Prairie Immigration Experience: Simon Simonarson fonds

Click here to view the digitized archival material

Institution: University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections

Collection Identifier: MSS 34

Title: Simon Simonarson fonds

Dates: 1839-1927

Extent: 6 cm of textual records

Biographical Sketch: Simon Simonarson was among the early Icelanders who immigrated in the 1870s to the original Icelandic settlement in Kinmount, Ontario. Along with other pioneering settlers, he worked as a labourer clearing the land before moving to New Iceland in the Gimli area around 1875. In Gimli he was a homesteader and a farmer until leaving New Iceland for Winnipeg.

Digitized Material: The digitized material from the Simon Simonarson fonds consists of his diaries from 1904-1914. They were written in Icelandic twenty-three years after  the fact and described Simonarson's decision to emigrate from Iceland to Canada. The diaries describe the first year at Kinmount, experiences with the first settlers in New Iceland, his decision to leave New Iceland for Winnipeg, his life in Winnipeg after 1881, and genaeologies of Simonarson and his wife Valdis Gudmundsclottis. Also included is a copy of W. Kristjanson's translation into English of an excerpt from the diaries and a description of Icelandic pioneers of 1874 from the reminiscences of Simonarson.

Click here to view a full description of the Simon Simonarson fonds.

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