Links Family History Blog

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A Complete Surprise. In building out The French Side of my family tree, there was a knowledge gap around the maternal ancestors of my 2nd great-grandmother Marie Olivine Trial (grandmother of my maternal grandfather). This was due to the fact that her mother died shortly after Olivine was born, Olivine being raised by her father and step-mother. For the longest time, all I knew was Olivine's mother's name: Hermine Champagne .  The surviving records about Hermine Champagne were few and far between. And because she had died so early in life, no family lore from her side of the family survived. So it came as a complete surprise to me one day to discover that: Hermine Champagne was a direct descendant of founding Acadian settlers at Port Royal-Annapolis Royal in what is now the Canadian province of Nova Scotia;  some of her family had survived the Great Deportation of 1755 and re-settled in Québec years later; and she was the last in my direct family line to bear the Acadian na...

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...

Introducing Some "French Connections." On Links blog page The French Side , I introduced the main family branches comprising my French-Canadian heritage, including Despins and Levesques. Today I wish to remember a woman whose family (both on her father's and mother's side) had a nearly three-century long association with Quebec from the 1600s, until she left the province in the early 1900s to move 4,000 km westward with her husband and children to farm in Saint Paul, Alberta, Canada.  Her name was Marie Catherine Levesque, my great-great grandmother, and she was the last of the Levesques in my direct line before she married into the Despins family. Known as Catherine, she died 100 years ago from what is now a treatable disease. Marie Catherine Levesque (1869-1924) Catherine was born 25 November 1869, the oldest of twelve children, to parents Joseph Nazaire Levesque (1840-1892), a blacksmith, and Henriette Michaud (1847-1924).  An interesting side note, Henriette...

Family Line Founder Series. This ancestor profile continues a series of posts about my family's first Canadians. I feel that remembering my family's founding members recognizes and honours their courage in leaving behind all that was familiar - family, friends, homeland - for the dream of a new and better life in a wild and sometimes harsh New World. William Hornsby Hutchinson (1824-1907) Today, I wish to remember William Hornsby Hutchinson, my 3rd great-grandfather and Hutchinson family founder in Canada. William was born on 15 June 1824 in the North East of England, in the tiny village of Heighington in Durham County (see  Figure 1  below).  Figure 1: County Durham in England's North East Region. Located in the rich farmland of southeastern Durham County, Heighington village was - and still is - a farming community. In ancient times, what is now Durham County formed part of the northern border between Scotland and Roman Britain. During William's time, the county wa...

Who Remembers Fairview Farm? On discovering that one of my Hutchinson relatives was married at her father's (Cuthbert Hutchinson, 1864-1951) farm in Grey Township, Huron County, Ontario, and that the farm had been known to some as "Fairview Farm," I was intrigued.  I put out the call to elder family members and asked what they might know about the Cuthbert Hutchinson farm (located at Lot 18, Concession 5), or if they had any knowledge of a location called Fairview Farm.  My cousin Steve - a lifelong resident of Ontario, with close family connections to Hutchinson uncles, aunts and cousins in Grey Township - had these fond childhood memories to share. Memories Of The Cuthbert Hutchinson Farm What follows is a summary of my cousin Steve's thoughts and memories, communicated to me on 19 February 2024, when I asked him if he knew of a Fairview Farm in Grey Township, or anything about the wedding of  Grace Jane Hutchinson (1890-1968) -  our great-granduncle Cuthbert Hutch...