Reading and inspiration

 

                                                            A book to illustrate a point in my upcoming presentation

Over the years, I've pursued lots of interests, many of them related to arts and crafts but reading and writing have definitely been a large influence in my life too. Now most of the crafts have fallen by the wayside as I pursue writing and, of course, reading.

When I also became obsessed by genealogy, some of that love of reading or more accurately, collecting reading material, became part of my genealogical passion too. Hench the many, many magazines I'm now trying to leaf through to send on their way. There have been some finds as I flipped through the glossy pages. One of the latest was a reference to www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk which seemed interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't find any known family when I checked out the alphabetical listing of names. There is still hope though. This site has been updated as recently as 29 September 2026, although I'm not sure exactly what was updated.

My reading is made up of more than genealogy magazines though. Some of what I read is non-fiction although the majority is fiction, especially mysteries which goes along with trying to find the mysterious roots of my ancestors, I suppose. What I read has also been influenced over the years by the threads of readers that I follow on LibraryThing and it was a post on one of those threads that may have given me the starting hook for my talk about writing for my DNA group. One of the members wrote about reading Bryan Sykes' The Seven Daughters of Eve. Now that's a book I think I can use to illustrate some of the points I want to make about writing to the DNA group. I never know where inspiration may come from. 

Life and change

 

                                                           A change in transportation in my grandmother's life?

Nothing is as sure in life as change. Recent elections have reminded me of that, both the municipal and provincial elections where I life heralded in change as did the one south of the border. It remains to be seen what further changes will come about because of the altered make up of government. We'll have to wait and see just like we will need to find out the implications of a change we didn't make this year, the change back to standard time that we decided to forgo.

Just like us, our ancestor also went through changes in their lives. Changes like immigration, migration or transportation (like Francis Cavanagh). But there were other changes as well, such as the growth of technology in everyday items in the home to the ease of getting around.

My maternal grandmother, who was born in 1894 and died in 1969, saw lots of changes in her life. There were all the household things, of course, but she did a lot of moving around throughout her life. How did her family get from Keady, Ontario to Regina, Saskatchewan where she married in 1918? I haven't found information about that but I'm pretty sure that the move from Regina to Winnipeg was by train. Her subsequent move to England during the 1930s with her husband and child would have been by steamship. But the move back to Canada in the late 1950s after the death of her husband, my grandfather, would have been by plane. And those were just the larger changes in her life. I'm sure that the equipment in the kitchen in her house in Pointe Claire, Quebec in the '50s and '60s was a far cry from the kitchen in her house in Winnipeg, Manitoba many years before.

I know that my other ancestors lived through change as well and it's how they dealt with alteration in their circumstances that really adds to their story. I'll have to bear that in mind when I research their lives. 

Recognizing history in the making

 

                                                                 Richard III lying in state in Leicester Cathedral

Sometimes it's difficult to realize when you are part of a trend, a cog in the wheels of history or maybe the force making that wheel spin. Did Francis Cavanagh know that he was part of a wave of convicts settling what was to become a new country when he was transported to New South Wales? Probably not. No doubt his concerns were more about survival and not adding to his sentence.

There are other times when you might acknowledge to yourself that the thing you are caught up in will become part of the historical record. I'm sure that would cross a person's mind as they sign up to serve in wartime but it wouldn't be their primary thought. History would come from looking back and taking account once the war was over.

Sometimes even new discoveries about history can become part of the historical record. I'm thinking of the discovery of the remains of Richard III in recent years. That's something that comes readily to mind after seeing Turi King interviewed at the Vancouver Writers Festival recently. She was in on the identification of the former king and at the festival because she has a book out, The Secrets of our DNA: How Genetics Has Changed the World. I wonder what other discoveries are in the book? Maybe I'll read about some historical discoveries or reinterpretations that are new to me. 

Events from 1917 or how I got the genealogy bug

 

                                                                    Some of my books about Tom Thomson

It wasn't until I had a child of my own that I actively started looking into my own family history but that was just the active beginning of my search. The spark had been lit a long time before when I was still a child in my family's home.

