Here you will find all the news and updates to these pages

Saturday Dec 8, 2001

In 1918 a Historical Society for Telemark and Grenland was established.
Their main activity was the publishing of a yearly publication. These books
contained a lot of interesting acticles,
and I have now transcribed all those articles that have
a connection to Skien and Grenland.

Wednesday January 24- 2001

Under the "Books" section, you will now find two articles written by Hans Cappelen.
One is a
Short history of the Cappelen-family
and the other one is an article about
Coats-of-arms and family-documents relating to
several Skien-families.

Thank you to Hans for letting me present his material.

Friday January 19- 2001

Under the "Books" section, two more books about Skien are available.

Bartholomeus Herman von Løvenskiold -
Beskrivelse over Bradsbierg Amt og Scheens Byes med sine Forstæder - Christiania 1784
(Only the part relating to Skien is included)
and
Jørgen Wright Flood - The Skien family "Flood" - Kristiania 1884

Monday December 18- 2000

The 1848 immigrants from Gjerpen is now completed.

Sunday December 10- 2000

In 1934 Jacob Borchsenius wrote a book about his childhood
in the old Skien before the big fire of 1886, which devastated the entire town.
This book has been out of print for many years and is now only
obtainable through antiquarians.
Therefore I have scanned and OCR-edited the book.
You can now read the whole book right here......if you know Norwegian ;>)

Sunday April 23- 2000

Here is the rest of my work this Easter.
Passenger-lists for vessels who left Norway with emigrants from Telemark.
Brig "Niord" from Gothenburg to New York in 1837.
Brig "Washington" from Larvik to New York in 1842
Brig "Pauline" from Kragerø to New York in 1851.

Thanks a lot to Christina in Washington who made copies from the original documents.

Saturday April 22- 2000

Two new tax-lists have been presented today.
The leidang-tax for 1636-37 and for 1642-43, both for Skien.

I have also included a search-machine on my site. You can now search through my whole site for words.

Sunday April 9 - 2000

A new passenger-list is available.
The brig "Alert" from Kragerø to New York in 1851

Sunday Mar 05 - 2000

I have today removed the Solum Probate register from my site, as it turned out not to be complete.
Certain documents were missing, and the list would therefore be misleading.
Instead I'll refer to the homepage of Leif Biberg Kristensen.
http://home.sol.no/~leifkris/

Saturday Mar 04 - 2000

Yeah........I know..... It's taken a long time. I just needed a break.

But here's the Probate register for Solum Parish. It starts in 1667, and the last document is dated 1856.

This is a transcript of a card-register made by the Solum "Bygdebok-komitte", so I cannot guarantee
the correctness, but it is believed to be accurate.

Solum Probate Register

Monday Oct 18 - 1999

Here's the last military list.

Bamble Company 1701

Sunday Oct 10 - 1999

Here are new military lists.

Contribution for the clothing of army personnel - Solum 1808

I have transcribed military documents from the State Archive in Kristiansand,
and here you can find from Vesterlenske Infantry Regiment
2 lists of vacant and incompetent troops 1711 for Telemark - List 1 - List 2
Register of Cicignon's, Grubbe's, and Palm's Company from 1701.
Lots of names from Telemark

Sunday Aug 1 - 1999

Two new taxlists for Skien. Leding tax for 1621 and 1622

In the "Statsarkivet" in Kristiansand I found a short list of the sawmills of Skien for the year 1688.
I also include this list if someone should be interested.

Sunday May 30 - 1999

A new taxlist for Skien. Go to 1679 ordinary-tax list for Skien and Kragerø.

Saturday May 29 - 1999

Now something for those oversea.
On the Emigration section I have now expanded the emigrant lists for Gjerpen to include the
years 1863 to 1927.
Go there

Saturday March 27- 1999

This time an update for Gjerpen:
Tithe-tax to the church for the years 1611 - 1633 for all the farms in Gjerpen.

Sunday March 7- 1999

Still another small update:
Leding tax for Skien for 1599-1600

This is the oldest taxlist that I have found so far.

