Links Family History Blog

Family. Food. Traditions.    All of these things we associate with the feeling of being "home." My family's traditional recipes have made their indelible imprint on my heart and spirit, their smell and taste even now evoking the feeling of family, and of security and belonging, even though so many of my family are now gone.  But that nostalgic feeling of home is renewed when a familiar dish is served. It's that connection to the past and to people through long-ago memories that are brought forth by the familiar sight, smell, and taste of traditional family recipes. Such as my dad, who just couldn't get enough butter tarts. Or me, who couldn't get enough of my mom's special peanut butter cookies, or my waking up to the yeasty scent of her making fresh homemade bread. Or the mouthwatering apple-cinnamon aroma of my grandmother's apple crisp baking in the oven.  A taste of home - my grandmother's Apple Crisp recipe My grandmother in 1946, Margaret (Hu...

Mapannapolis: Website Home Page Acadian Map-History Fusion. What do you get when you combine the technological know-how of Nova Scotia's Centre for Geographic Sciences (COGS) and the ingenuity of a group of family historians? Mapannapolis , of course! This innovative project, recognized in 2017 by the Governor General of Canada for Excellence in Community History Programming, began in 2012 when students studying digital map creation (GIS mapping) were asked to map something a little bit different: heritage buildings and structures, graveyards, and churches. The result was maps of: the first 17th century Acadian settlements along the Annapolis River;  18th century Black Loyalist settlements;  the 43 existing and historical wharves to record Annapolis County’s early economic development;  pre-European arrival canoe routes; and  community trails in several villages. Additionally, Acadian settlements and graveyards were studied and, on the discovery of several unmar...

The Truth Is Out There... In my last update , I had resolved to call in the professionals to help me identify my unknown great-grandfather. While I did contact a professional genealogist who was experienced in adoption situations, she told me that the key was definitely in DNA - but that was not her specialty. I was back to square one...or was I? Having it confirmed by a professional that the answer lay in DNA evidence galvanized me to focus exclusively on analyzing my DNA matches. But where to start? A YouTube video I had watched on investigative genetic genealogy (one of those serendipitous video suggestions that seem to pop up when you most need it) stuck with me. A tip from the video linked DNA to traditional research: use ethnicity to search for surnames. In a recent AncestryDNA update to my ethnicity regions, I had noticed a curious development: unexeplained Dutch DNA . I restarted my search, but this time with a clearer understanding of where I was headed. Convinced that the 192...

Signed Up for RootsTech 2026?   Running this year from Thursday, March 5th to Saturday, March 7th, time is running out to sign up for your favourite courses at  RootsTech 2026 . Go to the  FamilySearch  website's Home page, then click on the RootsTech links to register. Start Your RootsTech 2026 Journey at the FamilySearch Home Page (click image to enlarge) What is RootsTech 2026? RootsTech is the annual global family history and genealogy learning conference hosted by FamilySearch. Customize your learning experience by choosing from a large variety of courses, webinars, and keynote addresses presented by premier genealogists in their field. From beginner to advanced skills development classes on a wide range of topics and themes, RootsTech 2026 has something for everyone. Why sign up for RootsTech? Free to attend online, or starting at $79 USD to attend in-person (at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA), RootsTech is a budget-friendly way to ramp up your DIY genealogy sk...

Researching French-Canadian roots? In this post I share one of my favourite free  online resources for researching and establishing my French-Canadian lineage. If your research is in the "collecting ancestors" phase (i.e., you are building out lineages in your family tree), this resource is especially well-documented and, in my view, foundational for budget-conscious DIY genealogy enthusiasts: Généalogie du Québec et d'Amérique française Fig. 1: Snip of the Home Page (French version) of Généalogie du Québec et d'Amérique française (click image to enlarge) Don't read French? The website offers an English version called Genealogy of Canada although the original source records they refer to (e.g., BMD or notarial records) are in French. What is it? Also known as NosOrigines ("Our origins"), the website hosts a crowd-sourced database of French-Canadian family lineages and individual records. It is free to search or to add your own family tree. If I'm stu...

Introducing Cole FAN: Henry A COLE.   In an earlier post,  "Cole FANs: Joshua Levi Cole" , I introduced the youngest child of my brick-wall ancestors - and founding Canadian COLE family members - Henry "Harry" COLE (Abt. 1790-1849) and his spouse Elizabeth "Eliza" CHURCHILL (Abt. 1790-1875). Now meet Joshua's oldest sibling, Henry A COLE. Fig. 1: The immediate family of Henry A COLE (1812-1897) (click to enlarge) Henry A COLE was the oldest of nine known children born to Canadian founders and parents Henry COLE and Elizabeth CHURCHILL. Of Irish Palatine and English-Irish descent, Henry was (probably) born in Ardcanny, County Limerick, Ireland and baptized on June 7, 1812. At the age of 12, he immigrated to Canada with his parents and younger brother Peter (and possibly sister Mary Jane) and settled near Streetsville in Toronto Township, Peel County, Ontario.  Not a lot of information survives about his family’s early years. But it is known that Henry’s...

