The Emigration from Iceland to North America
    Source Books for Icelandic Genealogy

    The Sources on this Page
    A list of libraries is given after each book. Your local library may be able to get them for you through Inter Library Loans.
    • Vesturfaraskrá, 1870-1914 A record of emigrants from Iceland to America, 1870-1914 by Júníus H. Kristinsson. Published by Institute of History, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 1983. Emigrants are indexed by first and last name. Records are organized by farm and year of emigration. The records provide age, relationship to head of family, port of departure, departing ship, and destination. The departing ship normally took settlers to Edinburgh Scotland where they took a train to Glasgow and boarded a different ship across the Atlantic to Quebec or New York. This book is useful for identifying family members who came together and the year in which they came. This reduces the work of searching ship passenger lists to searching a single year. Knowing the farm the immigrant came from also simplifies searches for ancestors since most other records are kept by parish. This book is available at the following libraries:
      University Libraries: Alberta AB, Augustana IL, British Columbia BC, California LA CA, Christian Brothers TN, Cornell NY, Dalhousie NS, Harvard MA, Manitoba MB, Minnesota MN, N Dakota ND, Oxford EU, Saskatchewan SK, Toronto ON, Washington WA, Victoria BC.
    • Vestur-Íslenzkar Ćviskrár by Benjamín Kristjánsson and Jónas Thordarson, published in 6 volumes by Prentverk O. Björnssonar and Bókaútgáfan Skjaldborg [1961-1992] in Akureyri. This is a collection of family histories of Icelandic immigrants to North America in Icelandic. Many are drawn from obituaries in North American Icelandic newspapers. With the help of an Icelandic-English dictionary, the reader can usually determine the year of immigration, ancestors, siblings, and children of the people recorded in the book. It is available in the following libraries:
      University Libraries: Alberta AB, Calgary AB, California Berkley CA, California LA CA, Chicago IL, Indiana IN, Harvard MA, Manitoba MB, Minnesota MN, N Carolina NC, N Dakota ND, Toronto ON, Washington WA, Wisconsin WI.
      Other Libraries: Canadian Museum of Civilization ON, Minnesota Historical Society MN, National Library of Canada ON, New York Public Library NY, Toronto Public Library ON.
    • Icelandic River Saga by Nelson S. Gerrard published by Saga Publications, Arborg MB, 1985. This book describes the history of many families around Gimli Manitoba. Check the online index for articles about your ancestors. It is out of print, but can be found at the following libraries:
      University Libraries: Alaska AK, Alberta AB, Cornell NY, Gustavus Adolphus MN, Harvard MA, N Dakota ND, Queen's ON, Toronto ON, Victoria BC, Yale CT.
      Other Libraries: Allen County Public Library IN, Canadian Museum of Civilization ON, Cincinnati Public Library OH, National Library of Canada ON, State Historical Society of Wisconsin WI.
    • The Icelanders of Kinmount: An Experiment in Settlement by Donald E. Gislason, 1999, published by the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto. This 43 page book describes the emigration, voyage on the S.S. St. Patrick from Iceland to Quebec, travel to Toronto and Kinmount Ontario, settlement in Kinmount, and eventual dispersal of 351 settlers in 1874. Check the passenger list to see if your ancestors were on board.
    • Saga Islendinga í Norđur-Dakota by Thorstina Jackson Walters, 1926 in Icelandic. Most of this book is devoted to family histories of Icelanders in North Dakota. With the help of an Icelandic-English dictionary, the reader can usually determine the year of immigration, ancestors, siblings, and children of the people recorded in the book. Check the online index for articles about your ancestors. It is out of print but can be found in the following libraries:
      University Libraries: Chicago IL, Columbia NY, Cornell NY, Dartmouth NH, Delaware DE, Edinburgh EU, Gonzaga WA, Harvard MA, Leeds EU, Luther IA, McGill PQ, Minnesota MN, N Dakota ND, N Dakota State ND, Princeton NJ, Queen's ON, Toronto ON, Washington WA, Wisconsin Milwaukee WI, Yale CT.
      Other Libraries: New York Public Library NY, Seattle Public Library WA, State Historical Society of N Dakota ND, State Historical Society of Wisconsin WI.
    • Framfari 1877 to 1880 is an English translation of the original Icelandic newspaper published in Winnipeg. It was translated by the Gimli Chapter of the Icelandic National League of North America. It does not contain much information about specific families, but it provides an interesting insight into the concerns of the early settlers. It contains news from Iceland. A few of the early crossings are described.
    • Ship Passenger Lists are held on microfilm by many libraries. They are organized by port of entry and by date of arrival of ship. Passengers' names are not in alphabetical order. Use of this series is extremely time consuming if you do not have an approximate date of immigration, do not know the port of entry or do not know the ship name. Almost all Icelandic immigrants came through the port of Quebec on Allan Line steamships from Glasgow which can simplify the search somewhat.


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    Halfdan Helgason - Reykjavík - Iceland