THE SECOND GENERATION

TORSTEIN JACOBSEN SMED
b.1655-d. a 1720

It is a certain fact that he was born on the Nordfjord in western Norway, the known birthplace of his father, and came with him between the ages of eleven and sixteen years to Vingelen in Tolga township.

There is no reason to believe that all the proper church ordinances and the required confirmation were not performed that was the ultimate bridge between his childhood and the responsibility of manhood. The history of Norway and Sweden also confirms that he would have served the mandatory conscription of two years in the military under the Swedish monarch during the invasion of his country by Peter the Great of Russia.

The first real fact of our ancestry begins with this man when he married Ingeborg Andersdatter of Tolga. She was born in 1660 in Tolga and died in 1733 - likely in Vingelen.

Torstein did not inherit his fathers farm nor does history tell the disposition of that place named "Fordet", but it does indicate it was either sold before he became of age, or there was an older brother or sister who traditionally would have become owners. Rather, Torstein upon his marriage built up a second farm he called Smedgaard in Vingelen which he derived from the name of his occupation as a blacksmith.

There was only one son of record:

(3) Peder

FOOTNOTE:

In 1696, Torstein Jacobson Smed adopted the new surname, married and built up his farm Smedgaarten. In Hodalen across the valley, a first son was born to Jon and Marit Ostensen on Ryalen Northern and they named him Nils.

In 1701 when Torstein's son Pedr was born in Vingelen a second son coame to Jon and Marit on Ryalen Northern and they named him Jon.