Remembering Our Saskatchewan Roots Part 1
Updated: Sep 14
A collection of stories by:
Nancy Asmundson
Linda Breidfjord
Judy Dickson
Lois Janusson Yasinko
The month of September profiles the Icelandic settlements in Saskatchewan and its history. Many of us share family roots from here, including four of our Icelandic Roots members. Each of them has taken a different approach; some are very personal, some extol their ancestor’s accomplishments, while others define the genealogy. Although the stories are unique, there are similarities to our own. None of our contributors currently live in the area they write about, but then again, aren’t Icelanders all a bit nomadic?
Thank you to Judy, Linda, Lois and Nancy for taking the time to share their story. They have included the IR numbers of their ancestors. For those with IR database access, check out the relationship calculator. Maybe you also have roots in Saskatchewan.
PART ONE includes Foam Lake, Thingvalla & Churchbridge, and Tantallon. PART TWO is about Wynyard and will be published in the 27 September Rætur Fréttir/Roots News.
FOAM LAKE submitted by Lois Janusson Yasinko
Lois remembers her early years living in Foam Lake, SK. Her story has been edited with additional historical content available from the Icelandic Roots website, including the members’ database. Thank you, Lois for sharing your family’s story.
Lois Marilyn Janusson (I538452) was born in January 1937 on the Janusson farm located 2 miles north of Foam Lake, born to Kristinn Janusson and Lily Anna Bjornson. Her father, Kristinn Janusson was born in the Foam Lake area.
Her mother, Lilja (Lily) Anna Bjornson was born in Kristnes, an Icelandic settlement area near Foam Lake. They were married in 1933 and took over the family farm. Two siblings of Lois joined the family: a brother, Victor, and sister, Donna.
The Janusson family lived on the farm where her great-uncle Jón Stefánsson Stephanson also lived, but in his own house. Once the Janusson family moved into the town of Foam Lake, Lois’ uncle Jón relocated to Wynyard, where he remained until his passing in 1958.
Lois commented that her “father joined the Army in order to get off the farm”. WWII was recruiting. Many of the young men, mostly second-born sons or younger, were signing up as soldiers. Her father joined the Army in 1942.
The family followed her father’s training and moved to Regina, SK for a year. It was here in 1943 that Lois began school. Registration was based on the calendar year, so by the time the school year began, Lois was 6.5 years old in September. She remembers a Miss Hay and a Miss Reynolds.
After one year, in 1944 the family moved to Kingston, ON. There was no space for the family to reside with their soldier father/husband. Lois’ mother, Lilja, took the three children and moved in with an elderly lady called Mrs. Sullivan, or it could have been O’Sullivan.
Lois continued school in Kingston, attending Grade 2. She commented:
In May 1945, our teacher came into the room and said, ‘We could all go home’.
The War was over in Europe with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Her father remained in the Army until his discharge in 1946. The family returned to Foam Lake and Lois attended Grade 3 with the same teachers, Miss Hay and Miss Reynolds.
The farm was rented by another family, the Bildfells or Markussons. Dad took a job as a bookkeeper in Cavell Sask. Cavell was in the middle of the Rural Municipality and a Rural school. We left Foam Lake when I was aged 9 or 10. I was in Grades 5 and 6. There was no Grade 4.
Then we moved the house into Wilkie, where I finished high school. I went into nursing at the University Hospital in Saskatoon and graduated in 1958.
I tell you all of this as that was my life in Foam Lake. Amma Janusson was still alive. The Bjornson grandparents are buried in Wynyard.
Wilkie is about 2 hours west of Saskatoon, and Foam Lake is about the same 2 hours east of Saskatoon. So, when we think about the cars in the 1950's and the lack of money, there were not a lot of trips back to Foam Lake. After my parents died, Foam Lake became a long way away.
Lois met Edmund Yasinko and the two were married in August 1963. They settled in Cochrane, Alberta. On two different occasions, work had the family move to Regina, SK. When there, Lois was assigned as an Operating Room nurse at the Pasqua Hospital and Regina General Hospital, an overall career that lasted 25 years.
We…built our Retirement house at Fort Qu’Appelle. We were there between 1988 and 1998. When we came back to Alberta, we chose to live here in Cochrane, which has tripled in size now.
Lois and her husband Edmund continue to reside in the beautiful area of Cochrane, Alberta. They have three children and six grandchildren.
