Brazilian Connection

Five people from Þingeyjarsýsla left for Brazil in 1863. They booked passage with a ship at Akureyri scheduled to sail for Copenhagen. From there, they went by steamship to Kiel on Aug. 6th. Then, they boarded the sailing vessel Caroline. On Oct. 14th, they arrived at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and settled in the new area of Dana Francisca.:

1. Jón Einarsson I43310

2. Jónas Hallgrímsson I68251

3. Jónas Friðrinnsson Barddal I241823

4. Kristján Guðmundsson Isfeld I206760

5. Jón Jónsson Ármann I335168

 

35 more left in 1873. Three died of cholera while in Hamburg, Germany. They emigrated to Colônia Dona Francisca, a German colony in Brazil and the present-day site of the city of Joinville, about 100 km SE of Curitiba.

​

Magnús Guðmundsson Isfeld's family emigrated to Brazil, but in 1905, they moved to Canada. A few, including his father, died in Curitiba. One child ended up in British Columbia, one in Alberta. Most of the family ended up in Saskatchewan.

​

See the database for more information.

​

​

Icelandic Settlement In Brazil Celebrated
10.10.2013
Reykjavík Grapevine

Words by Ingibjörg Rósa Björnsdóttir

​

Between 1863 and 1873, a total of 39 Icelanders immigrated to Brazil and most of their descendants live in or around Curitiba, capital of state Paraná in southern Brazil.

​

On October 13, 2013, the city of Curitiba in Brazil, became sister town of Akureyri in North Iceland to honour the city’s ties with Iceland. The sister town agreement was part of celebrations of the 150 year anniversary of Icelandic settlers arriving in Brazil. Dozens of descendants of Icelandic settlers were present and the ceremony was very emotional for them as their ancestors came mostly from the Þingeyjarsýslur counties in northern Iceland, RÚV reports.

​

The president of the city council, Paulo Salamuni, said in his address that Curitiba wouldn’t be the city it is if it hadn’t been for the multiculturalism to which the Icelanders in the area had contributed.