2022 Year in review

 

2022 was a change from the years preceding it. Restrictions loosened up somewhat allowing travel. It was enough to make things feel almost normal again but not quite. My blog posts included some about travel. At least I had new photos to share. Here is a review of some of the topics covered in my blog posts in 2022. 

As the year began, I was exploring letters from my 3 x great uncle, Alexander Matheson, who had found his sister again after 40 years. His correspondence was both a window on the times he was living through and a deeper dive into their birth family's past.

In February, I took my great uncle's story further. Alexander Matheson fought as a Union soldier in the US Civil War so research into his life included an exploration of his military records, an interesting source although some of the information, especially that coming from the man himself, may be questionable. 

The Mathesons had lived in Ontario before Alexander crossed the border into the US. Early links there were explored as well as those to Scotland where the family had originated. Included in my exploration of Ontario sources was a dive into the records of the McPhersons, connections of the Mathesons and the birth family of Mrs. Clark, who figured in Alexander's story. Posts in March and April were about this exploration.

In June, Scottish research was on my mind as I prepared for a trip there that had been delayed for a few years. That was when I signed up for a Pharos course with Chris Paton about Scottish records. Also, research looked to be tricky with the new reality and I wondered if I remembered how to research on the road. There was not as much research done on the ground in Scotland as I was used to but the trip reconnected me to the country and provided some clues that will keep me busy.

From August to December, my posts were inspired by travel to my destinations of Scotland, Alaska and Puerto Vallarta as well as other things that piqued my interest. Those were things like my father's RAF records, Viking DNA and the convict bodies found on Rat Island as reported in the program Digging for Britain. I'm still following up on that clue.

Images:

A letter from Alexander Matheson plus research books

Muster rolls for Alexander Matheson

An early Ontario house

Turf house at Glencoe

Books about Vikings

Seasons Greetings

 

                                      Seasons Greetings

                                               and 

                                     all the best for the

                                           Holidays

Getting back to it

 

This has been a year of travel for me, now that some of the restrictions of the past years have been eased a bit. The latest travel was a beach holiday in Mexico. There was no family history involved. Well, at least on my part. It was my first trip to Mexico other than the time we parked and crossed the border at Tijuana for a day. That was back in the '70s. I would imagine even that border town has changed since then. 

The trip was more reminiscent for my travel companion. More than once she brought up past travels to the country, the first time when she was a teen travelling with parents and siblings. That brought to mind my own travels when I was still living at home. We took beach vacations too, probably more to get away from the long Montreal winters. Like many people from Quebec, we headed south to Florida. In fact, my parents liked it so much they bought a house near Kissimmee.

That brings to mind a whole other story, an adventure of sorts. Perhaps there is something in my latest trip to trigger thoughts of family history and memories of the way I have migrated from one place to another. Maybe the break I took from family history will inspire me in new directions. 

DNA update

 

Most of the topics covered in the talks on my recent genealogy cruise to Alaska were about DNA. That meant lots of DNA chatter. The fact that a lot of us knew us each other from years of genealogy meetings and volunteering at BCGS helped the conversation along. As a bonus, there were draws for various prizes during our seminar days. I won a year of the paid tier at GEDmatch. I've been meaning to activate my prize. Not that I've done it yet. 

Before I got more deeply into DNA, I wanted to expand my family tree on Ancestry first. One of the BCGS members advised me that adding twigs to the branches of my family tree would help when looking for matches. But where to start? I've been researching various branches of my family tree for decades. I've gone deep and long on a lot of branches. The task seemed daunting. The tree expansion project became something to do later as other events filled my time. 

Then I got an email from one of my matches. We know that we connect but are not sure how. But we have our link narrowed down to a probable county in England. There will be an incentive now to add more names and family connections to my family tree. I just hope that we will be able to figure out our common ancestor once the work is done. 

Remembering Scottish Links

 

                                                         The White Hart Hotel, Charlotte Street, Port Ellen, Islay

Recently, I was on Ancestry checking out common links on family trees. As I remember, my search was for information on the surname Ross. My earliest matrilineal ancestor that I know of, Ann Ross, came from the Isle of Skye. I wanted to see if I could link her back to a line of McPhersons on Skye or in some of the surrounding areas. According to written sources, her mother had the surname McPherson. I didn't have much luck with that but one of the trees I looked at had McCuaigs in Kildalton, Islay. Back in the days of genealogy by email, I'd had a lot of correspondence with family historians on the track of McCuaigs. They'd told me that my line linked to members of that family. So I got sidetracked and brought further south in my links to the Western Isles. 

Islay links seem much easier to research than those on Skye. Perhaps that's because there are so many more record sets available. More books seem to have been written about Islay as well. In fact, I picked one up on my latest foray into Scotland, Land of the Ilich: Journey's into Islay's Past. It looks interesting. According to the list of contents, the book delves far into the island's past. Genealogy doesn't take me back quite that far although there is a chapter about Vikings that might give me some ideas.

Maybe someday I'll know if my Viking roots go back to when the northmen were on Islay. For now, I'm more interested in recent family links to the island. Specifically ones that connect with the White Hart Hotel. I stayed at the hotel once when I was in Port Ellen, but, unfortunately, nobody there could tell me about the hotel's history. Through records, I was able to find that the McCuaig family lived there. That's according to the valuation roll for 1885-1886. Also, in the back of my mind, I remember finding a strong link between the Hunters from Glenegedale, who were my lot, and the White Hart Hotel. I proved it to my own satisfaction at one time. Now I need to find the research that backs up that memory.

Genealogical archeology

 

                                                                       One of the convict ships, the Discovery

I never know where I'll come across something that links into my family history. Recently I was watching an episode of the program, Digging for Britain, which I have access to through my Acorn TV subscription. Archeology is one of my many interests. I've always thought that I'd like to be part of an archeological dig, on sunny days preferably. The program deals with the archeology of the British Isles so sunny days might be few and far between.

