Myrtle Siebert's Blog - Posts Tagged "inherit"
My Grandfather's Pipe
My Grandfather’s Pipe
Myrtle Siebert, October 2013
In August of 1998, and after three years of family history research, I made my first trip to Norway where I met 18 second cousins and three elderly ladies who were first cousins of my deceased father. Hosted by families – the grandchildren - of two of my grandfather’s brothers I walked the farm he had chosen to leave and explored the old church and cemetery that held the names and seat of his Forberg relatives.
I will never know why he left his birth place. It was likely a desire for a better life, because with large families and the scarcity of what farmland produced, life was not at all easy. But his determination not to live his life as a farmer was more likely the reason. He had left home to work in a nearby forested area before deciding to emigrate.
I had only recently learned then that he was the eldest of four brothers and according to the rules of the country at the time he would have inherited the large Forberg family farm. This was apparently not a role he wanted, so he left the farmer responsibility to his next eldest brother whose grandson, Einar, now runs the Forberg farm that I was visiting. At the farmhouse I saw the family heritage displayed: the original home he had left, carved boxes made by a younger brother who did not marry, wooden trunks, bowls and implements decorated with rosemaling and the family bible my grandfather had returned to Norway after he decided not to move back ‘home.’
In a roundabout way this brings me to my present conundrum. I am the eldest grandchild of the eldest son and my father, Einar, was the eldest son of our Canadian Forberg ancestor Einar, he who emigrated in 1896. Dad had no sons, only me and my younger sister, but he did have a brother, Ingolf. Rules of inheritance have changed since then and in Norway a daughter is now eligible for a primary inheritance. Had my grandfather remained in Norway, as the eldest grandchild I could now be running that Forberg family farm.
My difficulty is over deciding who should inherit my grandfather’s Norwegian pipe. It has come to me from my sister who no longer wants to devote space to it. In fact, I was not aware she had it! In my memoir Beyond the Floathouse, Gunhild’s Granddaughter, I have written,
I remember Grandpa Andy as an elderly gentleman, and recall being absolutely mesmerized by the process he went through each evening to prepare and smoke his pipe. On special occasions he would use a traditionally carved long Norwegian pipe festooned with red tassels attached to a cord from which the pipe hung on the living room wall.
I watched him lift it from the wall hook and pack the bowl with a particularly pungent brand of tobacco which he smoked only rarely. Seeing him hold the bowl almost at arm’s length, suck in to get a fire started enough that we could smell the smoke, was an even more fascinating procedure for a little girl of six to observe.
But let me return to Ingolf Forberg, who did have a son, Cory Forberg. Cory has both a son and a daughter and they have children. Should the Norwegian pipe go to Cory’s young son or is it more fairly placed with my own son Eric Siebert, who has no children of his own? Another alternative is his sister’s son Tait Ackermann? After some discussion with my friends who study genealogy, the consensus seemed to be that by following the modern view of inheritance my son Eric had the right to have his great-grandfather Forberg’s pipe.
Myrtle Siebert, October 2013
In August of 1998, and after three years of family history research, I made my first trip to Norway where I met 18 second cousins and three elderly ladies who were first cousins of my deceased father. Hosted by families – the grandchildren - of two of my grandfather’s brothers I walked the farm he had chosen to leave and explored the old church and cemetery that held the names and seat of his Forberg relatives.
I will never know why he left his birth place. It was likely a desire for a better life, because with large families and the scarcity of what farmland produced, life was not at all easy. But his determination not to live his life as a farmer was more likely the reason. He had left home to work in a nearby forested area before deciding to emigrate.
I had only recently learned then that he was the eldest of four brothers and according to the rules of the country at the time he would have inherited the large Forberg family farm. This was apparently not a role he wanted, so he left the farmer responsibility to his next eldest brother whose grandson, Einar, now runs the Forberg farm that I was visiting. At the farmhouse I saw the family heritage displayed: the original home he had left, carved boxes made by a younger brother who did not marry, wooden trunks, bowls and implements decorated with rosemaling and the family bible my grandfather had returned to Norway after he decided not to move back ‘home.’
In a roundabout way this brings me to my present conundrum. I am the eldest grandchild of the eldest son and my father, Einar, was the eldest son of our Canadian Forberg ancestor Einar, he who emigrated in 1896. Dad had no sons, only me and my younger sister, but he did have a brother, Ingolf. Rules of inheritance have changed since then and in Norway a daughter is now eligible for a primary inheritance. Had my grandfather remained in Norway, as the eldest grandchild I could now be running that Forberg family farm.
My difficulty is over deciding who should inherit my grandfather’s Norwegian pipe. It has come to me from my sister who no longer wants to devote space to it. In fact, I was not aware she had it! In my memoir Beyond the Floathouse, Gunhild’s Granddaughter, I have written,
I remember Grandpa Andy as an elderly gentleman, and recall being absolutely mesmerized by the process he went through each evening to prepare and smoke his pipe. On special occasions he would use a traditionally carved long Norwegian pipe festooned with red tassels attached to a cord from which the pipe hung on the living room wall.
I watched him lift it from the wall hook and pack the bowl with a particularly pungent brand of tobacco which he smoked only rarely. Seeing him hold the bowl almost at arm’s length, suck in to get a fire started enough that we could smell the smoke, was an even more fascinating procedure for a little girl of six to observe.
But let me return to Ingolf Forberg, who did have a son, Cory Forberg. Cory has both a son and a daughter and they have children. Should the Norwegian pipe go to Cory’s young son or is it more fairly placed with my own son Eric Siebert, who has no children of his own? Another alternative is his sister’s son Tait Ackermann? After some discussion with my friends who study genealogy, the consensus seemed to be that by following the modern view of inheritance my son Eric had the right to have his great-grandfather Forberg’s pipe.
