Genealogen nr. 1, 2018

Siste utgave av Genealogen, medlemsbladet til Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, kom i posten i går. Som vanlig kan bladet by på flere slekts- og temaartikler og foreningsstoff. Hovedartiklene denne gangen er:

• Sten Høyendahl: Den problematiske slekten på Søndre Ringstad i Trøgstad
• Lars Holden: Historisk befolkningsregister
• Liv Marit Haakenstad: Kildekritikk og kildeføring
• Lars Østensen: Hr. Hans Olsen Metrosinensis residerende kapellan til Torsken
• Are S. Gustavsen: Jertrud Finnkjellsdotter (ca. 1729–1805), ei husmannskone i Skoger fra Vang i Valdres

I spalten «Ny litteratur» har Lars Løberg anmeldt oversettelsen av Sagaen om Håkon Ivarsson. Oversettelsen er det Edvard Eikill som har stått for, og utgiver er forlaget Sagabok. Videre har Anfinn Bernaas anmeldt Heime og ute. Brevskifte mellom Ivar Kleiven og Kristian Prestgard 1886–1932, redigert av Gudmund Harilstad og Kristoffer Kruken. Utgivelsen inneholder 78 brev skrevet av slekts- og lokalhistoriker Ivar Kleiven (1854–1934) og journalist og redaktør Kristian Prestgard (1866–1946), og har et register som teller over 700 personer.

Mitt eget bidrag denne gangen er anmeldelsen av  Torbjørn Greipslands Helt til jordens ende, som ble utgitt på Ventura forlag i 2017. Greipsland er både redaktør og bidragsyter. Andre hovedbidragsytere er Gracia Grindal, tidligere professor ved Luther Seminary i St. Paul, Minnesota, misjonsprest Sigmund Edland og cand.theol. Erik Kjebekk. Boken omhandler de mange norsk-amerikanske misjonærene. Hoveddelen inneholder biografier om rundt 30 misjonærer, mens del 2 innholder omfattende lister over misjonærene og som gir et godt personbiografisk utgangspunkt for videre forskning.

En del foreningsstoff må det også bli plass til i et medlemsblad. Foreningens årsmøte går av stabelen onsdag 23. mai og i den forbindelse er det gitt plass til åresberetning, regnskap og forslag til nytt styre og vedtektsendringer. Man kan også finne oversikt over donerte bøker til NSFs bibliotek og en særskilt oversikt over bokgaver fra Berit Gullbekk, som døde i desember 2017. Leserne får også et innblikk i flere prosjekter som foreningen har på gang, som avfotografering av «Totens Slegter», stamtavleverket til Henrich Holst Neumann (1863–1936) Fire av de til sammen 11 bindene er allerede avfotografert. Foreningen planlegger også å registrere og indeksere alle skifter som er foretatt i Norge. Dette er et stort og langvarig prosjekt som krever mange frivillige. Et viktig prosjekt som jeg håper mange vil bli med på!

Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening har hatt kontor og bibliotek og tilgang til møtelokaler i Øvre Slottsgata 2 B i Oslo siden 2010 sammen med andre foreninger tilknyttet Norsk Kulturvernforbund. Det har vært et flott og sentralt sted å være, men dessverre er husleien litt for stor for en forening av NSFs størrelse. I medlemsbladet kan man lese litt om flytteplanene. Nye lokaler er snart spikret, men jeg skal overlate til styret med å gi nærmere detaljer når kontrakten for nytt sted er undertegnet. Personlig synes jeg det er leit at foreningen må flytte, men jeg har selvsagt stor forståelse for at økonomiske hensyn må komme først. NSF vil flytte litt ut av byen, men får større plass, lettere tilgjengelighet for de som er avhengige av bil og pengene man sparer inn på lavere husleie kan brukes til andre prosjekter som kommer medlemmene til gode.

In English: The article is about the latest issue of Genealogen, the newsletter of the Norwegian Genealogical Society. In addition to genealogy articles and book reviews, the issue has information about this year's annual meeting, which takes place on 23 May. In addition the readers can learn about ongoing projects which the society has initiated and surveys of donated books to the library. The board also informs about the decision to move the office and library to a new place. The move will take place during the summer of 2018. More details about the new address will be given later.

No Her og Nå Royal Yearbook in 2016

The Norwegian weekly magazine Her og Nå has from 2012 published a yearbook called Året rundt med Kongefamilien («The Year with the Royal Family»), which with many photos and short texts have presented the main events of the Norwegian royal family throughout the year. I made a presentation of the first issue in 2012.

