In 1858, Gunnvor Hoversten Andersson Sorbo (also spelled Serby) and six of her children immigrated  from Rennesoy Island near Stavanger, Norway, to the United States.  Thirteen years later, in 1871,  her brother Knud Hoversten also left Norway and brought his wife and eight children to the U.S.   Knud travelled from Norway to Montreal, Canada, by ship, sailed to Chicago, and then took a train  to LaSalle County, Illinois.  Two other sisters, Berte Guria and Ingeborg, also immigrated to the  United States, as did four of their brother Jacob's children, along with a number of other  Hoversten relations.  
 Many of these Hoverstens settled in LaSalle and Lee County, Illinois.  After a time, some of them  moved 
 to Hamilton and Story counties, Iowa.

Our mission is to collect, organize and share information on all of these Hoverstens who came to  the United States plus their descendants, who today live all across the country--from Florida to  Alaska.

Between 1935 and 1976, two dedicated groups of Hoverstens collected an enormous amount of  genealogical information about many Hoversten lines of descent.  In order to preserve that  information, the first group published a book entitled The Hoversten Family.  Years  later, a second group updated that work and published The Hoversten Family Genealogy, 1774-1976.   As the titles indicate, these books contain information not only on the American Hoverstens, but  also on their Norwegian ancestors.

Recognizing the need to update and extend the valuable work done by these earlier groups, a new  committee was formed in 2008.  The website presented here has been developed by that committee.   Still "in progress," our website presents much of the information and updates we have collected to  this point (August 2013).  More individuals, more detailed information and more of your photographs  will be loaded in the coming months.

If you are descended from one of these Hoverstens (or think you might be) and would like to  contribute Hoversten information or photos to bring your family line up-to-date, or to correct an  error you have found, please contact our website administrator, M.E. Webb, by clicking on  the "admin" envelope (above right) or "send a message" text (above center).  We welcome your  input!  We are particularly interested in learning more about Hoversten immigrants who settled in  Illinois and their descendants.