What is family history without the stories? (It’s a bunch of cold, lonely facts, that’s what!) What story in your family should be up on the silver screen? Prompt given for Week 16 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks by Amy Johnson Crow.
Who wouldn’t love to see Iceland in a movie! I haven’t been there yet but the photos I see are amazing, so many waterfalls, and the northern lights! The journey my husbands ancestors took in order to build a better life for their family is nothing short of breathtaking. Akureyri, in the northern part of the island is where his family departed Iceland. The inlet to the west is where they lived before their journey began.
Thorfinnur Johannesson was born 24 May 1838 in Hvammur, Holasokn, Hjaltadalur, Skagafjardarsysla. I believe Hvammur is the farm where he was born, Holasokn is the community name, Hjaltadalur is the parish and Skagafjardarsysla is the county. If you click here you can find a little information about the community including a short bit about his 11th great grandfather, Jon Arason, who was beheaded in 1550. This wikipedia page also contains a few images. I found a few images I am able to use in my post on Morguefile. This one looks similar to other photos I have seen depicting where the farm was located.
Thorfinnur married Elisabet Petursdottir in 1863. He was 25 and Elisabet was 24. I have found Thorfinnur in The National Archives of Iceland Census Database in 1860, 1870 and 1880. Elisabet was in the 1870 and 1880 Census with Thorfinnur. I think I also found Thorfinnur’s mother in the 1870 Census, she is living with one of her daughter’s and her family. In 1860 Thorfinnur was a worker (vinnumathur) on the farm of Jon Benidiktsson. It looks like there were seven workers on this farm which was more than most. I think Jon may have been a distant cousin.
In the 1870 Census Thorfinnur and Elisabet are subleasing a farm and have two of their daughters, Petrina and Kristin, living with them. In 1870 they actually have 4 children. I’ve been told that it was pretty common for children to live with other relatives who didn’t have children or had enough space for more children. I found their daughter Margret with a first cousin of Thorfinnur, listed as ‘tökubarn hjónanna’ or adopted child of the couple.
I haven’t figured out where their son Thorlakur was in 1870, he would have been 4 years old. I’m sure he was also living with a relative. The information I have regarding their emmigration says that Thorfinnur had been blind for 14 years when they left Iceland in 1882. That would have been 1868. I am guessing that played a part in their children living with other relatives. At 30 years of age Thorfinnur became blind. I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been for a farmer, a father, a husband, anyone.
Petrina sadly dies in 1871. The story I heard is that she and her father were on a horse, herding sheep across a stream. I imagine Petrina was his eyes, and helping him navigate. She slipped into the water and drowned. That must have been heart breaking. 1871 also brought the birth of their fifth child, a daughter named Gudrun. Gudrun died in 1875. I don’t know if the volcanic eruption of Askja had anything to do with her death but it sounds like between the volcano and the earthquakes it was a difficult time. The ashfall was heavy enough to poison the land and kill livestock. You can read more here.
Their sixth child Gudny was born in 1874. It must have been a little frightening to have an infant when the air was full of ash and probably food was scarce. Petur, their seventh child was born in 1875. I don’t know who he was adopted by, but according to the information about their emigration he and Margret did not come to America with the rest of the family as they had been adopted out.
Next arrival in the family is my husbands grandfather, Arni, who was born in 1877. The ninth child was Fridrik, who was born in 1881. The family emigrated in 1882 and there is a wonderful photo on the Icelandic Roots website of Thorfinnur, Elisabet, and three of their youngest children Gudny, Arni and Fridrik. I found a small image of it in a book in the Pembina County Museum. This is a story about theeir family.
They traveled first to Ireland on the S.S. Camoen which was a cargo and passenger ferry that traveled frequently between Iceland and the UK. I haven’t found the name of the ship they took from Ireland to the U.S. I tried to find an image of the S.S. Camoens I could share, and wasn’t successful but this site has a lot of wonderful information and photos about Iceland.
They ended up in Mountain, North Dakota. This place had the highest number of Icelandic people in the entire U.S. so I am sure this was not an accidental arrival. They already had family and friends in the area. Mountain to this day has an Icelandic festival every August. My husband and I went a couple of years ago. When Thorfinnur and Elisabet arrived they lived on a hill, in a dugout by the creek, north of Mountain. In case you don’t know Mountain is about 30 miles from the Canadian border. A cousin of my husband sent us a story about how the Icelanders first came to America and traveled across the country rejecting place after place until they finally found a spot as desolate and cold as home. A little exagerated but still kind of funny.
I don’t know if this would have been similar to the house they lived in Iceland or what they built within a year of arriving in North Dakota but I am thinking it is close. They built a log cabin one half mile north of Mountain and moved in 1883. Their son Arni lived in this house later in his life. The picture below is a crop of a map I took a photo of at the Historical Society in Pembina County. You can see Arni’s property just north of Mountain.
Margret and Petur emigrated in 1893, 10 years after the rest of the family arrived. Maybe things were a little more settled by this time. When I think about making the trip from Iceland to Ireland to the U.S. it seems overwhelming to me. Add in the insecurity of poverty, blindness and an unknown future and I have so much respect for their bravery and strength. It all sounds like a movie waiting to be made to me. I’ll leave you with one last free photo from Morguefile, this one has the northern lights, who wouldn’t want to see them?
My Tree in the Forest 