Getting reacquainted with in-person research

 

My long research weekend just passed was an eye opener in so many ways. It seems that I am out of practice. Who knew that the methods I had honed over so many long distance research trips would get rusty with disuse?

In the time leading up to our four day research retreat, I remembered that preparation was key and went through the BCGS library catalogue to see which books I would be able to access there. I also noted down a Scottish census film available on FamilySearch which I would be able to access there. The BCGS library has affiliate status with FamilySearch. I wrote up the book list and noted down the LDS film number and went on to other things.

Distracted as I was, the research weekend seemed way off but all of a sudden it was here. I grabbed my list and the netbook computer I usually take for research trips and I was off. Thankfully the route to the BCGS library was etched into my brain. I volunteered there for decades. My computer even recognized how to access Wi-Fi in the facility. It had other issues though. It seems that it isn't good to let a computer sit for over two years. The browser wouldn't update. I was able to access FamilySearch and Ancestry but not Find My Past which required a more up to date browser. On subsequent days I took in my other lap top. There were problems with it as well. Looks like I need new equipment before I embark on any more research trips.

The first day definitely showed I was out of practice. I even forgot to bring a notebook in which to jot down my discoveries. I'm a firm believer in one notebook per research trip. It's the system I use. It works well in the field. It would work better if I had a system for follow through once I got the information home! I need to work on that. 

In spite of all of my fumbles and forgetfulness, the weekend resulted in some gems. I found them in my notebook when I was looking for inspiration for this blog post. I have work to do with the information I brought home and, it seems, new computer equipment to buy. It was good to have a run through of my research practices before embarking on any research trip further away.

Immersed in research

 

                                                                            Th e BCGS Library in Surrey, BC

This weekend I'm participating in a retreat of sorts with a genealogy group that I'm part of. We're making a long weekend of the meeting and holding it at our local genealogy society's library. The BCGS library is a FamilySearch affiliate so I'm able to see some of the films that I can't see at home. Sometimes you just have to trawl through those census films to see where everyone and their neighbour was living. I'm still on the hunt for Donald McPherson, although not knowing if he came from the same parish as my Mathison clan doesn't help much. So far I've found quite a few Donald McPhersons in the 1841 census for Kilmuir on the Isle of Skye. None of them with a daughter Margaret of the right age though.

Of course as the facility is a library there are plenty of books available as well. When my eyes were tired of squinting at the film images, I went hunting for books that might have information of interest. I've mainly been looking at books about Ontario and its records. The library has quite a collection. As I'm interested in Puslinch where both the McPhersons and Mathesons were living at one point, I looked at information about Wellington County. In one such book, I was surprised to find a write up about the train robbery involving Bill Miner, who is well known in BC. The story included a picture of the trail in Kamloops and a description of the robbery which was an ill managed affair. Surprising information can be found in books!

The best thing about the weekend, of course, has been getting together with fellow family historians. There are occasional bouts of silence as we hunch over our computers concentrating on our research, but those are interspersed with the sharing of information and stories. There's nothing like an appreciative audience when the genealogy tales get going!

Sources:

“Lewis Colquhoun: Wellington County’s Train Robber” Wellington County History: Railway Issue Vol 4. Wellington County Historical Research Society, 1991

Some Easter history

 

                                                             Kilsby United Church (formerly Congregational)

When thought about objectively, the traditions around Easter are a confusing mixed bag. There is a reason for that. In common with many Christian festivals, more than one old tradition has been combined. There's the celebration of spring, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. That accounts for the eggs and rabbits. The reawakening of the earth feeds handily into the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. So the date when that was supposed to have happened was fudged in order for the two events to be observed together.

But did all Christian sects celebrate Easter? I have a more than passing interest in this question as I've delved into the history of nonconformity in the Christian church due to my own family history. My 5 x great grandfather, Reverend Thomas Strange, was a congregational minister. He was the first minister at the congregational church in Kilsby, Northamptonshire. In those days people took their religion seriously. I found some of the Reverend Strange's sermons in a book at Dr Williams Library in London. They were pages and pages long. As interested as I was in the man, I couldn't read through them. I can't imagine sitting on a hard wooden pew for hours listening to him deliver one.

