Links Family History Blog

Bursting with useful information!  Looking for a free resource for your Scottish ancestors in Quebec, Canada? Try the Huntingdon Gleaner Extracts  hosted by the Huntingdon County branch of the  Canada GenWeb  genealogy website. Fig. 1: Gleaner Extracts indexed by year at Huntingdon County GenWeb The Gleaner newspaper was established in 1863 and included regions such as Elgin, Godmanchester and Huntingdon in Beauharnois Regional County (now part of Monteregie Region), Quebec, Canada.  It is notable that the newspaper's first editor, Robert Sellar, also wrote a contemporary social history on the area,  The History of the County of Huntingdon and the Seigniories of Chateauguay & Beauharnois from their settlement to 1838  (published by The Canadian Gleaner in 1888). An early settler to this region my founding ELDER ancestor, George ELDER, Sr. (1780-1848) , is mentioned in this work. The Gleaner Extracts are are primarily birth, marriage, and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Who was my grandmother's unknown father?   Family secrets and a burning question that has been whispered throughout my youth: just who was my paternal grandmother's father? That my grandmother was illegitimate was one of those open secrets in the family that no one talked about. I'm not certain that even she knew who her father was.  But like a stone being thrown into a pond -- whatever the intent was in keeping it quiet -- the waves that the secret created has had a real impact on her children and grandchildren. I personally feel a sense of loss of family connection and history, of something that can never be fully reclaimed. My uncle, aunt, and father never got to know their grandfather and they grew up thinking their grandmother was their "aunt"; we grandchildren (my brother and paternal cousins) missed knowing our great-grandfather and having anything but a distant-aunt relationship with our great-grandmother. While I understand the motivation for silence, the...

I appreciate your patience. After taking a months-long break from blogging to attend to some family issues, I will soon return from hiatus and begin posting new ancestor profiles and research insights shortly.  Preparing to break through some brick walls! Join me as I  continue to work on the Acadian, Cole FANs, DIY Genealogy, and Founder series;  the COLE Name Study; and  begin to dive into the use of new-to-me research methods such as location scans and using DNA to enhance my efforts.  I hope to see you soon as I continue to share my journey of discovery.

Step 2: Scan Letters and Envelopes. This post continues the Saving Letters mini-series that started with  Saving Letters - Why Do It?  followed by  Step 1: Cataloguing .  In this post, Step 2: Scanning,  I set out my considerations and the method I follow for scanning my letter collection.  While I don't want to over-complicate this step, it is also not quite as simple as it might seem. Things to think about and decisions to make about the scanned files themselves include: Equipment and setup to perform the scans. Computer (or other) storage capacity for saving scanned files. Quality and readability of the scanned images. Potential obsolescence of the scanned file format(s). Backing up scanned images. Subsequent steps, transcribing and filing the scans, will be the subject of future posts -- so stay tuned! Working through this process gave me: a better comfort level that the letters would be preserved even if the originals were lost or destroyed; confi...

What's Inside Ancestry.ca's New Pro Tools ? About two weeks ago I subscribed to Ancestry.ca's newly-launched (at least, in Canada) Pro Tools add-on membership. Before subscribing, I found it frustratingly hard to find information about what features were included in the monthly subscription, so I decided to take the plunge and find out.  Although I wasn't quite sure what I was signing up for, I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have been using some of the Pro Tools features. But for those of you who want to know more before diving in, here's an overview of what you get for your (at time of writing) $12.99 / month (Canadian $) Ancestry.ca Pro Tools subscription. Figure 1: Inside Ancestry.ca's Pro Tools - A Snip from my Dashboard Note:  As I understand it, currently the only requirement for subscribing to the Pro Tools add-on membership is having an active paid Ancestry.ca membership -- Pro Tools is independent of your Ancestry.ca membership level. Disc...