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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 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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Case Study: Determining Living Conditions of Extinct Addresses

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Growing up I was always told about how my great grandmother had been born in England. Despite her best efforts to exude wealth, we all knew she came from humble beginnings (especially prior to coming to Canada). After my grandmother passed last summer I inherited a some vital records - among them was my great grandmother's birth certificate. According to the birth certificate she was born at 20 Vickers Row in Farnworth, Lancashire England during 1909, and her father worked as a coal miner. Her father's occupation was already a sign that the family likely did not come from wealth, however I was curious about what their living conditions would have been like. Including my great grandmother, the family had three children (at the time) - all of which were under 5 years old. I knew soon after my great grandmothers birth that the family moved in with my 3x great grandmother's (Alice) parents. That house was the one that I spoke of in this post. I wanted to understand what it wou...
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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 ev...
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Is that my Ancestor?: A case study

If your researching somebody with a relatively common name, the odds are you have asked yourself the question "is this my ancestor?". I know that I have - matter of fact I did so just last night when performing FAN club research (see here and here for more information).  My great grandmother's lifelong best friend (Helena) had a very common name, so when I searched for her in the local newspapers I of course got a large number of results. The first few that I clicked on all mentioned her acting as the leading lady in theatre shows and silent films. This fit with the 1920's and was believable based on her age (a teenager). When you add in the fact she married a man, several years later, who was also working as actor in the early 1920's, it starts looking more and more plausible that this was her. At this point I had to stop and take a step back. One of my favourite rules in genealogy is: If it looks too good to be true, it probably is! As much as I knew my great ...
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How to Conduct an Iterative Search

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The internet is one of the most valuable tool at a genealogists disposal, however harnessing this information requires the user to understand how to conduct an iterative search. Iterative searching requires the user to collect and analyze information to find key terms, which can be used to narrow down their search results.  Finding the Key Words Finding the right key words can be difficult. Sometimes using an ancestor's name is not a specific enough parameter to find accurate results; in this case additional terms are required. I like to brainstorm key words using a web diagram, where my terms get more specific with each succession of branches. Generally I start with the following topics to branch off of: Family members names (ie. a wife or mother's maiden name) FAN club members that they frequently are mentioned with Where they lived Their occupation BMD information When researching a geographic location I recommend starting vague and getting more specific until you have a rea...
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Case Study: How to Locate Extinct Addresses

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 In my previous post I wrote about how to locate an address and determine what the historic living conditions were like. In this post I will explain how to apply these techniques when researching a small town.  When I first began research I found myself glossing over my ancestors that lived in cities and focusing on the ones that lived in small towns. What I quickly learned is that there is less socio-economic data and maps available for smaller localities. Just because less resources are available does not mean that it is impossible to find the answers to your questions.  In this example we will be looking at where my great-grandmother and her family were living during the 1911 census. This census was of particular interest to me as it was the last known record of her family's life in England prior to their immigration to Canada. I wanted to understand how hard it would have been to live on Speakman St in Leigh, Lancashire, England. I knew that the house was crowded (11...
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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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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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Researching Addresses that no Longer Exist

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Ever since I was young I have said that I wanted to see the place where my ancestor's lived. I never cared if it was a castle or if it was a broken down shack in the woods. What I cared about was that feeling I get when I am able to stand somewhere that one of my ancestor's did many years ago. I spent the past four years researching where in England my ancestors lived with the hope that one day I will be able to go there and experience this feeling. Like many people, COVID had other plans. Its been a year since I initially was planning to take that trip and it seems like it might be at least one more before it can happen. In the mean time I have been revising my route and furthering my research. One of the first things that I do when I get an address for where one of my ancestor's lived, is search for it on Google Maps. Depending on where you are researching, the area may have changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable when compared to when your ancestor lived. For ex...
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