Links Family History Blog

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...

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...

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...

A blend of German-Palatine and Irish heritage One of the biggest challenges I have encountered in my family history research has been  tracing my  Irish Palatine  ancestors. While many Irish Palatine families are well-documented, the Cole family is not one of them. Combined with the unique challenges facing those researching their Irish roots, gathering reliable and verifiable data has been problematic. The following timeline summarizes key details I have pieced together of the Cole family's journey from Germany (possibly Assenheim) to Canada, with a later focus on Canadian family line founder  Henry "Harry" Cole (abt 1790-1849). 1709 (Emigration from Germany) Several thousand Palatine immigrants (Lutheran faith) fled Germany and arrived in London, England. Four candidates for my family's first Cole ancestors arrived in these waves of immigrants: Henry Kolb (May sailing),  who arrived with his unnamed wife and three daughters along with a younger man named Arnol...