director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, Ian Dejardin, besides representatives of the National Museum/National Gallery in Oslo.

I visited the exhibition on Sunday 29 January and really enjoyed it. I visit art exhibitions from time to time, but more often while I am on vacation abroad. But I was attracted to this particular exhibition because of its topic - I must admit that I have got a soft spot for Canada ever since my visits to Canada in 2006 and 2008. At the moment I am improving my knowledge of USA's big, little brother by reading the 6th edition of A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton (Kindle Edition, 2008). Another reason for my interest in Canada is that I also had relatives who lived there: My great-uncle Herulf Ekeli (1905-1983), who settled in Ontario, but I haven't been able to find out too many details about him, and my great grandfather's younger brother Salve Trygsland (1874-1964), who was a farmer at Youngstown, Alberta, and is buried at Cottrell Cemetery in Cereal. Neither of them got their own family in Canada, though. It should be added that Queen Sonja's uncle Halvor "Havven" Haraldsen (1893-1970) and his wife Inger Elisabeth "Lisbeth" Haraldsen, née Rydgren (1904-1994) lived at Fredericton, New Brunswick, for many years, but are buried together with Sonja's parents at Ris cemetery in Oslo.

But back to the exhibition again! According to the press release it presents works by the most important pioneers of Canadian landscape painting from the early years of the 20th century. The love the painters - Tom Thomson (1877-1917) and the group of seven, Lawren Harris (1885-1970), J.E.H. MacDonald (1873-1932), A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974), Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), Frederick Horsman Varley (1881-1969), Frank Johnston (1888-1949) and Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) - had of their homeland "encouraged them to explore the wilderness of Canada's national parks". The Group of Seven - they begun to exhibit collectively in 1920 and got their great breakthrough at the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924 - laid the foundations for Canadian modernism, and were inspired by their counterparts in Scandinavia and the "dream of the Nordic".

The exhibition is put together by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, which I visited in 2008, and the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and shows more than 120 paintings from major museums and collections in Canada and thus provides a representation of this particular chapter of Canadian modernism. The exhibition in Oslo lasts until 13 May. Before that the British could enjoy the paintings at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from 19 October 2011 to 8 January 2012, and after Oslo the exhibition moves on to Groningen (3 June-28 October 2012).

Now, I have never studied arts history, so please don't expect me to go into depth about different styles and periods. I just enjoyed this exhibition because of its topic and the period it represented and because it was well organised with good introductions to the different artists. The paintings showed magnificent landscapes, but were fortunately not photographic representations. It was something about the colours and the light that particularly appealed to me. Tom Thomson is of course an example of this - A Northern Lake (c. 1916), Birches (several paintings!), Northern Lights (1916 or 1917), Path behind Mowat Lodge (1917) and Spring in Algonquin Park to mention a few. Franklin Carmichael's Autumn Hillside (1920), October Gold (1922; just think about the wonderful title!), Lawren Harris's Trees and Pool (1920), Frank Johnston's The Fire Ranger (1921; see above) and Serenity, Lake of the Woods (1922), MacDonald's Fall, Montreal River (1920) and Jackson's Winter, Quebec (1926; see above) were other favourites. Lawren Harris's paintings of the Canadian north and Arctic were very different in style from the others, but the light was wonderful! One example is Albert Harbour, North Baffin Island from 1930. Don't miss out on this!

Along with the exhibition goes the catalogue with the same title, Painting Canada, Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, which gives a great introduction to the painters and the period they represented and with a wonderful gallery attached. The price is only NOK 198. ISBN: 978-0-85667-686-4.

See also the reviews of the exhibition in London by The Guardian and The Telegraph as well as the blog Making a Mark.



Updated on Saturday 4 February 2012 at 11:40 (links added). last time updated on Monday 13 April 2015 at 00.25 (small error corrected).

Hoelseth birth

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our daughter, Sigrid, who was born today, 17 July 2010, at Oslo Universitetssykehus, dep. Rikshospitalet (The National Hospital), Gaustad in Oslo. She weighed at birth 3170 g (6.989 lbs) and was 50 cm (19.69 inches) long.

Synnøve Flatebø Hoelseth and Dag Trygsland Hoelseth.

Yohan - The Child Wanderer

The first night of the Norwegian family film «Yohan – The Child Wanderer» took place on Friday 26 March 2010. The film is based on true stories about child wandering in Norway, which mainly took place in the 19th century, but didn’t stop completely before around 1910.

In the early spring every year children were forced to leave their small family farms in Kvinesdal, Hægebostad, Marnardal and Audnedal to work at richer farms eastwards, first of all in the county of Aust-Agder. For the many poor families it meant less children to feed during the summer season and some money on their return.

The children usually met at the local church before starting the long walk, cutting across the many Agder valleys in order to reach their final destination, often covering distances as much as 150-200 kilometres. On the richer farms, the children took care of the animals as shepherds or did ordinary farm work, like stacking hay, cleaning stalls etc.

The main character Yohan is a young boy from the small farm Aamot in Audnedal who is forced to wander to the farm Nome outside Arendal in Aust-Agder county to work as a shepherd. Although built on true stories, the film makes a too romantic picture of the child wanderings, and the manuscript author and director has put too many ingredients into the film, including an impressive number of celebrities as well as of wild animals, like a lynx, a wolverine, numerous wolves and bears as well as foxes. There is no end to how many encounters Yohan has with wolves and especially the bloodthirsty bear which makes the climax of the film. It certainly has entertainment value, but the story should have been tightened up and made more balanced. I had also expected more «driving force» in the movie.

The many young actors, most of them making their first appearances, do reasonably well, but as has been the case in too many Norwegian children movies, have not been taught how to speak clearly. Sometimes it was impossible to hear their lines. No, it has nothing to do with me – my wife is from Mandal and a part of my own family comes from Bjelland (Marnardal) and the surrounding valleys, so I know the South Norwegian dialects well. Maybe subtitles would have been in order?

I have already mentioned the impressive number of celebrities. Did the filmmakers really have to overdo it? The list is almost endless: The Eurovision 2009 winner Alexander Rybak, Aha pop star Morten Harket, the pop star Morten Abel, the model and former pornographic actress Aylar Lie, former Idol star Alejandro Fuentes and yet another artist, Veronica Akselsen. And if that was not enough, former Miss Norway Kathrine Sørland and another former Miss Norway, Lene Egeli, have statist roles. I am not convinced that this is to the film’s advantage. But it must be said that Aylar Lie plays her role as a Roma woman rather well. Veronica Akselsen, who is of Roma ancestry, plays a Roma woman in the movie. Alexander Rybak, however, knows how to play the fiddle, but his acting skills were not that impressive.

The movie has some family connections as well. There is a character in the movie named «Jordmor-Siri» («Siri the midwife») who is played by Veronica Flåt Tjelle. I don’t think the name Siri the midwife is a coincidence. My great-grandfather Søren Larsen Trygsland’s sister Siri, b. 1868, who was married to Søren Røynesdal from Seland, worked as a midwife and became quite an institution in the parishes of Bjelland and Grindheim. The latter is now part of Audnedal municipality, where the fictional Aamot family lived.

Another connection is Jan Thomas Wåge Flatebø, who plays a minor role as the character «Rolf». He is a second cousin once removed to my wife Synnøve. His mother Anne Lise Wåge Flatebø has a role too as the farmer’s wife «Marie».

Yohan is said to be the most expensive children’s film ever made in Norway. An English version of the film has also been made and will be launched in the summer of 2010.

Sources/references

• Yohan.no.
• Wikipedia.