Saturday February 20 - 1999

Another small update:
Personal and cattle tax for Skien 1690

 Tuesday February 2 - 1999

Just a small update:
Personal and cattle tax for Skien 1683

 Monday January 4 - 1999


Go to the link-page

Personal tax / Cattle tax for Skien 1685
Fortification tax 1691 for Skien/Porsgrunn/Brevik
Additional watchman tax 1804 for Skien

and then some military sources:
Contribution for the clothing of army personnel - Gjerpen 1808
Contribution for the clothing of army personnel - Osebakken 1808

and a very interesting list:
List of poor people in Gjerpen 1727

 Saturday December 19 - 1998

Probate records for Skien the period 1723 - 1740 are now finished.

Saturday December 12 - 1998

At last we are finished. The last cemetery in Skien is now online.
Gjemsø cemetery can now be found here

I have also updated my links-page
and in the emigrant section, there is a small update for the year 1855.
One family from Doksrød has been completed

Monday November 9 - 1998

In the emigration-section I have now completed biographical
info for all the people who emigrated in 1846.
56 people is included.

If anyone knows anything about these people, especially what happened to them in America,
I would be very interested.

Monday October 19 - 1998

4 new passenger lists has been added to the Emigration-section.
Northcote to Quebec in May 1865
Inga and Rinde to Quebec in April 1866
Laurdal to Quebec in April 1872

Thursday October 15 - 1998

The Land Register for 1615 is now available. It covers the parish of Gjerpen

Saturday October 10 - 1998

You can now submit your email-address and I will notify you each time I update my site.

Friday October 9 - 1998

Valebø Cemetery in the northernmost part of Skien is now transcribed

Go there......

Friday October 2 - 1998

I have had to split my web-site today. It now exceeds the limited space I have with my ISP,
so the emigration-section has been moved to
http://skien.future.easyspace.com
Unfortunately this includes an ad-banner, but 50 Mb of free space was too good to be true.

Sunday September 27 - 1998

In 1813 the farmers of Gjerpen and Siljan were to deliver grain to a local storehouse in Gjerpen.
According to the Gjerpen History this storehouse was not established during those years after all,
so whether the farmers delivered grain or not, is uncertain.
But nevertheless, here is the list.
Go there......

Thursday September 24 - 1998

Here is a list of all the poor people in Gjerpen parish in 1782.
The list was made by the parish minister, and he tells that travelled around in the parish
and inquired about every poor and sick soul.
The list gives age, place of birth, present dwelling, illness etc.

Go there......

Sunday September 20 - 1998

The last tax-list for the 1630's is now available. Go to the 1638-Leding tax.  Go there......

There are so many sources everywhere, if you just use your imagination.
I found some church-accounts from 1730 and 1754 for Skien church.
These gave among other things, the names of all those people
who had permanent seats in the church and also what they paid for them.
Lots of names.

Sunday September 13 - 1998

I have rearranged the pictures of Skien from before the big fire of 1886.

Tuesday September 1 - 1998

In the latter half of the 1720's the Danish towns of Copenhagen and Viborg burnt down
and other towns in Denmark/Norway had to pay a relief tax. The tax is probably dated ca 1730
or 1 or 2 years earlier.
Go there......

Thursday August 27 - 1998

Military records are very exciting stuff. This time I have a new Sea-Roll for 1717, that covers
areas like Bamble, Solum, Melum, Sannidal, Tørdal and Drangedal.
Also another taxlist for Skien is ready......Leding 1633.
At the end of this list is a probate record for Faltin Husmand dated February 27, 1632.
It is not the same as the record mentioned next year....1634.

Monday August 17 - 1998

A new tax-list is ready. This time it is the Leding tax for the year 1634 for Skien.
At the end of the tax list there are two probate records.
One for Faltin Husmand dated Februay 27, 1632 and the other for
Mester Jørgen Badscher, dated July 19, 1634.

Saturday August 1 - 1998

Have added the lists for the Personal Tax for Skien for the years 1681 and 1682

Tuesday June 16 - 1998

In 1735 the Gjerpen Church and all its properties were sold to Cancellie-Raad Leopoldus
and therefore a complete inspection was carried out.
Here you will find a survey of all the farms in Gjerpen which were inspected.

Go there......

Thursday February 26 - 1998

Here is an old paylist from 1678 listing all Officers and boat's men onbord the
war-ship "Maria".

