Overlooked Genealogy Resources

Sunset on Ice
later view, last night

We received an early morning call today letting us know an older family member on my husband's side had passed away. Visitation is this afternoon and this evening. The funeral is tomorrow morning at 11 am. I was going to post this picture on yesterday's entry and for some reason decided against it. So this picture is a tribute to her, knowing we will meet again!

Too often when doing genealogy research an important genealogy resource is overlooked - other family members. We let the valuable information slip right through our hands. Now why would that be? Sometimes the answer is quite simple especially for those not growing up or even knowing their biological family but other times the answer is more complex. Do yourself a favour - put any of that aside and pick those family tree branches! Send out information seeking letters. Most genealogy programs even have a function to set this up with a form letter and your contact information. I sent out ten of these on one branch of my family tree and got back only one but that did not discourage me because the one I got back gave me a heck of a lot of information. I also got a phone call from an elderly member of another branch when I did the same thing. We had a lovely chat and I found out so much about my great grandparents, all family stories but all very valuable information.

As a researcher trying to get the most of your research time, do not discount the family stories. Even if there are family problems, you can likely still gain information. You might end up being the peace keeper or the bridge that makes the difference. At the very least, you might gain just even a little tid bit you didn't know about your elusive ancestors.

I recommend using letters, interviews, digital cameras and tape recorders. As always please keep the feelings of your extended family in mind. Ask once and if you don't get an immediate reply consider something may be going on in their life that prevents them from answering. Always ask if a family member minds being recorded as some do not want that. I will tell you this is really a nice thing to have the recordings of your ancestors and other family members but don't push those who don't like the idea. The same applies to digital cameras. If at all possible get that picture but don't force the issue. Your job as a researcher is to get all the information you can without breaking any bridges. Do not discount the valuable information old Aunt Tilly might tell you!

Ice on Water

Ice is amazing. It can be so beautiful yet cause so much damage and so many problems. This picture of the ice on the water was taken this morning as I pondered over my morning coffee.

I'm still feeling under the weather so another rather inactive day was forced on me. I decided to go through a small pile of genealogy papers. In the pile there were two thin spiral notebooks of my earlier notes from back about the time I upgraded my software in 1999. I tossed these aside then grabbed them up again and started flipping through the pages. I knew all confirmed information had been entered into my database but what, just what if I had missed something? All entries were written in my normal style complete with date of entry then follow-ups to the entries in other ink colours. It sounds confusing but the system makes sense to me. True enough everything of importance at that time had been entered into the database and carefully noted in red the date entered but I found a lot of little notes and my questions jotted beside so of my entries. Seeing these notes and questions with fresh eyes means more questions. So now I will spend my genealogy time doing a double check between these notes and my database, adding in new questions. Each question may lead to more information unlocking the past!

Tangents

Tangents

Tangents are mathematically important but I'm not talking about those tangents. I'm referring to the red herring type of tangent where the topic is almost unrelated to the main topic but has a point in common with it. In other words you are nicely going along one path, get distracted and going off on a tangent yet both the original path and tangent are somehow related. Now tangents can be either beneficial, neutral or bad. At best they lead to discovery and at worst they are time wasters.

The past week has been full of tangents. My husband left for hunt camp leaving me with a whole five days to do exactly as I pleased and I fully intended to spend as much time on genealogy and my book. Two of those days were spent in such discomfort that there was little room for intellectual output and the last three weren't much better. Over those two days I started reading The Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald that almost immediately sent me off on a couple of tangents. Then flipping the tv channels late at night I came across a program with a similar theme that our food is killing us and how much food had changed from our ancestors times. The following day brought me back to analyzing the Agricultural Census of my second great grandparents.

This is an extremely interesting couple as they died within a month of each other leaving eight children under the age of 13. The youngest son died a couple of months later leaving my great grandfather the baby of the family at a ripe old age of 2. It is still a mystery as to where these kids lived as they simply disappear from the following census then some start reappearing on the next census. And just as I typed that last sentence an idea I had not considered before popped into my head! I had made the assumption that some type of illness had gone through the family causing the demise of the parents and infant son. I should know better than to make assumptions when it comes to genealogy! My second great grandmother died nine days after giving birth so her death is much more likely to be due to complications from childbirth. So now after this entry is posted I will be off on another tangent.

The information on this census is amazing as a lot of what kinds of foods were stored were noted. They lived very near the water as within less than a 5 minute walk in a location about thirty minutes from where I live. The interesting thing about this was they had no fish stored in barrels as their neighbours did! My question is why? Food was food then and people ate what was available and when you lived by water that naturally meant fish. Now I'm heading in the right direction even though it was in a round about way except in comes another tangent followed by another.

