#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge – Week 39
Prompt: On the Farm
Prompt: On the Farm
Sam’s Story
By The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Forde-Beatty
“What? Do you know her name? Have you tried to find her?”
I peppered 70-year-old Sam Forde with questions when he told me he knew the identity of his birth mother. I was motivated, “Tell me more! She could still be alive!” The tale that unfolded opened the door to new life for Selmer Jayhard Forde, born in Silver Lake, Iowa, on the 4thof August 1907 to Inga Oleanne Sjursdatter Kinden – and -- possibly her aunt’s husband, Johannes Andresson Forde. Inga really could still be alive!
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| Selmer Jayhard Forde |
Encouraged by my enthusiasm, Sam continued:
“My mother was Inga Kinden; she was born in Sognefjord, Norway. When she was 18, she came to America to live with her aunt Synneva and husband, John Forde, who raised me. She went back to Norway when I was two years old. When I was six years old, she came for a visit; I was told the lady was my mother. A terrible fight occurred over me. I think she wanted to take me with her. The neighbors said John Forde was my father. After she left, she wrote a few letters over the years. I sent her money once in a while. She was married to Andrew Sunde, living in Michigan with four children. After John (Forde) died, she and her two daughters came by train. She got mad and told me off because I drink beer. I told her she had left me and she didn’t need to come back again. And she didn’t.”
Yes, Sam felt abandoned and rejected! Sam grew up as the foster/adopted son of 57-year-old Synneva Severina Ingebritsdatter Kinden, born 12 Nov.1850 in Sunnefjord, Norway, who died 2 Nov.1930 (cancer), and 46-year-old Johannes Andreas Andreasson Forde, born 29 June 1863, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, died 16 Oct.1943. Sam is enumerated as adopted in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census [1]and son in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census[2]. John Forde was a successful Worth County farmer who built the first hog confinement house in the area, besides owning a large lumber concern in nearby Emmons, Minnesota. Sam was a typical only child of older parents and given too much; he was spoiled, and he’d wrecked a few new cars by the time he was 18 years old.
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| Rose and Sam's Wedding Day |
In 1959, Sam began working with his oldest son, Stan, on highway construction; this ended in 1963 when he was injured in a car accident. In 1965, Sam and Rose moved to Stan’s farm in Elk Horn, Iowa. Stan purchased a mobile home and moved it to the farm for his parents. It was a peaceful, idyllic time for Sam and Rose; they were at home again on a farm with hogs and cattle to feed, crops to plant, a cow to milk, and chickens for Rose’s egg money. And they became beloved playmates for Stan and Cynthia’s five children; no one could play Annie-I-Over like Rose or write poems and tell stories like Sam.
On the Stan Forde farm, Sam poured out his heart about his birth mother, and I cut my genealogy teeth on his story. “Michigan, huh? So, Sam, what city in Michigan,” I wanted to know. Sam thought about it for some time before answering, “Grand Rapids.” With that information, I placed an ad in a Grand Rapids, Michigan, newspaper to run for three weeks. The ad read, “Searching for Inga Kinden Sunde.” A few days had passed when Inga’s oldest daughter, Beatrice Sunde Dykstra, responded to the ad by telephone. Sam and Rose were in my kitchen. Beatrice explained, “We thought we might be inheriting money.” I tentatively told her the reason for the ad, and her sweet voice responded, “Oh! We must come to visit you immediately; I told my husband on our honeymoon I thought I had a brother!” Beatrice’s memory was jogged as she recalled the train trip from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Worth County, Iowa, with her mother and younger sister Barbara as a ten-year-old in 1944. She remembered people telling her that the man they visited was her brother, but over 33 years, the memory had faded. Beatrice explained, ‘My mother (Inga Kinden Sunde) passed away 7 years ago (14 Jan. 1971). Mother spent the final several years of her life living in silence. She stopped speaking.”
Sam’s half-siblings, children of Inga and Andrew Sunde: Oscar, Elmer, and Beatrice, made the trip to the Stan Forde farm, rejoicing in finding a brother that looked like them. The Sunde brothers looked more like Sam than each other. The Forbes made a trip to Michigan, where Sam was reintroduced to his half-sibling, Barbara, from Inga’s second marriage to Hank Nielsen. Several joyful years followed happy years for Sam. He had sisters and brothers! He learned he hadn’t been rejected or unwanted. He belonged to them. They claimed him!
Sam’s family was found! But who was Sam’s father? This budding genealogist wanted to know as she traced Inga’s footprints.
Inga Oleanna Ingebretsdatter Kinden was born in Sunnefjord, Norway 15 Sep. 1884 to Sjur Moses Ingebritson Kinden and Anne Helene Olsdatter Aasen.
