Links Family History Blog

Striking Gold at the Diocese of Toronto Archives. In a previous post where I introduced my Cole "FAN club," I wrote about Joshua Levi Cole who was the youngest known child of my Canadian Cole family founders Henry Cole and Elizabeth Churchill. Joshua Levi Cole In that post, I had listed his birth year and location as 1835, with alternate birth years of 1833 and 1834, in Streetsville (now in the Municipality of Mississauga, Peel County, Ontario, Canada). The sources for this data came from later census records and from his Find-A-Grave memorial, which cited his headstone located in St. Andrews and St. James Cemetery in Orillia, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. I knew that birthdates recorded in census records were not always accurate, that sometimes in records a baptism date was used interchangeably as a birthdate, and that headstones are made by those who survive the deceased (i.e., errors happen). So, I could not rest. I had to keep searching for confirmation of Joshua's...

Surrounding My Brick-Wall Ancestors. 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 older sister, Mary Jane Cole  Orr. In researching Joshua as part of my F-A-N (Friends-Associates-Neighbours) research strategy for his parents, I uncovered a tantalizing clue to his mother's whereabouts in the 1870s (see Author's Notes [1] below). But I also discovered that he didn't go alone when he moved to Medonte Township in Simcoe County: he relocated with an older sister and her family.  Encouraged by this early success in my FAN strategy, and eager to find more clues about this generation of the Cole family, I turned my attention to Joshua's close associate - his sister Mary Jane  Cole  Orr. Mary Jane Cole  Orr (1822-1901). Given the int...

Introducing my Cole FAN club. In an earlier post, Cole: An Irish Palatine Family's Timeline , I talked about some challenges I encountered in researching my Irish Palatine ancestors, and specifically Canadian family founder Henry "Harry" Cole and his English-Irish spouse Elizabeth Churchill. After beating my head against this substantial brick wall for years, I was given some wise advice: research around the brick wall. By broadening my search, instead of pursuing Henry and Elizabeth with such a laser focus, it is possible to find out facts and information about them in this more indirect manner. This approach to researching is known as using the "FAN club." Such was my strategy for researching the friends, associates and neighbours (F-A-Ns) -- and in this case other family members such as children -- of this founding couple. My hope was that in researching associated individuals or locations where records were more plentiful, it would lead to previously undisco...

Where did my Cole ancestors come from? In an earlier blog post,  Cole: An Irish Palatine Family's Timeline , I talked about the broader movements of my Cole/Kohl/Kolle ancestors - from their flight from Palatine Germany in 1709 to their settlement by 1772 at the Barker estate in County Tipperary, Ireland.  In this blog post, I will briefly describe the last-known location of my Cole ancestors - Henry "Harry" Cole (abt 1790-1849) and his wife Elizabeth "Eliza" Churchill (abt 1790-1875) - before their emigration from Ireland to Canada around 1825. County Tipperary, Ireland Historically, what is now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was known as "Ireland" and consisted of four provinces: Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. These provinces were divided into a total of 32 counties.  Tipperary is one of six counties within Munster province. It is one of three counties located along Munster's easternmost border, sandwiched between County C...

23andMe: The Difference Is In The Details. The way 23andMe categorized my DNA led to some fascinating genealogy research insights. While Ancestry.ca is where my public family tree resides, to which I have linked my AncestryDNA test results (see  Links  blog page,  The Inside (DNA) ), I have also done a DNA test with the company 23andMe, and their breakdown of my results was compellingly different. Figure 1 below shows my DNA composition according to 23andMe.  Figure 1: My 23andMe DNA Test Results The results also showed that I have a 0.2% trace of Cypriot DNA, and 0.1% "Unassigned" DNA, for a total of 100%. 23andMe: Genetic Groups. Focusing on my 80.2% "British & Irish" results, I discovered that the way 23andMe broke down these results was surprisingly well-aligned with what I knew from genealogy research about my family's British origins. (For a summary of my known British origins see  Links  blog page,  The British Side .) Since I know the most ...

Access Family Histories and other research materials at Ontario Ancestors. The Family Histories page of the Huron County Branch ( Ontario Ancestors ) website just helped me with a research breakthrough. If you're a member of the Huron County Branch of the Ontario Ancestors genealogical society, check it out; if not, consider joining the society and subscribing to the Huron County Branch to view this and many other family histories of Huron County, Ontario pioneers. After years of beating my head against a difficult brick wall, I began working a hunch that my 4th great-grandmother Elizabeth (Churchill) Cole (abt 1790-1875) from Tipperary, Ireland was somehow related to a newly-discovered group of families, the Goderich Township Churchills.  Poking around the Huron County Branch's Family Histories web page (located under Members Corner), I recently found a scan of the family history of the Goderich Churchills (called, The Churchill Family of Huron County, Ontario, Canada ) by Da...