AMAZING ARCHIVAL PHOTOS

Oh how I wish I had more photos to share with you but alas the New York City Archives web site is down to the overwhelming traffic that has come to the site since they announced the release of around 780,000 archival photos of the New York area from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. So here I am telling all of you about it and that of course will just increase their traffic. I didn’t think this out very well did I?

This photo is of the Lower East Side 1908. What language is the bottom half of that sign written in?

I learned of this release from the genealogy newsletter put out by Dick Eastman.

His newsletters have given me more advice and information than any other genealogy resource I have found anywhere.

GENEALOGY, RANDOM: The Year Without A Summer

I am joining in with Chari @ Happy to Design for Sunday Favorites. Stop in and see some older posts brought out from the archives to free up some time on a Sunday for other fun things.

I first posted this in March of 2009 but I think it is interesting given the weather extremes we are all experiencing now.
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Today we are very concerned about weather patterns and global warming. There have been abnormal instances of weather in the past too.
In 1816 things went terribly wrong and there was nothing anyone could do about it. The normal temperatures in the N.W. United States and in the S. E. of Canada in the late spring were usually around 20-25 degrees Celsius. (68-77 F). Snow in the summer was almost unheard of. Maybe a bit in late May but for the most part never.
In May of 1816 most of the crops that were planted were killed off by a frost. Anything that was replanted after that was also destroyed by two snowstorms in June through eastern Canada and New England. There were widespread localized famines and in a weakened state from hunger there were many disease related deaths.
There was still lake and river ice in July and August as far south as Pennsylvania. The few crops that did grow to maturity went up in price eightfold.
So what caused this you ask? Amazingly enough it was something that happened a year before this. In 1815 in Indonesia the volcano, Mount Tambora, erupted spewing out ash and volcanic dust into the upper atmosphere. During the time frame of 1812-1814 four other major eruptions had already built up the amount of atmospheric dust.
When this happens there is a drop in temperatures world wide. There were food riots, flooding. Hungary reported brown snow and Italy had red snow throughout the year.
I know we had so much snow in our area this year. Not a normal thing for the Lower Mainland of B.C. Now we have rain and cold temperatures and are about 3 weeks behind the normal pattern. We will have to tough it out and think about how lucky we are.
I hear that Mount Redoubt in Alaska has erupted 5 times since yesterday. Uh oh.

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT

The most amazing thing happened today. I received an email from one of my sisters. I know that is amazing in itself but stick with me here. She sent me some photos that she received from her sister-in-law that were taken in the early 1960's.
My sister was on a trip with her husband and his mother from Ontario to Nova Scotia to visit her brother in law in the navy. Their trip took them through Quebec. They sat down in front of some statues and had their picture taken. She never thought anything of it again until this week, over 40 years later, when she was sent the picture in an email.Isn't she pretty? That is my big sister on the left and her dear mother in law on the right. Nothing unusual here is there? Until you look at the statues and read the inscription. I have written about these people immortalized in these monuments before. They are our 11th great grandparents, Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet.
The odd thing here is that we didn't know this until a couple of years ago when I discovered our connection and added them into our family tree.

I am so excited about this. I actually had shivers up my spine when I saw the old photo.

SUNDAY FAVORITES

Sunday Favorites is brought to you by the letter S and the number ... oh wait that is Sesame Street. It is really brought to you by Chari @ Happy to Design. Thanks Chari.

This post is from March 3, 2009

Not many people can say their father was a professional wrestler. Although he was only 5 feet tall my dad was for a brief period a champion. I wasn't born yet but one of my sisters was and she remembers it well. She remembers lots of the wrestlers coming to the house in Vancouver. She remembers the big celebration of the championship. There were lady wrestlers there too. All we have is this photo to chronicle this time in his life along with her memories. With all the research I do and the records from the 1600's I can find you would think there would be something available from the 1950's. Nada. Nothing. Very frustrating. Make sure you find out the stories in your family. Write them down. Someday someone will be looking for them.

note: don't be mislead by the date on the left of the photo. It says 1963 but that is when the copy of the picture was made not the original.

