Shivaun's Family Tree Website

 

Masts of HMS Warrior 1860

Tellefsen family

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 Part 1: August Bernard Tellefsen (c1820 - 1892)

 

Early life and marriage to Margrethe Christine Speilberg

August Bernard Tellefsen was born c1820 in Tvedestrand, a coastal town in Aust-Agder County, Norway. His father was Johan (John) Tellefsen, a ship owner who likely lived in Aust-Agder County. Nothing else is known of Johan. [1]

He married Margrethe Christine Speilberg (c1823 - ?) 18 December 1849 in Vestre Moland Parish (now part of Lillesand), south-west of Tvedestrand. She was born c1823 and died before 1858. They had three children: Johan, Augusta and Margrethe. Nothing is known about them beyond the baptism dates. [2] If they survived infancy, it is probable they were brought up by relatives in Norway.

 

Emigration to Wales and marriage to Martha Middleton Bryant

Sometime in the 1850s, the widowed August settled in Cardiff, Wales. By the middle of the 19th century, Norway was poised to have the third largest merchant shipping fleet, exporting timber and importing mainly coal, but also providing powerful ships around the globe for business. Cardiff was one of the major coal-exporting ports in the British Isles and it had a large Scandinavian sailing community as a result. As a ship owner, August came to Cardiff where he was keen to start a business. He formed Tellefsen, Wills & Co with George Wills, a noted ship owner, acting as a shipping agency which exported coal. (They dissolved their partnership in 1890 and formed two separate companies: Tellefsen & Co and G.H. Wills & Co.) He met and married 18-year-old Martha Middleton Bryant 12 January 1858 at Shirehampton Parish Church, near Bristol. Martha was known as 'Pattie' and her father Edward Bryant was a merchant with shipping interests which is how the couple probably met (or through Martha's brother-in-law who was also Norwegian). August and Martha had five children: Emily, John, Maria, Theodore and Ernest.

In December 1868, August became a Naturalised British Subject, and was conferred all the rights of a British-born subject. In that same year the County Courts Admiralty Jurisdiction Act was passed which allowed County Courts to appoint assessors. On 05 February 1869, August was one of 15 men with an involvement in shipping and the sea to be appointed to act as an assessor at Glamorganshire County Court. August was living at Park Place, St John's Parish, Cardiff, at the time. By 1881, the family were living at 9 Wordsworth Street, Roath Parish, then a decade later they were in Rhubina Road, Whitchurch Parish where August died, 28 March 1892 aged 72. Their house was called 'Heimdal' after a Norse God Heimdallr. It is not known when but August was awarded the Order of St Olav, Knight (1st type), a Norwegian order of chivalry. After his death, the medal would have been returned to Norway. [3]

Next: Tellefsen Descendants

 

Footnotes

[1] The sole record with his name is the marriage of his son to his second wife, Martha Bryant.

[2] This information comes from transcriptions by www.Familysearch.org. The original parish registers (on the Norwegian Digital Archive website) are too difficult to read so unable to confirm the information.

[3] England and Wales Census 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, Salter's Commercial Directory 1880, Great British Army War List 1893  (Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.com);  General Registry Office (GRO) certificates; www.Familysearch.org; Norwegian digitised parish records (Norwegian National Archives http://www.arkivverket.no/URN:kb_read); Bristol Mercury newspaper archive (http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/); Home Office records, The National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk); 'A Victorian Shipowner: A Portrait of Sir Charles Cayzer, Baronet of Gartmore' (1978) Augustus Muir and Mair Davies, published by Cayzer, Irvine and Company Limited; Cayzer Family Archive (Registered Charity Number: 1122921); London Gazette (www.london-gazette.co.uk); Guide to Exmouth (www.exmouth-guide.co.uk); Cardiff's Norwegian Church website (www.norwegianchurch.250x.com/); Registers of Immigrant Ships' Arrivals 1848-1912 (www.archives.qld.gov.au); digitised Australian newspaper collection (http://trove.nla.gov.au); Queensland Births Marriages and Deaths index (www.bdm.qld.gov.au); digitised Welsh newspaper collection (http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/home); 'Tales of Bush Graves: A Study of Bush Grave Sites in North-west Queensland' by Anne Alloway and Roberta Morrison (2012); wikipedia