Icelandic Roots Celebrates 3rd Anniversary

Icelandic Roots was given permission to start working as a nonprofit, charitable 501c3 organization on the 12th of November, 2013.

We are 3 years old! The data was transferred from Hálfdan Helgason’s website to www.IcelandicRootsDatabase.com and now found also at www.IcelandAncestry.com

We had the blog site for a few years previous to the nonprofit status and it is still at IcelandicRoots.com. The database site is so much more than a genealogy site of names and dates. We are a thriving community that is growing and changing every single day. All proceeds go to Snorri, Snorri West, Icelandic Language, and projects to preserve and promote our shared Icelandic Heritage. The genealogists, historians, and IT people are amazing. Thank you to all the people who have joined as members of the site and shared their documents, stories, obituaries, photos, and their lives with us. Working together — we are making great progress.

Over the past three years, we have had many success stories and have made amazing discoveries! The Cousins Across the Ocean project is a huge sensation and it has been a lot of fun. We now have 10 genealogists from Canada, Iceland, and the USA who devote much time and resources to the database and an IT Genius to keep it all going. In these three years, we have added:

• over 84,000 NEW people into the database – for a total close to 600,000

• Over 522,000 NOTES – including all types of information about occupation, family stories, death notices, community involvement, and so much more to tell the story of the people in the database

• Thousands of Biographies and Obituaries associated with individual people and with the places

• 334 Histories – also associated with people and places

• 2,755 Photos – portraits and family photos associated with people and farms photos associated with place names

• Over 1,000 Documents – Letters in English and Icelandic, passenger lists, death records, etc

• Cemetery information and links to the people buried there – 915 different cemeteries as of today

• Headstones and links to Cemetery and People

• Emigration Ports – photos, stories of the ports, and the people

• Emigration Stories – individual stories

• Emigration information – dates, places, people

• Famous Ancestors – and their stories about WHY they are famous

• Interesting People – their stories and why they are interesting

• Churches and their stories

• Clergy plus more about their work

• Ships of our ancestors

• Unique Surnames

• AKA on all emigrants when they changed their names here in North America

• Special reports such as people who drowned

• Genealogy Links

• Timeline of Events that connects to each person in the database and shows what was happening in their lives

• Interactive Maps with Place Names to find in all places Icelanders lived

• An abandoned farm expert – placing all these farms on our interactive maps

• Stories, occupations, census info, passenger lists

• Over 1,200 Sources of information have been used to validate our information

Our members have access to the number one genealogy database for Icelandic ancestry available online, personal assistance from expert Icelandic genealogists, and the ability to connect with not only the ancestors and farms of their ancestors but also the living cousins of today. The genealogists work with you to put together the pieces of your genealogy. The personal service and amazing database are available for memberships.

Because of increased interest in family history, other genealogists are charging quite a bit for their services. We want to keep the costs as low as possible for our membership while providing them a top-notch and personalized service.

Anyone with a current membership to the database and/or completes their purchase before 31 Dec 2016, will continue to pay the current rate. Memberships will be $150 USD per year on NEW memberships beginning 31 Dec 2016. The monthly trial will remain the same at $50 because it is just as much effort to get a one-month member connected as it is for our yearly members. Our membership fees continue to be much lower than other sites such as IR plus you have access to the very unique “Cousins Across the Ocean” project.

We are very proud to have a very exceptional site with many interesting features. Our IT professionals and Icelandic genealogy expert’s continue to volunteer their time making this site the best it can be. Our mission remains the same to preserve and promote the Icelandic heritage and culture. We will continue to donate to Icelandic causes with special emphasis on the Icelandic language studies, the Snorri program, and Snorri West program. As a nonprofit, 501C3 organization, our goal is to help as many people as possible so we will continue to keep membership prices low.

Thanks to those who have been loyal members and have contributed information to the database. You will retain the same low price going forward. If you do not have a membership yet or you would like to purchase a membership for a family member or friend, now is the time to purchase one for this wonderful site that truly gives back in so many ways.

You can join the Icelandic Roots Community:

1. Newsletter: FREE – Enter your email in the subscribe box on the homepage of this site

2. Cousins Across the Ocean Form: FREE

• Fill out the form. Preserve your family information

• If you or your family emigrated – send us the year of emigration and the last place you / they lived.

• If you have photos you want preserved along with your family story – send them to us atsupport@icelandicroots.com

1. Membership to the Icelandic Roots Database found at www.IcelandAncestry.com

• 1 month = $50

• We connect you to the database and to your story

• If you would like to continue after the one-month trial on a monthly basis, it is $15 per month.

1. A 1 year membership = $150 *($30 off until 31 Dec 2016)*

• We connect you and your family to the database helping you to discover family farms, emigration information, and living cousins

• One-Month memberships are available for those who want to switch to monthly billing for $15 per month

1. Translation Services and Extra Research are $50 per hour

Our main purpose is helping people discover their story and how they are related to other people of Icelandic Ancestry. Icelandic Roots is a non-profit, charitable organization. Other business who do genealogy are not allowed to use the database for their business without prior approval and working with IR Administration regarding their use and access.

Uploading information from IR Database to other online sites such as Ancestry.com, familysearch.org, myheritage, etc is not allowed. Members can connect limited, direct, family members but must use proper sourcing and keep the tree hidden to preserve the integrity of IR Intellectual Property Rights.

We have many new features and ideas for the future. Icelandic Roots is much more than names and dates. It is a place we can share and preserve the stories of our lives and those who have gone before us. We hope you will join the community and see all we have to offer. Please send in the Cousins Form – even if you do not want to join.

If you have any questions, contact us. Thanks so very much to those who have supported us over the past three years. We will continue to uphold the mission and continue to help people through Icelandic Roots.

Bless, Sunna and the IR Team