Links Family History Blog

My Method For Saving Letters. This post continues the Saving Letters mini-series that started with Saving Letters - Why Do It?  In the following discussion, Step 1: Cataloguing , I set out the method I follow for logging my letters.  Although I was inspired by online sources, the details of the method I follow evolved as I began working through my letters and gained insight into the data contained in the letters, how I wanted to use their information, and how I was going to store them, as well as disaster recovery and legacy considerations. The items you record in your catalogue may look different from mine as they will be a reflection of your own letter collection and goals.  Working through this process gave me: a searchable letters list that I could use for research purposes (like a library's card catalogue);  a summary of each letter's contents, physical properties, and condition;  a better comfort level that the letters would be preserved even if the origin...

A Family of Letter-Writers. In this first post in a mini-series on saving letters, I describe my philosophy and summarize my method for saving inherited family letters. My goal for saving letters? To improve being able to access the data they contain in order to use that data for family research.  I come from a family of letter-writers. At first puzzled about what to do with the box of family letters I inherited -- but sensing their potential -- over the years I sought advice on how to "deal" with inherited documents like letters. I took what resonated with my own situation and materials and incorporated it into my personal method for creating and maintaing a family archive.  Disclaimer:  I am a genealogy enthusiast not a professional genealogist or archivist; as such, a professional's methods may differ from mine, or may be more comprehensive. If you have something in your family collection that you are unsure about or you think might need particular care, I encourage yo...

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...

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...