Ibsen (family)

Ibsen is a Norwegian family of Danish extraction. Its most famous members are playwright Henrik Ibsen, his son, statesman Sigurd Ibsen, and grandson, pioneer film director Tancred Ibsen. Several other family members have been noted artists.

History

The name Ibsen is a "frozen" patronymic, meaning "son of Ib." Ib is a Danish variant of Jacob. The name became frozen in the 17th century, while this practice was only widely adopted in Denmark in the 19th century and in Norway from around 1900. The phenomenon of patronymics becoming frozen started in the 17th century in bourgeois families in Denmark.

The family's earliest known ancestor is Rasmus Ibsen (1632–1703), a merchant in

The Ibsen family is becoming extinct (in the male line); the last living members (by birth) are Tancred Ibsen Jr.'s two daughters Nora and Hedda Ibsen. There are however a number of descendants of the family through female lines, namely descendants of Hedvig Ibsen (married Stousland), Irene Ibsen (married Bille), Nora Ibsen and Hedda Ibsen.

The Ibsen family in theatre

• Rasmus Ibsen (1632–1703), a ship's captain from Stege, Denmark.
  • Peder Rasmussen Ibsen (died 1765), ship's captain and merchant, settled in Bergen where he became a burgher.
    • Henrik Ibsen (1726–1765), merchant in Skien, who married Wenche Dishington (1738–1780). After Ibsen's death, Wenche married parish priest Jacob von der Lippe (1732–1804)
      • Henrich Ibsen (1765–1797), ship's captain and merchant in Skien, who married
        Johanne Plesner (1770–1847). Henrich Ibsen died at sea in 1797, and Johanne married shipowner Ole Paus
        (1776–1855).
        • Knud Ibsen (1797–1877), merchant in Skien until his bankruptcy in 1835, who married Marichen Altenburg (1799–1869).
          • Johan Altenburg Ibsen (1826–1828)
          • Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), playwright, who married Suzannah Thoresen (1836–1914)
            • Sigurd Ibsen (1859–1930), Prime Minister of Norway, who married Bergliot Bjørnson (1869–1953)
              • Tancred Ibsen (1893–1978), film director, who married Lillebil Krohn (1899–1989)
                • Tancred Ibsen Jr. (born 1921), Ambassador, married Ellinor (b. 1922)
                  • Nora Bergliot Ibsen (born 1951), theatre director, has issue
                  • Hedda Sophie Yvonne Ibsen (born 1956), has issue
              • Irene Ibsen (1901–1985), author, who married Josias Bille, had issue (including sons Anders Bille (1940-2011) (grandsons: Steen Oluf Bille and Bernt Ivar Bille) and Joen Bille (b. 1944) (granddaughter Beate Bille and grandson Johan Peder Bille)
              • Eleonora Ibsen (1906–1978)
          • Johan Andreas Altenburg Ibsen (born 1830), emigrated to the US in 1849. According to a letter he sent home on May 28, 1850, he settled in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Whereabouts since unknown, no known issue.
          • Hedvig Ibsen (1831–1920), married ship's captain Jacob Stousland, had issue (including son Carl Stousland)
          • Nicolai Alexander Ibsen (1834–1888), unmarried, physically disabled after his nanny dropped him to the floor, emigrated to the US in the late 1860s, lived in Estherville, Iowa.
          • Ole Paus Ibsen (1835–1917), married Anne Marthe Boyesen and Jenny Myhre, no issue.

Illegitimate descendants of Henrik Ibsen

As legally established, Henrik Ibsen also had an illegitimate son by the maid Else Sophie Birkedalen (1818–1892), named Hans Jacob Henriksen (Birkedalen) (1846–1916) (Henriksen is an active patronymic, meaning "son of Henrik [Ibsen]", as opposed to the "frozen" patronymic Ibsen). Hans Jacob Henriksen was a blacksmith and married three times, to Mathilde Andreasdatter (1851–1881), Trine Marie Gunvaldsen (died 1882) and Ida Gurine Olsdatter (died 1938). He was the father of eight children, including

• Jens Hansen Birkedalen (1876–1895), who was a ship's cook at the schooner "Josef af Lillesand", and who died at a hospital in Løgstør, Denmark
• Ole Hansen Birkedalen (1884–1884), died as an infant
• Isak Hansen Birkedalen (1885–1888), died as an infant
• Inga Hansine Hansdatter Birkedalen (1888–1904)
• Gunda Elise Hansdatter Birkedalen (1892–1896)
• Jenny Hansdatter Birkedalen (1895–1922)

Henrik Ibsen had no contact with his illegitimate son or grandchildren, who lived in relatively humble conditions. Most of the grandchildren died as children, and neither of them had descendants. Even if they were male line descendants of the Ibsen family, they were not entitled to use the family name Ibsen under the law of the time, were hence legally not considered members of the Ibsen family, and had no inheritance rights. Henrik Ibsen was however obliged to pay for the upbringing of his son until he was 14 years old. After receiving a letter from

Literature

• Johan Kielland Bergwitz, Henrik Ibsen i sin avstamning: norsk eller fremmed?, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1916
• Henrik Jæger, Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1888: A Critical Biography, A.C.McClurg, 1890 (1888)
• Høgvoll, Arvid; Bærland, Ruth (1996). Henrik Ibsen: herregårder, kammerherrer, godseiere og proprietærer : brokker av en slektshistorie, Nome Antikvariat