Continued Progress. In an earlier post, I introduced a family mystery and a controversial family question:  Who was the biological father of my paternal grandmother?  In a recent update to that post, I discussed my approach and early progress on developing a research plan for identifying my grandmother Fern ELDER's biological father. Fig. 1: Fern Caroline ELDER in early 1954 In working to develop the broader research project plan, it became clear that a lot of traditional research would need to be performed to try to answer this research goal, with no guarantee of success. Without even a name for my grandmother's biological father, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack - not impossible, but definitely labour-intensive. The question had to be asked, "Was this effort necessary? Or was the answer already before me in research already done, or in DNA test results and associated matches already available?" The answer was, "Possibly." So, I paused...

From my family to yours, I wish you all the best this holiday season and for 2026.

10,000 individuals in my Ancestry tree.  When I first began the Links Family History blog two years ago, on 25 December 2023, my public tree at Ancestry.ca contained 4,200 individuals. A couple of days ago, my Ancestry tree crossed a major milestone: It now contains over 10,000 individuals. Reaching a major milestone in my public tree at Ancestry.ca Over 15 years to get here. However, it's not just about the number of individuals in my tree; I have done my best to add only those individuals verified through my own legwork, using best practices I have learned over the years, and backed up by credible sources.  The number of individuals in my tree reflects over 15 years of sometimes painstaking research to "collect ancestors" and trace their movements, as well as recent work done on two private family pedigrees (focused on two Canadian descendants of my Irish Palatine COLE family founder Henry COLE and his English-Irish spouse Elizabeth CHURCHILL - part of a larger research...

Introducing the BRANT family.   In this post, I focus on The British Side of my family to introduce my English great-grandparents (my father's paternal grandparents), Canadian BRANT family founders Jack BRANT and spouse Edith Jane BROWETT. Meet Jack BRANT and Edith Jane BROWETT. The first ancestor in my BRANT family line (see Note 1 below) to migrate to Canada, Jack BRANT was born on 9 February 1876 at 39 Caroline Street in the industrial city of Leicester, England. Son of a bricklayer, Jack was the youngest of two children born to parents John BRANT and Elizabeth RICHARDSON. Fig. 1: Snip from Jack's birth registration recording his 9 February 1876 birth in Leicester, England.  (Photo credit: General Register Office of England, 2008; click to enlarge) By the time Jack was five years old, the family was living within St. Margaret’s Parish in Leicester, at 25 South Church Gate. By 1891, when Jack was 15 years old, he was already working as a shoe maker. His family still li...

Two Favourite Scottish Ancestor Resources In this post, I talk about two DIY genealogy resources that, in my experience, are foundational to researching Scottish ancestors in Canada and in Scotland. For those interested in researching their Scottish heritage but aren't sure where to start, as a Canadian genealogy enthusiast with Scottish heritage these two resources have stood out for me as being invaluable:  Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation (Volumes 1-4); and Scotland's People online database with pay-to-view scans of original documents. Disclaimer: This post is not a paid endorsement and I do not receive any royalties or associate fees from either Ontario Ancestors or Scotland's People; my discussion of these resoruces reflects my own personal opinion and research experience, which I freely share in the spirit of collaboration. Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation Compiled from primary sources and family lore coll...

AncestryDNA's October 2025 Update AncestryDNA overhauled how it categorizes and presents DNA results, and rolled out this change in October 2025 on their popular DNA platform. For my AncestryDNA kit, that meant a big change to the breakdown of my Ancestral Regions and some interesting historical context added to my Ancestral Journeys. (See also blog page The Inside (DNA) .) AncestryDNA Summary Report - After the October 2025 Update Ancestral Regions My previous 6 ancestral regions that broadly aligned with national boundaries or broad ethnic regions, are now broken out into 13 ancestral regions that reflect more precise local ethnicities - ones which don't necessarily translate easily into the earlier broad regional categories. (For example, 26% France has been refined to 12% French Canada...but it is not clear how the remaining 13% France was reallocated - possibly being lumped into the new region Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe).  What was previously my 6 ances...

The Search Begins.   In an earlier post, I introduced a family mystery and a controversial family question: Who was the biological father of my paternal grandmother?   In that post, I discussed this particularly emotional brick wall and shared some of the currently-known information and some frustrating roadblocks.  To try to overcome some of those roadblocks, I committed to engaging in a more methodical research process, one set out in the Family Locket Genealogists ' books, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide (2018)  and  Research Like a Pro with DNA (2021).  In this post, I will share some progress after completing initial steps discussed in their first book. Initial Progress.  After working through the intial research steps, I have established the following in the quest to identify my paternal grandmother's biological father: Research Question (Type - To prove a family relationship.) Who were the biological parents of my paternal grandm...

Introducing the ELDER family. In an earlier post, I introduced the founders of the TULLY branch of my father's maternal family. They arrived in the Huntingdon region of Quebec, Canada from Scotland about 1817. Their story, and my ancestral heritage, is interwoven with two other Scottish families who settled in the Huntingdon region of Quebec around the same time: the ELDERs and the TAYLORs. Today, I introduce the founding members of my ELDER family line. Figure 1: ELDERs, TULLYs and TAYLORs - Interwoven family connections in Huntingdon, Quebec, Canada (Click to enlarge) The ELDER family (like the TULLYs), are also on my father's maternal side and arrived in Canada - specifically Lower Canada - from Scotland around 1817. They settled in the region of Huntingdon, Quebec and, along with other families such as the TULLYs and the TAYLORs, were part of a migration of British immigrants to North America that took place over a number of years following the War of 1812. The Canadian fo...