GENEALOGY : GENERAL JOHN CADWALADER

Image via Wikipedia

Some time ago I researched a family history that really did have some amazing family tales. Documented ones at that. I was thinking about this recently when Linda over at Flipside wrote about her gggg grandfather, Purnell Houston.

She mentioned in her post that Purnell had served in the militia under the command of General John Cadwalader. The name rang a bell so I looked up in my research and sure enough he was the 5th great grandfather of the person I researched for.

John Cadwalader, the son of Thomas Cadwalader was a man of great prominence during the American Revolution. He attended the Academy and College of Philadelphia from 1751 to 1758. Although he entered the College of Philadelphia with the class of 1760, he did not graduate but instead left to organize a very successful mercantile business with his brother Lambert Cadwalader.

From the earliest days of the American Revolution, John Cadwalader worked to persuade others to protest in favor of colonial liberties. He became a member of Philadelphia's Committee of Safety and captain of the City Troop or "Silk Stocking Company." He was later appointed Brigadier-General of the Pennsylvania Militia and commanded the Pennsylvania troops during the winter campaign of 1776-1777, in which he crossed the Delaware with Washington and engaged the British in the Battle of Princeton. As the war progessed, he was instrumental in forming a militia from the eastern shore of Maryland; with this militia he rejoined Washington as a volunteer to fight the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.

After the British evacuated Philadelphia in June 1778, Cadwalader fought a duel with General Thomas Conway, who had been accused of plotting to remove Washington from command of the Continental army and whose conduct toward American officer was considered "offensive" by Cadwalader. Cadwalader gravely wounded Conway, but Conway did recover to write a letter of apology to Washington.

In 1779, the same year he was elected a trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, Cadwalader also became a member of the Maryland Legislature. He died in Maryland in 1786.

If someone in this family could have blogged we would have had some amazing table scapes and what's on your walls for sure. Even George Washington had commented on the Cadwalader home and furnishings. The following notes are from PBS.org

Cadwalader Furniture

John Hays of Christie's is on the lookout for missing pieces of the most famous suite of furniture made in American history. When John Cadwalader, one of the great patriots of the American Revolution, married the very wealthy Elizabeth Lloyd in 1768, he set out to build one of the most splendid houses in Philadelphia. Even George Washington was well known to have remarked in his diaries that Cadwalader's house, the pride and envy of the colony, was the grandest house he'd ever seen. Cadwalader left no stone unturned in the building of his magnificent home. He commissioned Thomas Affleck, who immigrated from England in 1763 and produced the most elaborate, high-styled furniture in Philadelphia, to create a suite of furniture to match the design of his house. Affleck brought in the leading carvers and cabinetmakers of the time to fill Cadwalader's huge order — chairs, tables, sofas, card tables, and the like — that needed to be done between 1768 and 1772. Cadwalader's furniture was carved in the very highest, most elaborate fashion of the day, the Chippendale style. The most distinctive feature of the furniture was the "hairy paw feet," which appeared on all of the forms. After Cadwalader died, his descendant Charles married their young housekeeper, which did not go over well with the people of Philadelphia. In response to this, Charles shut down the house and sold its contents in 1904. The furniture was dispersed throughout the U.S. and abroad. Since that fateful day, six saddle-seat chairs from the front parlor have been found in Ireland, and another in Italy. Four chairs from the back parlor set have also been found: a single chair sold at Christie's last fall for $400,000. Christie's was also lucky to have recently found a tea table at an auction for less than $5,000: a dealer recognized the famous hairy-paw foot. It later sold in New York for over $1 million. Among the pieces still missing are two sofas, last seen in Charles Cadwalader's 1904 auction in Philadelphia. They are so widely sought after that people are making up schematic drawings of what the sofas would look like. John Hays hopes that these drawings will help lead to the recovery of the rest of Cadwalader's furniture.