Inga was the second of three daughters, Nikolina, Inga, then Anna, and three brothers: Ingebritt, Oluf, and Harold. Inga grew into a tall well-defined young woman who ventured forth from Norway to the United States as an 18-year-old, accompanied by her 43-year-old uncle Johannes Kristian Ingebritson Kinden. Inga lived with her aunt Synneva (sister to her father Sjur Ingibritson Kinden) and her husband, Johannes Andreas Forde. Inga is enumerated in the Iowa State Census of 1905,
Worth Iowa, United States Census
Inga S. Kinden, age 21, Single, Birth abt. 1884,
Born In Norway, Both parents were born in Norway
Searching for Sam’s father, I could see the possibility of John Forde being his biological father. Rose and Sam reported the neighbors in Silver Lake and Emmons also believed John Forde was Sam’s father. I sent for his Iowa State Birth Certificate, which listed,
Selmer Jayhard Forde,
born 4 August 1907, Worth County, Iowa;
Father: John A. Forde
The mother’s name was absent! The mystery deepened. Sam and Rose said the community believed John Forde was Sam’s biological father. Questions arose: Did Inga come to America to have a child for the childless, aged couple? If John Forde was a father to his wife's nieces’ baby, why did Synneva allow her niece to continue living with them for two more years until she returned to Norway in 1909? Would the deeply religious John Forde, who preached during the pastor’s absence, have fathered this child? John Forde looked nothing like Sam! John was short and stout, while Sam looked like his mother, tall and lanky.
Now, with the discovery of half brothers that looked more like Sam than each other, a new theory developed: Was it possible Inga was pregnant when she left Norway in 1903, then returned to reunite with the biological father in 1909 when she made her return trip to Norway?. It made sense because Inga married soon after the return to Norway. She married on 4 Apr. 1910, Bergen, Norway to Andrew Johannesen Sunde, born 12 Nov. 1884, Norway. We rejoiced at this thought for a few years until discovering Inga’s ship records ended our theory.
18-year-old Inga and her uncle Johannes Kristian Ingebritson sailed from Drammen, Norway:
| Inga Kinden | |
| Gender: | Female |
|---|---|
| Arrival Age: | 18 |
| Birth Year: | abt 1885 |
| Departure Port: | Liverpool, England |
| Arrival Date: | 10 Apr 1903 |
| Arrival Port: | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and St John, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Vessel: | Tunisian |
From 1903 to 1909, Inga Kinden lived with her aunt and uncle on the John Forde farm in Silver Lake, Iowa. Sam was born on 4 August 1907. Based on 40 gestational weeks, Inga conceived about 11 Nov. 1906. There is no record of Inga leaving the US during the 3 years, 6 months before she conceived Sam. Nor did Andrew Sunde travel to the United States before May 1910.
Inga returned to Norway in May of 1909, two years after Sam’s birth. She married her sister's 24-year-old fiance, Andrew Sunde, in Bergen, Norway 4 April 1910. They left Norway and came to Michigan in the United States in 1910.
Ship Records:
13 May 1910 arrival Quebec,
Canada Ship, Empress Ireland
Andrew Sunde, 26, Norway
Mrs. Inga Sunde, 26, wife,
If Andrew was Sam’s biological father, it is puzzling that Andrew lived in the United States for sixteen years and made no attempt to see or contact Sam. Based on extant ship records, Andrew is ruled out as Sam’s father. Andrew suffered from tuberculosis and died in Jan 1926 in Kent County, Michigan.
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Inga S. Kinden Sunde |
DNA works! Sam’s grandson, Jon Forde, agreed to do a YDNA test for father to father to father, etc., much like a paternity test reaching back hundreds of years. Jon’s YDNA matched ten men whose ancestors are from 100 Km from Forde, Norway, the ancestral home of John Forde. If John Forde wasn’t Sam’s father, it was a Norwegian who lived in or near Silver Lake, Iowa, in November of 1906.
In genealogy, there is always one more surprise. Sam and Rose’s marriage application from Iowa Marriages, Ancestry.com. Sam wrote: Mother Inga Kinden, Father: Magnus Johnson; Sam drew a line through 'John Forde, Foster Father.'
Was John Forde the real birth father? Had Synneve been given the name Magnus Johnson by John Forde and Inga as a decoy? We may never know. Thanks to a member of the Vik Sogn Facebook page who found a ship record for Magnus Nikolaj Jansen, 16, born on the island of Stord, Norway, Feb. 1890, traveling in the spring of 1906 to visit his grandparents at Thompson, Iowa. The 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Thompson, King Co., Iowa, has Magnus enumerated as the nephew of Ole Thorson. Magnus was the son of Johan Theodor Jansen and Marta Ingebritsen of Vikedal. Magnus returned to Norway in 1910, but he returned for a visit in 1913 using the surname Jansen. He married Sigrid Olsen on 9 June 1917 and worked as a baker until his death on 9 April 1966. Only DNA will reveal the truth. 2023, DNA did reveal the secret. Selmer was indeed a Forde.
[1]Year: 1910; Census Place: Silver Lake, Worth, Iowa; Roll: T624_429; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0177; FHL microfilm: 1374442
[2]Year: 1920; Census Place: Silver Lake, Worth, Iowa; Roll: T625_518; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 189; Image: 1085
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