Stone Hill Genealogy & Family History

Stone Hill Genealogy & Family History 🇳🇴 Norwegian Genealogist 🇳🇴
My name is Johan Stenslie. My rate is $40/hour. I uncover stories, locate farms, trace relatives & translate records.
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My last name is Stenslie, which means "Stony Hillside" and refers to the small piece of land my ancestor purchased and n...
31/07/2026

My last name is Stenslie, which means "Stony Hillside" and refers to the small piece of land my ancestor purchased and named in 1898. As the name suggests, it was hardly ideal farmland, so perhaps it is no surprise that just nine years later, they left it for the prairies of North Dakota.

Less than a decade of my family’s history unfolded there, yet we have carried its name for more than a century. Now, 128 years later, my cousin and I returned to the Stenslie farm in Øyer, overlooking the beautiful Gudbrandsdal Valley.

Names tell stories, and Stenslie is no exception. It reflects our ancestors’ modest circumstances, preserves our Norwegian heritage, and offers a glimpse of why they chose to emigrate.

The story of Nils Norheim is one of many featured in the documentary I worked on this summer!..Nils Olson Klyve was born...
28/07/2026

The story of Nils Norheim is one of many featured in the documentary I worked on this summer!
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Nils Olson Klyve was born in 1831 in Øystese, Norway. His father was remembered as a talented, generous, and successful sailor and farmer. He played the fiddle, donated a baptismal angel to the neighboring parish, and invested in the local sawmill.

Like his father before him, Nils turned to the sea as a young man. He worked as a sailor, owned several boats, and participated in the stockfish trade in the north. After many years at sea, he purchased the Norheim farm in 1864, becoming the first in his family line to adopt Norheim as a surname.

Norheim was a striking farm, overlooking the nearby fjord and Movatnet lake. Despite how it may sound, the name does not mean “Northern Home.” The first element, Nor, refers to a narrow strait, specifically the channel connecting Movatnet to the fjord, while heim means home. It was here that Nils established his household and raised seven surviving children. Remarkably, just as he had grown up with only brothers, all seven of his children were sons.

Over the years, Nils became a respected figure in the community. He held several public offices and served on the municipal council. In 1888, he placed a notice in Søndre Bergenhus Folkeblad stating: “A purse with some money in it was found close to [Straumsbrua] today. The owner should contact Nils O. Norheim.” Although it didn’t say much, the notice speaks to his character and suggests that he was a trusted local figure. Throughout this period, Nils also maintained his connection to the sea, continuing to own a small sailing vessel that was presumably used for fishing and trade.

One of the most dramatic events of Nils’s later life occurred in the summer of 1896, when a devastating fire swept through his property. A newspaper reported:

“At this very moment, farmer Nils Norheim’s dwelling house and barn here have been completely destroyed by fire. The household was out in the fields haymaking when the accident occurred; only an old woman and a little boy were at home. The boy is said to have been playing with matches in the barn and thereby caused the fire. A large number of people gradually gathered at the fire site, and through their strenuous efforts they succeeded in preventing the fire from spreading to the neighboring houses, one of which was in serious danger. Nils Norheim will suffer a great loss.”

Despite the tragedy, the disaster also revealed the strength of the community surrounding Nils and his family. On New Year’s Day 1897, Nils and his son published a public letter of thanks in Søndre Bergenhus Folkeblad, expressing gratitude to those who had helped them through “the great loss, hardship, and sorrow that the fire this summer brought upon us,” adding: “We cannot reach each individual, and many have helped us without our knowing who they are. May God reward and bless you all.” They thanked neighbors and distant supporters, writing: “In this case there has surely been a generosity, brotherly love, and noble community spirit that brings the greatest honor to the many donors…”

Notably, Nils and all his brothers became self-employed, establishing themselves as farm owners, skippers, and traders. That same independent spirit appears to have continued into the next generation. Nearly all of Nils’s sons carved out livelihoods of their own as self-employed blacksmiths, sailing merchants, boatbuilders, carpenters, tailors, and rosemaling painters.

Nils Olson Norheim died in 1918, on the Norheim farm, from arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. He was 86 years old. Nils’s story began on the prosperous Klyve farm, moved across the trading routes of northern and western Norway, and settled at Norheim, where he became a trusted neighbor, father, local officeholder, and patriarch of a family deeply rooted in the community. By all accounts, he was a good man.
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It was wonderful to work with Ancestry, Empire Studios, and the sisters (and descendants of Nils Norheim), who run American Crane! There will definitely be more posts and updates about the documentary as its release date approaches.

