Reminded about a clue

 

                                                                   Some books with information about Tom Thomson

I read a lot. While devouring books I own that are related to my family's history, I often leave bookmarks between the pages to note where there is a relevant passage to be found. It will be somewhere in the text on the two pages flagged by the bookmark. At the time, I promise myself that I will follow up on the information later. But do I?

My intentions are good. My follow through, not so much. I was reminded of that when reading Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven. I bought the book in the hope that it would cover the life and influence of Tom Thomson. He wasn't actually one of the Group of Seven so it was not a given that the narrative would include him. But there he was at the beginning of the book.

Also included was the information that his mother was related to Sir John A. Macdonald. It was a distant relationship and one I'd heard rumours of before. Having recently read Reunion: A Search for Ancestors in which the author, Littrell, finds out that his MacDonald line goes back to the MacDonalds of Glencoe, I was intrigued to be reminded of this potential Macdonald family link. Did our Macdonalds also go back to the Glencoe line? Maybe the book about the Group of Seven would provide more information about Thomson's Macdonald link, which would also be my own link.

Checking the notes in the back of the book about the Group of Seven, I was surprised to see that the information about the Macdonald link came from The Thomsons of Durham, another book on my shelves and one that had a few bookmarks sticking out from its pages. Not only did the book about the Thomsons provide more clues about the Macdonald connection but those bookmarked pages showed me a few more clues to family records I hadn't followed up on. Maybe its time to do that now.