Each episode takes the viewer to different digs. As I'd just been reading about the Vikings, I was interested in the dig which turned up artefacts related to King Alfred, who had fought the northmen. The next dig segment really caught my attention. It was on Burrow Island, known locally as Rat Island. Through the years there had been rumours that the bodies of prisoners from the hulks in Portsmouth Harbour were buried there.

That perked up my ears. My 3x great grandfather, Thomas Arment, (Armant according to the death register) died on the convict ship Defence in Portsmouth Harbour. I covered the story of how he, his son Thomas and Henry Samuel Chester, were caught and tried for their crime in a continuing story on my blog in 2018. You can see it here: https://genihistorypath.blogspot.com/2018/08/adding-to-family-story-london-criminal.html Criminal records are a boon to family history research, there are so many records to find.

The information about the burials on Burrow Island leads me to wonder if that was where Thomas Arment the elder ended up. Perhaps one of the bodies they recovered was his. It would be good to be sure but I wonder if I will ever know.

Sources:

Digging for Britain, Series 6: Episode 1: Vikings and Gold, coverage of the dig on Burrow Island, known as Rat Island starts at about 24 minutes in

The mystery of Rat Island’s skeletons https://insidedio.blog.gov.uk/2021/07/07/the-mystery-of-rat-islands-skeletons/#:~:text=Harbour%20tours%20past%20this%20small,there%20in%20the%20Georgian%20era.

Image:

The forbidding form of the beached convict ship, Discovery, at Deptford. Launched as a 10 gun sloop at Rotherhithe, in 1789, the ship served as a convict hulk from 18-18-34. Date 19^th century By Unknown - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Discovery_at_Deptford.jpg Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10050203

Exploring Viking links

 

                                                            Some of the books about Vikings on my shelves

Vikings loom large in history and in our imaginations. Tales of the northmen raiding and plundering then moving in are the stuff of nightmares and horror films. But while stories of their daring and heartlessness make for action packed narratives, they were a real force that changed the course of history for many countries and fledgling kingdoms. Viking activity spanned hundreds of years from the early raids of the late 700s to sometime between 1066 and the mid-1200s, depending on which experts you consult. 

The Vikings left a wake of destruction, taking what they wanted; both material goods and people. Their deeds altered the history of settlements and family lines, many of which were wiped out through death and enslavement. As time passed, the Scandinavians began to settle in the areas that they had formerly attacked. That, of course, added their DNA to the gene pool of those places.

While some of the history of the Vikings appears in written sources, they also left other things behind, like burials. As the science of DNA became more sophisticated, scientists were able to separate this DNA into various groups by point of origin, which is how the commercial DNA testing company, Living DNA, came up with the Viking DNA Index.

When I first paid Living DNA to see my results in the Viking DNA Index, I knew I would have some positive results. After all, my ancestors came from the Western Isles of Scotland where the northmen had once ruled. At first glance, my results were interesting but didn't do anything for my genealogy. The history was too far back. The likelihood that my DNA was connected to the Vikings of Sweden and Denmark was just a fun fact.

Then I signed of for Diahan Southard's newsletter after watching one of her webinars. Her article about Viking DNA explained the results more fully. Her enthusiasm was catching. Besides my Viking index amount was 78% compared to other members in the Living DNA database. That was more than Diahan's, so if she was enthusiastic, maybe I should have another look. 

As with most history, I needed to know more and there are plenty of books written about Vikings. I own a few, most unread. Although, I remember cracking the covers of The Scots: A Genetic Journey, with high hopes. Some of the DNA population results written about in that book were Viking but, disappointingly, the concentration was on Y-DNA. That's not very helpful when tracing a maternal line. Further reading might give me clues about the Viking's in my family's past. Looks like I have my work cut out for me!

Sources:

Price, Neil Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, New York, 2020

Diahan Southard’s Your DNA Guide blog https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/viking-dna

In Remembrance

 

It's that time of year again when we honour those who have served in times of war. There are many veterans of war in my family. My focus this year is on my father who served in the RAF. The automatic assumption would be that he flew a plane, perhaps participated in the well-known Battle of Britain but he wasn't a flier. He did have a part in that theatre of war or at least the start of it. In the early days of WWII, he was one of the crew who supported the buildup of equipment and construction of airfields for the fighter squadrons in England. 

After that, he was transferred to the Far East. At least that was where the convoy was headed before it turned back to Bombay after Singapore fell. In India, he was promoted to RAF Intelligence, a role that supported the buildup of air operations in southern India and also the Burma Campaign. I've recently started to go through his military records and hope to find out more. Part of that research will include reading more about the war in that part of the world. One thing I do know is that the war in India and Burma lasted for months after VE day was celebrated back in England. But eventually the war in the Pacific came to an end. My father made it home and I will honour his memory this Remembrance Day. 

Writing vs genealogy

 

                                  The double rainbow I saw going home from SIWC one year seemed like a good omen

It's easy to get lost for hours scrolling through email. I have the unfortunate habit of saving things to "look at later". As if "later" ever comes! Part of my problem is that I'm involved with so many things that generate virtual messaging. As any genealogist knows, there are lots of people trying to get our attention about webinars, meetings and new tech advances which will change the way we research. On top of that are messages about the latest records available on the big databases like Ancestry and Find My Past.

Sorry, I got pulled away for a minute because an email about writing family history caught my eye. That's because another of my interests is writing. Big Surprise there, but what you may not know is that, while I write this blog about genealogy and history, I'm also interested in other kinds of writing. I'm in the beginning stages of producing a work of fiction and have ideas about writing memoir. Believe me, the subject of writing also generates a lot of emails. Writers are not shy about putting down their words in electronic form!