John married 3 times and his daughter Frances with Wilemina Bond, married Lord David Montagu Erskine and they moved to England where Lord David and his family were from. My research continued with this line.

UNCLE LOUIS STORY

Image via Wikiped

My mother had 11 brothers and sisters that survived past infancy. There were several more that sadly did not.

One of her brothers, my Uncle Louis told me a story once about when he was just a little boy. Now I won't tell it the way he would have because as people have said to him "do we have to pack a lunch for this story".

The way I remember it was that back in his youth, around 1928 maybe, he was walking down the street in their home town in Manitoba. It was near Winnipeg, perhaps Transcona.
Uncle Louis looked down at the ground and found a nickel. That was more money than he could ever hope to have.

Oh my goodness what would he do with this fortune. He thought about it and thought about it. After all he has so many brothers and sisters. He went to the store and spent his nickel. He bought a can of sardines. Not candy. No. Simply a can of oily sardines. And do you know what he did with his treasure? Wrong. He went and hid in the attic and ate the whole can himself. You know what. I can't blame him. They lived in such poverty and this was his one selfish act to have the prize all to himself. To not have to share every waking and sleeping moment with the others.

Now Uncle Lou could have told this story much better than I could but then we would have had to pack a lunch and all the sardines were gone.

JEAN LALONDE DIT ESPERANCE

Jean Lalonde dit Esperance was my 8th great grandfather. He was born about 1641 in Rouen, Normandie, France. He married in New France (Quebec)November 14, 1669 to Marie Barbary

Image by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr

(Barbant) who was a Filles du Roi. It is said that Marie had a dowry of 200 livres. These women came to New France to marry and help populate the new land. This was arranged and sponsored by Louis XIV.
Jean died September 30, 1687 in an attack by the Iroquois on the little parish of St. Louis. He was the lone churchwarden of the area. I have found four children from this marriage.

I found the wine label above on the internet. It marked the 300 year anniversary of Jean's death. The photo was credited to Labatts Brewery. I contacted the company and they directed me to the archivist for Labatts. She said to email her the picture and she would see what she could find but I never heard back from her.

WHAT ARE THEY EXPECTING?

Image via Wikipedia

I presented a family tree this afternoon and I had to step back and think about the response. When you work on a tree for someone what are they expecting to receive? A printed list of names and dates? A picture of a tree with names on it? What are they expecting? I don't think they expect a lot.

I started by returning to her the couple pages of information she had started me off with. I opened up my laptop and opened up her tree database and her file. I went through briefly the way the database works showing her the sources and notes for people. I showed her the family view and the pedigree view to give her an idea of what I worked with and where her reports were generated from.

From there I showed her the file with all the documents and photos. She saw the old censuses and the passenger lists with her family on them. There were military records. Marriage record images and actual paper documents from England. There was a will, a map with the family property marked on it and the link to look at the bigger image at her leisure. Death records too.
There were links to the other people connected to her tree and links to a web site about her family's castle (really, truly) with pictures. A very important set of papers had come from Switzerland but were in Italian. I had included an English translation of these papers. There were the wall charts that she had hoped for. The size of them surprised her though. I think she expected a group of 10 people maybe. There were narratives and pedigree charts.
I explained all the items and also explained the differences in sources. We went over some probable connections but I was adamant that they were only possibilities to search out at a later date if she wanted to go further.

I then gave her two computer discs with all this information on it. One for herself and one for her brother all in a printable form. She was a little taken aback. This amount of information was somewhat more than what she thought she would get. The words "you did so much work" kept coming up. I felt very happy knowing I had exceeded her expectations.

