Case study: Grades on confirmation lists

Here is a quick look at some details from a confirmation list.

I received a question from a reader who asked for help to understand some comments in a list of confirmands from 1902. You can find the record here:

Fjelberg sokneprestembete, SAB/A-75201/H/Haa: Ministerialbok nr. D 1, 1879-1918, s. 141
Brukslenke for sidevisning: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/kb20050809031224

The person in question is no. 14 Knut Torsteinsen Haugen. The column my reader wanted help with is the last one with the heading “Anmærkninger” This can be translated to “comments/notes” The words in the parentheses says “Konfirmandens Kristendomskundskab m.V” This means the “confirmands knowledge of religion” “m.V.”  is an abbreviation that means “med videre” I can’t think of any other translation than “and others”.

This means that in this column we can expect to find the confirmands knowledge of religion expressed by grades and also other comments the minister might find necessary to make.

Most of the grades are fairly straightforward.  It says “g” → “godt” meaning “good”. “mg” → “meget godt” meaning very good. These are grades that were used when I was in elementary school in the early 70s.

What puzzled me was the notation “an”. This is not a Norwegian word so I assumed it was an abbreviation.  Now I started to go through the other pages of the confirmation lists. For the year 1900 the minister has written the grades in fulltext. Her we learn that the abbreviation “an” means “Antagelig”. This is a word that in Norwegian normally means “probably”. This seems a little strange used as a grade, so in that context a better translation might be “acceptable”.

In a master thesis by Eivind Myhre I find reference to a grade scale used in Norwegian schools in the early 1900s with the grades starting with the best on top (Myhre page 41);

• Særdeles godt (Sg) →Extremely good
• Meget godt (Mg) → Very good
• Godt (G), → Good
• Antagelig (An) → Acceptable
• Uantagelig (Ua). → Unacceptable