Genealogy Jottings

One of my Education professors once commented on how difficult it is to impress upon high school students that the grades they earn are “forever” because they follow you for the rest of your life. This week as I looked at Norwegian church records, I found that high school grades are not the only ones with this longevity. The Lutheran church confirmation records in Norway list not only the adolescents names and other family information, but they also record a rating of each student’s knowledge of the catechism. Now, over 100 years later, we can see whether an individual scored Very Good, Good, or Not So Good. My family mostly scored “Good”, but Tony’s had several who achieved “Very Good”. Did they study harder, or was their minister an “easy grader”? And why is one of Tony’s family, Simon Hjelmstad, missing from the record? Did he fail the test altogether? I wonder whether any of these people realized at the time that their scores truly would be forever.

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