Sometimes it feels like my interests in genealogy and writing are pulling me in two different directions, each demanding my attention and time. Not only to do family research or get down the words, but to learn more about the latest research techniques or to find better ways to convey my thoughts or show the actions of my characters. Both genealogy and writing each have their own online and in-person events to teach me more.

Last week I put genealogy aside to attend the Surrey International Writers Conference (SIWC). It's an event where writers, agents and other members of the publishing world come together to celebrate and learn. This year, for the first time in a couple of years, it was held partly in-person. There was also an online component, a holdover from the pivot done to allow the event to continue when getting together was problematic.

I enjoy attending SIWC, mingling with other writers, learning more about my craft. Being there is a big part of the experience but the learning doesn't stop there. A lot of the sessions are recorded and available for subscribers to view for 30 days after the event. That's both good and bad. I now have a playlist to get through in the next while. That reminds me of all those RootsTech videos that I really should get back to. With these two time consuming interests, it's no wonder I'm so far behind reading my emails! 

Giving records a closer look

                                                                  A pile of military records

I write for the BC Genealogy Society's newsletter. I've been a member of the BCGS for years and have gained a lot from the association. In the past, I volunteered at their library. Since they started the online newsletter, I volunteer by contributing written articles.

As the next newsletter was due to be published in November, the piece of writing I sent in this time was about my father's experiences in World War II. As part of my research, I pulled out his military records. I remember ordering them from the Royal Air Force, RAF Disclosures Division. That was back in 2013 or 2014. (There's a postmark on the envelope.) They took ages to come in. I recall looking at the paperwork and trying to make heads or tails out of it. Back then, understanding them seemed pretty hopeless but I did email an expert in interpreting RAF records, only what he sent back didn't make much sense. That was probably because I only scanned part of the document to send to him. After his confusing response, I put the records aside to look at later.

Now, unlike in many other cases, that later time was actually here. As I looked through the documents to find information, I was surprised by how many pieces of paper there were. I only remembered looking at the two buff coloured ones on stiff paper which detailed such things as his description, home address and cryptic notes about his various assignments. Now I found photocopies of more records. There were three more pages and, interestingly, a new family address much further away from dockland. I hadn't known that the family absented themselves from the area or, at least, spent their nights in what might have been deemed a safer area of London, Harringay, which was in North London.

I wonder what other surprises I will find as I explore the war records further. I also have an account my father wrote about his wartime experiences and this will be the first time that I look at the official record and his account together. It's time to give this information a much closer look.   

Closed for 100 years

 

Recent genealogy news came out that Land Army records were now online. It was well known in my family that my mother's war time experience included time in the Land Army. Seeking further information, I found the update from the National Archives about the new release amongst my later unread emails. It's one of the many genealogy news sources I subscribe to and can be found at news@enews.nationalarchives.gov.uk I had to click on the button to find out more.

In one of my past visits to Kew, I remember finding my mum's index card for the Land Army. I recall that it was on one of my first visits to the National Archives. But it's always worth checking to see if I had missed anything, especially as I was fairly new to on the ground research at that time. According to the National Archives' article, the new digitized version would be searchable on Ancestry. So, I searched for my mother's name on the database. It wasn't there. I found that strange since I have a copy of one page of her land army record in my collection. Puzzled, I took the extra step of checking Ancestry's general information for the collection. There at the bottom of the page about the collection it stated that information for individuals less than 100 years old was excluded.

My mother would have been 100 by now if she had lived but just barely, as she was born in the early months of 1922. It looks like Ancestry applies the 100 year rule in yearly chunks. I checked Ancestry's collection of the 1939 England and Wales Register for my mum's listing. Sure enough, her name was not yet revealed. A check of Find My Past's collection of the 1939 Register revealed her name. It looks like Find My Past applies the 100 year rule differently, a fact for which I am grateful but it looks like I'll have a longer wait to see those Land Army records. 

Advances in technology

 

                                                     An earlier form of transportation, a train with a steam engine

When I got back from my Alaska cruise, I was happy to see the computer keyboard I had ordered waiting for me. Despite all those news reports about porch pirates, I was lucky. It was there waiting for me on my front porch. I had worried about the delivery date and fretted that it would come while I was away. Of course it did. Not that it is an expensive keyboard or anything but finding work arounds so that I could still use my desk top set up with its two screens was quickly getting old.

The two screens thing became popular a few years ago and definitely makes work easier but I'm reminded how computing has developed over the years. One of my screens is an old square shaped HP monitor from 2006, ancient in tech terms. But the length of time isn't that great especially when considering how long it took for other technological advances to change the world.

When I trace my own family's movements, advances in transportation come to the fore. My maternal grandfather worked for the London and Southwestern Railway before immigrating to Canada. Railways also played a part in his transportation to his new country. He first reached Canadian Shores on a CP Rail ship, the Empress of Ireland, before furthering his journey on a train to Saskatchewan. He made quicker progress than members of other family lines who had immigrated to Ontario and PEI much earlier.

My birth family's immigration to Canada was also influenced by changing times in the transportation industry. When WWII ended and my father left the RAF, he joined one of the airlines which were just getting off the ground. Marriage and children followed and, soon after, a transfer to Montreal. Needless to say our journey to North America was faster than my grandfather's but nowhere as quick as the flight today. Back then airplanes had propellers and there were frequent stops to refuel. Like a lot of other technology, there have been lots of advances in airliners since that time.

Although changes in transportation had a huge impact on our lives, other advances in technology had equal or larger parts to play. Things have changed exponentially in my lifetime. But that was also true for my father and grandfather. That's something to remember as I explore my family's history.

A genealogy cruise to Alaska

 

                                                                                    Creek Street, Ketchikan

It's inevitable, every time I go away, I forget something. This time it was my Ancestry password. Access to my account on Ancestry would have come in handy on my travels, a cruise this time. The trip had been set up by my genealogy society, the BCGS, to mark our 50th anniversary. Of course, the anniversary was last year but COVID put cruise plans on hold. This September we finally go to go.

