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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 a side 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 that the 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...
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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 a side 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 that the 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...
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F.A.N. Club: How to perform a Hub Analysis

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FAN club analysis is one of the most valuable tools at a genealogists disposal. Conventionally it is used to build a network of people around a single ancestor or family, however the process can be reversed to determine the nature of unknown relationships. The Hub analysis is a method that I came up with that helps break a large group of people into small social circles that are centered around something that they all have in common. For example, this could be a place of employment, worship, or even a club/hobby. By grouping the people in this way we can identify what subgroups exists within the FAN club (I wrote a post here on how these subgroups can be visually represented used a net diagram).  The easiest way to explain the process is by using an example. Lets take a look at a list of names that I found of people who called the family following my great grandfather's death.  **Please note that for privacy reasons I have redacted the full surname and addresses of any person...
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The Royal Aquarium: The Descent From Prestigious Exhibitions to Dead Whales, Freak Shows and Prostitutes

Originally known as the ‘Royal Aquarium Summer and Winter Garden’ it opened on 22 January 1876 on Tothill Street (opposite of Westminster Abbey).  Soon after opening the name was shortened to the 'Royal Aquarium'. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in a highly ornamental style faced with Portland stone.   The plans were designed with the wealthy members of parliament  in mind - to serve as a place that they could go and contemplate  political matters while being surrounded by marvelous ocean creatures.  The project scope was quickly expanded to inclu de chess tables, smoking rooms, telegraph office, library, bar, eating spaces, a rt exhibitions, concerts, roller skating rink, hair salon, plays, and other performative forms of entertainment. The theatre was opened under the name of the "Aquarium Theatre" but was renamed in 1879 to the "Imperial Theatre". The theatre featured an equally elaborate design to the rest of the Aquarium and had capacity ...
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Courting Disaster: The 1915 Niagara Trolley Accident

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The worst electric rail crash in Ontario’s history and the  3 rd  worst in Canadian history (at the time)  occurred at Queenston Heights in Niagara Falls on July 7 1915 . In total the crash of car number 685 claimed the lives of 15 people and was responsible for injuring 130 people.  To put the scale of the accident into context, more lives were lost and more people were injured during the 1915 trolley accident than British soldiers during the battle of Queenston Heights.  The main occupants of the trolley were members of Toronto’s Wood Green Methodist and St John Presbyterian Sunday school groups. The two church groups had organized a day trip to Niagara Falls for the approximate 1,100 parishioners (majority of which were women and children). The accident occurred when the two groups were on their way home.  All day the weather had been ideal for taking portraits and going picnicking, however towards the evening hours (approximately 7:15 pm) it began to ra...
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Penny Wedders: Married on Christmas Day

Most genealogists start their research by searching for three dates: birth, marriage, and death. I am no exception to this. When researching my 2x great grandparents, I noticed something that peaked my interest - they were married on Christmas day 1897. During modern times, this would have been most unusual, however it was quite common amongst the lower classes during the Victorian era.  During certain days of the year (such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and Easter), some churches in Victorian England would offer to perform cheaper or free wedding services. Due to their low price, these marriages became known as 'Penny Weddings'. They were simple and quick services which are best described by James Greenwood's account of a London church in 1866. His description paints the bride and groom as being of a lower status, dishevelled, and dirty appearance. He goes on to sate that:  " The candidates for matrimony were nearly all of the very lowest order, and the marrying coupl...
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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 referencin...
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Tips for Finding Your Family in the 1931 Canadian Census

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The 1931 Canadian census was  released on June 1 2023. At the time of its release,  Library and Archives Canada  (BAC-LAC) had digitalized the collection but had not transcribed, consolidated, and made it searchable by name. This means that the only way to find an ancestor was by searching using districts and subdistricts. Within the past week,  Ancestry  has applied their AI transcription technology and managed to make some of the census searchable by name, however this is not without its own imperfections.  When trying to find your ancestor in the 1931 census, its best to start with Ancestry to see if their page has been accurately transcribed by the AI technology. If your unable to find who youre looking for, all is not lost. By the applying the following strategy (and a little patience), it is possible to find them! I used a combination of historical maps, city directories, and modern maps to find the street that I am looking for. I developed this strat...
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New Release: The 1931 Canadian Census

 The 92 year privacy restriction has expired, and that means that (as of June 1 2023) the 1931 Canadian census is available to the public! Set in the middle of the Great Depression, the 1931 census offers a unique perspective about how people were living during that era.  According to Library and Archives Canada, this census is unique from its predecessors in that it delves into not only  where  people lived, but also  how they lived. This difference primarily exists because of the types of information that it collected.  As with every subsequent census, a higher level of detail is required. In the case of the 1931 census, it asks five new questions focused on employment status and the lifestyle within the home.  Starting in 1929, Canada began to see unprecedented levels of unemployment, and as a result of this the 1931 census had to adapt its questions to capture the changing demographic of the country. For reference, the 1921 census only had th...
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Case Study: Researching Extinct Addresses Using Newspapers

