Genealogy

Canada O Canada

~ Elizabeth ~ Leave a comment

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Tomorrow we are headed to Nova Scotia, one of the provinces I have yet to visit. Last year we went to Quebec, and the year before to New Brunswick. Since I retired from teaching, we try to go after Labor Day, so that the crowds are reduced, but before the leaves turn. We don’t need to travel to see leaves turn since we can see them out of our windows at home.

I try to focus on one food for each vacation. Last year, to the distress of my waist, it was fresh croissants. The year before it was halibut. This year I can’t decide between scallops and haddock. I love them both, so we will see. I will post my decision in pictures.

Thanks to a post from another genealogy blogger, I just learned that I am a Canadian citizen! That means I have dual citizenship with Canada and the U.S. I took the on-line quiz from the Canadian Immigration folks titled: “are you already a Canadian citizen?” I guess I am not alone in my ignorance. Since my dad was Canadian, so am I. I am going to have to practice saying “eh?”

Here people have been joking–sort of–about the dire possible national election results in November by saying they will emigrate to Canada. When I told a friend about my newly recognized Canadian citizenship she said, “We will come stay with you, eh.”

 

Why Genealogy?

~ Elizabeth ~ Leave a comment

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I have wondered for a while about the widespread interest in genealogy in the last few years. Ancestry runs television ads for software, while PBS has shows with Henry Louis Gates tracing the past of celebrities. TLC has a show “Who Do You Think You Are?” which similarly works with various people to explore their families’ past.

I got interested many years ago because my grandparents had died and I realized I knew very little about their forebears. My parents, like many of their generation, had broken with the past and carved out new lives thousands of miles from their beginnings. They were future oriented and had little time to talk about earlier times. I suspect many baby boomers have similar stories. We found ourselves somewhat adrift and curious about where we had come from. Perhaps, too, the urge to seem only American and not anything else had passed for our generation. We were willing to embrace our various ethnic beginnings without shame.

I have been astonished to learn about the lives of many of my ancestors. It has made American history take shape in a personal way. I have had to learn about migration patterns, learning about canals and railroads as I went. I would be intrigued to know why others take up this hobby. Feel free to send me a comment.

 

 

 

Birding and Genealogy

~ Elizabeth ~ Leave a comment

 

At first glance birding and genealogy, both hobbies of mine, might seem to have nothing in common. However, as I enjoy each more fully, I have discovered that there are two types of people who love each hobby. There are the collectors and the explorers.

Collector birders love lists. They travel the world adding to their life list of birds they have glimpsed. For some, it is a competitive sport. Collector genealogists have vast spread sheets of every ancestor that they have identified. Sometimes, unfortunately, in their haste to get an ever bigger data base, they import other genealogy data bases from the internet.

Explorer birders  like to get to know a few birds in depth. They are content to have the same birds visit their yards and feeders, observing their habits at leisure. Explorer genealogists try to learn as much as they can about individuals in their ancestry. They are fascinated with the details of a forebear’s life and their historical context. They rely on primary sources as much as possible and try, often fruitlessly, to correct the mistakes of the collector genealogists.

I am clearly an explorer birder, fascinated with hawks. I am also an explorer genealogist, looking deeply into the lives of several remarkable women in my maternal line whose sketches I am working on posting in the future.

 

Genealogical Serendipity

~ Elizabeth ~ Leave a comment

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Last night, as I stared at this photo I had acquired from a batch of unidentified pictures from my grandmother, I despaired of ever knowing who she was. She looked like a character out of Dickens to me, and I thought about giving her a Dickensian title. On a whim, I decided to look on line for the family lines of my grandmother whose parents’ names I knew. Amazingly, this photo was posted by another researcher, descended from a sibling of my great-grandmother. I can now tell you that this is my great-great grandmother Prudence Arthars Nash who lived from 1817 until 1885. True to her countenance here, she is reputed to have been “a woman of considerable ambition and drive as well as a fierce, almost repressive Puritanism.” But I am here tonight because she gave birth to my great-grandmother Jane Nash in 1855.

Label your photos! Sure you know who is in them, but think of your great-great grandchildren’s gratitude when they look at them.