The kicker is I was served a wonderful Greek lunch/dinner of spanokapitas, tzatziki, hummous, pitas, Greek salad with amazing olives and Feta and chicken souvlaki. We shared a lovely white wine which to me had the flavor of grapefruits, crisp and aromatic. Then came the dessert of Ekmek Kataifi. I hope to have the recipe for that tomorrow. The patio table was beautiful with a black and white setting and a big white canopy above us. I so wished I had my camera with me for Foodie Friday, Tablescapes Thursday and Give Lori Wine The Rest of the Week. I love my job.

PUCKERBUSH AWARD

I have been doing genealogy for several years and it is a very rewarding pursuit. Blogging I have only been doing since mid February on this site and only a couple weeks on my other site. I am very lucky to have been given this award to place on both of my sites from Linda @ Flipside. Linda has been one of my first followers on both blogs and I always love to read her posts on genealogy. She does her homework and dots all her Is and crosses all her Ts. She leaves great comments and encouraging words. To have her send me this is truly great. Thank you Linda.

This award was created in honour of Janice Brown by Terry Thorton @ Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi. I am very pleased to be associated with these great bloggers by the luck of receiving this award from Linda. I will try live up to the blogging standards.

I am to pass on this award of course but I won't be doing it right now due to the fact that it is 10:00 at night and my allergies are so bad I can't think straight. Stay tuned.

GENEALOGY: The North West Rebellion

This isn't the usual type of photo one has of their relatives. My Great Grand Uncle, Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne was one of Louis Riel's councilors during the North West Rebellion 1885.
(L-R):IgnacePoitras, Pierre Parenteau, Baptiste Parenteau, Pierre Gariepy, Ignace Poitras Jr., Albert Monkman, Pierre Vandal, Baptiste Vandal, Joseph arcand, Maxime Dubois, James Short, Pierre Henry, Baptiste Tourond, Emmanuel Champagne, Kit-a-wa-how (Alex Cagen-ex chief of the Muskeg Lake Indians) Taken Aug 1885, Regina, Saskatchewan by O.B. Buell. Taken from the Canadian National Archives.

The rebellion was a culmination of discontent of the Metis, Aboriginal and White settlers which had gone on for some time.In 1866 the government started the surveying of lands in and around the Red River Settlement. This of course became a source of tension. This was the Metis and Indians land and the government was coming in and drawing lines on it. Louis Riel spoke in August of 1869 to call the Metis to organize themselves against this.

The problems continued for some years with Louis Riel eventually suffering mental exhaustion which in 1876 saw him admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Quebec. He then went to the US where he became an American citizen in 1883.

There were several battles through the years. Duck Lake saw a skirmish between the Metis and the RCMP. Duck Lake was the only clear victory for the Metis. The Frog Lake Massacre saw whites and Metis in the community killed or taken hostage as sympathizers with the Cree led by Big Bear. Fish Creek, Cut Knife Hill, Frenchman's Butte were also unsuccessful for the Metis although the death tolls were thwarted by the ability of the Metis to retreat through the muskeg where the militia could not pursue them.

The Battle of Batoche was the end. For four days- May 9-12, 1885 less than 300 Metis and First Nations people led be a returning Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont sought to defend themselves from the troops.

On the first day the troops sought to attack by coming across the river on a steamer ferry. The Metis simply lowered a ferry cable across the river cutting off the smokestacks of the steamer and it floated downstream without power. They then defended their postitions with gunfire until daybreak. Over the next couple of days the gunfire was returned by the troops with bigger weaponry. The ammunition stores of the Metis were running low by this time.

On May 12 some of the troops attacked from the north drawing the Metis out of their rifle pits signalling to the remaining men to attack from their position. The winds were loud and on the side of the Metis and the remaining troops did not hear the attack signal and failed to attack on time. This was not enough of a setback for the troops however. A third contingent came in from the side and broke through the lines. The battle was over in minutes. The Metis ammunition was gone and they were firing nails and stones from their rifles. Louis Riel escaped with Dumont. Riel gave himself up and was later hanged. Dumont fled to the US.

