Thanks to Kari for sending the following story about finding her family and being a part of Icelandic Roots.
Love this site! As the ‘Keeper of the Tree’ in my family, this site has been a wealth of information in the growing branches/roots of my tree! Endless hours of inputting a name I know of, just to see just how I and that person are related! In fact, finding out that I am related to the members of the IR Database research team itself, is pretty cool! They do an amazing job!
My favorite thing about the site (other than all of it! LOL!) is inputting a name of a person I went to school with that I know have Icelandic heritage. I have found out so many of these people are actually related! So I was surrounded by family my entire life and didn’t even know it! They are all pleasantly pleased when I tell them and whenever I go home to Portage la Prairie and see them out and about town, we greet each other with “hey Cuz!” Love that!
Through IRDB and then contacting the found cousins via Facebook, Email and locally in person in Gimli, it has all been met with a positive reaction! I see these new family members sometimes on a daily basis here out and about! I have been able to fill missing names and faces in my tree with the new found knowledge of where they went after leaving Iceland in 1900 (which was a huge roadblock that no one in my family knew what happened to them) and they were closer than I thought! ARBORG, MB!!! In expanding that branch of the tree, I have met a cousin to whom I have become very close to, best friends, if you will!
Things I have found out about my family now, are so vast!!! Sooooo many things! Some bad like my 3rd Great Grandfather was a horrible human being! LOL! (IRDB found me a cousin in Gimli who then told me the stories of our mutual grandfather). I found there is a fair share of ‘family scandals’ way back when. But any of these and other negatives add to the fabric of who I am and how I got here today, and that’s ok! It is my history.
I found that the saying is true that “every Icelander IS related…somewhere in the tree”… through IRDB, you can actually SEE how that is a true and proven statement! A ‘visual’ confirmation! A super weird but interesting thing I found is I am 8th cousins to my own husband and his family AND 6th cousins to one of my sister-in-laws (my husband’s brother’s wife!!)! Neat!
I found that after all this information I have accrued from IRDB that Iceland runs not only in my blood but deep into my soul. Which explains why, when I went to Iceland in 2009, I felt I was….HOME. It was like, when my feet touched the ground at Keflavik airport, I could ‘hear’ the crackling of tree roots growing out from my feet, into the ground and out into the land! Best way to describe it! LOL! My soul was home and every day I am away from that glorious country and my family there, I feel homesick.
Thank you to Sunna and the rest of the Icelandic Roots Database Crew!
Keep up the amazing work you do!
Find YOUR family at www.IcelandicRoots.com and click on the 'Join Us´ tab.
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