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We had a wonderful time in Norway in July 2007 - my mom Pam Stephens (nee Hide), my wife Stephanie, sister Dr. Linda Stephens, her son Paul Heideman and tracked the Hide family roots to the Hide farm outside Alesund. The travelworn researchers! (after eight hours taking the scenic route!)

We started with a trip to Alesund and went to the Museum where we tried to find ancestors using the genealogy on this page but were unsuccessful. Our wonderful, very frendly host Elias Nipe-Hyttene got to hear of our quest and quickly corrected us - telling us how the family name came from the farm. He researched for us and found the Hide family farm
outside Alesund and got some phone numbers and directions. We went to visit the aquarium in Alesund and then found our way to the farm where we had a great reception from Jon Hide and his family
and we found our ancestors in the census book
that Jon had (see Anders Rasmussen Hide on the right hand page). His neighbor Monrad Hide (the tall guy in the picture!) came over and explained that his ancestor had bought the farm from our ancestors (note how he now bears the farm surname as well!) Arfinn Hide kindly scanned and copied the pages.

The newspaper got to hear of our quest and published an article after we left and we have since been tracked down by some distant relatives! It was a worthwhile trip indeed, not only from seeing the beautiful contryside but also tracing our roots, making some good friends and also some distant relatives! I will be adding to this page (as time allows) what we found out, starting with the genealogy obtained from the cover of the family Bible. You will find me under Alf Haarkon Hide who unfortunatley died before I was born. Other than Malcolm Hide and Paul Heideman who now live in London, England, the rest of the Hide family are still in South Africa.

Ole Hide
Anders Rasmussen Hide
Bernt Jakob Hide
Jakob Leonard Andersen Hide
Alf Haarkon Hide
Roy Malcolm Hide and Barry Leonard Hide

A local newspaper in Norway ran an article on our family roots quest, and we made some great distant family contacts as a result. Some track back to Ole Hide, some to Berndt and some to Jakob. It is interesting to note that on my fathers' side the name William Kent Stephens goes back a number of generations, and as first born male I should have taken the name. My mother decided to be original and call me Brent William Stephens. Turns out it is so close to my Norwegian ancestors (Brent versus Bernt) it was not all that original! Upon seeing how far back the family name went, my eldest son carries on the tradition once more!

We have some additional documents supplied by Gunnar Ellingsen, Jostein Solvoll, Oystein Hide (all Norway) and Steve Ness Shelton (Washington State, USA)

here is a picture of Oystein and Steve in Bergen
here is a picture of Nikoline
here is a picture of Steve Ness' grandmother and Jacob's sister at Dome USA mining camp
This is Steve Ness' grandmother and Jacob's sister.

Articles: "The history of our forefathers" put together by Oystein.
Descendants of Bernt Jacob Andersen(Steve Ness reports the information from the file was originally from Hanne Heen who lives in Ålesund. Hanne graciously spent time going through church records. It is through the Norway List that the connection to Hanne was made).
Details of Jacob Leonhard Hide
by Oystein. Details of Jakob Hide and Olga Humblen (A large part of the information in the enclosed document can be found in the internet base Digitalarkivet - put together by Gunnar Ellingsen

