Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show aside to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her that one of those heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are al...
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Finding your Military Ancestors: November 2021

Its hard to believe it, but a few short weeks it will be November again and we will all begin wearing our poppies. This symbol emerged following the first world war and has been a recognizable symbol ever since. The month of November tends to be a conversation starter for families about their military history, or at the very least spark a new interest for seasoned genealogists. My own family is no exception to this. 

I'm sure I have told the story before on my blog, but with Remembrance Day only a few weeks away, I feel compelled to tell it again. When I was about 16 years old my Grandma was visiting during Remembrance Day weekend, and we were watching a marathon of World War 1 documentaries. After several hours of not saying a word she said "my grandfather died at Vimy Ridge". Well, I almost fell off of the couch in shock. This was a woman who had a very painful childhood and NEVER spoke of the past, yet here she was telling me something that nobody else in family had ever heard before. I gently asked her questions to try and get more information from her. She told me his name, what his regiment's uniforms looked like, what he did prior to the war, and why he enlisted. Aside from that she knew very little. This one conversation changed the way that I viewed the first world war and its casualties. Of the approximately 619,636 Canadians that served, 59,544 did not come home. My 2x great grandfather was one of these men. 

While researching my own ancestor's military service, I written several posts and compiled a long list of resources (all of which have been linked below). 

List of Canadian Military Record

Loyalist Resources

How to Read Edwardian British Militia Attestation Forms

British Military Research: Deserter or Casualty

WW1 and Canada's Conscription Crisis: How to tell if they served willingly

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