Plans morphed under the delay. The ship changed, our cruise was scheduled for a slightly different time on a different ship. Then it changed back. (No wonder I had a hard time remembering the dates we were going.) People dropped out, some others booked at the last minute. Two speakers had been planned for our at sea days, only one made it. That one was Blaine Bettinger. As he's a DNA expert, there were talks about that as well as other family history topics. The good thing about cruising is there were also plenty of other things to do and see. There were also plenty of stops on our trip to Alaska so, I got to do one of my other favourite things, explore history. 

There was lots of history on display when our ship docked and we were let loose in the towns. Our first stop, Juneau, gave us a taste of the Alaska of yesterday as we walked the streets of the historic downtown. In Skagway we were more adventurous, taking a street car tour of the old parts of town. Our driver took us to the Gold Rush Cemetery where she regaled us with the story of Soapy Smith. That scallywag was brought to his end in a shootout, an event dramatically brought to life by our guide. Creek Street in Ketchikan was our next glimpse into Alaska history. There we toured Dolly's House Museum, the actual house in which Dolly, another colourful character, kept the men of the city entertained, if you know what I mean.

I don't know of any links to Alaska in my family's past but I enjoyed how the stops along the way used the stories about their cities to celebrate their past. It's inspiring to see history brought to life with such enthusiasm. The cruise genealogy talks also gave me food for thought and a desire to take my research further. 

But it's too bad I didn't have my password. It would have been good to look at my DNA info while what our speaker had talked about was fresh in my mind. Now I'll have to take a closer look and try and remember what he talked about. This time I swear I'll look at the syllabus and not just add it to my pile of genealogical information. 

Changing countries, changing jobs

                                                              Immigration advertisement

When we moved to Canada in the mid 20th century, it was due to my father being transferred by his employer. Essentially, he was following the same career path and doing similar work to that he had carried on in England. Transfers of this sort became more common as the years went by. But what of ancestors who immigrated in the years prior? Did they find work in their new country similar to the occupations they had worked at in the old country?

Not so much. Sometimes the jobs they obtained and the places they reached must have taken a lot of getting used to. When I write this, I'm primarily thinking of my maternal grandfather who, prior to immigrating to Canada, had lived in Birmingham and Bournemouth. When he arrived in Canada, he was sent to small town Saskatchewan. The work may also have been clerical work, in a bank rather than at a railway, but the surroundings would have been a culture shock. It didn't take him long to remove to Regina. 

But what of earlier immigrants in my family? Many of them were farmers. The earliest, the patriots who moved from the newly minted country south of the border to take up free land in Upper Canada, would have taken farming the new land in their stride. It wasn't much different than they were used to. The newcomers from Scotland, however, would have found the trees littering their plots daunting and the growing season one they had to get used to.

Not all of the early immigrants in my family were farmers, however. One in particular, Kenneth Matheson, was a stone mason. Building with stone was a necessity in the north of Skye where he came from. There was little timber still available. He first moved his family to Prince Edward Island. I wonder if his subsequent move to Canada West was motivated by a wish to pursue his craft - a thought to ponder as I work on the timeline of his family.

Rites and passages

 

                                                                  After the dance rehearsal, Moon Festival

When Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, it caused a whole series of plans and ceremonies to unfold. These plans were already developed and ready to go. No doubt they were tweaked as the years went by and the queen lived on. The passing of a monarch is an extraordinary event, but her death and the crowning of a new monarch is not the only occasion marked by rites. Most of us mark life events, like marriage, birth or death with ceremonies which vary according to culture and preference. The way that we celebrate or mourn has changed as lives have changed and religion has loosened the grip that it used to have on communities.

There are other events we also mark with rites; like those special days during the year such as Easter or the bringing in of the New Year. In the Christian calendar a big one is Christmas. In this day and age, the commercial aspect of the holiday has spread beyond the religious community. Some hark back to a time when it truly was a religious holiday but, our rosy view of the occasion doesn't always reflect the reality. There were times that work took over life so much that many marriages took place on December 25 as that was the only day the affianced couple had off at the same time. 

As people of different backgrounds mix in our modern world, it's interesting to find out about the rites of other cultures. Some events, like the Surrey Vaisakhi Parade in BC, I can't help but be aware of. That parade (and the food) attracts so many people that it pretty much takes over a large part of that city. But that's only one of a myriad of events celebrated by various factions of our society. It's interesting to experience the mix of cultures and the various rites people celebrate. It's also a reminder that people in the past celebrated various rites of passage or times of the year in different ways that had effects big and small on our ancestors' lives.   

Searching for Skye links

 

                                                                                    A view of Portree, Skye

Searching for ancestors in Scotland comes with challenges but some places are harder to find records for than others. My Scottish research has led me to two islands on the west coast of the country, Islay and Skye. I've been able to find a fair bit of information about my Islay folk, Skye is another story. Sometimes I feel like I'm grasping at straws. 

Strangely, when we visited the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society, I found that they had few books about Islay, more of their library was devoted to publications about Skye. My friend was busy in the next room so I looked through some of the publications for my Skye names, one of which was Matheson. There were lots of possibilities but one entry stood out.

The death had happened in Macao, a place which immediately caught my attention. It stood out amongst all the other entries with Scottish places of demise. I wondered why such a death had been reported in an Inverness-shire newspaper. Reading further, I saw that the death was of a young man working for a Scottish company in Asia. The deceased was Alexander Martin Matheson, a native of Kilmuir on Skye. I knew my Mathesons had ties to Kilmuir. Perhaps they were related to the young man who had died.

