The Purpose of this Page
This page is designed to help North Americans find their Icelandic ancestors using tools commonly available in libraries and on the Internet. This site provides several tools that you should become familiar with.

• Icelandic Alphabet introduces the alphabet and how to enter special characters in Microsoft Word.
• Icelandic Names explains the way Icelandic patronymics are created.
• Tiny Dictionary of Icelandic genealogical words translated into English.
• Emigration Rate graphs the number of Icelanders who emigrated between 1870 and 1914.
• Icelandic Map shows you the 23 sysla (counties) and the farm that your ancestors came from and the 12 ports they emigrated from.
• North American Map shows the 41 most common destinations for Icelandic immigrants.
  

The next task is to identify who came from Iceland and where they settled.
Research Guidance is a good generic guide for the beginning genealogist. It is provided by the Church of Latter Day Saints, who have one of the largest collections of genealogical data in the world.
Family sources and community histories are the main way to identify who came from Iceland.

• Elders in the family are often a very good source of information. They should be interviewed to find out as much as possible about the names of ancestors, where they settled, when they came, where they came from, and what their original Icelandic names were. Try to find out if the original settlers moved from one district to another and when.
• Documents may exist in the family. Written lists of ancestors, notations in family bibles, or newspaper clippings of birth announcements, marriage announcements, and obituaries are common. The early settlers often published long obituaries in Icelandic newspapers that described their family history and ancestors in Iceland. Many of these have been collected and abstracted in Vestur-íslenzkar Æviskrár by Benjamin Krístjánsson and Árni Bjarnarson, published in 4 volumes by O. Björnssonar [1961-] in Akureyri. This may be available in larger libraries.
• Church records may be a useful source of information. Most Icelanders belonged to the Icelandic Lutheran Church.
• Grave yards may provide names, birth dates, and death dates of ancestors.
• Community histories were written for most of the communities in Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1980 when the provinces celebrated their 75th anniversary. Many communities in Manitoba also produced histories at about that time. These can be found in major libraries. They may give information about your family if there were any living relatives in the community at that time to contribute to the history projects.

Iceland is divided into 23 counties or shires. The emigrants departed from 12 different ports. The largest number of emigrants departed from the North and East sides of the island.
Icelandic immigrants went to many places when they arrived in North America. The following links list sources of information about the most common locations.

• The Utah Settlement were Icelandic Mormons who settled around Salt Lake City around 1855.
• Kinmount Ontario was a short-lived settlement of people most of whom later moved to Gimli Manitoba.
• Markland Nova Scotia was another short-lived settlement that later moved to other places.
• Minnesota was settled in Lincoln, Lyon, Yellow River, and Roseau counties.
• North Dakota has a concentration of Icelanders in Pembina County.
• Manitoba was first settled in New Iceland at Gimli and later at other locations.
• Saskatchewan had Icelandic settlements around Thingvalla, Qu'appelle Valley, Foam Lake,and Fishing Lake.
• Web Sources provide web sources for ancestors in Iceland and information about emigration to America.
• Source Books provide published sources for ancestors in North America and information about emigration to America.
• Example of a search to illustrate the kinds of information that can be found.