Genealogist

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Akureyri, ÍSL

Aðalbjörg was born and raised at Skeggjastaðir in Bakkafjörður, N-Múlasýsla, next-youngest of six siblings. Her mother was a teacher and school superintendent and her father was a minister and a farmer. He was very interested in genealogy from childhood and documented a great deal of genealogical information, both biographies and family histories. Aðalbjörg’s interest in genealogy likely comes from her father and came to life when the genealogy program Espolin opened the possibility of working with genealogy.

Aðalbjörg completed her early learning in the children’s school at Skeggjastaðir and the two last years at Kvennaskóla in Reykjavík. She graduated in 1972 from Mentaskóla við Hamrahlíð and received a BA in library and information studies from Háskóla Íslands in 1978. She worked first in school libraries in Reykjavík, moved to Akureyri in 1981 to work at the Municipal Library of Akureyri and from 1984 as director of the Héraðsskjalasafnið á Akureyri until she retired in 2018.

Her work as archivist has given her much experience in genealogical research and answered many questions about genealogy for Icelanders as well as Western Icelanders. Sunna Furstenau visited Aðalbjörg in the Héraðsskjalasafnið in 2012 and invited her to join the IR team, which she accepted and now she works mainly at adding information in the database from church records, censuses and other sources.

Aðalbjörg has written short genealogies for family reunions along with her father, Sigmar I. Torfason: Niðjatal Brynjólfs Einarssonar á Sóleyjarbakka and Niðjatal Hermanns Davíðssonar í Skuggahlíð.

Aðalbjörg is a child of nature and feels best in the peace and beauty of Icelandic nature. She enjoys fly fishing and photography and has been in the Kvennakór Akureyrar since 2002. In addition she loves to spend time with family – she is married, has three children and three grandchildren.