Frustratingly, the names of Alexander's parents were not included in the report. What was included was the name of his brother, an outstanding member of the community. The brother was named as L. Matheson, Surgeon at Portree, Skye. That looked promising. If L. Matheson was a prominent man in Portree, he must have left records. So now I've started looking at this family of Mathesons hoping that they will link up with my own ancestors. Here's hoping that the records will take both lines back far enough that I can see if they converge. Even if they don't, searching through the information I find should give me a better idea of life on Skye at a time when my ancestors were living there.

Sources:

“Deaths as Reported in the Inverness Herald and Northern Herald Newspaper 1839 & 1844-1846” compiled by Stuart Farrell F.S.A Scot, Scottish Genealogy Society

September beginnings

 

We've been conditioned to it. After years and years of starting school in September it seems like the natural order of things, at least in Canada and probably most of the US. It's that new beginning, the start of a new school year; arguably a more drastic adjustment than the change to a new year on the 1st of January. (Except perhaps for Y2K.) It's one of our rituals and, like most, has its commercial side. Just think of back to school ads. I know that companies selling tech gear have jumped on that bandwagon following many other companies selling clothing, lunch box items etc. I confess to an urge to haunt stores selling stationery looking for fresh pens and notebooks.

The idea of new beginnings in September has become ingrained. But then so have many other things that are now such a part of our lives they have become part of the background; like clocks, means of rapid transport, communication devices and electricity. Where would we be without electric light? Maybe not thinking of September as a time of new beginnings to look forward to but as the start of shorter days and longer nights. Perhaps a time to worry that there'd be enough set by to tide a family over winter - at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

It's hard to remember that my ancestors' concerns played out on such a different background than my own. But it's something to bear in mind when I try to understand their actions or strive to figure out where else to look for them when I've lost their trails.

Ancestry clues?

                                                        The White Hart Hotel, Port Ellen, Islay

A message I send on Ancestry got a response, well, actually two responses before I replied. That prompted me to look at my own family tree on the website. The link between me and the person I am corresponding with is far back at the fourth grandparent level on my tree, my 4x great grandmother, Janet McCuaig.

Although I haven't done much research on the McCuaigs, I recall exchanging emails with McCuaig researchers back in the day when email and online lists were the extent of genealogical research on the World Wide Web. But now we have super databases like Ancestry and it was throwing up hints on my own family tree linked to my Janet McCuaig. Maybe I could find out more about the McCuaig line. That way I would know more when I exchanged information with my correspondent.

There were two hints from different trees when I clicked the hint leaf for Janet McCuaig. Both listed the birth of my 3x great grandmother, Flora Gilchrist to Janet McCuaig. We all agreed on Flora's birthdate. It was looking good. One of the trees didn't have any further data about Janet. The other had much more information including Flora's marriage to Lachlan Hunter and the births of all of that couple's children. Everything on that tree looked good but what was this? The death date of Flora's husband, Lachlan Hunter, was listed as 1859. That didn't seem right.

Included in Flora Hunter's time line attached to that tree was a citation for the 1841 census. I checked my copy of that census. If the tree owner had looked at the census entry didn't they wonder why Flora and children were listed but Lachlan was not? A glance at the 1851 census would have confirmed that Flora Hunter was listed as a widow and their son, Hugh, was listed as a farmer of 20 acres employing one labourer. There is a lesson to be learned from this. It looks like I'll have to look closely at anything I find on others' trees and make sure of the research.

My foray on Ancestry hadn't given me much more information to share with my correspondent about the McCuaigs. For that I'll need to delve into the information in Hugh Hunter's will (the son who was listed as the farmer on the 1851 census) and the family connection to the White Hart Hotel in Port Ellen. Sometimes old fashioned research yields the best clues.

Sources:

Ancestry.ca family tree hints

FamilySearch 1841 census Scotland, Argyll, Kildalton film 1042720

FamilySearch 1851 census Scotland, Argyll, Kildalton film 1042355

Taming the magazine stacks

 

                                                                   Part of my genealogy magazine stash

I've always had a thing for magazines. Who could resist all those glossy covers at the newsstand promising glamour and hinting that they contained the secrets of how to live a life where you could have it all? I probably bought more than my fair share of lifestyle magazines. Then I discovered genealogy and found out there were magazines for that too.

Many of the family history magazines came from the US but even better were the British ones as they could have articles relevant to my search. My practice was to read each magazine from cover to cover folding down the corners of any pages of interest. My intention was to come back to those pages, make notes and add any web addresses to the bookmarks on my computer. I got hopelessly behind.

The problem was that, no matter how overwhelming the stacks waiting to be read became, those bright shiny magazines on the newsstand still enticed me with their promise of knowledge. I even thought that I might be able to write freelance for some of the magazines and had two articles published by Your Family History, a British magazine that is no longer published. The remuneration wasn't much, moreover my bank wanted a cut when they exchanged the pounds for dollars. It was a lot of effort for a slight return.

As time went on reading the magazines from cover to cover became more of an effort as well. Now I have glossy stacks of potential knowledge secreted in different places. It's time to do something about them. Who knows, as I go through the stacks I might find some gem that will take my research further. 

DNA update

 

I was attending the monthly BCGS meeting on Zoom a few evenings ago and idly checking out Ancestry on my other screen. As talk began about our upcoming anniversary cruise where well known DNA guru Blaine Bettinger will be our guest speaker, my thoughts turned to how I should be boning up on my own DNA research. So I checked out the DNA part of the Ancestry site. Interesting, there was an offer for me to learn more about my genetic makeup by adding Traits to my AncestryDNA results. I checked that out. (We were still in the business part of the meeting before the guest speaker started.) 

Traits looked interesting but so had the offer I'd received a few months before from Living DNA to find out if I had Viking DNA. That also had a small cost, similar to the Ancestry Traits offer. The Viking results hadn't told me much I didn't already know. I'm still on the fence over adding Traits on Ancestry.

