Laborers in front of Havsteens house in Akureyri, In the 19th century authorities insisted that the idle and unemployed moved to the villages and towns hoping for support from honest, industrious people. Photo Royale Archives of Copenhagen
In April 1865, Einar Ásmundsson at Nes wrote to Rev. Sigurður Gunnarsson at Hallormsstaður also Archdeacon in S. Múlasýsla:
“Men cannot find farmland to live on, everything has been claimed, in some places overcrowded. This leads to young, enthusiastic, and promising men to hesitate to marry. But the short-sighted men think nothing of it; get married and remarry if such is the case, so the number of this class increases with little, if-any, use to the Nation. But the steady and more dependable have less opportunities to increase their number, as the others more and more overcrowd them.”
The above is based on research by the Icelandic Historian Jón Hjaltason and his article ´´Graftrarmein´´ English version by Thor group