Iceland Genealogy

Guide to Iceland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Country Information
Iceland is an island between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans settled by Vikings in 874. It was governed by Denmark from 1381 to 1944, when it gained full independence as a Republic. The official language is Icelandic.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Iceland

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, first search census records, which are indexed nationally: The National Archives Census Database 1703, 1816-1920.
 * For additional sources which could name your ancestors' town of origin, follow the advice in the Wiki article, Iceland Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Iceland Map
Genealogy records are kept on the local level in Iceland.

Parishes

 * Iceland Parish List: If you know the name of the parish where your ancestors lived, consult this alphabetical clickable parish list to find genealogy links and helps for that parish.
 * It is possible the place name you have is a farm name and does not appear in the parish list.

Counties (singular:sýsla; plural:sýslur)
If you know the county and parish where your ancestors lived, you can also reach the parish genealogy links and helps via the county pages. These county pages will also help identify close-by parishes in the event that you ancestors moved.

More Iceland Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Iceland.
 * The National Archives Census Database
 * Íslendingabók
 * Icelandic Roots Genealogy Links
 * Íslenski Ættfræðivefurinn - Iceland GenWeb
 * Iceland GenWeb

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * FamilySearch Genealogy Research Groups
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Iceland Historical Records
 * FamilySearch Center locator map
 * FamilySearch Catalog Keyword search Iceland

Islândia