Ben is not a Scandinavian name though. Benson is probably British in origin, as you have the British cigarette brand Benson & Hedges. He or his ancestors may have Americanized the old Danish surname like Berndtsen or Bendtsen into Benson.
Norway was in union with Sweden during most of the 1800's btw... So sorry to say your mothers version wasn't completely correct. However could be that Norway de facto was more independent during the Swedish union than during Danish rule, that people preferred to abandon the old Danish spellings of surnames, the slave names.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_...den_and_Norway
Funny how Sweden was awarded Norway from Denmark in 1814, because Sweden had been on the sides of Britain-Russia during the Napoleonic wars. While Denmark-Norway was on Napoleons side. Especially since the new King of Sweden was the French General Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who actually bought the crown of Sweden in 1814 with warloot from the Napoleonic wars where he made his fortune. That guy was the Lucky Larry Silverstein of his time I suppose. If he had stayed with Napoleon and France until Waterloo, he would have probably lost everything. Still this usurpers family has the throne of Sweden.
Interesting stuff. I didn't know of these circumstances regarding the creation of Swedish Norwegian union.

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