Every Name Has a Place: Discover Iceland’s People and Farms Through History

Have you ever wondered who lived on a particular Icelandic farm a century ago - or even further back in time?

Thanks to a groundbreaking new platform, you now can.

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of a powerful open-access tool for historical research and cultural discovery: the Historical People and Farm Database (Icelandic: Sögulegt mann- og bæjatal), now live at 👉 smb.mshl.is

🔍 What Is It?

The database is a digital treasure chest of Icelandic heritage, allowing you to:

• Look up any farm in Iceland and discover who lived there across time.

• Download full datasets in CSV format for your own research, genealogical project, or historical deep-dive.

• Trace names and lineages, connect family stories, and explore regional settlement patterns through centuries of recorded life in Iceland.

This tool provides unprecedented access to Iceland’s rural history - one farm, one name, one generation at a time.

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🧠 Who Made It?

The project is the result of years of careful development by Pétur Húni Björnsson, who has meticulously designed the platform to combine technical excellence with historical richness. His work is hosted by the Center for Digital Humanities and Arts (MSHL) and was generously funded by the Icelandic Infrastructure Fund (Innviðasjóður).

Together, they are pushing forward Iceland’s goal of creating world-class digital infrastructure for the humanities and arts.

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📚 Who Is It For?

Whether you're:

• A historian or academic working on Icelandic rural society,

• A genealogist tracing your Icelandic roots,

• A student working on a local history project,

• Or simply curious about who lived where and when - 

This platform opens a new doorway into Iceland’s human geography.

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💡 Why It Matters

Place names and personal histories are more than data - they are the threads of national memory. By linking farms to families, this database enriches our understanding of Iceland’s social fabric, migration patterns, and naming practices through time.

It also exemplifies how digital humanities can serve both scholarship and public curiosity, offering reliable, open tools to engage with the past.

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🧭 Ready to Explore?

Begin your journey into Icelandic history today:
🔗 smb.mshl.is

Zoom in on a farm. Download a dataset. Learn who stood where you now stand.

🧬 History has never been this searchable.