Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2006, Síða 2

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Karen Olafson
In August 2005, while tour-ing a group of Icelanders through Amma’s House
in Wynyard, SK, I mentioned
something by chance to the
guide, Jónas Thor. When I
explained that my mother-in-
law, Nanna Malfridur Anna
Gauti Olafson, was a grand-
daughter of Jón Jónsson, or
“Jón from Myri,” it started a
year of research, with many
e-mails and letters. It culmi-
nated with 44 descendants
(eight from Iceland) of Jón
Jónsson arriving at Amma’s
House for a family reunion 7
August 2006, hosted by the
Olafson family.
Jón had 12 children when
his wife Kristjana died in
April 1900. Two of his chil-
dren emigrated to Canada
with a maternal aunt shortly
after their mothers death.
On 9 June 1903 Jón from
Myri and seven of his children
left the farm in Iceland and
began their journey to Cana-
da. Two daughters emigrated,
Guðný in 1905 and Sigrún
in 1920. His eldest daughter
Aðalbjörg, with a young fam-
ily of her own, took over the
farm at Myri, which is still in
the family to this day.
Jón Jónsson first settled in
Manitoba but his land turned
out to be of poor quality, so
in 1905 the family moved to
Saskatchewan and settled near
Wynyard, where he lived until
his death in 1935 at the age of
84. From the onset in the New
World Jón regularly wrote let-
ters back to family in Iceland.
These letters are all preserved
at the Húsavík District Ar-
chives along with others from
his children.
There are 813 descendants
of Jón from Myri in 2006 with
eight branches of his family
still growing strong.
The Olafson family (de-
scendants of his third-eldest
daughter, Aslaug) were proud
to host representatives from
six branches of the Jón from
Myri family.
The gathering was very
informal with lots of time for
relatives who had never met
before to become acquainted.
A large family tree construct-
ed on the inside north wall of
the garage at Amma’s House
allowed everyone to find their
place in the family.
A tour of local areas of
interest to family members
started just east of Dafoe, and
a few hours later finished with
the Icelandic statue in Elfros.
Tuesday 9 August was a very
hot day which Ásrún from
Iceland will not soon forget
— she suffered a bout of heat
exhaustion. After a few hours
in a cooler climate and much
wringing of cool towels and
drinking of fluids she was able
to rejoin the celebration.
Family gathered for three
evening barbecues, lots of
visiting, pictures and some
were even able to stay up late
enough to enjoy a campfire.
There were two reasons
for the reunion: first, to meet
other members of this very
large far-flung family; and
secondly, to announce the
publication of a book com-
piled by the family in Iceland
of a selection of Jón’s many
letters.
Jón’s letters are quite re-
markable for various reasons.
First and foremost, they give
a very clear picture of the
circumstances Icelandic im-
migrants found themselves
in after settling in Canada.
They tell of farmers switching
from traditional sheep-rais-
ing in the valleys of Iceland to
crop-growing on the Canadi-
an prairies, a totally different
agricultural community. The
letters describe the farming
ways, offering, at the same
time, good advice to farm-
ers back in Bárðardalur. His
detailed accounts of farming
in the Icelandic settlement in
Saskatchewan are, by many,
considered the most infor-
mative description of those
times. There are others who
insist that the social and hu-
man narrative in his letters are
most significant.
All his life, Jón was strong-
minded, steadfast and never
shy of expressing his opinions
on matters or people of con-
cern. His letters also provide
a good account of literature in
Icelandic both in America and
Iceland because Jón’s inter-
est was always great. He was
quite a poet himself and con-
tributed to Icelandic-Canadian
literature.
On the whole, the letters
of Jon Jónsson tell a remark-
able story, one of an avid
reader and an emotional farm-
er. While middle-aged, he tore
himself away from the stag-
nant farming community of
Iceland and joined the steady
flow of Icelandic emigrants
to North America to become
involved in the most rapid so-
cial changes and agricultural
innovations history has ever
witnessed.
However, his life in the
New World never became
luxurious. Diseases, poverty,
crop failures, fires, warmon-
gering, religious controversies
and financial crises left their
marks, yet he accomplished
much in his spiritual life. This
remarkable story is written in
his letters, where his narration
always remains honest and
straight to the point.
Before the Iceland-
ers departed, copies of the
book titled Leitin að landinu
góða (“Looking for the Good
Land”) were presented to
Karen Olafson. One is to be
presented to the Wynyard Li-
brary along with an English
translation of two of the let-
ters, and one will stay in the
family.
While the book is in Ice-
landic, we hope that in the fu-
ture more of it may be trans-
lated into English, as funds
become available. The book is
a total family collaboration —
many hours spent deciphering
handwriting and entering text
into the computer.
The artwork on the dust
jacket is a stylized drawing
of a well-known photo of Jón
from Myri, in which he is sit-
ting outdoors at a small table
writing. It is blue to symbolize
the Blue Mountains of Iceland
and has an imprint of the Myri
Farm. The artwork was done
by Jón’s great-great-grand-
daughter Sigríður Ingvars-
dóttir, a 19-year-old art stu-
dent in Akureyri.
Jon Adelstein Hermanns-
son and his family were pre-
sented with an English copy
of Reflections by the Quills,
jars of Saskatoon jam that
they may enjoy a taste of Sas-
katchewan even in Iceland and
pottery bowls made by Marea
Olafson.
Many very tired people
left Wynyard with many good
memories on August 10, and
with a sense of renewed ties to
a family history.
2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 15 September 2006
Icelandic tour in Wynyard sparks reunion
Letters of Jón Jónsson from Myri collected for descendants
Leitin að landinu góða, the
letters of Jón Jónsson.
IMAGES COURTESY OF KAREN OLAFSON
Jón from Myri has 813 descendants, with eight branches of the family still going strong.