Icelandic Relatives Lunch - May 19, 2017

We had a lunch at the Hofnin in Reykjavik’s harbour on Thursday, May 19, 2017. There were a dozen descendants of Steinn Torfason Steinsen present from three of his sons, Torfi, Halldor and Moritz.

Torfi was my great-grandfather. His son Bjorn (Barney) had one son, Donald Bjorn who had many children including me Eric, and I brought my wife Jane and my son Dusty.

Steinn’s son Halldor was married twice. His first wife gave him a son named Vilhelm. Vilhelm had sons named Gardar and Orn. Orn came to the lunch. Gardar did not come because he wasn't feeling well, but thank goodness his wonderful wife Asthildur came with their son Vilhelm and Vilhelm’s daughter Una. Asthildur had met Bill Steinson (Torfi’s grandson) 40 years ago when he visited Iceland and she thought I might be Bill’s son Eric. My wife Jane and I visited with that Eric last summer in Atlanta Georgia.

Once remarried, Halldor had another son who he named Halldor. I found the younger Halldor’s  family by using Google which turned up his obituary which had been posted in the newspaper. It listed his children and I successfully guessed his daughter Rut’s email address, so I was able to communicate with that family and I was very anxious to meet Vera, Halldor and Rut who came to the lunch.

The third son of Steinn represented was Moritz Viljhalmur Steinsen. I googled Moritz and found the website for the graveyard he was in. I wrote to the graveyard proprietor listed on the website to find out exactly where the graveyard was and they wrote back that they knew the descendants and the descendants would write to me, which Albert and  Eymundur did. Moritz moved to the Hofn area of Iceland in 1900. His daughter Agnes is Albert and Brynjar’s grandmother. We met Albert in Hofn and he let us stay in his mother’s house, then he and his wife Asta fed us lobster, Icelandic pancakes and a few drinks. It was much fun. Brynjar Eymundsson and his wife Elsa own the Hofnin restaurant and their son Losi Brynjarsson is the head chef. We all enjoyed a wonderful seafood meal there.

In Hofn we also met Albert’s dad’s brother Karl. At the lunch was Albert and Brynjar’s late brother Sigurdur’s son Eymundur Sigurdsson.

I didn't know anything about Vilhelm’s family, but thankfully Albert and Orn have been friends for many years through Icelandic football, so Albert told Orn about the lunch and Orn let Asthildur know.

It was fabulous to meet all of these wonderful people. My goal was to shake the hand of an Icelandic relative. Jane, Dusty and I got so much more.