Oystein very kindly put together some of our common background: "Your great-grandfather Jacob was borned in Aalesund, Norway, on February 16, 1878. He was the youngest of 8 siblings. I've attached a brief summary of all the siblings, and the most central fact about Hans Cornelius' descendants. I've also attached a picture of Nikoline, Jacob's sister. The picture was taken in the small town of Dome, US, and she was a gold-digger over there, just like Jacob was in South-Africa. She's the one to the left. I've also attached a small photo of myself, and a picture of Steve and myself, taken in Bergen last fall. Last year we got in touch with Steve Ness, Nikoline's grandson, who now lives near Seattle. I've asked Steve to get in touch with you, and I'm sure he won't hesitate in doing so. Steve and his wife Kitty came to visit us in Ulvik last fall, after we had spents months communicating on e-mail about our "family-ties". We had no clues with regard to the brothers who went to South-Africa, until this journalist in Sunnmørsposten, and yourself, contacted my dad. We're all very excited now, and look forward to get to know more about yourself, your mother Pam, and her three brothers. One of them is to be seen on the picture of the soccer-team of 1950, with your dad, I reckon. I'm sure the initial "B." in "B. L. Hide" is short for Bernt or Brent. This guy is a spitting image of my dad, who was also a promising soccer player in his days. I'm curious to know more about Pam's parents. I suppose that her dad was the son of Jacob, and would be very happy to know his name, when he was borned etc. etc. A few words about myself. I was born in 1975 and live in Bergen, Norway, with my girlfriend Vibeke (a painter), where I work part-time as an Associate Professor in philosophy and part-time as a writer of non-fiction and as a translator (from English and German). I write books mainly on the subject of philosophy and literature-studies, with the study of biography as a core-interest. I did work towards a PhD in Southampton, UK, in the period 2001-2004, after finishing my MPhil (MA) in philosophy in Bergen in 2000, but put the studies on hold after being offered a position here in Bergen and receiving a writer's grant from the Norwegian state. I have also been working as a guest researcher at the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University in Canada in 2000. It'a shame that you travelled all the way to Norway without knowing all this, and that we never got the chance to meet up. But I'm sure we'll meet some time in the nearest future. I've made plans to travel to the US next spring, and so we could all meet up at either your place or at Steve's...or perhaps some other place. I'll try and pursuade my dad to come with me, although he's not to keen on flying. I hope this finds you well. I've been looking at your homepage all day (did a search in Google) and was thrilled to read about my "South-African" relatives. Oystein Unanswered questions: Steve Ness asks: Where did this information come from? In the information you posted under "4th Generation - Norway", Jacobs brothers are listed as Wilhelm (died young), Wilhelm two, and Hans. We know it is not Hans who went to America as we have a good record of him. Wilhelm two also went to South Africa (Smith and riding horses), so he did not go to America. ........ Now I also have the brother not listed on your web site - Elias. I have looked up the information I have on him and it is he who is listed as a "Priest". (More likely a minister I would think.). Elias was born 24 des (december?) 1873. If at all possible, please do ask your Mom about the two brother story. Perhaps one of the brothers went from South Africa then to America? If so, that might make sense as the brothers in South Africa would know more about what happened to each other? You are so very lucky to have access to even that information in the bible! Are the charts you posted all from the Bible? (Yes, compiled by cousin Debi Broderick).

Further questions by Steve:
In reviewing the information on your page page I am left with a question. For generation 4 in the list of siblings, I see no mention of Elias Immanuel Berntson Andersen. Is there a reason for this deletion? My information suggest that there were three sons who left for South Africa. That would then mean they would have to be, Wilhelm Peter, Elias and Jacob. We now seem to have a good record of Jacob, but I have no idea what happened to the other two(or maybe only one)brothers. I have seen that Jacob left Norway as a bricklayer and have heard that one other son was a priest! Not sure if he was actually a "priest" or perhaps a minister? Hans the fourth brother was a doctor and lived and died in Ulvik Norway. His tombstone is at the church in Ulvik. Øystein is a decedent of Hans. Do you have more information on Jacobs life in South Africa? I would love to learn more of him! And the sisters; Nikolina we have the best record of all. Anna Maria was a midwife who married Johannes Sæther. I believe Johannes was a woodworker? (One of our spellings is wrong for Johannes last name). Nikolina at one time lived with her sister Anna Marie......... That leaves two sisters I have no record of; Sofia (also called Brigitte) born in 1860 and Olivia Fredrika born in 1867 and who may have come to America. My fathers name by the way was Gerhard "Hide" Ness. Obviously Nikolina had ties to her family. Nikolina was 42 when she had my dad - her first child. She was alone in a log house far north of Fairbanks Alaska. My Dad was but a couple of pounds and she placed him in a shoebox and then into a warming oven until the dr arrived.

Steve. Can't promise when I will have any answers, have asked my mom...

Amongst the papers we got from Debra Broderick (who now has the family bible and did the genealogy charts) was a reference to a book being written by Dr Frederick Hale and when I did a Google on the name, came up with some fascinating history of the families that left Norway in the 1900's and even my grandfathers birth record! The museum curator in Alesund said they all left as South Africa was biblically referred to as the "promised land" while others say the economy was poor in Norway at that time and they followed the lure for gold (my grandfather Alf Haarkon Hide worked on the goldmines and died from the dust exposure).
Durban Parish Register
Norgaard - story of life in Natal
Rasmus Elias Rasmussen book "Seamen on the Ocean and in the Harbor"
Genealogy Society of Norway
Van Riebeeck Genealogy Society