The National Archives

A most exciting part of my trip for was meeting with a genealogist in Iceland who helped me get details on my family line and assisted me in searching. Sigurdur discovered that Jon Petursson-Vilborg's first husband was listed as a farmer who "didn't have a cow to give milk to his children"-fascinating. Seems land on Westman islands was very limited to grow grass to feed a cow.

Sigurdur's English was a little rough, but he knew his genealogy books.

Three of us went to visit him in his family apartment, then off to the library.

He took us to the National Archives, quite a small place

compared to Utah's libraries, to see books and microfilms.

I was able to look at parish records of my family and with help

translate what they said. Something I could never have done on my own.

Copies of parish-census records from the Westman Islands

Here's the marriage record of my 2nd great grandfather Jon Petursson and Vilborg Thordardottir. Both were born on the southern coast of Iceland then moved to Westman Islands where they met when she worked for his family. Vilborg had a stillborn daughter before her marriage at age 30.

Jon was a captain of a fishing boat and I always thought had died at sea as so many men did. Then I found his death record and discovered he had died of tetanus which was very prevalent in Westman Islands. As the women did the washing and then dried them out on the rocks, germs were picked up this way from the ground. Most young children died for many years until they discovered what was causing it. Jon and Vilborg had four children born after their marriage who lived.

Another helpful record of Icelandic emigrants to America

It lists the people in each household and when they left Iceland to emigrate. My family lived in Elinarhus and left in 1874 for Utah-it lists Sigurdur Arnason age 32-farmer (bondi), Vilborg Thordardottir age 43 wife (kona hars-Sigi was her second husband) and her children (barn henna): Gudrun Soffia 10, Olof Thoranna-(my great grandmother) 10, Jon Petur 9 and Vilhjalmur 6. How fun to see their names and be in their country at the same time. Genealogical research doesn't get any better than this! I began searching for this family over 50 years ago. Next I'll fly to the Westman Islands to visit Vilborg's home town before she emigrated to Utah.