The yearbook was also published in 2013, 2014 and 2015, but I haven't found it in the newspaper kiosks this year. The publisher Egmont Hjemmet Mortensen confirmed to me today that the «special magazine» has not been published in 2016. I guess it hasn't sold well enough. So far I haven't come across any royal yearbooks by other publishers either.

Queen Sonja one of the contributors to Juleroser 2016

Juleroser («Christmas Roses») was a Christmas magazine (booklet) published between 1881 and 1944 (with a short break 1937–1940) by Ernst Bojesen in Copenhagen, Denmark. The magazine contained literary texts and illustrations by well-established authors and artists.

Juleroser was intended to be a Christmas magazine for all the Nordic countries, and from 1895 the magazine also had editors for Norway and Sweden. According to the nynorsk («New Norwegian») version of Wikipedia, the magazine had the subtitle Skandinavisk Juleblad («Scandinavian Christmas Magazine») from 1885 to 1888 and in 1892, while in the period from 1889 to 1891 the subtitle was Nordisk Juleblad («Nordic Christmas Magazine»).

Juleroser was revived as a literary Christmas magazine last year by the publishers Samlaget and with the singer and actress Herborg Kråkevik as editor. 

In this year's edition Queen Sonja of Norway has contributed with four photos, of which 3 stem from the series «Former» («Forms») taken at Svalbard. See one of the photo illustrations in today's VG.no. Other contributors are Kim Leine, Anne B. Ragde, Kolbein Falkeid, Brit Bildøen, Gro Dahle, Bit Vejle, Vetle Lid Larssen, Helge Torvund, Theodor Kittelsen, Marianne Heske, Håkon Gullvåg and Sverre Malling.

Photo: Cover of Juleroser 2016, Samlaget.

Hoover biography and genealogy

In my blog article about the royal wedding in Stockholm last Saturday, I wondered about - or pondered on - the guest named Herbert Hoover and his possible family connection to the 31st president. I have not come any closer to an answer yet, though. I have asked the office of  the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in Iowa, but as the wedding guest is a private person, the office is of course under no requirement to answer. And the wedding guest doesn't have to be related even if he bears the president's name.

But all the pondering has made me more curious about the president, so today I ordered the Kindle version of Glen Jeansonne's biography The Life of Herbert Hoover. Fighting Quaker 1928-1933 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). The biography is according to its preface the fifth in a series of volumes about President Hoover sponsored by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. The three first volumes, written by George H. Nash, gives the story of Hoover's life to 1918, while the fourth volume, written by Kendrick Clements, continues until 1928. As the title suggests, Jeansonne's biography covers the election and the presidency, 1928-1933. If I want to read a biography which covers the whole life of the president, I could for instance order William E. Leuchtenburg's biography on Hoover (Times Books, 2009, in the American Presidents series). Or I could limit myself to the chapters about the president in Hans Olav Lahlum's Presidentene. Fra George Washington til George W. Bush (Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2008), Ole O. Moen's USAs presidenter. Fra George Washington til George W. Bush (Oslo: Historie & Kultur, 2008) or perhaps Carter Smith's Presidents. All you need to know (Hylas Publishing, revised edition, 2005). The latter is a bit too short, though.The full title of the book is actually - or seems to be - Presidents. Every question answered. Everything you could possibly want to know about the Nation's Chief Executives. Brian Lamb's Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb. A Tour of Presidential Gravesites (New York: Public Affairs, 2003) might provide a better alternative. It is one of the most entertaining books I own - and have read. I am of course open to suggestions about other books which cover President Hoover.

Best biography I have read about a US president so far? David McCullough on John Adams and Kenneth D. Ackerman's Dark Horse. The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003) definately share the first prize.

But back to Herbert Hoover again. I thought his great-grandchild Margaret Hoover's book American Individualism. How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party (Crown Forum, 2011) looked interesting too, so I ordered it as well. Plenty of reading this summer, in other words...

If anyone wondered, Margaret's family connection to President Hoover goes as follows:

Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964), 31st President of the USA --> Allan Hoover (1907-1993) --> Andrew Hoover (1940-) --> Margaret Hoover (1977).

(Hoover Genealogy at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, Iowa.)

Reading list, Part I

Just before Christmas in 2012 I mentioned that I had won 3 book gift cards, and I also mentioned two books I would love to read, Ingar Sletten Kolloen's biography about Queen Sonja, Dronningen, and Anders Heger's Egner. En norsk dannelseshistorie about the Norwegian author and artist Thorbjørn Egner. In my blog article The blog - standing published on 2 January this year, I mentioned that I was thinking about writing a series of Reading list articles. This will the the first one.

