In A Hundred Years Will Anybody Care?

Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone
The name and date are chisled out
on polished marble stone,
It reaches out to all who care,
it is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
you died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
in flesh, in blood, and bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
entirely not our own.
Dear ancestor, the place you filled
one hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
who would have loved you so
I wonder how you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot

And thank the Lord for you.

Authur Unknown

A Little Waist Led to Great Waste

I'm sure women have been putting their lives at risk for the sake of beauty since time immemorial.This news story from a Cincinnati newspaper in July of 1894 reported that Mrs. Frank Sheets was travelling in a horse and buggy with a lady friend when the horse broke away. Mrs Sheets was thrown from the buggy causing her corset to break. The stays were driven into her stomach causing her death. Ouch, what a price to pay for a tiny waist!

Oui Just Say "Eh" - "Yah O.K"

Much has been made about the distinctly Canadian habit of our using the word "eh" to punctuate our sentences. i.e "Great hockey game, eh ?-or "Let's blow this pop stand, eh ?" I'm personally guilty of the excessive use of "ya" in my speech, rather than taking the (much extra) time it takes to say "yes". However , as a genealogist and family historian, it has occured to me that we as a people are not guilty of sloppy English, but are the products of our predominant ethnic heritages. According to the 1971 census, the majority of Canadians were of European descent. More than 44% of the population at that time traced their origins to the British Isles, and 28% were descended from French settlers . Among the European ethnic groups with sizable representation in Canada were Germans.
My own genetic background is comprised of 48% Scottish, 48% German and 2% French Canadian. Why wouldn't I use the expression "yah" (jah) or the word "eh" (aye) ? They are part of my cultural and my linguistic family history. Our McLachlin family spoke Gaelic as late as 1900 in Southern Ontario. My grandmother and her family immigrated to Canada in 1906, and used their German as much as they spoke English . I must admit, I rarely say "oui"- but then again my French ancestor was a great-great grandfather, and he married a German girl , and his daughter married a Scottish guy so by the time I was born the Scots and Germans were the prevalent cultural influence in our family.
So don't make fun of the way I talk, eh . And yah, I'll continue on talking this way to keep in mind my ancestors who said yes to the call to leave behind their homelands and come here to build, and fight for the land we love- Oui ! Canada !

German Ancestors from Eastern Europe

I have known many people, who have grandparents parents and great-grandparents who emmigrated to North America from Eastern Europe in the late 1800's and early 1900's , and as one 3rd cousin put it , "Seem to have forgotten where they came from when the moment they got off the ship". Many of these immigrants remained so closed mouthed about their origins that it gave way to the notion that there must have been something so terrible about their pasts that word could not be uttered about it. As this was the case with one of my sets of great -grandparents , it has been an absolute miracle that I have been able to trace my maternal family line as far back as 1733 !
Just by "googling" one particular surname led me to a fellow who I discover later to be a 6th cousin. This gentleman has actually travelled back to what is now part of the Ukraine at least half a dozen times, and has obtained the birth, death and marriage records for the ENTIRE VILLAGE where my grandmother was born !
These records span over 100 years !
I recommend to anyone searching for ancestors from the Austrio-Hungarian Empire to check out the Eastern European Genealogical Society on the web if they have the same kind of challenges that I had in this area of family research.

The Magic of Your Name

When Mike and I were choosing names for our first child together, I had a leaning toward the name Luke for a boy.But Mike felt very strongly about the name Matthew and although it was not a name in either one of our families I deferred to my husband on the name Matthew. We got our boy and as he grew from baby to toddler I found myself calling him "Matts" "Mattsy" or "Matty" most of the time.
When I started researching my mother's ancestors a few years ago I little to go on as she and her family were pretty tight lipped on my grandmother's background. Grandma's family immigrated from the Austio-Hungarian Empire to Winnipeg in 1906, and it was assumed that they were Polish. I have since learned that they were actually German colonists to the area around Lv'v (which is now in the Ukraine) . When I was able to access the birth , death and marriage records of their little colony of Muenchenthal , I was amazed to find that I have a great -great-great grandfather who was named Matthius, as well as his son Matthius, my great-great grandfather ! His son Johan-my grandmother's father -also named one of his sons Mathius. My mother had told me her uncle's name was "Max".However I found out recently from one of my mother's cousins that his mother called him "Mutsy". Huh ? But of course ! With her German accent, "Mutsy" translated to "Mattsy", the same nickname I had bestowed on my own son !
I'm grateful that I didn't force the issue with my husband and demand my choice of name for our son. I never knew my great grandmother, and have only one picture of her taken when she was elderly. But I feel close to her in a "magical" way when I think of her calling her "Mutsy" to come to the table for dinner !

The Blood of This Ilk Runs Through Me Veins !

SCOTTISH GENEALOGY :
. . . And so ye see, auld Pittoddles, when his third wife dee'd, he got mairrit upon the laird o' Blaithershins' aughteenth dochter, that was sister to Jemima, that was mairrit till Tarn Flumexer, that was first and second cousin to the Pittoddleses, whase brither becam laird efterwards, an' mairrit Blaithershins' Baubie -- an' that way Jemima becam in a kind o' a way her ain niece an' her ain aunty, an', as we used to say, her guid-brither was mairrit to his ain grannie.
-- Book Of Scottish Anecdote : Hislop (quoted in The Scots Book, by Ronald Macdonald Douglas, published in 1995 by Senate / Tiger Books International plc, Twickenham, UK).

