The Forsberg Family

( Family Tree )

NOTABLE FIGURES

The Forsberg family arrived in America at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Fritjov Albert Forsberg -

Fritjov Albert was born in Iggesund, in northern Sweden in the early 1890s. His mother Edla was the eldest child of the well known Forsberg family whose Patriarch, Olaf was a chief engineer and manager of the Iggesund paper plant on the outskirts of town. Fritjov's father is shrouded in mystery. What we have heard through family tales is that Edla spent summers working on a fisherman's island in the Baltic sea. The fishermen brought their catch to the island and the women who worked there pickled them and smoked them and made them fit for storage. Edla was young and handsome and she was notorious for falling in love. She was the perfect prey for a young handsome and rich boat owner. So it is very possible that Fritjov's father was a wealthy fisherman.  Edla's mother is also a bit mysterious although we know approximately who she was. The name on her death certificate was Johanna Louisa Petterson (Forsberg), however there are rumors that she went but the name of Hannah Petre, and that she was born in Skepsholman, the island where the Swedish Navy docked. Some rumors say that she was Jewish and that her family came from Novgarod. Others say that her father was wealthy (maybe a sea captain). Which ever is the truth what we do know is that when Olaf was a young engineering student at the University of Stockholm in the middle 1800s, he fell in love with young Hannah and got her pregnant. Hannah's family disowned her and without their support she and Olaf had to return to Olaf's home town up north to have the baby. That was Edla. In turn Edla had her first child, Fritjov when she was very young, too young to raise him. So Olaf and Hannah adopted baby Fritjov and he was raise as their own with Edla referred to as his sister.

(Edla went on to have other children all of whom she left with other family members to raise. One child was Oscar Forsberg and he was given to a cousin whose son, Olle Hedlund was also a child. Oscar later grew up and had two children, Britta and Jan Erik. Jan Erik married Dagmar and had three girls, Lena, Inger and Annette. All of them married and had children and so the Forsberg name is lost in Sweden).

When Fritjov was a boy he worked for Olaf at the paper mill. One early morning while everyone was asleep, the paper mill caught on fire and Fritjov was the first to see it. He swiftly climbed high on the watch tower and rang the alarm bell waking the town and saving the mill. But something was uneasy in Fritjov. Whether his was being ridiculed for being illegitimate (which is unlikely in Sweden because half of the kids were illegitimate), or whether Hannah was truly Jewish and this caused problems for Fritjov (he looked very Jewish with a long face and curly hair), whatever it was Fritjov decided to leave Sweden and come to America. He was in his mid teens.

Frijov came from some money so he bought himself a bunk and took a steamer to New York. He was processed on Ellis Island and them proceeded on to Chicago where he had family and where there was the largest Swedish population outside of Stockholm. He made a real life for himself. He promptly joined the Swedish club where he enjoyed dancing and songs from the old country. He also met some beautiful young Swedish women there including an intelligent and sometimes moody girl named Signe Cederberg.  He loved America. And he loved Europe. In fact, he loved them both so much that when World War I began he volunteered for the United States army. Fritjov went to Belgium and there he bought a beautiful engagement ring for Signe before moving onto the Verdun. Fritjov fought valiantly. He was gassed and shot and came hope with the purple heart. Signe promptly married him. 

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SIGNE CEDERBERG -

When Signe arrived in America she too went to Chicago. When she arrived she moved into the Edgewater Beach hotel and began looking for work as a servant. She soon found it and became the live in nanny for a rich WASP family on Chicago's exclusive Sheridan Road. She worked as a servant and then a household cook for a number of years (she was an amazing cook) until she married Fritjov. Some time after World War I ended they had their first and only child, Albert-Rolf Forsberg.

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ALBERT ROLF FORSBERG -

Was raised as a Swedish American immigrant kid on the sprawling west side of Chicago. For hundreds of square blocks the only languages spoken were Swedish, German and Slavic. European grocery stores, newspapers and culture were everywhere. In fact, young Rolf didn't even speak English until he was 6. A few years after that the Great Depression hit. Most of the families around him were devastated, but Rolf's mother was a penny pincher and always kept her money under the mattress. And Rolf's father was a great engineer and handy man and always had work. So Young Rolf at meat or fish every day and remained relatively well off. Although he was raised as a Lutheran and his mother tried to Americanize his name to Ralph, young Rolf always followed his own path. After a spiritual experience Rolf converted to Catholicism and decided to become an artist and an actor. He attended painting classes at the Chicago Art Institute and acting classes at the Goodman Theater. He showed a real knack for William Shakespeare and was soon traveling in a troupe. His life was interrupted by World War II (I'm sure that he was not alone). Rolf joined the Army and planned on killing Hitler. But after being stationed in various forts in the United States the war ended and he returned to the stage.

Rolf met a young actress ( a couple of years his senor) named Josephine Raciti. She was of Sicilian descent and from the opulent suburb of Oak Park. Her father had been very wealthy before the depression but when Rolf met her, Josephine was still recovering from the scars of having lost it all. She lived with two or three other families (all relatives) in a four bedroom apartment. She too escaped into the theater, and Shakespeare was her favorite. They married when Rolf was 20.

Fritjov was happy for them but Signe was furious. Her son was getting married too young, to an older woman, and an Italian to boot. And to add insult to injury Josephine was pregnant in a flash. Linnea Alexandra Forsberg was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin while Jo was on the road with a show and Rolf was in New York trying to get a play going.  Nearly two decades later their second child was born, Rolf Eric Tecumseh Forsberg. After a couple of years Josephine and Rolf got a divorce.

Rolf went on to become a well off film maker. He married an immigrant from Scotland, Moira Henderson and they move to Los Angeles and had a son, Thor Guadalupe Forsberg. Moira died in 1998. Linnea went on to marry a Japanese man with whom she had no children, and then later an American of German descent from which came her only daughter, Erica Marvel Kirk. Linnea divorced the German straight away. Eric went on to marry Karen Dee Goodman, a Jewish gal from Los Angeles who made quite a name for herself in the Chicago theater scene. So far they have had only one child, a daughter, Carlota Juliangela Forsberg, whom we all call Lola. Thor has no children. So unless Eric and Karen have a son soon then the continuation of the Forsberg name rests soundly on the shoulders of Rolf's youngest son, Thor. Go for it Thor!

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FAMILY TREE

( The Von Estenberg Line )

Peter Von Estenberg -------------- Regina Westerskold

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Elsa Sara

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XXXXX

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 ( Fritjov Forsberg ) - - - - - Signe Cederberg                                                  

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   (Josephine Raciti)   - - - - - -  Rolf Forsberg                                                  

                       I                                 I    remarried to - - -   (Moira Henderson)

_______________________I________________I________ _ _ _ ___________I____________________

I                                                                      I                                                     I                                     

Linnea Forsberg --- (Rick Kirk)            Eric Forsberg -- (Karen Goodman)       Thor Forsberg - (Maureen Moore)

I                                                                            I                                                                 I             

I                                                                            I                                                                I             

         Erica Kirk                                            Carlota (Lola) Forsberg                                Moira Ann Forsberg                 

HERE ARE SOME HISTORIC RELATIVES FROM ERIC FORSBERG'S SWEDISH PAST

Peter von Estenberg