Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.12.2004, Side 12

12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 3 December 2004
Old photos
drew me to Iceland
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTAL OLIVER SPEER
Christian Oliver and siblings, in a photo taken in Duluth, MN, ca. 1905. Standing: Dora
(Halldóra) Vickers and Christina (Kristín) Erickson; seated: Theodore (Þórður), Christian
(Kristján) and Harry (Hjörtur). The brothers, except for Christian, kept the name Olafson.
Christal Oliver Speer
Chattanooga, TN
Our family of five recently
returned from eleven days in
Iceland visiting twelve farm-
steads where my grandfather
and his ancestors lived on the
Snæfellsnes peninsula.
Over a year ago, Nelson
Gerrard of Arborg, Manitoba,
contacted me asking for photo-
graphs my grandfather took and
a short story of his life for an
exhibit “Pögul leiftur” (“Silent
Flashes”) he was preparing for
the Icelandic Emigration Centre
in Hofsós, Iceland. This muse-
um is dedicated to portraying
the experiences and preserving
the records of people who emi-
grated from Iceland to Canada
and the United States during the
heavy emigration period of
1870 to 1914.
The photography exhibit
“Silent Flashes” (with about
400 photographs) opened on
July 2, and will be there two
more years. A book of the same
name will soon be published.
We chose this summer for
our trip so we could attend the
opening ceremony. Of the 16
photographers featured, it
tumed out that we were the only
descendants able to attend.
Short speeches were given by
Valgeir Þorvaldsson, director of
the museum; Valgerður Sverris-
dóttir, Minister of Commerce
and Industry; and Nelson Ger-
rard (who kindly gave part of
his speech in English). A muse-
um at Strathclair, Manitoba,
sent a congratulatory telegram
and I read a greeting from our
family.
The entrance to the exhibit
includes a replica of an old-time
photo studio with a lovely
painted backdrop, props, old
camera, and a mannequin
dressed as the photographer.
About fifty large freestanding
panels, arranged by topic, dis-
play photographs of immigrant
Icelanders and their descen-
dants.
Because my grandfather
changed his name from Ólafur
Kristján Ólafsson to Christian
Oliver in America, Nelson had
difficulty in finding descendants
until he remembered that many
times an Ólafur changed his
name to Oliver. Even then, he
had to track the moves of our
family — and that could make a
story all by itself! My grandfa-
ther was a gentle, quiet man, but
one who loved an adventure. He
lived in three countries (Iceland,
Canada and the United States)
and through his work as a pho-
tographer, in 14 of the 50 states
in America.
I am grateful Nelson per-
sisted in his search for descen-
dants and for his help in identi-
fying precisely where the farms
in Iceland are located so that I
could visit them.
My grandfather, Christian
Oliver (1877 - 1966), was bom
at Gröf, but grew up on the
nearby sheep farm Straum-
fjarðatunga in Snæfells- og
Hnappadalssýsla. The old turf
house is gone, but I took pic-
tures of the swift-flowing
Straumfjarðará river on the
property and the beautiful
Snæfellsjökull glacier to the
west. Later, when I toured the
museums at Skógar and Glaum-
bær, I could visualize better
what it was like to live in an old
turf house.
We visited the closest
church at Fáskrúðarbakki with
its beautiful altar and lovely
stained glass windows and
stopped at the local rétt (Lang-
holtsrétt near Vegamót) where
farmers sort out sheep after they
are brought down from the
mountain pastures. We were
lucky indeed to spot three
whales swimming in a large cir-
cle off the coast at Hellnar.
It was easy to take pictures
of ewes with their precious
lambs because sheep dot the
countryside, but my treasured
photo is of a hard-to-get ram
with impressive curling homs.
After my grandfather was
orphaned at the age of fourteen,
he worked on local sheep farms.
He polished the horns of
slaughtered rams and sold them,
saving the money to help pay
for his passage to emigrate
about 1895 at the age of seven-
teen. He lived in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, for two years before
settling in Duluth, Minnesota.
Before our trip, I spent sev-
eral months preparing an itiner-
ary to include many historical
places such as Þingvellir and
Reykholt and the early religious
centers of Skálholt and Hólar.
The beauty of the country
far exceeded my expectations
and I discovered the guidebook
was correct in advising me to
take along twice as many digital
camera memory cards (or rolls
of film) than I would expect to
need.
Because we rented a van,
we had the luxury of stopping
often and taking in the sights.
Since my grandfather loved the
Icelandic horses, we attended a
horse exhibition near
Varmahlið.
I arranged our lodging at
Farm Holiday places. What
could be better than staying in
farmhouses and cottages with
the added bonus of a good farm
breakfast? One of the farms was
Elliðahvammur on the outskirts
of Reykjavík. Through a happy
coincidence, I leamed the owner
was a distant cousin of mine
after he mentioned that I looked
Icelandic. When I showed his
daughter my ancestor chart, she
recognized some of the names
and presented me with another
genealogy chart showing just
how we are related.
Earlier that very day, I had
purchased several stunning
postcards of Icelandic birds. To
my surprise, I leamed that the
grandson of my cousin was the
photographer of rnany of them
when I read the photo credit on
the back side.
Living near Chattanooga,
Tennessee, I rarely meet some-
one of Icelandic descent so I
thoroughly enjoyed my won-
derful Icelandic adventure and
meeting many kind and
thoughtful people.
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