Still thinking about the offer and still in the DNA part of the Ancestry website, I clicked on DNA Story. The recent addition of Ethnicity Inheritance which split the inheritance from parents into two so that it was possible to see which ethnicities came from Parent 1 or Parent 2 had fascinated me. What I had inherited from each parent mostly went back to UK populations but there was enough difference that, having taken their family lines back through documented genealogy, I was able to determine who Parent 1 was and who Parent 2 was. That was cool and looked like it should help in some way.

At the time I shelved that idea, thinking I would get to it later. Well, it looks like waiting was actually a good thing. Ancestry, which never before broke down the data into chromosomes, now had a Chromosome Painter in Beta. What's more, they had carried the ethnicities from Parent 1 and Parent 2 onto this chromosome chart so that you could see which region and which parent each of the chromosomes came from. I think I should explore this further. It looks like this could have amazing possibilities.

  

Sources:

https://www.ancestry.ca/dna Ancestry DNA – DNA Story

A virtual story

 

                                                                            The F Words comic book cover

Over the past few years more of our lives moved online as the days of casually going places as our means and inclination enabled us was curtailed drastically. Family historians were well placed to take advantage of this move to the virtual. The large databases we consult like Ancestry, Find My Past and Family Search already had a huge online presence. If we needed to find out more about a topic, webinars were available. Family history societies, having watched their attendance numbers dwindle in recent years, pivoted so their meetings were online. They saw the numbers attending their meetings grow.

Museums were not so well placed, at least not small museums like the one in Port Coquitlam, BC. It's run by PoCo Heritage which I volunteer for. In February 2020 we held the launch part for the F Words exhibit, the story of Port Coquitlam's early disastrous years told through exhibits and graphic novel style posters. Health orders closed our museum space to the public in March, less than a month after the exhibit opened to the public. The challenge then and now was how to get our exhibit seen. We needed to go beyond moving display items closer to the street front windows to catch the eye of people passing by.

The posters were turned into a comic book but that reach was limited. We were unable to sell the comic as we obtained a grant to pay for its development. What more could we do to get our exhibit seen? A search for grants turned up the Digital Museums Canada. A perusal of their website at https://www.digitalmuseums.ca showed stories from across Canada. Museums had gone virtual! Did we have a story they would accept for their virtual museum? We put in our application and waited. The news was that they had received many more applications than normal. Of course they did. Everybody was trying to go digital in any way that they could. How else could they get their stories seen if the physical doors to exhibit places were closed?

PoCo Heritage's F Words story was accepted! The story was adapted once again. Check it out at pocoheritage.org/fwords It's the tale of a city's disastrous founding years and the spirit that got them through. It's a story we can take strength from now.

Math and misinformation

 

                                                                       A view of Skye from the Skye Bridge

As well as writing factual accounts about my ancestors, I have also started to piece together larger stories based on their lives. That means figuring out the timeline for the ancestor who is the main focus of the tale, of course, but it also involves doing the math when it comes to people with whom they interacted. I'm finding that particularly tricky when it comes to women in their childbearing years.

It also involves checking the documents I've amassed for those intersecting families. It's good to remind myself about the facts I've been able to pin down with documentary proof. Unfortunately, I'm still coming up short on some factual data, particularly that of Margaret Clark nee McPherson, a person who was pivotal in reconnecting Alexander Matheson with his family.

An added source for Alexander's story is his letters. They contain clues to Alex's character and the events of his life. But, as tempting as it is, even the information he wrote down on paper cannot be accepted as gospel. People misremember or embroider the facts and information, although it is on government documents such as the census, can be incorrect.

Early on I remember a well-known source for the Thomson family phoning me out of the blue with facts about the family. I noted them down and thanked her but even as a family historian new to the game I knew that I should treat what she told me with a degree of scepticism. One of the things she said was that Tom Thomson's mother, Margaret, whose maiden name was Matheson, was born in PEI but I already had a copy of the June 25th 1841 baptism record for Margaret Matheson, daughter of Kenneth Matheson and Ann Ross. I had found it in the parish registers for Kilmuir on Skye.

It's good to remember that family lore and written accounts can provide wonderful clues but they can also hand down misinformation that has taken on the weight of fact the more it is told. I've tried to hang onto this principle as I find out about my families. I hope that has brought me closer to the truth of their stories. Perhaps figuring out timelines of intersecting families will also provide me with new avenues of research as I write down my family tales.

Sources:

LDS film 0990671 item 2: Parish registers for Kilmuir, 1823-1854

Making Scottish connections

                                                                     Turf house at Glencoe

In North America especially in the west, history is less readily apparent that it is in Europe. When in the UK, I indulge my love of history. Exploration of historic places enlivened my latest trip to Scotland. It was interesting to see how the other half lived when we explored castles and other places of historic note. But those place didn't make me feel closer to my Scottish ancestors although part of our tip took in the west of Scotland where my family had lived.

The homes my ancestors inhabited would not have compared favourably with the castles we explored but I did see mention of typical Islay houses at the National Museum of Scotland. I could imagine my farming ancestors in the parish of Kildalton living in places similar to those depicted. It added to my knowledge of my family's past to see the illustrations and artifacts that had been found when archeologists went digging on Islay.

Islay seems to have been well studied, perhaps because it was known to have had links to the Lords of the Isles, a powerful faction in bygone days. In my experience, information about Skye is harder to come by. That's too bad as, before they immigrated to what was to become Canada, my Scottish lines came from both places.

Something I remember from my one and only trip to Skye was seeing Glencoe. It was only a fleeting glimpse as the bus didn't stop and my photos left a lot to the imagination. This time I was determined to stop and see Glencoe for myself. I booked a tour that would take us there. I found it to be a very moving site. Of particular interest was the turf hut which had been built there, a replica of similar homes that had been there before the infamous massacre. It made me wonder if any of my family were affected by that historic event. I'd like to find out of there was a connection beyond the eerie feeling that Glencoe gave me but Scottish research is difficult at best. I've not had much success taking my research in that country back that far. Maybe it's time to make a concerted effort to see how far back I can get.

