Links Family History Blog

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...

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...

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...

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...

Introducing the TULLY family. The TULLY family (on my father's maternal side) arrived in Canada - specifically Lower Canada - from Scotland around 1817. They settled in the region of Huntingdon, Quebec and 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 founder of the TULLYs in my family was 5th-great grandfather James TULLY. He was born about 1780 in Morebattle, Roxburghshire, Scotland and died in Huntingdon, Quebec, Canada in 1856. His spouse, Newton Rebecca BUCKHAM (1782-1854), was also of Roxburghshire, Scotland. Two of their daughters married into two other Scottish-Canadian founding families in Quebec, the ELDERs and the TAYLORs; and two of their children (first cousins James Tully ELDER and Jane Alexis TAYLOR) married in Ontario, then later moved to the new province of Manitoba about 1883 to farm. My paternal great-great grandfather was their son William John ELDER (1874-1959). Res...

The Mystery of E. Dorsett. On 8 June 1892, a Mrs. E. Dorsett, between 60 and 70 years of age, drowned in Manitoba's Assiniboine River. She was buried at Methven Cemetery in the Sutton family plot, under the name Eliza Sutton. Curiously, she wasn't listed in any censuses as being part of the Sutton household and all of the known "Eliza Suttons" were already accounted for. So, who was E. Dorsett? It was a family mystery that I simply had to investigate. Marriage Witness in London, England In the 1867 parish register recording the marriage of my Elder family ancestors (refer to blog page, " The British Side "), 3rd great-grandparents Eliza Emma Essex (for more information see my earlier post on this ancestor in the Family Line Founder series ) and Henry Charles Sutton, two people signed as witnesses ( see Figure 1 below ): John Essex (probably the bride's half-brother); and  an unknown individual, E. Dorsett.  This is the earliest known incidence of the my...

Family Line Founder Series With this first ancestor profile featuring my 3rd great-grandmother, I begin a series of posts about relatives who immigrated to Canada and were the first to found their respective family lines - in other words, my family's first Canadians.  Their names and stories, even with only the barest of details known, tell the story of the European settlement of Canada at a human level. Remembering these individuals recognizes their courage in leaving behind all that was familiar - family, friends, their homeland - for the dream of a new and better life in a wild and sometimes harsh new world. Eliza Emma (Essex) Sutton (1850-1919) Eliza Emma Essex (ca. 1910) On this day, the 105th anniversary of her death, I wish to remember my 3rd great-grandmother: family-line founder Eliza Emma Essex.  Born in Stepney, England (a region of East London) on 14 March 1850, Eliza was the only child born to middle-class father William Essex (a manufacturing chemist and widower)...

Welcome to Links Family History's first post!  With this blog, it is my aim not only to share the results of the past 15 years of researching my family's history, but to collaborate with others with similar research interests in the hopes of breaking through some pretty challenging brick walls.  Future posts will be broadly organized into the following branches of the family: Brant, Browett, Cole, Despins, Elder, Hutchinson and LeComte.  This is not intended to re-duplicate my family tree (which is publicly available on Ancestry.ca  and contains (at present) over 4200 individuals). Instead, it is my intent to focus on individuals' stories and to research family themes such as Scottish settlers in Québec, my recently-discovered Acadian connection, Irish Palatines' journey from Germany to Canada, or Ontario and Western Canadian pioneers, for example. I am not formally trained in genealogy research, so I am not an expert. But through practising this addictive hobby over...