Forever Young

Ironic and somewhat amusing is the number of my Scottish female relatives who fibbed about their ages on census records and even their marriage registrations. One great grandmother consistantly reported herself as being born in 1862, when she was clearly recorded in the 1861 census as a two year old. Usually female age fibbers did so in the instance that their husbands were 5 to 15 years younger than themselves, and closer to the age when their ability to produce offspring might come into question. Understandable, when marriage and family was almost the only career option for women until the 20th century. Amusing is the part where , as they grew older , the age gap between them and their younger husbands ususally grew smaller (as in census records) and when they became elderly they often started telling the truth about their birth year.
Ironic is the part where, in my family, the the most blatant and habitual "offenders" were the girls of the Young family !

Our American Cousins

Two hundred years ago the vast majority of immigrants to the New World came from Europe, most from Great Britain, France and Germany. Many of my ancestors first came to Canada, and later relocated to various areas of the U.S. I find it fascinating that over the past century and half , is the difference in the way Canadians and Americans use the English language. For instance, I find quite puzzling and would love to have someone explain to me ,is the phrase I hear all the time on American television :
"I'll FIX you a sandwich" or "Let me FIX you some breakfast" or "I'll FIX lunch".
As far as I know there are two definitions of the word "fix" :

1. To mend something which has broken
2. To fasten something down in order to render it unmoveable

So an American about to PREPARE lunch might be saying that they are going to first repair the broken roast beef sandwich and then nail it to the table so that it does not get away??
Maybe that is where the expression "fast food" really originated !

Does It Pay Good To Be Crazy?

While searching for a relative in the Ontario death records, I noticed a record for an individual who died in the London Asylum for the Insane. In the box where the "occupation of deceased " was noted, it read : "Insane person" !

It is Said....

Old genealologists never die... they just lose their census ! (no comments please)

Name of the Day

She was born Sarah Bigg-- but on March 20th 1889 in London Ontario she married Fred B Pickle and then her name was Sarah Bigg Pickle !

Name of the Day

On Apr 20 1925 Nina Fonugia married George Zammit and became Nina Fonugia Zammit

The Nickname Factor

More than once I've banged my head against the wall looking for an elusive family member when they've been right under my nose all along ---under a nickname. For example, the Nancy I searched high and low for in the 1880 census was recorded right after her brother Donald as "Annie" and since they were about the same age and the only other household member was his mother, I had assumed for years she was his wife.
Another Annie was found after I finally realized she was Mary Ann.She and her "sister " were actually one and the same person !
"Minnie "was a popular nickname for Mary Jane.
"Donald" and "Daniel" were interchangeable, often the same person.
"Flora" often became "Sophronia"
There were numerous , and sometimes improbable sounding nicknames used in the 1800's , so it's a subject worth boning up on if you're up against the brick wall in your family research.

Strange Brew

Sometimes researching family histories turns up some odd relationships within a group of relatives. One such case is where a young woman's mother took as her second husband the brother of her daughter's husband. This made the young wife's husband's brother both her stepfather and her brother- in-law. To be clear, this was neither illegal nor immoral--just kind of weird !

Name of the Day

John Burley married Sally E Hurley. She became Sally Hurley Burley. My husband's great great aunt Eliza Londry married their son William Hurley Burley in 1853. (I wonder if they had a whirlywind courtship.)

Coincidence? Perhaps Not !

Occasionally my sister and I discuss the question of whether or not there is just one person that a person is meant to marry, even though it is obvious that so many of us jump the gun and end up trying all over again to make that "perfect match".
In researching both my own family history and my husband's, I have come upon some interesting connections and parallels between our families over 150 years ago, even though each of us were born in different provinces, and our parents had no connection whatsoever.
I found that his grandmother and my great- great grandaunt were next door neighbors (kith) on Manitoulin Island in the 1880's and 1890's ! Mike's 5th cousin and my 2nd cousin married in 1927. (kin)
We each have one French Canadian family line-my great- great grandfather was Joseph Maveal born 1834 and his great -great grandfather John Baptiste Londry born in 1830-both Wesleyan Methodists-even though French Canadians are generally Roman Catholic.
Just recently I've discovered that his paternal grandmother and my maternal great grandmother were born less than 100 miles apart in the former Austrio-Hungarian Empire in 1870, both named Marianna.Both were from German families who were colonists in that part of what is now the Ukraine.
I absolutely do not believe in reincarnation, and the idea of people "reconnecting" in subsequent lives. I do find it fascinating that my and my husband's ancestors either crossed paths or actually knew each other long before either of us were born.
Sadly though, one thing I haven't been able to locate in my in-law's family tree is a single drop of Scottish blood ! Oh well, we wouldn't want us to be too much alike !

Four Generations July 30 2007

How News Reporting Has Changed in 117 Years

You'd never see a story worded like this in any of today's newspapers:
As August Beck, a respected citizen of Negaunee, was returning to his home from business, Monday evening Nov 10, he was met by a crowd of fiendish Finlanders, a number of which held him, while the balance drew knives and carved him, inflicting dangerous wounds in his breast and frightfully cutting his arms in numerous places. The murderous fiends left their victim in an unconscious state, and he was picked up by friends, who at once took him to hospital where he received medical attention. He will probably die. Hanging is too good for the inhuman perpetrators of this outrage.
Nov 22, 1890 page 4 of the State of Superior

Darwin Award for 1889 ?

Genealogy research inevidably necessitates one into going through old newspaper death notices and obituaries.This one is from a Sault Ste Marie Michigan newspaper February 23 ,1889 :
Hart Williams of Milo, Kalamazoo County, who died Thursday, is believed to have come to an untimely grave on account of his decidedly human habit of eating wooden toothpicks.His stomach was opened and lots of little bits of wood found in it, with no other apparent reason for his death.

Name of the Day

1894 : Mary E Long of Welland Ontario married Charles Terryberry and thus became Mary Terryberry !