Lois, as a member of Icelandic Roots, is a regular participant in Samtal Hour. It is always great to see Lois and listen to her stories of Icelandic family and friends. Additionally she and Edmund are long-time members of the Leif Eiriksson Icelandic Club of Calgary, each receiving the Honorary Membership certificates.
THINGVALLA & CHURCHBRIDGE
Remembering the family line by Linda Breidfjord
Linda presents a genealogical account of her husband’s family who left Iceland for North America, settling in Thingvalla and Churchbridge areas in Saskatchewan. This article was edited to include some Icelandic Roots references. Thank you, Linda, for sharing your family's story of setting down roots in Saskatchewan.
The decision had been made. In 1891, Sigurður Magnússon / Breiðfjörð (I237455), a farmer and fisherman, and his wife, Kristbjörg Guðbrandsdóttir had made the life-changing decision to emigrate to Canada. With their almost 9-year-old son, Guðbrandur Sigurðsson, they packed up their belongings and left their farm, Fjörður, Múlasókn, Múlahreppur, A-Barðastrandarsýsla.
The family departed Iceland on board the S/S Magnetic from the port of Stykkishólmur, a long-serving trading port. It was also a main emigration port, particularly in 1887 when a large number of Icelanders departed for America.
Editor’s Note: In 2023 and 2025, Emigration Plaques were presented in seven different ports to mark the emigration of Icelanders to America. One of the ports they departed from was Stykkishólmur. Read about the Emigration Plaque presentation here: 2025 Heritage Tour and Emigration Port Ceremonies.
After arriving in Glasgow, the Sigurður Magnússon /Breiðfjörð family disembarked the S/S Magnetic and, once affairs were in order, they boarded the SS Peruvian for Quebec City, Canada. They arrived on July 9th 1891. Immigration processing took place and, in due course, the family departed by train for Winnipeg. It is uncertain, but believed that they spent some time in Winnipeg and/or in Gimli. This was a shorter stop as the intended place of settlement was in Churchbridge, Saskatchewan. This would have been Assiniboia, North-West Territories at the time, as Saskatchewan was not designated as a province in Canada until 1905.
Sigurður acquired a homestead grant of 160 acres, which is the same as a quarter section of land. In compliance with the homestead orders of the period, he cleared it enough to build himself a two-bedroom, two-story home. He also built a barn and a couple of sheds. The census of 1916 shows Sigurður, now 69, and the family living in Churchbridge.
On January 8th, 1927, Sigurður died at the age of 75. He is buried in the Thingvalla Cemetery in Churchbridge.
His son, Guðbrandur (better known as George) had married Violet Eleanor Svedberg in December 1938. They lived on the farm and raised their five children. When his father died, Guðbrandur, now 45, continued on the farm until his passing on May 6, 1953.
At the time of his death, Violet was left to raise four of the five children. Years earlier, relatives took in their daughter Kristine and raised her due to Violet's illness.
Violet ensured her children were well looked after and received a good education. Once they left home, the farm was sold to Violet's neighbours, the Wirths, and she moved to Yorkton. Violet remained in Yorkton until her passing on April 28, 1976. She is buried in the Yorkton City cemetery.
Of the five children between Guðbrandur and Violet, two have passed and the other three currently are living (as of the date of this article).
The oldest son, Sigurdur Kristbjorg Breidfjord, or Siggi, was born in Churchbridge in 1938, died January 21, 2000 in Marchwell, Saskatchewan.
Kristine, born June 1942, the sister who moved in with relatives, died on January 12, 2013, while her husband, Grant Kingdon, was driving her to a nearby hospital. They had two sons: Everett Scott Kingdon and Thomas Lyle Kingdon.
The other three Breidfjord children are still living. Magnus Breidfjord (May 1939) lives in Boise, Idaho with his only daughter, Tracy.
Viola Helga Breidfjord born Oct 1946, is married to John Jackson, and they have one daughter, Audrey Anne.
Eric Alfred Breidfjord was born on the farm in Churchbridge, SK in 1944. In his early 20s, he spent three years in the Canadian Navy posted to CFB Esquimalt, BC, where he met and married his wife, Linda Roberge. Eric and Linda live in Calgary, AB where they raised their three sons, David, Aaron and Michael. Calgary spent his career with Canadian Pacific Rail, mainly as a Locomotive Engineer. He retired in April 2007 after 35 years service. Two of their sons followed in his footsteps, both becoming Locomotive Engineers. The younger son has also chosen to be a Road Foreman.
