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.