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Sep 2
6 min

Icelandic Roots Online Book Club is Back - October 5

Join Heather online for the upcoming season of the Icelandic Roots Book Club. The first book this Fall is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent....

Sep 1
5 min

Reflections at Brimnes, Emigration Center Stories, Bill Holm’s Legacy, and Icelandic Adventures

By Jack Plumley The following is a story about my adventures returning to Iceland for the Snorri Internship. This is shared in addition...

Aug 19
9 min

Prestsvarðan - Marking a Miracle

By Natalie Kruse On June 26th, 2023, several members of the congregation of Útskálakirkja (Útskálar Church) and others from the...

Aug 6
2 min

Samkoma-A New Way To Participate in Icelandic Roots

-Samkoma-expanding our Icelandic Roots online community Have you read about our unique online events and wanted to join our online...

Apr 30
2 min

Interesting Icelanders

A monthly feature profiling an interesting person of Icelandic birth or ancestry found in the Icelandic Roots database. This is the first...

Apr 28
1 min

Ode To Iceland

2022 Snorri participant Jessica Drake wrote the following poem to commemorate her experience in the Snorri program. She then set the poem...

Dec 25, 2022
8 min

Snorri Plus Program - Lectures in Reykjavík, 2022

Editor's note: Laura Hackney wrote this report to give a sense of the valuable background information that is a part of the Snorri Plus...

Dec 11, 2022
2 min

Experience of a Lifetime

-By Owen Roberts The Snorri Trip was an experience of a lifetime. From the moment I stepped onto the Icelandair flight in Toronto, it...

Dec 11, 2022
2 min

A Brief Look Inside Reykdæla Saga

This month's newsletter is about Suður Þingeyjarsýsla and there is no better saga to represent this region than Reykdæla saga ok...

Dec 11, 2022
2 min

Suður Þingeyjarsýsla

Suður Þingeyjarsýsla in Northern Iceland features a 250 km road trip called the “Diamond Circle,” due to the shape of the route. This...

Nov 26, 2022
2 min

Christmas at Árbær Open-Air Museum (Árbæjarsafn)

Located just south and east of Reykjavík city center, along Route 1 (the Ring Road), and east of the River Elliðaá, lies the Árbær...

Nov 10, 2022
1 min

Gullbringusýsla

Historic Gullbringusýsla isn't the largest county by land mass in Iceland, but it certainly holds great significance in the present day....

Nov 10, 2022
6 min

My War Years

By Sverrir Sigurdsson Friday, May 10, 1940, was a momentous day in the world’s history. Nazi Germany unleashed blitzkrieg attacks against...

Oct 14, 2022
10 min

Snorri Plus Program Tour August 8-22, 2022

By Judy Dickson This August I was fortunate to be a participant in the Snorri Plus Program which had been forced to cancel plans in 2020...

Oct 14, 2022
1 min

Borgarfjarðarsýsla

The historic Borgarfjarðarsýsla may not be one of the largest geographic areas in Iceland, but many of the historic sagas feature this...

Sep 18, 2022
3 min

IR Genealogist Cathy Josephson Featured in Morgunblaðið

Article by Steinþór Guðbjartsson Cathy Ann Josephson, genealogist living at Refsstaður 2, Vopnafjörður is always ready to assist without...

Sep 4, 2022
3 min

2022 IR Fitness Challenge Completed

The Icelandic Roots Fitness Challenge 2022 officially ended on August 6th. Altogether there were 14 teams ranging from 2 to 10 people and...

Sep 4, 2022
7 min

An Emigrant Woman: Sigriður Bjarnadottir (1862-1946)

Sigriður Bjarnadóttir (I334690) entered this world on the 7th of March 1862. A daughter to Bjarni Jónsson (1828–1887) and Bóthildur...

Aug 20, 2022
3 min

Walking Tour of Reykjavik Public Sculptures

As visitors to Reykjavik quickly discover, the city loves its public sculptures. Whether in parks, squares or adorning public buildings,...

Aug 20, 2022
3 min

Snorri 2022 Homestay a Priceless Memory

By Karrah Parke My experience in Iceland as part of the Snorri Program 2022 was largely defined by the truly extraordinary people I had...