In the summer of 1904, Guðlaug Árnadóttir is a 28-year old maid at Bessastaðagerði farm in Fljótsdal in N. Múlasýsla and is listed for emigration along with her six-month old daughter, Oddný Hallgrímsdóttir, who is living at Birnufell in the same sýsla. Oddný’s father, Hallgrímur Eyjólfsson, a labourer, 24 years of age, is also listed for emigration. The couple also have a two-year old son, Ingólfur, who is joining them from Kross in the same sýsla along with Hallgrímur’s 65-year old mother, Ingibjörg. The father and mother have yet to be married.
The five of them intended to emigrate west where the parents dreamed of starting a new life, but that was not to happen. Hardly any work was available for either of them in Winnipeg. The fast-growing city did not offer them the opportunity they so much longed for. Instead, disaster struck. Hallgrímur became ill with tuberculosis. Authorities reacted by sending the parents back to Iceland. Before leaving, their two children are placed in a foster home; Grandma Ingibjörg also stays behind. In Iceland, nothing but benefit recipiency (government support) awaits them in their place of living prior to emigration.
As they arrive in Reykjavík authorities are far from happy. A pregnant woman and her husband-to-be sick with tuberculosis. Not a pleasant package and no funds to transport them east to where they belong. Therefore, disembarkation is prohibited, and they are forced to remain aboard the cargo ship which after loading, heads west back to Canada. The cargo this time is livestock and Guðlaug tried her best to make her husband as comfortable as possible among the animals. The Danish captain, – named – Albert, tries his best to make their journey as pleasant as possible but upon arriving in Canada, history repeats itself: not allowed to leave the ship. Their fourth journey across the Atlantic Ocean begins and soon the time arrives for Guðlaug to give birth with the captain assisting. Twins are born; one stillborn but the other lives and is given the name Albert.
While this all is happening out at sea, Icelandic authorities receive a promissory note from N. Múlasýsla: the cost of transporting the couple and the new-born child to the east is paid for. The little family is therefore transferred to a small boat, brought ashore in Reykjavík in haste, and their journey on land begins. Once back in their rural community in Fellnahreppur, they are not allowed to live together under the same roof. They are placed on different farms, Guðlaug is placed as a maid and is allowed to care for little Albert, but Hallgrímur’s days are numbered and he passes away in August 1910.
Four years later, Guðlaug is pregnant again. The father is Kristinn Björnsson; the pair are both labourers at Ormsstaðir. In October 1914 a son is born, but Guðlaug’s happiness ends sadly as Kristinn dies a few months later from pneumonia.
Almost a generation later, the son, now an old gentleman, sits down with Vilhjálmur Einarsson and tells his story which ends in a book called Dömur, draugar og dáindismenn with the subtitle Bus driver Sigfús Kristinsson tells his amazing story.
Sigfús recalls how his mother dreamed of the day she could have enough money to emigrate west and bring her two boys with her from Iceland to reunite with her other children already there. “The poverty was such that her dream never came true”, concludes Sigfús, “so I remained an Icelander and never became a Canadian”.
The above is based on research by Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article “Yfir hafið í fjórgang”. English version by Thor group