The Faroe Islands – The next-door neighbor and lost relatives by Áslaug Guðmundsdóttir


Last week I was walking back to my rental house from the Uni here on the Faroe Islands. As I approached my house, I noticed an elderly man standing in his yard next door. He walked towards me and said “Good afternoon” in Icelandic! I was pleasantly surprised, and we started talking. He must have known forehand that I am Icelandic since he only spoke in Icelandic. The man told me he had traveled to Iceland many times and that’s how he learned Icelandic. He told me about his childhood in the Faroe Islands and that he had worked at the harbor in Tórshavn. He asked me what I was doing in the Faroe Islands and if I had been here before. 
After answering his questions, I told him that I remembered hearing about me having a relative who had moved to the Faroe Islands in the 1920’s but I did not remember any names. The man was so excited to hear that and asked me to find out the name of that relative. 
Today I met him again and luckily, I had just found out the name of that relative. His name was Baldvin and he was my great-great-grandfather and he lived in Klaksvík. As soon as I mentioned this to the neighbor (I’ll have to find out his name!) he knew exactly who I was talking about. He told me stories about him and that I have living relatives here in the Faroe Islands. Relatives that no one from my family in Iceland knew about and the neighbor knows some of them! How amazing is that story?
I called my grandmother afterwards and told her this story. She got all excited and I am pretty sure she is booking a ticket to the Faroe Islands right now!


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