As I remember, the breathless buzz of gossip caught my attention even though my nose was buried in a book as usual. It was my mum and my gran, her mother, discussing (gossiping about) family members, their family members. Before my gram married my grandad, her last name had been Gilchrist. I knew that because somehow it was important and also because it was the last name of my Auntie Peg, who I was named after, although how anyone thought it was a good idea to call me Margaret when even she went by a different name, I don't know.

But what they were discussing was something that happened a long time before. Before my mum was born but, now that I think about it, it was something that happened when my gran was a young woman because she got married in 1918 just after the mystery that started in 1917.

Was the mystery a bit deal back in 1918? Probably not. There might have been some local speculation as to whether it was an accident or intentional then. Now, as far as the family knew, the body was interred in the family plot in Leith. Perhaps it was those books that started the discussion between my mum and my gran or perhaps it was rumours of a new book being written about Tom Thomson's death. But, although much has been written, no definitive answers have been found as to how an experienced outdoorsman like Tom could have drowned on July 8, 1917. 

Have you checked electoral records?

 

                                          Genealogical books point out the usefulness of voter's lists and other stories

Elections are very much on the minds of people where I live right now. Currently we are having back to back elections for different levels of government so it is hard to ignore. The facilitator of the in-person genealogy meeting that I attended this week grabbed onto the election theme. Her presentation/lesson was on the information to be obtained by seeking out electoral rolls. It's a good way of pinning down ancestor's whereabouts in specific time periods. The trick is to be aware of who was eligible to vote as those rules changed as the franchise expanded to encompass different facets of society.

Her presentation focused on Britain and Canada with a nod to the current elections about to take place in the US. The talk made me wonder if my Australian convicts would have been interested in voting and, indeed, if they would have been eligible. Apparently, according to an article I read, many politically active people, like Chartists, were transported due to their agitation which, in turn because of their presence, made the convicts aware of their political rights. Maybe I'll find something if I search for Francis Cavanagh on the electoral rolls for New South Wales. 
                                                                       

Sources:

Democracy in Australia shaped by convicts: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-29/political-convicts-chartists-made-australian-democracy/11520622 

DNA update

 

Have you seen the recent Origins update from Ancestry? They seem to do updates on a regular basis. It makes it hard to judge how to use this information to take my ancestry back further. I was happy to see that my DNA from Cornwall, which they identified last time, has disappeared from this update. I never could figure that one out. Now it just shows Devon & Somerset in that area which makes sense because both of my parents had ancestors who came from Dorset which is in the same part of the country.

This time they threw in another strange origin for me - Quebec and Acadia. There has never been a hint of that kind of ancestry in my own personal family tree. It makes me wonder where they came up with that finding and if it will go the way of Cornwall in the next update.

The thing that really has me wondering though is their take on my Irish ancestry which they've labeled as Ulster this time. When I look at the Living DNA maps of my Irish origins it pinpoints the other parts of Ireland excluding Ulster. And, of course, that is the one country where I could use some help pinning down the geography of my links.

 Coloured map for Ancestry Origins

 Coloured map for Living DNA

 

Which part of Ireland is my best bet for finding my family links?

Sources:

Ancestry DNA – Origins

Living DNA – map of related DNA locations  

 

Too many research plans on the go?

 

                                              Not at work - my grandmother is the standing woman in the middle and

                                                              my grandfather the seated gentleman on the left

What is it about declaring research and writing plans that opens the door for other groups to assign different writing tasks? For my genealogy writer's group, we have been tasked with writing a story about the occupation of one of our ancestors. Did my mind go to the Maidment/Rideout group that I had already determined was going to be my next focus? Of course not. I don't know enough about the Rideout occupations although I do know that my 3 x great grandfather, Joseph Rideout, was a woodman. I suppose I could look up what that entails. Then, on the other side of that family, for the Maidments, I need to explore more about the game keeper trade but could I confine my story to one ancestor? It would be difficult as so many of the Maidments followed that trade. Then there was that intriguing newspaper article about one of them. As I recall, there may have been a murder involved. That line definitely needs more research.

For this assignment I decided to write about my publicans - the couple that ran a pub in London's East End. Just to switch it up, I think I'll write about my grandmother because she's the one who started in the trade with her first husband and then, when he died (of cirrhosis, go figure), she married my grandfather. It's a story that will easily take up the one or two pages required. I'll see what I can come up with.