DNA: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 My family ancestry map from LivingDNA

My LivingDNA results were not what I expected. There was the predominantly British Isles and Scandinavian mix I expected. That jibed with prior DNA test results. It was the further breakdown that had me scratching my head. Documentary evidence showed links to 19 different English counties and I had hoped the test would narrow them down to the most likely counties of origin. It expanded them! Not only that, but I thought that my Scots ancestry was firmly rooted in the Western Isles. Why was all of Scotland coloured in on my map? Also confusing,  the bit of Ireland that was shaded in. Was that just a carry over from my Western Isles ancestry, the links between the north of Ireland and the west of Scotland are well known, or was that my elusive Irish link for the Cavanagh line?

This is typical of DNA testing, in my estimation. I was looking for simple explanations of my ancestral origins but things kept getting more and more complicated. Isn't that always the way? Every chance I get, I go looking for more information. In April my local genealogy society, the BC Genealogy Society (BCGS), brought in Mary Kathryn Kozy for a day long seminar about genetic DNA. The presentation was really informative and I have lots of notes and links to follow up on. (Honestly, I can see how this can become and huge time sink!) There was one part of the lecture that stuck with me, the part about endogamy.

Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a limited group which is the case among some cultures, like Jewish populations or other religious congregations, particularly among the early North American colonists. It was a case of cousins marrying cousins for generations. I was wondering why my sole colonial line of Tripps kept coming up with DNA matches even though it seemed so far back in time. Endogamy might be the explanation. The presenter at the April event, Mary, also has a colonial line. When she showed her LivingDNA family ancestry map it showed clear links back to one county in England. I was jealous!

Strangely enough, there were not very many DNA presentations on offer at the 2018 OGS Conference. I didn't attend any of them. DNA testing companies had a large presence at the conference marketplace, however. As I wanted to know more about LivingDNA's current work on pinpointing Irish origins, I stopped by their booth. Apparently, their results on Irish origins will not be available until the end of 2018 and, when I asked whether my Irish roots would be limited to the part in the north of Ireland that was already showing, I was told I might have results in the rest of Ireland as well. Looks like I have time to find out more about genetic DNA while I am waiting.

Gathering Nuggets of Information along the Research Trail

Church in Moreston Heritage Village taken peeking over the fence

Grey Roots Museum and Archives

Preparation is key when searching local archives. You need to know what you are looking for and the information available at the repository to get the most out of your research time. My previous visit to Grey Roots Museum and Archives had come as a surprise so I was not prepared and I also had limited time there. An initial look showed there was still a lot I hadn't seen on my first visit. The archives are searchable online at https://greyroots.com/collections-and-research/archives-research/search-archives.

My three page list of potential sources made things easier when I visited the archives. I handed the list to the archivist who brought out the items a few at a time. Some items didn't yield anything pertinent but the ones that did were wonderful - many of them family photos I had never seen, like the one of my grandmother as a young girl posing with her older brother and younger sister. 

That find more than made up for not being able to tour Moreston Heritage Village, the historic village attached to the museum. Sadly, it doesn't open until July 1st but I took some photos looking over the fence. 

Greenwood Cemetery

Since I was close to Owen Sound I went searching for the final resting place of the Thomsons and Mathisons who link to my family tree. Having already checked the gravestones at Leith Church on a previous visit, I went looking closer to the city at Greenwood Cemetery. Here too preparation was key. The cemetery covers a large area with many stones to check but fortunately there are websites to help you find particular gravestones before you go. The most helpful site is hosted by the Bruce & Grey branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and can be found at https://brucegrey.ogs.on.ca/?page_id=943. With the help of that website I was able to find this gravestone. Both Margaret and Henrietta Mathison were sisters to my 2 x great-grandmother, Kate Mathison.

McMichael Canadian Art Collection

My Ontario trip included a stay in Toronto. I ruled out a trip to the Ontario Archives as it didn't seem that I would find out much more with a visit. I know I will probably find a burning need to do some research there sometime in the future because I am no longer in Ontario, but that is the nature of genealogical research. I put my research behind me and prepared to enjoy the sights and bookstores of Ontario's capital city. My host knew of my interest in the art of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven so she took me to see the McMichael Canadian Art Collection at the venue on the right. There on the grounds is the shack that served as Tom Thomson's studio and living space in the last years of his life. I guess there was a little bit of family history to be found near Toronto after all. 

