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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3 Tips to get the Most out of a Canadian WW1 Service File

 Recently I contacted a regimental museum to see if they could provide me with more information about one of my ancestors who served and died with the regiment during WW1. They put me in touch with one of their veteran volunteers and he was able to provide me with some tips on how I could extract even more information from the small service file I had found on Library and Archives Canada. 

#1: Make a timeline 

Anybody who knows me knows that I LOVE to make timelines of my ancestor's lives, yet this idea had never occurred to me before. In general the service files contain a very high level description of a soldier's movement. By solely looking at a service file, it is near impossible to tell when a soldier was moved behind lines for a break or determine the exact battles that they fought in. By constructing a timeline of what battalion they were with and the approximate location that an event occurred it is possible to gain a basic idea of their service. Cross referencing the timeline against alternative resources helps to fill in the gaps, ultimately providing a more complete record of their service. 


#2: Reference regimental books and war diaries

I had viewed the battalion's website many times but had always overlooked some of their (admittedly more hidden) resources such as regimental history books and war diaries. These records provide the kind of information that is needed to fill in a soldiers more detailed movement. Before referencing these resources you need to know their battalion and company. 


#3: Pay attention to what has been crossed out

The original reason why I contacted the archive was because I wanted to know why they had a different middle initial for him than what I knew to be true. The volunteer researcher told me that, although they didnt possess any documentation that could clarify this, there was an amendment on his service card that could. I had viewed the service card many times over the years, and was aware that said initial was written in different ink however I had paid less attention to it than the other crossed off or written over information such as addresses. Unless the change is dated, there is no way of knowing when the change occurred. 


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