A quick Google survey of websites leads me to believe that the Congregationalists also celebrated Easter, even in the early days. The Puritans, of course, were another story. Weren't they always? They banned Christmas, Easter and a whole host of other holidays. Early Quakers were also unlikely to think of Easter as a more holy time than any other. There were more flavours of Christianity than these among those dissenting from the established church in England but I looked at the ones which I have reason to believe that some of my ancestors joined. I haven't begun to untangle which sects my Scottish ancestors cycled through. That's something for another day. 

Sources:

Memorials of Nonconformity in Herts, Google Books p668 https://books.google.ca/books?id=7PkPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA643&lpg=PA643&dq=dissenters+and+easter&source=bl&ots=QRHnWuaTb6&sig=ACfU3U18IpIG8SenyhTGQcGXUbTMgj0hJw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjH5K7fv5T3AhXBN30KHaksDYYQ6AF6BAgSEAM#v=onepage&q=dissenters%20and%20easter&f=false

Origins of Easter with an Australian slant https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134

Puritans and Easter https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/puritan-easter-devils-holiday/

What Did Easter Mean to Early Quakers? https://www.friendsjournal.org/what-did-easter-mean-to-early-quakers/

Social history in the census

                                                                Interior of an early Ontario School

Get in, find your target name and add the information to your family tree. As large databases and commercial sites have taken over, finding the information you seek has become faster. Instead of spending weeks or months looking for that one elusive ancestor, an electronic search can find the information in seconds. The trick is using the right search name.

Looking over the information I had amassed on Angus Clark and family, I decided to see if I could find them on the 1851 census. I didn't have that one yet. This time I tried a different strategy. My target name was the oldest daughter, Ellen. I found them!

The discovery added a different understanding of Margaret McPherson Clark's place in the family. In 1851 Angus Clark was a widower with five children. So where was Margaret McPherson? A quick search for the marriage of Angus and Margaret about 1853 turned up nothing. When searches inputting Margaret McPherson's name in the Ancestry search boxes for the 1851 census didn't come up with a definite match, I decided to browse through the censuses for the areas in and around Puslinch page by page.

So far I haven't found Margaret but browsing slowly through the census pages was reminiscent of the hours I used to spend trawling through census films. It also reminded me of what we miss by popping in, taking the names we are looking for and popping out again - the commentary. Every so often the enumerators wrote down comments which were a window to the area they surveyed.

Some enumerator's comments gave information about the land the people were on; useful if your target person was a farmer and you wanted to have an idea of how they were doing. I particularly appreciated the remarks of James Brebuer who enumerated district number five. That commentary provided a lively background to those he was recording. He wrote about the roads and the lay of the land but his words about schooling and religion were particularly illuminating.

He blamed the recent school act, a frequent subject of discussion, for low school attendance. He also cast doubt on the information given about the religious affiliations people attested to. His slightly cynical remarks brought a human element to the listing of the population that helped colour the social history of the area. I'm glad my hunt for Margaret led me further afield and introduced me to such interesting nuggets of information. 

Sources:

Ancestry.ca search of 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia for Puslinch Division p 59 - 61

Learning to search one place at a time

 

                                                             Early Ontario farm house at Grey Roots Museum

Searching in the early records of the various jurisdictions that eventually made up Canada was a hit and miss proposition. There were some records but by no means was the whole population covered. The search for the birth of Margaret McPherson was further complicated by the fact that in the three censuses where I've found her listed each recorded a different birthplace: P.E. Island, Ontario and, in 1881, just a dash. Maybe the 1881 informant was also confused as to where she came from.

Wanting to take my search further back, I decided to check the Prince Edward Island, Baptism Index, 1788-1943 for Margaret McPherson. That didn't come up with anything early enough for the Margaret I'm looking for who, according to ages given in the censuses, would have been born between 1817 and 1821. But then the index was for baptisms rather than births so the information was by no means comprehensive.

I am still far from certain where Margaret was born. A check of births in Inverness-shire, Scotland on Find My Past turned up many possibilities for a child named Margaret with a father Donald McPherson in the correct time period. Perhaps I should concentrate on finding more records in Ontario as I have placed her there through multiple records but there are still more left to find. I have not located her in the 1891 census yet. She must have been alive then as Alexander Matheson's letters started in 1895. Perhaps doing an exhaustive search for records in Ontario might turn up something that will help me to take the McPherson line further back.

Sources:

PEI information: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/service/search-public-archives-material-online

Find My Past: Scotland, Parish Births & Baptisms 1564-1929