Icelandica - History

HISTORY - ICELANDERS IN NORTH AMERICA

The Icelandic Canadian Homepage - A University of Manitoba website dedicated to
the Icelandic pioneers in North America, their descendants, and their enduring ties to
Iceland. A good source of introductory historical material on the Canadian experience.

The Book of Life (Vesturćttir) - An online collection of family histories, including
text and pictures that document the lives and achievements of people of Icelandic
descent in Canada and the United States. Whether you are searching for your roots
or are simply interested in learning about the Icelandic presence in North America, the
Book of Life offers an interesting record of Icelanders in North America.

MUSEUMS

Safnahandbókin (The Museum Handbook) - A bilingual guide to the museums of
Iceland, organized by region. The listings of individual museums are in Icelandic but if
you click on the links, you'll be rewarded with descriptions, in both Icelandic and
English, which detail the collections, hours of operation, addresses and contact
information.

The New Iceland Heritage Museum - Located in Gimli's Waterfront Centre, the New
Iceland Heritage Museum is home to a carefully assembled collection of artifacts from
the time of the Icelanders' first settlement in Manitoba to the present. In addition to
the core collection, the museum also features seasonally-changing special exhibitions.

Skógar Folk Museum - The Folk Museum at Skógar preserves the cultural heritage
of the Rangárvallasýsla and Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla region. The museum first opened
in 1949 in a small basement room of the Skógar School, moving into its own facilities
six years later. In 1968 work commenced on the reconstruction of the museum's
signature feature - its old turf farmhouses, which are a familiar scene in books and
postcards. Visitors to this museum complex and the nearby waterfall, Skógarfoss,
should plan on spending an entire day there. The museum's inspiration and curator is
Ţórđur Tómasson, a remarkable educator whose familiarity with local lore is enormous.

GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES

Kirkjugarđar (Cemeteries in Iceland) - A website showing cemeteries and
churchyards across Iceland with a search engine that allows researchers to look up
burial records. The completeness of the records varies by cemetery but, overall, the
number of entries predating the 20th century is relatively small.

Kirjugarđar Reykjavíkurprófastsdćma (Capital Area Cemeteries) - The official
website of the United Cemeteries of the Capital Area Churches. This site offers an
interesting history of the cemeteries in the city of Reykjavík, in English, and
summarizes the services provided.

FamilySearch - One of the best genealogical databases on the Internet,
FamilySearch is a good place to begin (or continue) your search for ancestors. There
are tens of thousands of entries for Icelanders - births, marriages, deaths - not to
mention the people of many other lands. I check for new records every few months
and, oftentimes, I'm rewarded with one more bud or twig for the family tree! However,
I have also found errors in some of the records I've found here, so care needs to be
taken to verify any information found at this site. In addition to normal transcription
errors, I've found several spelling errors (of both names and places), ...