I actually visited the Lofnes farm in 2000. It's a hamlet, consisting of 3 farms together. I think it may have been your relatives who helped me in my search for my own ancestral beginnings.
My ancestors lived in a nearby hamlet (Blaalid) until it burned down in about 1860??. They then moved to the other side of the mountain ridge, to Lofnes.
When my forefather emigrated to America with his family in the late 1800's (during a blight in Norway), he took the name Lofnes instead of a patronymic. He was Gregorius Eric(son) of Lofnes. I'm not sure when Lofnes morphed into Loftness, but that's how it is now for us.
I don't think, however, that we are related. As I mentioned, there were three farms on the Lofnes land, and your family probably descended from one of the farms while mine was from another... both families just happened to take the same surnames. In the distance from Lofnes, the highest cliff in northern Europe is visible: Mount Hornelen.
While I was there, you could imagine the goosebumps I experienced when I found a grave in a nearby town with my name on it (slightly different spelling). Unfortunately, I didn't find any of my known relatives' gravestones, but that's probably because they couldn't afford long-lasting granite ones, and the stone ones they probably had were too weathered to bear inscriptions anymore.
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