Eric and Linda remain in Calgary. They have four grandchildren and six great-granddaughters. Linda was the author of this article and is currently a member of Icelandic Roots, a frequent participant of Samtal hour.
TANTALLON Remembering family roots and her father, by Nancy Asmundson
One of our guest writers with Icelandic Roots, Nancy Asmundson, has a very personal connection to Tantallon, Saskatchewan. We learn of her father and her aunt becoming orphaned as young children in Iceland, where life’s events took them and their accomplishments along the way. Thank you for this article, Nancy. It was quite a journey for them and well told.
My father, Vigfús Sæmundur Ásmundsson / Asmundson (I283029), was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, on September 24, 1895, to Ásmundur Magnússon and Helga Vigfúsdóttir. His older sister, Þóra Ásmundsdóttir, was born October 15, 1892.
Ásmundur, a fisherman, drowned on August 29, 1897. Helga, left with two children, moved in with Ólafur Ólafsson, a man who also housed Magnús Ásmundsson, her father-in-law. She and Ólafur were married on December 28, 1900. Nine months later, on October 19, 1901, Helga died. Two months later, their grandfather, Magnus died.
Helga's sister, Anna Vigfúsdóttir, had already emigrated to Canada and married Narfi Vigfússon, settling in Tantallon, Saskatchewan. When hearing of the children's situation, Anna arranged for them to come to Canada and live with her and her husband.
Vigfús and Þóra (Thora) left Iceland in May 1904 headed to Glasgow, Scotland. From Glasgow they sailed on the SS Sardinian arriving in Montreal, Quebec on June 16, 1904. It is unknown how the two children, 12-year-old Thora and the 9-year-old Vigfus, got to Glasgow or how they got from Montreal to Tantallon, SK.
Nancy believes that Vigfus and Thora were happy to find stability with a wonderful family. Narfi, a farmer, and Anna had three children, one of whom, Valdimar, was Vigfus’s age. Working and living on the farm, possibly being Vigfus’ first experience, may have contributed to his keen interest in the chickens, which eventually became his professional research focus.
School was important. Both Vigfus and Valdimar applied themselves well academically. In 1912, they attended the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. After four years of study, Valdimar enlisted in the military, returning after WWI to earn his PhD. Vigfus’ eyesight was considered insufficient for enlistment. He continued his studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Vigfus worked at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, BC. Hhe took a leave of absence to complete his PhD at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. On return, he was a member of a UBC team that increased egg production in chickens through interbreeding. During the Depression in the 1930s, Vigfus lost his job at UBC. Aware pf his research, colleagues in the United States invited him to the University of California at Berkeley.
Before leaving Canada, he met Aline McGrath, on a sleigh ride. He invited her to join him in California to get married, and she accepted. They married in San Francisco in 1935. They had six children with Nancy as their youngest. They lived in Berkeley for two years before moving to the University Farm in Davis, California.
Dr. Vigfus Asmundson’s career grew with what became the University of California, Davis (UCD). He worked at UCD for over thirty years, retiring in 1967. His interest was in genetics, and continued to use chickens or turkeys as his research subjects.
Vigfus, very dedicated to his research, worked long hours. Several of his students became owners of large chicken hatcheries in the United States and one in Japan.
He received many awards for his work, including the Borden Award in 1942 for developing the broad-breasted turkey.
Upon his retirement, he received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from UCD. In 1970, the building he worked in throughout his years at UCD was named for him: the Vigfus S. Asmundson Hall. He died on September 10, 1974.
Thora Asmundsdóttir, his sister, met Sigurður Jonsson (later anglicized to Sam Johnson). Sam immigrated to Tantallon with his parents in 1898 . They married on February 11, 1913, and had eight children. They worked on Sam’s family farm in Tantallon. In their later years, they moved to Vancouver, BC. Thora died in 1986.
Sources for TANTALLON:
“Dr. Vigus S. Asmundson.” The Icelandic Canadian, Spring 1965: p45–46. Retrieved from: https://timarit.is/page/8127313 : 21 Aug 2026.
Lindal, Walter (Valdimar) Jacobson. The Saskatchewan Icelanders, A Strand of the Canadian Fabric. 1955: Winnipeg, MB, The Columbia Press Limited.
Icelandic Roots
