We leave the west coast this morning to drive to Siglufjorour, a “winter wonderland” right on the north tip of Iceland. But the drive itself will take us through the district of the Gafl farm where mom says,”Sigurdur Thomasson and Katrin Arnadottir had a child, Jonas Sigurdsson. And Jonas Sigurdsson and Sigridur Bjarnadottir had three sons: Johannes Jonasson (Doc Joe), Stefan Jonasson (born at Stora-Breka and died at the age of two years), and Sigurjon Jonasson (born at Felli in Skagafjordur).” Close to the Gafl farm is the Rutsstadir farm, where Doc Joe, Granpa Joe’s grandpa and mom’s great grandpa, was born. The farms are a ways from the main ring road and getting to them, according to the Google map, means going on a side road to a seasonal road and then from there it’s another 4km I think off road. We are going to test the conditions when we get up there to see about going off the main roads. We will also be near Akureyri, where one of our relatives, Olafur Thorsteinson, was a post man. And Davik, which is where the ferry leaves to go to the island of Grimsey. Mom told me that Grimsey “is where your great-great-great  grandparents Gudni and Rosa Gudmundson and their two little girls and spent a few years.  It was a harsh life.    Rosa was to bear five babies on Grimsey all of whom died.” We looked into taking the winter ferry over to Grimsey, but it just drops off and picks up in winter, so there would be no time to look around.

It’s a lot to take in. I just accepted being an Icelandic-Canadian growing up: Icelandic family reunions, the family histories that Andrea and Karen wrote and all the research on family history that mom has done, Icelandic food every Christmas, visiting Mountain, ND, stories of Doc Joe becoming a self-educated doctor after his first wife died, and all the Wynyard stories. I’m looking forward to the drive today.