MSS 34

6 cm of textual records

Simonarson was among 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.

Donated by Mrs. R.F. Wilson in 1979

The collection contains 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 unto English of an excerpt from the diaries and a description of Icelandic pioneers of 1874 from the reminiscences of Simonarson

Open to all reasearchers

No further accruals are expected

Finding aid available