Unpacking my research bag

                                                                           Inveraray Castle

Well, the research trip to Scotland turned into more of a sightseeing trip. There were a lot of sights to see. Most of them were historic. I now have a whole raft of new photos with which to illustrate my blog although I'm not sure many of my ancestors got to spend their time in any of the castles I toured, not even as humble servants in the kitchen.

I spent a lot of time in museums too. Museums tend to reflect the experiences of a wider swath of the public, perhaps giving insight into how family members lived in the past. I've started going through the photos I took. There are so many more of those since photo taking went digital. I also picked up a number of books on Scottish history which may shed some light on my families' story. I have particular hopes of a book called The Poor Had No Lawyers. It's about land ownership in Scotland and may give some insight on how and why my ancestors, particularly the Islay ones, were forced off the land. In the case of my Gilchrist ancestors they appear to have been moved off traditional farm land to make way for the development of the town of Port Ellen. I was able to trace how my Hunter relatives in Glenegedale were forced off in later years, first by the RAF, then by the development of the Islay airport. That information came through the valuation roles maybe there is something to show how the land was taken away from the earlier Gilchrist renters to create the town. 

Photos and books are not the only things I brought back. I did spend a bit of time doing some actual research. I'm not sure I turned up anything of value. I'll have to give my notes a closer look. 

Family stories

 

                              The Bridgend Hotel where I stayed when following my great aunt's research trail to Islay

My great aunt, Peggy, was the first person to research my family's history, her branch of it anyway. That was back when research was done by mail and it took ages to find information. I often wonder what she was able to find. Very little of what she uncovered has been passed down. An old picture of the hotel at Bridgend on Islay, brought forth the information that she had gone to that Scottish island to find out more about her family line. It was only a nugget of knowledge but one that prompted me to follow in her footsteps. I stayed in that hotel. The family line on Islay was also the one I started my research with.

Strangely, the information about that old picture came from my father. He was her nephew-in-law, if there is such a designation. But that is the power of story. He remembered some of what he had heard her talk about or maybe a story that someone had told about her trip. It was enough to create a memory so that he told me about her hobby and her trip when he saw the picture.

Sometimes the stories passed down are only the top of an iceberg. According to family lore, my maternal grandfather immigrated to Canada because he saw a poster advertising Canadian immigration in a railway station. It was a family fact I let sit for a long time. Further research brought forth a story which added so much to those bare facts. The information passed down had been stripped of the underlying impetus for his move; that all of his family had died one by one. Also not mentioned was the fact that he worked for the railway and probably saw that poster day after day.

It took me a while to dig for my grandfather's story, but at least I had a clue to give me a head start. It's the stories that are lost to time. The ones that weren't passed down, perhaps forgotten, likely hushed up in some cases; those are the hard tales to get a hold of. But if scandalous enough, there may be clues in the public record. That's what I found when I came across the tale of the two Thomas Arments, father and son. Their criminal records brought forth reams of information about their trial, both on the Old Bailey site and in the newspapers. The records also led me to a clue about where the elder Thomas had come from before ending up in London. So, besides finding an interesting story, the search led me further back on this family line. 

My hope is that, if I look deep enough, I'll find hidden stories on other family lines if I delve into the social history of where they were living. Finding out more about events of the times may turn up their names, if I'm lucky. If not, then I'll have a better idea of the town or village where they lived to add social context to their lives. 

Search strategies with limited clues

 

                                                   Over the bridge to Skye. Were my McPhersons also from this isle?

It probably goes against the tenets of wisdom when it comes to genealogical searches but I'm about to take my McPherson search back to the old country. I know I probably haven't exhausted all the possibilities to locate records of them in Ontario but I'll be on the ground in Scotland. I want to see what I can find there.

Margaret Clark nee McPherson is the person I have the most information about although some of that is contradictory. The Canadian censuses were clear that her husband, Angus Clark, was born in Scotland. They weren't as consistent when it came to her birthplace. In 1881 there was just a dash written where the place of birth should have been, in 1871 Ontario was indicated and in 1861, PEI, if this was indeed Margaret. The name of the wife listed in the earliest census was hard to make out. I have a suspicion she may also have been born in Scotland.

What I do know from Alexander Matheson's letters is that Margaret was the daughter of Donald McPherson. It seems that when Alex was young and lived at home he had lots of contact with this Donald McPherson. Also, from the context of the letter, it seemed that the sister Alex was writing to would know the man too. In the 1851 census for Puslinch, Wellington County, Alex, his sisters, brother and father were listed as living next to a clan of McPhersons. Among them was a Donald McPherson, a widower aged 72. I have a feeling that may be Margaret's father. Unfortunately, his place of birth is listed as Scotland and nothing more.

It looks to be a daunting task to find out more about this Donald McPherson back in Scotland. Without a specific place named where do I start? Perhaps the 1851 census has more to tell me as there are other McPhersons listed surrounding Donald. Before him was Duncan McPherson age 30 with his wife and daughter. After Donald McPherson came John McPherson age 39 with his wife. Then came Alexander McPherson age 27, his wife and son. All of these McPhersons look like they are related. Searching Scottish records for Donald McPherson and sons of the right age might get me further ahead. Who knows, I might find the birth of Margaret McPherson while I am looking.

Sources:

Ancestry.ca census searches from Canadian census collection

Letters of Alexander Matheson, 1895 – 1920, personal family papers

Getting ready for on the road research

 

                                                                  Some of the research results from a previous trip

Oh, to be better organized. I start off with good intentions. Now that I'm trying to get ready for a genealogy hunt I can see the results of my on the road research leave much to be desired. I love to take copies of entries showing my ancestors but they are on full pages of data. Which was the relevant entry and how did it fit into my family tree?

