Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 13

13
Early life in Iceland
Albert Jóhannesson was born on July 29, 1847, at the small farm of
Geitafell in Vatnsnes in Northwest Iceland.17 His parents, Jóhannes
Sveinsson (1806–1869) and Herdís Bergþórsdóttir (1801–1882) were
poor tenant farmers. Albert was the youngest of eleven siblings, five of
whom died in early childhood. Albert’s eldest brother, Jóhann (1833–1888),
left Geitafell to work as a farm labourer in 1850 and married Kristín
Jóhannesdóttir in 1853.18 Stefán (1835–1849), who was disabled, died of
exposure after wandering from the farm.19 Another older brother, Sveinn
(1839–1867), left the parish in 1858 for work.
Two of Albert’s siblings, Sæunn (1836–1918) and Jón (1843–1927),
grew up in foster households. In the 1845 national census, when Sæunn
was nine and Jón only three, they were registered at separate farms as
niðursetningar “paupers”: Sæunn at Þóreyjarnúpur in Víðidalur and Jón at
Hlíð in Kirkjuhvammssókn.20 The practice of placing the children of im-
poverished parents in separate households was not uncommon in Iceland,
a system that minimized public expenses but left children vulnerable to
neglect, abuse and even outright starvation.21 Recipients of poor-relief
were often stigmatized, while the family was expected to repay the cost
of the child’s upbringing at the first opportunity – thus deepening their
financial straits.
Albert spent his early years at Geitafell with his parents. In 1860, his
parents gave up farming, although they initially remained at Geitafell.
Albert’s father’s status was that of húsmaður “house-man,” a lodger not
17 Þí BA/3-1-1, Prestsþjónustubók Tjarnar á Vatnsnesi 1816–1858, 30.
18 They separated, and Kristín immigrated to Canada in 1874 with their two surviving
children, Hjörtur Jóhannsson (1858–1877) and Ingibjörg Guðríður Jóhannsdóttir (1860–
1896).
19 Þí BA/3-1-1, Prestsþjónustubók Tjarnar á Vatnsnesi 1816–1858, 104. According to the parish
records, Stefán could communicate with others only to a limited extent, cf. Þí BC/2-1-1,
Sóknarmannatal Tjarnar á Vatnsnesi 1824–1839, 1842, 1845 og 1848–1853, 152–53.
20 Digitized census data for Iceland was accessed from the online database of the National
Archives of Iceland (http://manntal.is).
21 on young paupers in rural Icelandic society, see gísli Ágúst gunnlaugsson, “‘Everyone’s
Been Good to Me, Especially the Dogs’: Foster-Children and Young Paupers in
Nineteenth-Century South Iceland,” Journal of Social History 27.2 (1993): 341–58; Sigurður
Gylfi Magnússon, Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland (London: Reaktion,
2010), 25–27, 43–44; Jón ólafur ísberg and Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, Fátækt og fúlga:
Þurfalingarnir 1902 (Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2016).
ALBERT JóHANNESSON AND THE SCRIBES OF HECLA ISLAND