This is how my Great Grand Uncle, Emmanuel Beaugrande dit Champagne ended up in the photograph above, in handcuffs and leg irons. He is I believe the second man from the right in the front row. He was one of the twelve counselors or exovede (latin: flock) of the Riel government during the North West Rebellion in 1885

Emmanuel and his family were enumerated in the 1850 census of the Minnesota Territory, in which Emmanuel declared that he was a hunter.He was born about 1823 in Pembina, North Dakota and died in Batoche, Saskatchewan September 29, 1904.He was married to Marie Letendre dit Batoche
In the 1854 treaty list of Chippewa Indians of Lake Superior and the Mississippi, he is listed as a mixed blood of the Pembina band who had lived at Saint Joseph (Walhalla, N. D.) for over ten years.

Emmanuel fought for his rights and the rights of the other Metis and it could have cost him his life and his freedom.

GENEALOGY: I Got Mail

Well it finally came. The long awaited (2 weeks) envelope from Switzerland full of genealogy information for tree I am working on. The two people I had mailed letters to out of the blue in Bellinzona are both deceased but the mail found it's way to the remaining sister whom I didn't have an address for. How lucky was that?

In her hard to read writing she thanked me for contacting her. She was thrilled I wrote to them in Italian (Bellinzona is an Italian speaking canton). She is sending more she says and is very interested in the person I did the tree for. There will happily be a contact made from this person.

When it comes to genealogy people are so generous with their time an information. Her data is one more step to confirming some of my data. Of course these are not proven. That would require seeing actual copies of the documents in question.
I could only hope there will be photos to come. Sorry to Sue and Lindalee. It doesn't look like they are naming a wine after me nor is the Nonno putting me in the will as all the Nonnos are gone already. I will try to track down another aristocratic Italian family to work on and see if I can get myself adopted. I am an orphan after all.

GENEALOGY: Health Issues

When you are looking for your ancestors sometimes you are not thrilled with some of the things you may find.
They could be crooks or criminals, crazed or coldhearted, dishonest or immoral. Or they could be genetically dangerous to your health.

As a French Canadian I was stunned to find out that I have a greater chance of having Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy. That is hard to say in French or English. It turns out that my 9th Great Grandparents, Jean Emard (Aymart) and Marie Bineau somehow were the carriers of this genetic disease. Jean and Marie were born in France but they came to New France (Quebec) and their daughters were born here.

Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy has many different syptoms. It can weaken the facial muscles and the pharyngeal muscles. This weakening of the throat muscles can cause a diffuculty in swallowing known as dysphagia. Another symptom of this disease is the weakness of the muscles that control the eyelids. Ptosis is the name for droopy eyelids that can cause vision problems by covering your eye. My 2 sisters have this problem and the doctors they saw thought it was just an droopy eyelid like lots of people get. It would be considered cosmetic to have it fixed. However it is not cosmetic when your eyelid blocks your field of vision and any persperation runs directly into your eyes. The doctors can look with a high powered microscope at the muscle tissue from sufferers and see inclusions in the cells along with bubbly structures.

Although not limited to French Canadians, those French people who do have it can trace their familys back through time to one of the 3 daughters of Jean Emard and Marie Bineau. These women were Barbe Emard, Anne Emard and Marie Madeleine Emard.
My line is as follows:

• Barbe Emard married Jacques Cochon in 1661¹.
• Genevieve Cochon married Joseph Huot dit Laurent in 1708².
• Joseph Huot dit Laurent married Marie Louis Cote in 1731³
• Charlotte Huot married Jean Baptiste Marion in 1759⁴
• Marie Amable Marion married Jean Baptiste Beaugrand dit Champagne in 1786⁵
• Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne married Madeleine Laderoute unknown
• David Alexander Beaugrande dit Champagne married Melanie Carriere in 1873
• Ziphirin Champagne married Marie Octavie Carriere in 1907

Next in line was my mother. I dont' ever recall her having any problems with her eyelids or with swallowing but I must say she had a whole host of other health problems she had to deal with. It leaves me wondering what else may have been passed down from our ancestors.

1. Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Chateau Richer, 1661-1702, page 248
   
2. Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Chateau Richer, 1691-1719, page 73
   
3. Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, St. Antoine de Tilley, 1727-1732, page 15
   
4. Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, St. Antoine de Tilly, 1757-1767, page 20
   
5. Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Berthierville, 1786, page 31
   
   
   

GENEALOGY: Stories of my Ancestors

I am working on a new blog. This one is mostly for me but anyone is welcome there. It will deal with my own family history at this point but it will perhaps have other genealogy items in it in the future. I think this is the push I needed to get my ancestors stories down and not just the names, dates and places that are usually out there.
This is just the beginning and is under construction constantly but if you would like to have a look or a follow head on over. As usual the comments are wide open and I love to hear from you.
Stories of my Ancestors

GENEALOGY: A Shot In The Dark

When you research a family tree in genealogy there will usually come a time when you will have to try to contact a distant or not so distant relative of the client. Of course you must only do this with previous permission from the client. Privacy must be protected.

I have come to that point in a current project. I had the names of some second cousins, their parents names and their occupations. They live in a city called Bellinzona. This is the capitol city of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The thing about Bellinzona is that they were under Italian rule at one point and they are still basically an Italian speaking canton. The family has long ties to the city and at an earlier time were living in one of the castles that was built for them. Of course a vineyard is involved somewhere.
Here is where I take a shot in the dark. I managed to track down two addressess for the cousins. I don't know how old the information is. They may or may not even be alive anymore. I composed a letter on the computer introducing myself stating what information I already had. I asked for any help they could give me in furthering the family tree for my client. Then I had it translated into Italian online. Now the fun part. I then hand wrote the letter, twice, on some lovely stationary, popped them into the envelopes and mailed them to Switzerland. This was on Saturday. And now I wait.
Will they get to the persons in question? Will they respond? Will I open my mailbox soon and see the returned envelopes undeliverable. Will they let the letter sit and gather dust while I stew and pace back in Canada? Or hopefully will they invite me to come visit the castle and the winery and the beautiful countryside? Talk about your Shot In The Dark.

Here is the Wikepedia information on the family castle:

Montebello castle located on a rocky hilltop east of town is connected to Castelgrande by the city walls Montebello Castle (known as the Small, New or Middle Castle in the 15th Century, as Schwyz Castle from 1506 and St. Martin's Castle after 1818) is located to the east of the town center. It was built before 1313 for the pro-Imperial Rusca family, who occupied the castle following the Visconti victory and occupation of the Castelgrande. By the end of the 14th Century it was in the hands of the Visconti[10]. The castle was renovated and expanded between 1462 and 1490 to its current state. In the 19th Century the castle fell into disrepair and was renovated starting in 1903. A little chapel, dedicated to Saint Michael, leans against the wall of the more recent south-facing section; built around 1600, it is one of the few buildings erected in the castles of Bellinzona under the rule of the three Swiss cantons. Montebello Castle houses the Archaeological and Civic Museum. The museum was opened in 1974 and is located in the tower and the former residential quarters of Montebello Castle. It is divided into two sections-history and archaeology. In the history section there are several capitals from the 15th Century and a rare 13th Century Baptismal font as well as drawings and sketchs from several artists. This section also houses a collection of ceremonial and military arms. The archaeology section includes many items from 1400-1500 B.C. as well as ceramics, glassware, funeral urns, ornamental objects and jewellery in iron and bronze from around the canton. The museum is open from March to November[11].