I need to come up with a better system when I research do in-person research. There are tech options out there but I prefer to use paper and pencil. Many of the research notebooks I have are a jumble of research for different family lines. That's especially true of the research I've done in Salt Lake City. At least the books I've written in when I go to particular family areas concentrate on certain branches of my family tree.

Paper records are only one part of the problem. Tech development over the years also resulted in a proliferation of thumb drives. It's time to unearth the ones related to my upcoming research trip. Of course, I've left everything until the last minute so I better start organizing. I want to find new information while I'm away not duplicates of what I already have. Who knows, if I concentrate on organizing I might find some unremembered gems in the family information I already have!

Learning more about the US Civil War

 

                                                             In front of Lincoln's Tomb

The American Civil War is of interest to many. Covering divisive and pivotal years in the history of the United States, the events of the war are commemorated in the various places where they occurred. Visitors flock to museums and other sites of historic interest related to the conflict. Many family historians in the US can trace their lines back to a civil war soldier. It was a surprise to me, a genealogist living in Canada, to find two civil war soldiers in my own family.

I've written about Alexander Matheson before. Luckily in his case, I was able to obtain his Civil War records which give details of his time in the Union Army. I do not have any records for his brother Angus. It helped to know where Alex was living before he signed up. Angus had been living in Ontario, as far as I know. That doesn't help to pinpoint where to look for his records and there are a few Angus Mathesons in the indexes. There was nothing to tell me which was the right one although some clues found in the family memories recorded when Minnie Henry was interviewed in 1931 might help. But that's for another time. The information I have so far concentrates on Alexander Matheson.

In my search for information about Alex, I went even further afield. Part of the reason I signed up for a Chicago conference about my Irish family many years ago, a family line that had nothing to do with the Mathesons, was so that I could explore Illinois further. Chicago was interesting but I went further south to find out more. I took a train to Springfield. Not only did my trip include a visit to Lincoln's Tomb but I visited most of the museums in the area. The main theme of their exhibits was the Civil War.

The history of the various battles, weapons and fighting strategies was interesting. I enjoyed those exhibits but I was more impressed by the displays that showed the developments that were an offshoot of the war. An exhibit which I believe was at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, was about Civil War Medicine. With so many wounded men, new forms of treatment were developed. From the description of his wounds in his pension records, Alexander Matheson was lucky to keep his leg after he was wounded as the preferred method of treating fractures was amputation. Or maybe it was a lucky break and not a compound fracture, the most likely break to require the loss of a limb. My bookshelves have yielded a book about Civil War medicine which can help me explore this further. 

It's not the only book I have about the Civil War, of course. I've begun a slow read of my collection starting with Battle Cry of Freedom. I'm just in the opening chapters of the book now. I'm impressed with the strands of history that have been brought in to create a comprehensive background to the start of the Civil War. It has given me a better understanding of the forces at play as well as the lives of American peoples during the pre-war time period.

Sources:

Battlefield Medicine - https://www.civilwarfamily.us › battlefield-medicine

McPherson, James M.  Battle Cry of Freedom Oxford University Press, New York, 1988

Wilbur, M.D., C. Keith Civil War Medicine 1861-1865 The Globe Pequot Press, Guildford, Connecticut, 1998

Years of changing travel

 

                                                                      A postcard of the Empress of Ireland

Travel changed recently. It wasn't an alteration in the means of travel but an easing of restrictions so that travel was again possible. People are now taking off for different climes, something they'd been leery of until just recently. This change may be recent but it's also a reminder that the frequency of travel and ways of getting from place to place are by no means static; not now and not in the past. This was true for short journeys as well as epic immigrations.

My family's migrations are a case in point. They illustrate the changing means of transport as well as the altering length of journeys. I don't know much about the voyage of the first family immigrant. John Tripp made his way from Horkstow, Lincolnshire to Boston in the 1630s. Travel to North America from Britain was in its infancy. The ships were relatively small and the voyage itself was long. I have no idea what port he left from or where he landed. Was his travel all by ship or did he need to find a way to a faraway dock to catch an ocean going vessel? Once on a ship, travel times varied widely depending on wind and weather. 

My knowledge of the first three immigrations in my family is sketchy. Travelling as early as he did, John Tripp would have come by sailing ship. The next two, the Mathesons and the Gilchrists came to North America in the 1840s and 1850s when steamships were being developed but they most likely still sailed across the Atlantic. Their ships would probably have been larger and faster than the one that came in the 1600s. I have been unable to find the two families who immigrated in the 1800s on any passenger lists. 

That was not the case for the next immigrating family member. In 1911, H.S. Chambers was listed as sailing to St. John, New Brunswick on the Empress of Ireland. He travelled second class, no doubt in more luxurious surroundings than the two families of immigrants who had made the voyages decades earlier. I need to research his trip more thoroughly but, at least at this point, there is information to be sifted through.

You would think that record keeping would have improved as the years went by. But that was not the case. Yes, ships kept much better records of their passengers as time went on but that didn't transfer over to air travel. As you can see by the immigration table above, the last of my immigrating families came by plane rather than ship. No searchable records were kept of their arrival in Canada. So, from a research point of view it looks like things have gone full circle but thankfully travel time didn't go in the same direction.

Sources:

Campey, Lucille H. “Fast Sailing and Copper-Bottomed: Aberdeen Sailing Ships and the Emigrant Scots They Carried to Canada 1774-1855” Natural Heritage Books, Toronto, 2002

Douglas, Althea. Time Traveller’s Handbook: A Guide to the Past Dundurn Press, Toronto, 2011

 

Images:

Postcard – Empress of Ireland - by Unknown - Sjöhistoriska museet, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42989236