Never miss a blog post! Click here to subscribe.

Feb 12, 2019
13 min

Journey to America

Þórður Árelíus Ólafsson aka Theodore Arthur Olafson (IR# I574371) wrote this story, in Icelandic, about his journey to America. Traveling with Þórður was his sister, Kristjana Kristbjörg Ólafsdóttir, aka Christina. (IR #I574373) Þórður and Kristjana were the children of Ólafur Ólafsson and Þuriður Guðmundsdóttir from Snæfellsnessýsla. Theodore’s daughter, Ruth Olafson Gidcumb, had her father’s Icelandic story translated. Any words in parenthesis ( ) were in the translated s

Jan 24, 2019
4 min

Icelanders in Minneota and Unknown Photos

Sveinn Magnússon was a talented photographer in Minneota, which is a large Icelandic settlement in southwest Minnesota. His photography studio was in the The Big Store building and he took many of the oldest and most beautiful photographs from this area. In this unknown photo, you can see his signature was S. Magnus and he was known as Swen or Swain Magnus. Let us know if you have the name of this beautiful young woman. We have other unknown photographs from this photographe

Apr 17, 2018
2 min

Stories about Children from Iceland

Dear friends, A wonderful team in Iceland has been collaborating on a very important project. Their plan is to produce a documentary that focuses on the experiences of children from the 1855-1915 emigration period. Each person on the team is volunteering their time and talents. The goal is to teach modern day children and young adults the history of Iceland during these year and have them understand the personal stories of heartache and triumph. This documentary will show how

Mar 30, 2018
8 min

No Greater Love

Here we are at the end of March with snow on the ground and bitter cold in the forecast. The following is a true story about a pioneer Icelandic mother named Guðrún and her two children in March of 1880 - 1883. They set out on foot to visit with friends. However, Guðrún ends up dying. Her children survive. Guðrún did not have the Weather Channel, the news, an app on her cell phone, or other such modern alert systems. Such a tragic story -- one of many in the sagas of the Icel

Nov 30, 2017
4 min

Vesturfaraskrá – An Index Chronicling Icelandic Emigration

Our Icelandic Roots database pivots around the over 20,000 people who emigrated from Iceland. Our goal is to detail the lives of every emigrant, their ancestors in Iceland and their many descendants all over the world today. Vesturfaraskrá is a book indexing 14,268 emigrants who left between 1870 and 1914. It was created by Júníus H. Kristinsson and published in Iceland in 1983. Built by examining emigration records of various types Júníus gathered, it often lists the farm or