Thursday February 26 - 1998

In the State Archives of Kongsberg I have found some interesting old documents.
One document relating to the old Fossum Ironworks in Gjerpen, which was founded way back in 1539
and was a corner stone in this area for 350 years, until it was finally shut down in June 1867.
The document lists all the properties belonging to Fossum Ironworks in 1775, also giving names and the age of the owners and users.  Go there......

You will also find new military records from 1765.

From Roger Johnson of Ashippun Township in Dodge County, Wisconsin, I have received several updates
to the Emigrant-section of 1843 and 1844.
This really shows how the Internet enables people to work together.

Sunday January 25 - 1998

Have updated links and have included in the "Sources" section a Register of Boatswains and Timbermen
from May 1665. The register covers the parishes of Skien, Gjerpen, Eidanger, Kragerø, Bamble,
Sannidal, Drangedal, Siljan. Not too many names here, but nevertheless, it could be important to someone.
Go there......

Thursday January 8 - 1998

Pollen and Omdal cemeteries in the Skotfoss area of Skien are now published.
Go there......

There is now only a couple of  cemeteries in Skien left to transcribe, but these two will have
to wait until the snow disappears.

Monday November 17 - 1997

Nenset Cemetery in Skien is now online.

Go there......

Monday November 3 - 1997

Nordre Gravlund Cemetery in Skien is now available. The cemetery consists of ca 6000 names
and the file is rather big.

Go there......

Tuesday October 7 - 1997

Lie cemetery in Skien is now available. This is the oldest existing cemetery and has graves back to 1600.
Only the more "prominent" citizens of the town were buried here

Go there......

Saturday September 27 - 1997

Stian Høiset has transcribed a protocol consisting of the Matricul for the town of Skien in 1930.
It's a rather new source and should be of interest to many genealogists.
The register gives info about Land Register Number, Owner, Tax value, Fire Insurance value and so on.
Thanks Stian - good work!!!!

Go there......

Sunday September 14 - 1997

I came across 12 passenger-lists for vessels departing Skien with emigrants for Canada.
during the years 1866 through 1873. Take a look and see if you can find your ancestors.

If any of you who visit these pages have access to any other passengers-lists for vessel from Telemark,
I'd be more than happy to receive a copy.

Check out the lists...........

Thursday August 21 - 1997

Summer vacation is over, and Telemark has had the best summer for 50 years.

So here comes the cemetery of Melum Church, complete with maps and pictures.

Wednesday June 25 - 1997

The cemetery lists of Kilebygda cemetery is now complete

Sunday June 1 - 1997

The cemetery lists of Solum cemetery is now complete.

Sunday May 4 - 1987

The Cemetery-project is rolling on. You can now search thru the names of several cemeteries in the Skien district.

So far following cemeteries are completed, with maps, pictures and lists of names:

Gjerpen, Solum, Luksefjell, Borgestad, Johannes cemetery in Skien

Check it out........

There are also pictures of Gromstulen added to the page regarding John Johnsen Svenholt.

Sunday April 20 - 1987

Under "Sources"/"Kilder" you can now find a register of special surnames used in the Skien Area.

The register covers only names used by the citizens, clergy, civil servants etc., and has reference to which book and page you can find the name on. The register has about 4500 items.

Go there.......

Wednesday April 2 - 1997

Have inserted a picture of Foss gård, from where the Gasmann-family emigrated in 1843.

You will also find a long translated letter written by Anders Brynhildsen Vestved. The letter is very interesting and informative. Go to the 1844 section of the "year-by-year"-part.

Monday March 31 - 1997

1845 and 1852-lists of emigrants are now updated with biographical information.
..................and I'm working on 1846......

Sunday March 9 - 1997

Links-page updated with new links.

1844-list of emigrants completed with biographical info.

Monday February 17 - 1997

You can now click on the "Emigration-button" and go to a wealth of information about the people who left Gjerpen to find a more happy life in America during the last century.

So far the lists of people is completed through 1862, i.e. the first 20 years. You will also find some pictures of vessels, newspaper-clippings, and a year-by-year time-line, where you can see which vessels that were engaged in the emigrant-trade.

Also for the first year, 1843, there are full biographical details for the families who emigrated that year.

More will follow.............