Steffen Einarsen (1827-1905) has descendants from Norway, Spain, Chile, Japan, Australia, Mozambique, the United States,...
27/07/2026

Steffen Einarsen (1827-1905) has descendants from Norway, Spain, Chile, Japan, Australia, Mozambique, the United States, and more. When you’re descended from immigrants, you end up having family scattered across the world.

Last week, my distant cousin Clara from Barcelona visited me in Bergen with her husband. We wandered through the streets of our shared ancestral home and reflected on the fascinating ways in which the past and the present have woven together. Anyone with a passion for genealogy quickly learns how remarkably small and interconnected the world is.

Our shared ancestor is Steffen. I'm descended from the branch that stayed in Bergen and moved to the US in the 1980s, while she's descended from the branch that immigrated to Chile and moved to Spain in the 1950s. It was wonderful to have our stories cross paths in the city where our connection began nearly 200 years ago.

26/07/2026

Playing a Norwegian guitar that's over 100 years old!

Just completed filming for my first documentary!After countless hours of research, I had the joy of spending three days ...
07/07/2026

Just completed filming for my first documentary!

After countless hours of research, I had the joy of spending three days with two remarkable sisters, Karen and Stephanie, who descend from fiddlers, blacksmiths, sailors, and much more!

Thanks to Chris Bryant of Empire Studios, who captured this wonderful photo while I was researching between takes in Lygra.

04/07/2026

250 years of my family's history in the US.

I’ve never seen a probate record capture the very moment of someone's death until Heinrich Heyne. He verbally approved t...
03/07/2026

I’ve never seen a probate record capture the very moment of someone's death until Heinrich Heyne. He verbally approved the final draft of his will, then died before he could sign it.

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Heinrich Heyne was born around 1790 in Rieste, a Catholic farming village in the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück, in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany. At 29, he married Margarethe Steinfeldt, took over her family’s farm, and became known as Heinrich Steinfeldt. Together, they raised four children in the wet lowlands near the Hase River. Tragically, his young wife died in 1831, when she “was seized by a raging fever and, having received the sacraments, fell asleep in the Lord. From such a most holy household. May she rest in peace.” Three years later, Heinrich married Elisabeth Luhrmann, a woman nearly twenty years younger, with whom he had two more children.

In 1837, Heinrich traveled with Elisabeth and the children to Bremen, boarded the ship Sophie, and crossed the Atlantic to Baltimore before continuing inland to York County, Pennsylvania. There he worked as a farmer and became known as Henry. His American life, however, was painfully brief. In 1840, only three years after leaving Germany, he died at 50 years old. His final will offers a rare and intimate window into his final hours.

Parts of Henry’s will suggest that it was originally written or dictated in German, though the official legal copy was written in English. It opened with these words: “In the name of God Amen. I Henry Steinfeldt… Being sick and weak in body, but of sound mind memory & understanding, praised be God for the same, and considering the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the time thereof, and to the end I may be the better prepared to leave this world whenever it shall please God to call me hence do therefore make and declare this my last Will and Testament…”

Henry commended his soul to God, directed that his debts and funeral expenses be paid, and addressed the practical question of what would become of his wife, children, and property. However, the most remarkable part of the will, comes from the testimony of his neighbors who appeared before the York County Register, and explained what had happened on the evening of September 5. Their statement preserves an extraordinary scene: Henry lying in his final illness, the will being read aloud and explained to him in German, and Henry accepting it as his last testament before death overtook him.

“Before me John Stahle Register for the probate of Wills… personally came Henry Snell and James Dunlap… [who] do depose and affirm that they were each at the late dwelling house of Henry Steinfeldt… on Saturday evening the 5th of the present month of September, and then and there witnessed the extremity of the last sickness of the said Henry Steinfeldt, and when and where the foregoing instrument of writing was read to the said Henry as written, and explained to him in the German Language, Whereupon the said Henry Steinfeldt declared that, the said instrument was his last will and testament… but that, before signing his name to the said instrument expired…”

In other words, Henry died before he could sign his name.
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Image: Baltimore as it appeared when Heinrich arrived, by William James Bennett, 1830s.

28/06/2026

Unique Norwegian names

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