In 1876 Páll Gunnlaugsson and Nanna Jónsdóttir auctioned off their belongings and emigrated from Iceland to North America with their two young sons. A year earlier, Jón Guttormsson and Pálína Ketilsdóttir emigrated from a different Icelandic fjord with their young son Vigfús and settled in New Iceland, Canada.

This book looks at the processes of migration and settlement, and the cultural changes and continuities that arise from entanglements with new environments. It weaves the results of archaeological excavations at two farms, Hornbrekka, Iceland and Víðivellir, New Iceland together with the rich historical archive of the emigration period. The discussion focuses on four themes through which specific changes in the lives of the emigrants and their descendants are explored: ethnic identity, wealth, improvement, and modernity. The book provides a critical examination of how change occurs through continuities and argues that either/or categories are inherently unhelpful in explaining cultural change.