The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2001, Blaðsíða 16

54
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 56 #Z
knowledge about various topics and has the
qualities of a leader. It also points out that he
speaks excellent Icelandic and also can speak
well in English. Thorgeirsson also writes that
he is energetic, progressive and has a friendly
and helpful manner and that he is a good rep-
resentative for the people. Finally, the article
provides information about Jon’s parents and
about his homestead, community work and
family in Vidir.
My first attempt to write an historical
paper about the life of my father, Jon
Sigurdsson, came in 1983, when I heard that
community members in Arborg were preparing
material for an Arborg and district history
book. My story, titled, “Jon Sigurdson, A
Pioneer Sketch,” was printed in the book.
Then, I wrote an historical article, “Jon
Sigurdson: An Icelandic Pioneer,” which was
published in the Logberg-Heimskringla on
July 27, 1990.
In 1993, my family had the one and only
family reunion for all descendants of Jon
Sigurdsson, his first wife, Kristin Jonsdottir
and his second wife, Sigrun Sigvaldadottir.
This gave me the opportunity to do more
research about our family and due to new
information much was added to the original
story published in the Arborg history book and
in Logberg-Heimskringla.
The fourth occasion for re-visiting this
topic occurred in 1997, when the Vidir Ladies
Aid was preparing material for a new history of
Vidir, Sequel to Beyond the Marsh. I wrote a
revised history of my father for the book and
included information about Kristin Jonsdottir,
Jon’s first wife and his second wife, Sigrun
Sigvaldadottir, and their descendants.
The Vidir Hall
In the year 2000, I began exciting work
on a new revision because one of the most
important historical documents, dated 1917,
surfaced. It is believed that this document was
never published and had been read only by
Jon’s immediate family. However, there is a
reference to it at the end of the article about
Anna Halldorsson, Jon’s sister, in Vestur-
islenskar ceviskrar I. This reference is,
Kristjan Asg. Benediktsson hefur skrifad
cettartolo fyrir Jon brodir Onnu Halldorsson
og sogujratt af honum, sem hun hefur med
hbndum: Sagnad aettir um nokkra merka
Islendinga.”
In April, 2000, I received information
from Robert Asgeirsson who is the grandson
of Anna Halldorsson, my father’s sister. He
had been looking at material that he had
inherited from his mother, Ingibjorg
Asgeirsson. He told me about what appeared
to be an important document containing the
genealogy of Jon Sigurdsson’s mother,
Gudfinna Oddsdottir and an historical
account of Jon. Robert wrote, “I recently
came across two scribblers dated in 1917 and
created by a Kristjan Asgeir Benediktsson.
These scribblers were among my mother's old
family photos. The first page title is
“/Lttartala Jons Sigurdssonar og modir hans
Gudfinnu Oddsdottir a Vidir, Man. 24
Desember 1917. The second part of this man-
uscript was headed, Sagnajraettir, nokkura
merka Islendinga, (Historical articles about a
few noteworthy Icelanders)” collected and
written by K. Asg. Benediktsson.”
This was written in 1917 and was hand-
written in Icelandic. Robert sent a copy of the
document to his sister, Sigrid Kellas, who
lives in Winnipeg. We decided to seek help in
translating it. Sigrid was able to get Arny
Hjaltadottir, a Library Assistant, in the
Icelandic collection, University of Manitoba
Libraries to translate it for us.
The following is the translation of this
document:
JON SIGURDSSON
REEVE AT BIFROST MANITOBA
1. Chapter
Here begin a few factual stories about
Jon Sigurdsson. Jon’s father was Sigurdur
Bjornsson. Sigurdur’s mother was named
Margret Eyjolfsdottir, Pordarsson who
farmed at Borg in Skriddalur. Jon’s mother