Editor's Note: The following is an edited excerpt from the article Arfleifðin vegsömuð og varðveitt. This is an article published in September 2024 by Lifðu núna, an online Icelandic magazine. Steingerður Steinarsdóttir, the editor of the magazine, interviewed Sunna and Becky during their travels in Iceland this past summer. As it was conducted in Icelandic, our own Icelandic Roots volunteer, Bryndís Víglundsdóttir, translated the article to English so we could publish it in our Roots News. Thank you, Bryndís!
PRAISING AND PRESERVING HERITAGE: THE ICELANDIC ROOTS INTERVIEW
Icelandic Roots (www.icelandicroots.com) embraces education, human connection and is a periodical as well as being a genealogy website. Behind this website or database, there are a number of people who donate their work. The common motive is their Icelandic origin and the wish to learn about their roots. Icelandic Roots now reaches across the entire United States, Canada, the Nordic countries, and Australia; so much so the branches stretch far and wide on this lush tree, but the roots are spread all over Iceland.
Sunna Furstenau is the driving force behind this organization that she established ten years ago. Since then she has been working relentlessly realizing her vision. A great many members of Icelandic Roots, such as Becky Byerly-Adams, work countless hours telling the Icelandic story.
Sunna and Becky have just returned to Reykjavík after having traveled around the old country, visiting many places and friends as is the purpose of these trips. This was Sunna´s 24th visit to Iceland. Some visits have been short, others long and giving. During each of her visits her network of acquaintances and friends grows and gains strength.
The roots stretch the world over
We intended to examine the many and strong elements of the Icelandic Roots database which now stretches the world over.
Sunna, the founder of Icelandic Roots, like all the other volunteers, has given her time to do this work. People joined forces, driven by their interest and passion. Funds raised through membership to the genealogy database are used to support good causes, such as scholarships, genealogy research, and education.
“Our goal is education,” says Sunna. “November 12, 2013 is the official founding date of Icelandic Roots, but we had been working for a decade before then. That day we became a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization (501)(c)(3). A number of people had volunteered for years, connecting people to their relatives, searching for information and sharing it. I received many emails from people asking me to help them find some information about their families.
“I was not the only one getting these emails. Many others who did genealogy were also getting these requests. People had often been looking for information about their ancestry in many places. Sometimes we realized that we were all working for the same individual and that person would already have received the information I had been working for hours to find.
“By creating this forum, we were able to work together and have the necessary overview of what the other people were doing. As it is now, there are forty genealogists, a number of technicians, historians, and a great many others with the finest of skills and a positive mindset, all solving what often is a riddle. Each person participates in the work according to his or her abilities and enthusiasm.
“And now, those who are using the genealogy database can view not only the names of their ancestors, but also the name of the ship they sailed on over the ocean, the passenger list of that ship, where they sailed from, and at what harbor the ship docked. They can also check how many from the same farm emigrated and how they are related to the individual conducting the search. In many instances we have stories from diaries, chapters from books by the descendants of the emigrants, stories of their travels and how they got by in the new country.”
Are you related to Egill Skalla-Grímsson?
“You will find the Icelandic Sagas in Icelandic and English on our database. You can, for example, find the link for Egill Skalla-Grimsson, read the story, and find out whether you are a descendant of Egill,” says Sunna. “You can also look at maps of the places where he lived, and more! We are also just beginning to offer material for children and would like to do more in that area, but the bulk of the material is written for adults.
“The genealogy database grows at an incredible rate, and I haven't heard of a comparable genealogy database. The people listed on the pages are from everywhere: in Canada, the United States, Japan, Denmark, Australia; really, wherever Icelanders have settled and wish to find their roots.
“A woman from England contacted us, just to mention as an example. Her ancestors emigrated from Iceland in 1830. We have access to the census from the nineteenth century and can stretch back to the eighteenth if need be. We managed to assist this lady.
“We can decipher from the census, 1801 through1920, a wealth of information about those who emigrated from Iceland. Our scholars conduct their research to the highest accuracy and quality, and our technicians help us guarantee all our information.”
Educational periodical, book club and lectures
Becky is the Membership Outreach Director and Communications for Icelandic Roots. Her responsibilities include the Icelandic Roots Newsletter that is published every two weeks with interviews, stories, and cultural material. As well, her team consists of the Writers’ Group, the Book Club, Social Media releases, Samtal conversation hour, and Roots Tips that guides our membership through the database.
“Each edition [of the newsletter] carries four articles written by our authors. All of them have published books,” says Becky. “There are about nine authors who write for us. We publish monthly a story about an interesting Icelander or a Western Icelander. Then we interview or write about some remarkable person. We write about the people who emigrated, how the journey was, and how they managed to adapt to the new surroundings. Each month we write about someone or something from the database.
