By Mary Marik
In 1870, when emigration from Iceland to North America began, the population of the whole of Iceland was about 70,000. (The population of Green Bay today is about 105,000.)
During a June 9 presentation sponsored by the Washington Island Historical Archives, Jonas Thor, a scholar of Icelandic emigration to North America, said that out of this small total population, about 16,000 emigrated to North America between 1870 and 1914.
Many believe that emigration from Iceland took place because of volcanic eruptions going on in Iceland at that time; however, Thor stated that most Icelanders were simply seeking a better life elsewhere.
Potential Icelandic immigrants to Wisconsin were first encouraged by letters sent from William Wickman, a native of the Eyrarbakki region who had arrived in Milwaukee in the early 1860s. Wickman’s enthusiasm for Wisconsin led to Washington Island becoming one of the oldest Icelandic communities in the United States and among the largest outside Iceland.
Thor said that many of the first arrivals to North America were at a disadvantage because their skills were limited to cold-water ocean fishing and subsistence farming. Many of the places they settled in North America—the Dakotas, the prairie provinces of Canada and the Pacific Northwest did not provide opportunities for farming and fishing as they knew it.
This lack of experience and knowledge led many of the Icelandic newcomers to North America to make poor decisions about which free farmland they should acquire through the federal Homestead Act of 1862.
Although at first many of the settlers from Iceland hoped to set up Icelandic colonies in North America, they soon changed their plans. Many decided, instead, that they needed to learn farming skills and techniques from Norwegian farmers who were already settled on successful farms.
Thor, who has written three books on the history of Icelanders in North America, said, “I have a passion for the subject of Icelandic emigration to North America.” He was educated in Iceland and then spent 10 years in Canada as he studied Icelandic emigration.
Thor has put his academic knowledge to practical use by offering courses to Icelanders about the emigration of their ancestors. He has also organized tours for both Icelanders who want to see Icelandic settlements in North America and Americans and Canadians who want to visit the homeland of their ancestors.
“I am sometimes able to take people from North America to the personal homes of their ancestors in Iceland,” said Thor, who also noted that Icelanders who visit the United States on his tours often spend many hours in cemeteries seeking familiar names on headstones.
Thor is now affiliated with Icelandic Farm Holidays, a tourism agency that concentrates on rural Iceland. The website is.
Jonas Thor, a historian of Icelandic emigration, spoke at a June 9 presentation organized by the Washington Island Historical Archives.
Jonas Thor, a historian of Icelandic emigration, spoke at a June 9 presentation organized by the Washington Island Historical Archives.
Thor is continuing his research on Icelandic emigration and is seeking any letters that descendants of Icelandic immigrants to Washington Island might still possess. He hopes to translate the letters to learn additional names and hometowns of early Icelandic newcomers to North America.
“I would like to put the names of all Icelandic emigrants on a Google map on the Internet, including their biographical information—where they were from and where they settled in North America,” said Thor.
If you would like to share letters or other information Thor might be able to use in his project, please contact him through the Washington Island Historical Archives at washisldarchives@gmail.com.
Archivist Janet Berggren can make copies of letters and then e-mail the copies to Thor; in addition, the Archives would like to keep a copy in its files.
The Island Archives would appreciate seeing any family letters relating to Iceland—from the distant past or nearer to the present day—but Thor is most interested in the 1870–1914 time period.
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