Tom Thomson's shack

 

 

Following the Research Trail in Southwestern Ontario

Wellington County Museum and Archives

Ontario covers a vast area and I swear my ancestors lived in most of it! It would take more than one or two research trips to explore all the potential repositories of information about my family's past. The OGS conference that I attended was in Guelph so I plotted a research trail in Southwestern Ontario which took in various places where my ancestors lived. 

McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph

There was a distinct Scottish flavour to the family members who made it this far west in Ontario. The conference was held at the University of Guelph and as its McLaughlin Library is noted for its Scottish collections, it was a natural place to start. The library also has a great deal of information about the places where the Scots and others settled in Ontario. I spent many an hour looking for books in the stacks and trawling through microfiche and microfilm to find official Ontario records related to landholdings and voting rights. They also have a new archive area where you can access their special collections after ordering them online. The McLaughlin Library holdings can be searched at https://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/.

Wellington County Museum and Archives

Just a wee bit north of Guelph, in the town of Fergus is the Wellington County Museum and Archives. The exhibits were worth a look. The museum is in the former poorhouse and one of the exhibits was about the life of the inmates there. It didn't take much, just a little misfortune in the days before social networks and there you were in the poorhouse for the rest of your days. 

Early on in my trip, I looked up information on the death of Ann Ross Matheson online. I was surprised to find an entry for her buried in Leith Cemetery on Find a Grave. Granted, her husband, Kenneth Matheson, is buried there but I somehow doubt that Ann's body is there as she died about 20 years before he did when they were living in Puslinch, which is a far distance from Leith. I dropped in to the Archives which are in a building behind the museum. The staff there were very helpful with my quest to find Ann's gravesite but there was no eureka moment, unfortunately. 

My Ontario Family History Hunt on the Ground

The OGS Conference

There's nothing like being in a room of fellow enthusiasts. The energy fills the room and it makes you want to get out there and make something out of your family history! The 2018 OGS Conference had lots of helpful classes, including one about blogging.

The blogging presenter said not to cut and paste from Word because of formatting problems. I always cut and pasted from Word without a problem, or so I thought until I saw what happened to the beginning quote on my last post. Hmm, maybe she has a point there.

It was hard to choose among the many presentations. All that I attended were full of useful tips and info but there were two that really stick out in my mind. The first was "What to Do When You Die", told with humour and plenty of food for thought. The second was a presentation on the Rural History Archive which is a wonderful resource of transcribed diaries from rural Ontario from people in all walks of life. You can even get in on the act and do some of the transcribing yourself.

It was fun to meet new family historians and be with my own tribe for a weekend. We all seemed to gravitate to the Marketplace at one time or another. I think there was a method in their madness when the organizers placed coffee and cookies there and gave us passports to be signed by every vendor for a draw. I confess to buying a few genealogy related items!

The Stabilizing Force Behind the Family Unit

          

            Come they with or without money, come they with great working

            sons or with only useless girls, it is all the same, The Scotchman is

            sure to better his condition and this very silently and almost without

            complaint… *

The quote above was extracted from information read to the 1841 Emigration Select Committee by Dr. Thomas Rolph, a former Upper Canada Emigration Agent. I am sure that the information was accepted by the select committee as read but the phrase “with only useless girls” trips up the modern reader.

The phrase not only goes against our pc culture, it also wasn’t true, although maybe the male select committee or the person who wrote the quote hadn’t really thought about the value that girls and women brought to the development of Upper Canada and early Ontario. 

Running a farm required lots of labour in the fields and in the home. Everyone played their part in the time when there were few labour-saving devices. It was also the custom in families where the father had a marketable skill that he would go in search of work after harvest time leaving his wife and children to keep the farm going during the winter months. ** This way he could earn money to invest back in the farm. In many ways, it was the women who kept the family unit together. 

Sadly, my 3x great grandmother, Ann Ross, the wife of Kenneth Matheson died shortly after her last child was born. The child’s death followed shortly after. The censuses after her death show Kenneth and family living in one place after another as he pursued work as a stone mason. As the children grew older they left to start families of their own but the first to leave, the oldest boy, Alexander lost touch with his birth family for 40 years. They left no notice of where they were going when they upped stakes from the scene of their family tragedy. Would they have left so precipitously if the family unit had stayed intact? 

 

Sources:

Campey, Lucille H. The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond. Natural Heritage Books, Toronto, 2005 *p127

Glazebrook, G. P. de T., Life in Ontario: A Social History. University of Toronto Press, 1968. **p143

The letters of Alexander Matheson to his sister, Margaret Thomson.