“We also run a book club and discuss books that we read by Icelandic authors or about Iceland. Occasionally Icelandic authors have visited our meetings, discussed their books and read from them.
“Lecturers also visit us regularly. They will talk about everything Icelandic, from the Icelandic horse to Icelandic food. After the lectures there are questions and conversation. We host these activities through Samtal Hour, seminars, and webinars. We advertise what is happening on the Internet and on our Icelandic Roots home page.
“Once a year we have a fund drive. Among other things we distribute e-postcards for the participants as they reach milestones or travel points around the country. Each postcard lists all kinds of information. Suppose you are at Borg in Borgarfjörður. There you will find material from the Egil's saga and stories of Egill Skalla-Grímsson. If you are close to Egilsstaðir for example, there will be suggestions of interesting places to visit in that vicinity. Thus, we manage to tell people more and more about Iceland.
“We also offer a podcast, maintained by a young fellow who does a splendid job. We have offered writing courses, engaged storytellers to teach us the technique of telling a story, and have historians talk about Nordic people in North America around 1000. We strive to offer information to people in as many forms as we can think of.”
Books and a knitting course
Maintaining, renewing, and improving the database to make it increasingly inviting for the Icelandic Roots members calls for bright ideas and requires constant work. We could name some of the published books.
Becky curated the book Stories, Sagas and Captivating Tales, The First Decade of Icelandic Roots. This book contains stories of the people who went west and settled in Canada, the United States and Brazil. There you also find articles based on the Sagas, the yearly sheep round up, Vínarterta, and much more that everyone interested in Iceland should know and wants to know.
Sunna concentrated on the first years of the emigrants and wrote The Icelandic Emigration Journey, From Turfhouses to Prairie Homesteads.
Bryndís Víglundsdóttir has given lectures on Icelandic Roots and has on occasion talked to the children. Icelandic Roots has published three books for children and their families, written by Bryndís. Guðríður‘s Saga, the story about Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir. Mundi, Boy of the Icelandic Westfjords, is about the memories of her husband who grew up on the Westfjords. The third, Thor, is where Bryndís attempts to show the Nordic deity in such light that she thinks is more proper than the light Marvel shines on him.
Becky and Sunna have just completed a trip around Iceland, visiting many friends and acquaintances. Both have previously been here. Sunna, has visited many times, including last summer where a core team led a trip of 25 Western Icelanders who traveled around the country. On that trip the volunteers made stops in a few villages where many emigrants began their journey across the ocean to America.
“We presented the authorities of the villages a memorial plaque to be placed close to the harbor. We also contributed funds to help beautify the surroundings of the plaques.” A similar trip in summer 2025 is being planned.
“We are always attempting to connect people,” says Becky. “The other day we met a lady who is a skilled knitter, and she would like to join. Maybe we will offer a knitting group online next winter!”
Have very close relatives here
Sunna lives in North Dakota and Becky lives in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington. Sunna is an operating room nurse, and Becky is a Math teacher. They are both active members in their communities, but their main interest is assisting people in finding their Icelandic ancestors, their roots. Do you have an idea why we, the humans, have this desire to know our origin?
“The families that emigrated tried to keep the connection to the old country and we are very proud of our roots” says Becky. “My amma was born in Iceland. Many communities and culture pockets thrive in the United States. For me, it is good to be able to say I am Icelandic, and I get a sense that many think highly of it.”
“Last week we drove to Siglufjörður and I wanted to visit the church because I knew of some ancestors buried there,” said Becky. “We walked by a house, and I spotted a statue of a troll outside it. I wanted to have a closer look because I had seen a similar troll in Seattle. When we were beside the troll a woman came out of the house and began talking to us. Sunna put the name of the lady's husband and mine into the Icelandic Roots database and, lo and behold, he and I were identified as 4th cousins. A similar incident happened during the trip last summer. We were on the ferry from Hrísey heading back to Akureyri when I talked to a man who proved to be my 3rd cousin.”
The people in America are forgotten and buried.
“My great-grandfather lived until I was 22 years old, and he spoke with love about the beauty of Skagafjörður and the old country,” said Sunna. She furthered identified that some people in Iceland were better off than others, but few of those that left Iceland were just looking for adventure. Many left due to hardship hoping to find a better life. Icelandic Roots is therefore an important link in the chain between the old country and the new world.
Those who are interested in having a closer look at this interesting and living community on the internet should look at the page: https://www.icelandicroots.com/
The original article is found in Lifðu núna.
Steingerður Steinarsdóttir editor.
Original Translated by Bryndís Víglundsdóttir