Faroese Americans () are Americans of Faroese descent or

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

-born people who reside in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The Faroe Islands are a group of eighteen islands between

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, and they are a part of the

Kingdom of Denmark The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply Denmark, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united by the Constitution of Denmark, Constitutional Act, which applies to the entire territor ...

. Because many immigrants were identified by their Danish citizenship, it is not known how many Faroese Americans there are.

History

The Faroe Islands were originally settled by

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

around 800 AD, and remained in contact with

and Scandinavia throughout the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

. This settlement was a part of the same population movement that brought the Norse to North America around 1000 AD. Unlike many European countries, the Faroe Islands did not industrialize and did not experience the same population pressures which drove many Scandinavians to immigrate to the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact, the opposite was occurring in the Faroe Islands. Due to shipping restrictions and monopolistic control of goods traveling to the islands, there was a

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

, exacerbated by the lack of grain going to the Faroe Islands from Denmark. Additionally, Danish laws were created that effectively barred the poor from marriage to keep the population low.

Immigration and settlement

Faroese American immigration differs significantly from that of most groups of Europeans. Faroese Americans did not come to the United States in large groups, but instead came as individuals. Men often immigrated to the United States to work, especially as sailors. Women often immigrated to the United States through marriage to Americans. Because of the individual style of immigration and the smaller numbers, there is not as cohesive a Faroese American community, as there is for many other immigrant groups to the United States. Some Faroe Islanders also converted to

Mormonism Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationism, Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to va ...

and Seventh-day Adventism, and so then moved to Denmark to be a part of the larger Mormon and Seventh Day Adventist communities there. From Denmark, some further immigrated to the United States, often in larger groups, as was common for Danish emigration. However, very few people overall left the Faroe Islands. There is evidence that Faroese Americans settled widely across the United States, and did not refine themselves to simply the areas settled by many

Scandinavian Americans Nordic and Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian and/or Nordic ancestry, including Danish Americans (estimate: 1,453,897), Faroese Americans, Finnish Americans (estimate: 653,222), Greenlandic Americans, Icelandic Americans ...

. In context, this makes a lot of sense, as Faroese Americans immigrated mostly as individuals, and often had different skill sets than Scandinavian Americans, namely, seafaring abilities. Additionally, around the 1850s, the Faroe Islands started to develop their own national identity, and so many Faroese Americans may not have identified closely with Scandinavian Americans that they would feel the need to live amongst them. However, there is anecdotal evidence that many Faroese Americans settled in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and the West Coast.

Faroese Ethnic Identity

Faroese ethnic identity is rooted in a strong sense of place, hospitality, and family connections. Faroese people have a strong tradition of hospitality, which includes inviting distant family members they have never met to stay at their house or for a complete meal. In the Faroe Islands, many people keep in touch with distant relatives, even so far as third cousins, and so family connections are extremely important.

Faroese Spoken in the United States

Some Faroese Americans have retained their language, but it has been very difficult until more easily accessible technology to actively keep the language with the next generation, and so many descendants of Faroese Americans do not speak Faroese.

Difficulty in Determining Numbers

Because the Faroe Islands are a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Faroese people have Danish citizenship. This means that in old census records, Faroese Americans would identify themselves as having Danish citizenship. Compounding this issue, Denmark created some laws that forced Faroese people to adopt a consistent last name during the 1800s, and the new last names were often Danish. Especially common are Jensen and Joensen, which are indistinguishable from Danish last names. Therefore, it is an extremely difficult task to estimate the number of Faroese Americans based on census records. Additionally, handwritten records may be mis-transcribed as the Fiji Islands, the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

, the Azores Islands,

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, Fayal Island, the island of Föhr, or others. Additionally, spelling mistakes for villages from the Faroe Islands makes it difficult to determine immigration. This makes handwritten records unreliable or incomplete concerning the Faroe Islands. Instead, passenger lists should be explored. Research in Faroese, Danish, and American archives is ongoing.

References

{{Demographics of the United States American people of Faroese descent Faroese diaspora European diaspora in the United States