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.