How to decipher names
bsaxberg	In doing research of my Great-Grandfather. Bernt Johansen, born 15 Jan 1880 at Vestre Toten, Oppland, Norway, some of the information I have found lists his name like this. Bernt Johansen Drogseth (Solberg). I would have known him as Bernt Saxberg. Any idea where Drogseth would come in? Thanks, Brian
askeroi	In your case it's probably refering to the farm Drogset(h) in Biri, Oppland. Solberg is a too common farm name to be spesific, but if it's allway mentioned in connection with Drogset(h) it's probably some small part of Drogseth. It could have been the other way round, but Biri is one of the few places that does not have any Solberg farms in the 1900 cencus.
bsaxberg	Im guessing then that between the 1900 census and them coming to america (1905) they had moved to the Saksberg (Saxberg?) farm. Was it common to move around a lot during that time period?
askeroi	Saksberg is another farm in Biri, Oppdal. How common it was to move around from farm to farm at that time or at any time is a matter of statistics. It depended on several things. If your father owned the farm he was living on and you were the oldest son you hardly moved at all because you took over the family farm. If you were a daughter or a younger son, you had to move unless the farm was big enough to be spilt up. Weather you stayed at the first farm you moved to depended on if you married to it, if you got the chance (and could afford) to buy it or if you used it for the owner and in that case if he let you use it for a long time. In the late 1800s and early 1900s many people moved away from the farmland they grew up - some emigrated and some to the citys. At the same time more farms were split up as more children grew up. So I guess there were more moving around from farm to farm at this time - but it was pretty common earlier, too. This was a very difficult question - and probably I gave a difficult answer, too. But hopefully it gave you an idea of the situation...
thelebrity	He could very well have taken the Saxberg name even if he was only living at the farm a short time as a worker. As for eigrants there ar lots of exampls that people chose the names of other farms than the ones they had grown up at, as surnames. In Norway the farm name traditionally was used to make it easier to differ between people with the same firstname and patronym. Like Petter Olsen Solberg and Petter Olsen Lia. But if the Petter Olsen Solberg moved from Solberg to Granli, of course Solberg would no longer be attached to his name, even if he had lived at Solberg all his life.