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I've written two previous posts about researching extinct addresses, and somehow there is still more to discuss. This case study is going to be focused on using historical newspaper articles to research the Wink's Buildings located in St Jude, Chelsea, London, England up to the 1860's. I conduct my newspaper research through the British Newspaper Archive and the Newspapers section on Find My Past .  One thing that is important to note is that there were multiple Wink's Buildings throughout the greater London area. I have found record of their also being buildings located in Battersea and Islington. Despite being located in different boroughs, the buildings were all in poor neighbourhoods and consequently had poor sanitation. As a result, there are many newspaper articles that describe criminal activity and prolonged outbreaks of disease.  The exact location of these buildings has been highlighted on Charles Booth's map in green. It should be noted that this map was...
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3 Genealogy Forums you Should be Using

Over the past decade forums have helped me break down some of my toughest brick walls and also helped me connect with distant ancestors. Similar to any forms of interpersonal research, my success with forums has largely been dependant on the users that I am connecting with. This means that finding the "right" forum for you is dependant on the type of information you are looking for. This can mean focusing on a specific geographic region or life event such as military service. Unfortunately, when it comes to forums there is no "one size fits all answer". However, I have found that following five forums provide a great great place to start. They cover a wide geographic range and feature a vast array of topics.  1. Ancestry Message Boards If you already have an Ancestry account, then the Ancestry message boards are a great place to start. They can be accessed through the "help" tab.  There are several ways to search the message board. The first involves using...
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Setting Precedence: How my Great Grandmother Fought the Metro Courts (and Won!)

Last year I wrote a post  about my how for me St Patrick's Day is about celebrating the life of my great grandmother. As March 17th has drawn nearer, I have began once again to reflect on who she was and all that she accomplished. I met her many times as a child but I was far too young to actually remember her. Until I started my research, I knew her as a crotchety old lady who always seemed to be the center of family lore. I heard stories about how she proclaimed every Christmas would be her last, how she ironically turned an invite for afternoon tea into moving in for several years, and how she spared no mercy when it came to critiquing the decor in my grandparent's home. To this day, I am yet to hear my family tell a story which paints her in a favourable light. When I began researching her life I wasnt sure what I would find but I hoped that I could change my perception of her. While searching through old Toronto Star and Globe and Mail newspapers, I found a story from Mar...
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Colourizing Black and White Pictures: Is MyHeritage In Colour Worth the Subscription?

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Over the past few years MyHeritage has rolled out a line of photo editing and enhancing tools that allow you to do everything from colourize a black and white picture to create a full fledged talking video of your ancestor. On a few specific occasions throughout the year, they offer free access to these tools however the majority of the time they require a subscription. I began to wonder if what they were offering was truly unique and superior to other sites. To determine if what they are offering is unique and superior, I am going to compare the results of their tools to that of other sites that I have found. All the ones that I am comparing to offer their services for free, but dont necessarily offer the same array of photo editing/enhancement tools.  To facilitate the comparison I am going to be using the pictures below. I chose to colourize and enhance two pictures because an increased sample size would allow me to test a wider range of colours and image qualities. The left pic...
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Brick Wall Strategies: Assumption Breaking

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The genealogical term "brick wall" is often used to describe challenging research questions which appear to have no answer. In some cases, our own assumptions create these brick walls. We make assumptions based on our existing knowledge because we believe that this will make our research easier (and often times we are right about that). However, in some cases these assumptions prevent us from finding the information that we are looking for. They cause us to narrow our scope so much so that we manufacture our own brick walls. In this post, I'm going to explain how reviewing and challenging an assumption can help us break down the brick wall.  For the past two years I have been working on the rather large and challenging project of naming every person in the old pictures that I inherited. The task itself has presented many challenges as my ancestors rarely recorded any information on the back of pictures, and when they did they often failed to include the names. The smaller...
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Ford's Folly and the Slum of Little Hell

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Battersea: The Sinkhole of Surrey During the Victorian Era, Battersea had gained the reputation as being “the sinkhole of Surrey” due to its widespread poverty and slum-like conditions. Many of the poor in Battersea were subject to irregular income from the building trades. For a family to scrape by in the winter they would have to apply thrift spending during the summer. This was often complicated by the reliance on alcohol which was used as a means of escape from the depression of living in such widespread poverty. The irregular income caused many of Battersea’s poor to frequently be on the move. On average a family lived in one place for less than two years before moving no more than a few streets away. After hopping from neighbourhood to neighbourhood the family would eventually return to where they were once exiled from, moving in only a few doors away from their former address. Ford’s Folly and the slum of Little Hell In Keith Bailey’s report Orville Road, Battersea: a Victor...
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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 a side 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 that the 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...
Read more

Courting Disaster: The 1915 Niagara Trolley Accident

Image
The worst electric rail crash in Ontario’s history and the  3 rd  worst in Canadian history (at the time)  occurred at Queenston Heights in Niagara Falls on July 7 1915 . In total the crash of car number 685 claimed the lives of 15 people and was responsible for injuring 130 people.  To put the scale of the accident into context, more lives were lost and more people were injured during the 1915 trolley accident than British soldiers during the battle of Queenston Heights.  The main occupants of the trolley were members of Toronto’s Wood Green Methodist and St John Presbyterian Sunday school groups. The two church groups had organized a day trip to Niagara Falls for the approximate 1,100 parishioners (majority of which were women and children). The accident occurred when the two groups were on their way home.  All day the weather had been ideal for taking portraits and going picnicking, however towards the evening hours (approximately 7:15 pm) it began to ra...
Read more