I got the Queen Sonja biography for Christmas, but haven't started reading it yet. The publisher is Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, and the ISBN is 978-82-05-39525-1. Prince: NOK 449.

After Christmas I won even two more book gift cards in connection with my company's wine lottery, and today I finally got the time to get to the bookstore to use my cards.

The first book on the list was the above-mentioned biography about Thorbjørn Egner. It was published by Cappelen Damm in October 2012 and costs NOK 399. ISBN: 978-82-02-39997-9. Egner's ancestry, which I worked on last fall together with other committee members, can be viewed at the Norwegian Genealogical Society's Slektshistoriewiki (Genealogy Wiki).

The second book I purchased was the historian Jules Stewart's biography Albert. A Life, which as the title suggests deals with Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. I haven't read anything about the biography, but it looks interesting. I have of course read a lot about Albert before, but only in articles and biographies about other royals. I guess it was on time. The biography was published in 2012, the publisher was I.B. Tauris, the ISBN is 978-1-84885-977-7, and here in Norway it cost NOK 249 at Norli, in the UK £19,99. Do people really fall for such silly prices, I wonder?   

I brought with me my daughter, now 2 1/2 years old, into the bookstore today, and of course she was allowed to pick a couple of books as well. The first she fell for was a translation of Julia Donaldson's Gruffalo (original title: The Gruffalo (!)). It was the 2nd edition from 2007, ISBN 978-82-53-03025-8, priced at NOK 119. See the official Gruffalo website for more details. My daughter was so happy with it that she took it with her to bed tonight! I guess I will have to read it to her over and over again in the days and months to come!

The Norwegian translation is published by Omnipax. The Gruffalo movies - one of the Norwegian TV channels broadcasted two short films during Christmas - are quite entertaining as well.    

The second book my daughter picked was Lille Laban Spøkelse. Stor og flink ("Laban The Little Ghost. Big and clever") by the Swedish Inger and Lasse Sandberg, and in Norway published by Aschehough (ISBN 978-82-03-25260-0). The book is based on the animation movie. It seems that the English version of Laban is named Godfrey, for some reason. The book came together with a little Laban/Godfrey doll, so I am not sure what my daughter really fell for. She looked through the book later today and seemed to like it, though.

In other words, plenty of stuff to read in the days and weeks to come, both for myself and for my daughter. I am still into the Tess Gerritsen crime novels (Kindle version), by the way. When I am done with Body Double and then Vanish, I hope to read a few hardbacks for a change...

Christmas reading list

After long days at work it is great to have a little vacation and to celebrate Christmas with my dear ones. I hope to get some time to read during the Christmas weekend, and one of the items on my reading list will be the 5th issue of the Swedish royal magazine Kungliga Magasinet. I missed out on issue 3 and 4, so it will be interesting to see how the magazine has developed (go here for my comments on the magazine's first issue). In the latest issue you can read about the Nobel party, King Carl XVI Gustaf's father Prince Gustaf Adolf, Queen Silvia's visit to Finland, the Portuguese pretender Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill's engagement, Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar and much, much more!

I have also bought the latest issue of the Swedish ice hockey magazine Pro Hockey, which first of all deals with the National Hockey League. Oh, how annoying isn't the current NHL conflict!

In addition I have several books waiting to be read on my Kindle device, including several Rizzoli & Isles crime novels by Tess Gerritsen. Maybe I will get a book or two for Christmas as well? If not, I have 3 book gift cards ready to be used after Christmas. At my work we arrange a wine lottery at lunch every Friday. The person who wins the first draw gets one red wine and one white wine, while the third and last bottle of red wine goes to the winner of the second draw. But if you don't want any wine for whatever reason, you can get a book gift card instead. So, on the last two Fridays I have won 3 gift cards. Oh, there are so many books I would love to read, including the new Queen Sonja biography and Anders Heger's biography about Thorbjørn Egner.

I wish all my blog readers a Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year!

Rosvall Royal Books

The publishing company Rosvall Royal Books has finally launched its website: http://www.royalbooks.se/.

At the website you will find information about the magazine Royalty Digest Quarterly, books which the publisher has for sale, forthcoming publications and even a blog.

The publisher and editor is Ted Rosvall, who established Rosvall Royal Books in 1985 and has so far published 20 books on the Royal Families of Europe. In 2006 he established the magazine Royalty Digest Quarterly, which is a successor to Royalty Digest. A journal of Record, which was published from 1991 to 2005 by Piccadilly Rare Books.

Ted Rosvall, who was President of the Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies 2000-2008, is among others known for his two editions of the genealogy Bernadotteättlingar (The Bernadotte Descendants).