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Note: N4834 Adoptert bort til morens tante Synneve Severine Ingebrigtsdtr. Sam was baptized as an infant in the Synod Church and confirmed both in Norwegian and English at that congregation. He was adopted by his birth mother’s (Inga Kinden) aunt Synneve Severine Ingebrigtsdtr. His birth father was reportedly Johannes Forde, married to Synneve.
Sam Forde was a good father-in-law; I loved listening to his Norwegian stories, especially the stories about his real mother. He enjoyed talking about her. I was surprised the day he told me she had returned to visit when he was six years old:
“There was a terrible fight in the kitchen. My mother (Inga) wanted to take me to live with her but dad (John) would not give in. Through the years she wrote to me, sometimes asking to borrow money. After I was married, Stanley (his son) was about ten years old, she borrowed money for a train trip. She came to visit me with my two half-sisters, Beatrice and Barbara. My sisters knew I was their brother. Yet, we had another terrible fight because she was a tee-totaler and did not like that I drank beer. I told her to go away. She left on that train to Oregon and I have never seen or heard from her in this life.”
This is a link to photos of Inga Kingebrigtsdtr Sunde found with her history on Ancestry.com
http://trees.ancestry.com.au/tree/834356/person/-2041946683/photox/e9ac7e5f-be83-4770-b8a6-f2c6bfe7f021?src=search
This is a link to her ancestry with photos and lineage:
http://trees.ancestry.com.au/tree/834356/person/-2041946683
I wanted to know if he knew his mother’s married name because she could still be living. I told him it is a tragedy to be so angry you cut people out of your lives forever. He told me she had no place in his life because she left him. Yet, he was really angry, so I learned, because they knew about him and no one ever contacted him again. So much anger.
Sam gave me her married name and the first names of his siblings as well as where they lived. I placed an ad in the Grand Rapids, Michigan newspapers asking for her descendants. About a week later, the phone rang with his sister Beatrice calling. I reported the story and asked if she had a brother named Selmer. She was astonished. amazed. But, she had told her husband on their wedding day she either had a dream or she remembered she did have a brother. Hesitant, Beatrice and her husband said they were coming to visit us immediately. And they did.
What a blessing to see the joy in Sam’s face at the reconciliation. Beatrice was the loveliest, softest and most gentle woman who mimmediately loved Sam. It was sad to learn her mother had not spoken the last seven years of her life which ended a few years before I made that phone call. Not long after, Oscar and his lovely wife Rose came to visit, followed by his brother Elmer. Both brothers looked more like Sam that they looked like each other. I shall never forget watching the interaction between Elmer and Selmer. For each of them, it was like looking in a mirror. They quickly became brothers in the true sense of the word. The Michigan Sunde’s rejoiced in our visit to see them. I was always so disappointed another viist did not happen. Beatrice so wanted Stan to visit her before she died.
Sam Forde promised me the Forde Bible and the baptismal cap when he died. He said the re-connection with his sisters and brothers made his last years the most complete of his life. True to his promise, Rose Forde (Sam’s wife) handed me the Bible and the Baptismal cap when Sam died. I had a special container built for that cap and hoped that one of my grandchildren would one day wear the cap.
The cap and Bible are now in the possession of Stan Forde.
[Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1, Ed. 4, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Social Security Death Index, Surnames from A through L,Date of Import: Jun 17, 1997, Internal Ref. #1.111.4.77279.180]
Individual: Forde, Selmer
Birth date: Aug 4, 1907
Death date: Feb 1986
Social Security #: 481-20-2468
Last residence: Iowa 51531
State of issue: Iowa
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