Oskar Gudlaugsson

The 1845 census of Iceland is one of the oldest Icelandic censuses to register the place of birth of the country's inhabitants, but only the 1816 census had done so previously. In this study the social network of Iceland's traditional rural society was investigated by using the 1845 census' birthplace data of married couples. The study built a database including nearly all registered couples of the census, almost fifteen thousand individuals, along with their places of birth. The findings are reported in the form of statistics and maps. The main conclusion of the study is that although a large portion of the country's population chose a mate from within their home county or even the same parish, it was still common for couples to be of more varied ancestry. Not all parts of the country were equal in this regard and people from the southwestern corner of Iceland were particularly likely to have a mate from a distant region.