Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.03.2007, Page 4

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Dear Editor:
I’m searching for offspring
to Andrés Helgason, born 1867,
and Guðný Helgadóttir, born
1872 in Voladalur, Suður-Þing-
eyjarsýsla in northern Iceland.
Their parents were Ragnhildur
Andrésdóttir who was my great-
grandmother’s sister and Helgi
Ásmundsson. My great-grand-
mother’s name was Hólmfríður
Andrésdóttir. She was born in
1839 in Héðinshöfði, Iceland.
Andrés and Guðný lost their
parents while still children and
emigrated as grownups to Man-
itoba, Canada and settled in Ar-
gyle. Acording to my research
Andrés emigrated in 1888 and
Guðný probably in 1890.
Guðný married Björn Jo-
sepsson and they had these chil-
dren: Helgi, Vilhjalmur, Krist-
jan, Malmfridur and Sigurveig.
(Information from Saga Íslend-
inga í Vesturheimi).
Andres moved to Kanda-
har and died in 1939. He mar-
ried twice and his children were
Ragnhildur Vigdis, born 1898,
and Helgi Sigursteinn, born
1903, both in Argyle. There
were two more children, Hall-
fridur and Lilja, whose date of
birth I don’t know.
I myself was born in Ice-
land in 1944 but I have lived in
Sweden for 35 years. I’m doing
some genealogy work as a hob-
by and would like very much to
get in touch with descendants to
these two people or anyone who
could contribute to my research.
I would be glad to share infor-
mation with relatives if they
want to.
Please contact me at:
isahultqvist@hotmail.com, or
write to:
Sigurveig Johannesdottir
Hultqvist
Änggatan 9
571 42 Nässjö
Sweden
* * *
Dear Editor:
We hope that some of your
readers might be able to help
us. The Markerville Community
Church (formerly Markerville
Lutheran Church) will be 100
years old in 2007 and special
anniversary celebrations are in
the works for Saturday 16 June
in conjunction with our annual
Icelandic picnic.
Unfortunately, some of the
early records of the church and
the Icelandic Ladies Aid “Vo-
nin” (116 years old this year) are
missing, so we are searching for
them! We would appreciate re-
ceiving any old photos, minutes
or other documentation pertain-
ing to the church and Vonin.
If anyone has records or
information about the loca-
tion of any relevant historic
records, please contact Donna
Nelson, Secretary-Treasurer
of the Markerville Commu-
nity Church at (403) 728-3438
or onelson@platinum.ca; or
Dorothy Murray, President
of the Icelandic Ladies Aid
“Vonin” at (403) 342-7092 or
dmmurray@shaw.ca.
Thank you!
Best regards,
Dorothy Murray
Red Deer, AB
* * *
Dear Editor:
Thank you for the article in
Lögberg-Heimskringla, Febru-
ary 15, about Jónas Hallgríms-
son.
He first came to my attention
when I read a review of Bard of
Iceland: Jonas Hallgrimsson,
Poet and Scientist (University of
Wisconsin Press, 2002) by Dick
Ringler, a scholar and translator
of Icelandic at the University of
Wisconsin. I bought a copy of
this learned, fascinating book,
beautifully illustrated with re-
productions of old engravings
of Iceland and Icelanders.
The first half of the book is
a biography, placing Hallgríms-
son in the Icelandic and Euro-
pean literary context of his time;
and the second half consists of
“Selected Poetry and Prose,”
translated and accompanied by
elaborate commentary. There
is also an invaluable chapter on
Icelandic prosody.
There are references
throughout the book to Dick
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4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15 March 2007
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“Working Together to Build
Our Communities”
Get your stories down
My great-great-uncle Skuli Bachman was someone I barely got
to know as a child. Though I
remember visiting him with my
mother and sister in his apart-
ment in an old building on
Edmonton Street in Winnipeg.
He made bannock for us, and
sometimes played his violin; he
was brother to my langamma,
whom I got to know a bit bet-
ter. My uncle Skuli died when
I was eight years old; my lan-
gamma when I was 15.
I feel lucky to have gotten
to know them at all, as well as
my grandparents and great-un-
cles and great-aunts — hearing
stories from elders in your fam-
ily serves you well for the rest
of your life, even if as a child
you don’t realize it.
It was some years ago that
I found out Uncle Skuli had
begun work on his memoirs;
my mom gave me a copy of
his manuscript. He died be-
fore completeing them, but my
great-uncle Carl Birston had
been working with him and
continued after Skuli’s death.
Unfortunately my uncle Carl
has passed away now as well.
I’ve often thought, given my
experience in writing, editing
and publishing, that I should
take Uncle Skuli’s work, and
pick up where Uncle Carl left
off, and put that memoir into
book form for others in the
family. Some of my cousins
will remember Uncle Skuli
— I’m in the “older” range of
cousins this generation — but I
suspect many, like me, did not
get to hear his stories when he
was still alive. We were just too
young.
In this issue of L-H you will
read about two different kinds
of documents that took on a life
of their own.
The Anderson family has
prepared a second edition of
Blessed, the biography of the
late Asdis Sigrun Anderson,
family matriarch.
And in a different way, film-
maker Jón Gustafsson’s docu-
menting of Sturla Gunnarsson’s
Beowulf and Grendel took on a
much more meaningful char-
acter — becoming a film in its
own right, Wrath of Gods.
We don’t often think of
what we experience as having
relevance for other people. We
think they won’t be interested,
that “there’s nothing special
about my life.” And that kind
of humility is probably a good
thing. But when we are so im-
mersed in a way of life, or an
experience, we often think it’s
not worth the time to document
it — we will always remember
it, so we don’t bother.
But that experience, howev-
er minor, may speak volumes to
others to whom it’s completely
foreign. A few generations on,
and those day-to-day events are
an insight into history, into your
life and times.
As Editor of L-H, I am con-
stantly hearing that we must get
the stories of the older genera-
tion written down, before they
are lost forever. Of course they
will not fit into the newspa-
per — at best, we can provide
a glimpse into a person’s life
through an article or profile. In
fact, I would argue the best way
to preserve those stories is to
spend time with your elders, to
hear them firsthand — and this
can take many years.
Another route is to docu-
ment things as you go. Asdis
Anderson told stories to her
granddaughter Katrina, which
the latter recorded over six
years, and wrote in the book
Blessed. Jón Gustafsson kept
filming no matter how ter-
rible conditions got on the set
of Sturla Gunnarsson’s movie,
and what he collected was an
amazing story of perseverance
and bad luck that would equal
the drama and furor of any Ice-
landic saga.
So don’t be afraid to tell
your stories — there are prob-
ably listeners out there now, or
will be in the future, who are
eager to hear them.
David Jón Fuller
Managing Editor
Continued on page 5