My great grand father, Jon Jonsson Johnson, born July 24, 1881 in Lambhagi, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland; died August 14, 1953. He was married to my great grand mother, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir. Her second husband. They emigrated to Canada in 1924 but divorced and he moved back to Iceland before 1938.

In September of 2012, I asked Fridrik Skulason, an Icelandic genealogist, who had provided great assistance to me in other genealogical searches, if he was able to determine if Jon had remarried and if he had any children other than my grandfather Magnus.

He replied: Yes. He married Jóhanna Ólafía Vigfúsdóttir, who was much younger than he, born in 1899. They had one daughter, Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir, born in 1936. She died last year – never married and had no children.

I managed to find an obituary for her in an Icelandic newspaper. This is roughly how it translated:

Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir was born on March 11th 1936 in Lækjarholt in Reykjavík, where now lies Lágmúli. She died at the National Hospital on June 3rd 2011.

Her parents were Jón Jónsson from Hlíð under Eyjafjöll, a worker in Reykjavík, born July 24, 1881, died 14. August 1953, and Jóhanna Ólafía Vigfúsdóttir from Seyðisfjörður, a housewife and maid, born 21. August 1899, died. 22 April 1975.

Kristbjörg was Jón and Jóhanna’s only child. Johanna was Jón’s second wife, He was previously married to Steinunn Sigurdardottir, and together they had a son, Magnús Júlíus Jónsson, born in 1905. Jon and Steinunn moved to Canada with Magnus. Jon did not wish to stay in Canada and divorced Steinunn and returned to Iceland alone.

Kristbjörg joined Laugarnes School and moved with her mother to Urdarstg after her father died. They lived with her mother’s siblings, Valgerður Signý Vigfúsdóttir, who was a maid at Sturlubrar, and Jón Kristinn Vigfússon, who was a worker at Síminn. Kristbjörg was raised by them and her mother.

She was my half Grand Aunt, but sadly I never knew her.

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