We were sitting on our deck at the cottage in South Beach, enjoying the magnificent view of the Lake. It was a beautiful October day - unlike the weather in 1875 when my ancestors landed at Willow Point (which, incidentally, I can see clearly from my vantage point). The phone rang and it was my 14-year old grandson. His history teacher was discussing the new immigrants to Canada with the class. The teacher then asked the class did they know where their ancestors came from? They didn’t step off a plane as the newest arrivals have done, they came by ships. Then trains or paddle wheel steamer, or simply walked to their new home. What hardships did they encounter? How have they progressed in this great country of ours?

He chose to base his story on the Icelandic side of our family. I asked him how far he wanted to go back? Dead silence. I said your cousin 50 times removed was Leif Ericson and he came to L’ Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland 1000 years ago and is credited with discovering Canada. “No Grampa, more recent history, please, it’s only supposed to be a page and a half long.” Well, I said your great, great, grand parents came as very young children. I immediately opened the Gimli Saga so that my facts were correct and I continued.

My grandfather, Sigurður Kristjanson, was born in April 25, 1879 on a farm in the Skagafjorður region of Northern Iceland. His father, Kristjan Thorvaldson, died at the young age of 28. Following his passing, my great grandmother was having trouble supporting her young family. Her neighbors, a young, childless couple named Hannes and Ingiborg Jonsson, offered to adopt my grandfather. They were in the process of immigrating to Canada so they took my grandfather with them. He never saw his family again.

Sigurður and his new parents sailed to Reykjavík and then to Scotland, where he saw his first train. From Scotland, they headed to Canada. After they landed in Quebec City, they travelled by train to Toronto. Then a steamer to Duluth, Minnesota, another train to Grand Forks, North Dakota, a paddlewheel steamer to Winnipeg and finally, down the Red River to Gimli in 1885. He started fishing at age 14, and formed what was to be S. Kristjanson & Sons Fisheries in1891 and it is still in existence today.

My grandmother was born in the Vopnafjorður region, also in 1879. Her parents and siblings immigrated to Canada in 1882. They stopped in Kinmount, Ontario, where her mother died giving birth to a son. As her father was going to a farm in Saskatchewan, he left the infant son in Kinmount and left my grandmother with an aunt on the Oddleifson side in Arborg, MB. She also never saw any of her family again.

The Gimli Saga, which along with other local histories, was a Centennial project of the federal government. Every time I read about Matheson Island, Arborg, Lundar or a thousand other communities, I am appreciative of the work done by the locals. No one could afford the cost of all the research given so freely. In my opinion, our 150th year as a country would have been a great time to commission an update of the Saga. The struggles of the pioneers to come to this country and their challenges with scurvy, different food, diseases and isolation, are a vivid reminder of our good fortune to be Canadian.

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Ken Kristjanson

2017