Introduction:
Our Genealogy
and History records date back to the ninth century.
Our
records explode notions that
only Danes settled here. Within a hundred years after first settlement, Scots
and Irish
also settled here. Surnames over time evolved as in my
4gfather's name Rikardson (Son of Rikard (Richard) in America became
Richardson.
We
host a stable population; a few people come and a few people go, but the
fabric of our society for eleven centuries is insulated from outside influences.
Stability is also expressed in record keeping; with no catastrophic events to
destroy records, repositories contain prodigious amounts of documented records.
Life has not
always been idyllic as in the late 19th century, violent and protracted volcanic eruptions
ruined the economy and drove
20% of the population to mainland Canada and America. Some became LDS and moved
to Salt Lake City. There is a memorial to those Mormon emigrants at
Reykjavik.