Anxiety

These are anxious times for me. Things have been in an uproar with the fridge, carpet cleaning, kitchen disruption and idiot neighbour. But the main anxiety is coming from the baby shower I'm hosting for our soon to be born granddaughter. I got caught up with the planning and getting things sparkly clean that somehow the baby shawl got pushed to the back burner. I thought it would be a quick knit except the knitting machine is refusing to co-operate and I don't have time to fiddle. So yesterday, I grabbed a crochet hook and the yarn to start on a baby shawl with very limited time and a very ambitious project. I'm frantically crocheting while reminiscing all the times I made homemade baby shawls for my own kids. The picture is gorgeous so now all I need to do is focus and finish it before Sunday morning. Things get more complicated from here as my husband is leaving for hunt came on Tuesday which mean there are certain meals like a lasagne and venison chili that need to be made. Too many things to do and not enough time.

This time of year my mind tends to be more focused on my ancestors who served in the wars over the years. Because of them I have the freedom to enjoy my family and host parties and simply just be. So I thought I would share a couple of stories of a couple of my ancestors who made notable differences but to me they all made a difference.

Some of my ancestors were Soldats du Carignan so perhaps that set the pattern for future generations. One ancestor went to Fort Detroit and has been rumoured to be the first white man in that area before Cadillac arrived. He was a very notable person being not only a friend of Cadillac but also for community endeavors. His sons followed in his footsteps. During the war of 1812 - 1814 one of them dressed in a English uniform and solely saved the Fort and Amherstberg, almost across from Fort Detroit. This story in itself is truly amazing! But the story doesn't stop there. Throughout history, my ancestors have answered the call of Canada.

My great uncle fought in WWI. He was reported as missing in action and presumed dead. I can't imagine how my great grandparents felt over the news. They even had a memorial service for him. Later he was found alive at a hospital in France, came home and went on to a successful life. His story had a happy ending yet many that answered the country's call did not. Many gave their lives for our freedom. That's why we wear a poppy! Given the ultimate sacrifices, wearing a poppy is the very least we can do.

New Beginnings

It feels like new beginnings but I have a lot of mixed emotions right now. The synopsis of my book went well. Better than expected. The plan is to develop a series telling each genealogical line. My first thoughts at even the idea of a series was no way! I'm sure I can do it just I was only really thinking one book not like a series. The plan is at the moment to write simply about the ancestor of choice, life and times. I'm starting with my seventh great-grandparents so that could lead to a long enough series. Then the next book will continue with the next generation in my direct line. Everyone involved seems excited with this prospect except me who has a royal case of butterflies in the tummy. I've been through this before since I am a published author but this time around it is as bad as the first time. Different genre, different tone, different publisher and the topic is very, very personal to me. These are my ancestors and I want to do them justice if anything.

I live on the very same waterways my ancestors travelled. It's where they made their living and it was their livelihood. Sometimes, if I sit quietly by the water, I can hear them speak almost as if they want me to tell their story. I still have reservations! This is something I did for me, something I had to do. All this research was for me and my descendants. It was never started with the goal of writing a book. Sometimes the path of life takes you where you aren't sure you want to go. In some ways this is one of those times but with the love and support of my family, I'm sure it will be ok. The ghost voices of my ancestors seem to agree as my mind is racing. Sleep is only a suggestion right now!

Funky Day

It's been a funk day. It started out as a "where do I start day" then moved quickly to a "quick clean up and wait" followed by "I'm tired" day. It started at 4:30 this morning but I did end up going back to bed for another hour or two. I ended up turning on the furnace as it was quite cool outside. Still my mind is on my illusive ancestor even though I knew I had to focus on finishing the produce for the next few days.

The kitchen was loaded with produce so "where to start" was an issue. I decided drying green peppers, sautéing mushrooms for freezing, and making tomato soup. I'm a strong advocate of keeping knives sharp at all times so it really ticked me off when I cut my thumb. In most cases a dull knife is the guilty party but in this case it was a very, very sharp knife. The cut was clean and refused to stop bleeding. By now I was really ticked so I bandaged up the thumb and decided the great outdoors was needed. Except, I came in with another basket of tomatoes and two more zucchini.

I just got out of the bath. It was well spiked with epsom salt, nice and hot to take away all the aches, pains and stress. As I drifted into the warmth, my illusive ancestor danced in front of my eyes. It's funny I can picture his face! I know so much about him! I woke with a start realizing that I was so close yet was missing just "something" but even now I can't think of what that something is. For some reason it feels like this ancestor is somehow speaking to me but I'm still missing something. This is very annoying but I decided to deal with the problem using the "less is more". When my mind is peaceful and not focused on something, the answer comes. So for the next little bit aside of canning I will be focusing on keeping my mind peaceful, meditating, and generating inner energy to hopefully help me find the answer. I know it is there it just is not in my current awareness. Despite the fact I have a lot of produce to finish processing tomorrow, I might just spend the day cemetery stomping.

My husband hates that term and thinks it rather morbid I do this. I basically take pen,a lot of paper, charcoals, digital camera, sandwich and drinks then spend my entire day in the cemetery of choice. But I know for sure there is no tombstone for this ancestor. Still a day of cemetery stomping might not be a bad idea. Maybe it will give me a clue for my illusive ancestor.