THREE OR MORE TUESDAY: Old Records

Let me start off by saying I don't speak French although I am French/Metis. I have trained myself to read these French records and it has been quite a learning process. Some of them were so poorly written at the time that almost no one would be able to read them but I have found them especially challenging. I have gone through many thousand in doing research on my family and the families of my clients. And hey...I'm getting better at it.
This first record from the Drouin Collection of French Catholic records is for the baptism of my 2nd. Great Grandfather, Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne¹ (1799-1872) and is from 1799. Or so it would appear. When dealing with these records you are not always sure whether is was written out on the dates specified or if is a transcription done many years later.
This one here is for the burial of Emmanuel's father who would be my 3rd. Great Grandfather Jean Baptiste Beaugrand dit Champagne (1737-1817). One way to tell if the pages were trancribed is to look for signatures on them of the people involved like parents, godparents etc. If there are no original signatures but only the same one of the officiate over and over it may be a copy of the original.

Transcription or not without the Drouin Records I would have never been able to trace my family back to the early 1600's like I have.
The record below is a 1880 census record showing my Grandmother, Rosana Pinard (1877-1946) from Manchester, Hillsboro, New Hampshire which would seem totally out of place from my Quebec records except that her uncle Edmond Pinard had started a little place called Pinardville in New Hampshire. I talk about him in a previous posting here.

UPDATE: I am trying to learn how to insert footnotes so I am adding to this post.

SOURCES:
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancesty.ca

Well I have a computer class to teach and I must get going but in the mean time please check out the other Three or More Tuesday posts over at Tam's at The Gypsy's Corner. Thanks for stopping by.

GENEALOGY: A Call To Arms

Hider, Arthur H. (1870-1952)
This recruitment poster was made in 1915 calling men to enlist in WWI although the reference to de Salaberry goes back further to the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States when Major Charles de Salaberry was given command of French Canadian soldiers.
Once again they were being asked to fight for Britain.

Source: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/281/

GENEALOGY: Consort

While visiting the site Flipside today I saw an interesting post about her ancestor's tombstone. On the stone this woman was referred to as the "consort" of the man. In today's lexicon that may not conjure up the best image but back in the day the word referred to the spouse who died first, usually a woman. You see the marriage was considered a consortium.
The remaining spouse is then referred to as the "relic".

GENEALOGY: Save That Photo

I have just read an article in Family Tree Magazine on what to do with a photo that is stuck against the glass of a picture frame. You can't just peel it off without having the picture tear away from the backing. Steam will damage it too. Photo restoration companies may be able to remove it but the costs can be staggering. What to do? Clean the glass well then scan the photo, glass and all and then you can print a copy of the photo on good quality photo paper and a photo setting on the printer.
Lesson learned: Don't let the photo touch the glass in the first place.

GENEALOGY: Standard Issue Pony Photo

So how many of you out there have the exact same picture done on the exact same pony. Oh I know we live in different cities, even countries but I bet it looks like the same pony. Do you remember that day? I do. I was pretty sure my mother could never afford to buy the picture but I didn't care. I just wanted to sit on the pony. I wanted to feed it grass. I wanted to take him home to live in our backyard in the city. I remember my jacket was green.
I wanted the pony to be mine.

GENEALOGY: Louis Hebert

Louis Hebert was a very important man in the early history of New France (Quebec). He was my 11th. Great Grandfather and here is what I know about him.
Louis was born about 1575 in St. Germain, d'Auxerre, France apparently living in a house near the Louvre. He was also married in France but came to New France without his family.
Louis Hebert was an apothecary. This would be like a herbalist/pharmacist at the time.
In 1606 Louis Hebert sailed with Samuel Champlain to Port Royal, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. There is a river and an island named for Hebert. In the summer of that same year they sailed to the southwest looking for suitable sites for settlement. The area they were attracted to is now Gloucester, Massachusetts. Louis was known for cultivating land and they planted a clearing there to test the soil fertility. He planned to bring his family there.
At one point in this expedition Louis, Samuel Champlain and others leaped from their ship in the middle of the night to aid some of the men from the ship who against orders did not stay on board and were now being attacked by the inhabitants of the area. They returned to France in 1607. I will continue this story with the return of Louis to New France in 1610 in another post.