[#8279] Looking for Borre

[Gjest Kristin Lunde Gibbons]

My great-grandfather is supposed to have been born in Horten, but the Fredrikshalden census for 1900 shows his birthplace as Borre JL. I cannot find any place like this on my maps. Can anyone help? What does JL mean?

[Gjest R Bjerke]

Hi! Im not sure what JL stands for, but Borre is supposed to be in Vestfold parish. Horten is also in Vestfold.

[Gjest R Bjerke]

A little typo there, but Horten was in Vestfold in the 1900 century. And Vestfold is a county:)Here are two links to map where you can see Borre: Map 1 (norwegian) - Map 2 (english).

[Gjest Jan Oldervoll]

Borre is in Vestfold fylke, previously called Jarlsberg og Larvik, thus JL. As far as I know Borrre is the parish surrounding Horten, and Horten may even be part of Borre parish. You should not be surprised that the census says Borre and your ggfather said Horten.I think I passed the town you live in the summer of 2000. I was driving from Boston to Saratoga Springs when it suddenly started raining like I never saw it rain. The traffic on the I-90 came to a halt, completely. It felt like being in the middle of a war, and I remember seeing a sign saying New Lebanon and found it very fitting, Lebanon being in the middle of a war zone. Or does my memory deceive me once more?

[Gjest Ketil Harbek]

The name story (and a little more:) Originally (at least from the christening of Norway) the name of the parish and the municipality was Borre. Horten was a farm in Borre, on a peninsula at the western bank of the (Oslo)fjord. The farm owner also had the exclusive right (and duty) to run 2-3 ferryboats across the fjord - abt. 7 kilometers.I 1819, the gouvernment bought the farm, with its small islands and its folded coastline, which formed an excellent deep natural harbour. The purpose was to build a new main naval base for Norway. The owner moved his ferrydock, built a new guesthouse, and probably made a good living from all this new activity.During the following decades, the base, and a new township surrounding it, grew quite fast. The farm name Horten now was used for all of this.In 1854 the Horten Naval Station Church was built, and the parish of Horten probably was established about that time. In 1858 the town of Horten became a separate municipality from Borre.The parish of Borre, for the rural districts around Horten, has existed all the time. (Near the 11th century Borre Church there are several burial mounds from early viking time - abt. 8-9th century, belonging to ancestors of the earliest Norwegian kings.)I might also add, that in February 1945 the naval station of Horten (then occupied by the Germans) was bombed by US Air Force. The target was the dockyard, but unfortunately some of the old buildings (empire style) were destroyed to. Today the main base has moved to Bergen, and now most of the old base area is open to the public.To confuse everyone: In 1982 the municipalities of Borre (9000 inh.) and Horten (15000 inh.) merged to one (not the parishes). Historically correct, the reunited municipality was named Borre. This caused a lot of protests from the Horten inhabitants, and after a referendum last year, the name will be changed to Horten from June 1 2002. So the farm name finally(?) took over the whole municipality.