From Ambassador

One of the most amazing discoveries I made after my arrival in Iceland is the enormous information that has been compiled into a database concerning each citizen’s ancestry and lineage.
 
They say that the majority of Icelanders are regarded as descendants of Norsemen (or Vikings) and every member of the population is related in some way, and the detailed information was compiled into a database and made accessible online in 1997. Consequently most of the Icelandic people are able to access their lineage data from their PC or cell phone, back 30 generations or so.
 
I asked one of the Icelandic staff members of the Embassy to access the data, and he was instantly able to trace 26 generation of his family to the oldest person who was born in 1050, including all the ancestors’ names, dates of birth and death. Moreover he could read about their professions or family with only one click on the name.
 
Originally this data had been compiled by a private genetic research company; and it claims to cover half of all Icelanders who have lived on the island from the settlement in 874 and until 1703, when the first national census was taken, as well as more than 95 percent of all Icelanders who were born after 1703.
 
I heard that the data regarding the ancestors who were alive about 1,000 years ago was compiled from ancient church books or local records. For somebody like me who is even uncertain of my ancestry of 4~5 generations back, it was quite amazing to know that such ancient records had been kept. I realized this is one of “miracles” which can only happen in Iceland where the oldest book written during 12-13 century, the “Saga”, has been inherited.