Veterans' Week: Uncle Ern Simpson

Honouring my Uncle Ern - my grandmother's brother in Canadian army WW1

Veterans' Week - Great Grandpa's Brother James

Honouring my great-grandfather's brother James Simpson, soldier in the U.K. military in WW1

Veterans' Week: My Uncle Syd

Honouring Uncle Sydney Simpson, Canadian soldier in WW1

Veterans' Week - My Uncle Clare

Honouring my uncle Clare, a soldier in the Canadian army WW2

Veterans' Week, November 5 to 11, 2017

Today is the start of Veterans' Week, November 5 to 11, 2017. Today I am honouring my father who was a Lieutenant in the Canadian Military in WW2.

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album L 18

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

Surnames A-Z: D Names

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

D SURNAMES: Damen, Dawson, De Grauw, De Groot, De Roche, De Ruine, de Toine, Deane, Deckmann, Demarest, Des Chalets, Dewes, Doust, Down, Downey, Drury, Duty

Join me - maybe we connect! Find previous surnames on Surnames A-Z

Surnames A-Z: E Names

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

E SURNAMES: Earl, Ecker, Ellington, Elvery

Join me - maybe we connect! Find previous surnames on Surnames A-Z

UPDATE Ships Passenger Lists to New Netherland

Olive Tree Genealogy's exclusive reconstructed Ships' Passenger Lists from Holland to New Netherland (New York) from 1624 to 1664 has been updated.

A new ship with passenger names has been added for GELDERSCHE BLOM (captain Symen Claesen, owned by Wouter van Twiller and Guilliaem Momma), left Texel Dec. 25th 1656, arrived in New Amsterdam about March 19th 1657 with 11 colonists for Nieuwer-Amstel.

See the names on Geldersche Blom

Image credit: Brian L. Massey published here with permission

Ships Passenger List for De Eendracht 1624 Amsterdam to New Netherland

Original Image copyright Brian L. Massey

One of the exclusive projects I have on Olive Tree Genealogy website is a project to reconstruct the names of passengers on board ships sailing from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in the 17th century.

All "passenger lists" for travel from The Netherlands to New Netherland 1654-1664 came from information on the debit side of the West India Company Account Book. They show who owed money when they arrived.

This account book is found in New Netherland Colonial Mss, vol. 14, Book KK. The lists of Passengers to New Netherland in the Year Book of the Holland Society of New Netherland 1902:1-37 were taken from this Account Book

Typical fare was 36 florins; half that for young children; and nothing for nursing infants. 

These accounts were made from the records of the West India Company, by order of the English rulers after the confiscation of the Company's property in New Netherland, and as assets of or debts due the Company, and to be collected by the English. The list seems to stop with the Eendracht which arrived on 19 July 1664. The English took over in Sept 1664 so that may have been the last passenger ship to arrive before that date.

Thus we do not have "passenger lists" as we think of them, for this time period, because the only names are those who dstill owe money for passage. 

I reconstructed the names of those sailing on various ships from the following sources. Please note that not every source was used to reconstruct every ship. I have indicated which sources were used for each individual:

1. Abstracts from Notarial Documents in the Amsterdam Archives by Pim Nieuwenhuis published in New Netherland Connections in series Vol. 4:3,4; Vol. 5:1-3 (hereafter NNC)
2. Early Immigrants to New Netherland 1657-1664 from The Documentary History of New York (hereafter EINN)
3. Settlers of Rensselaerswyck 1630-1658 in Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (hereafter VRB)
4. E. B. O'Callaghan's Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany NY (hereafter CHM)
5. New World Immigrants: List of Passengers 1654 to 1664 edited by Michael Tepper (hereafter NWI)
6. Emigrants to New Netherland by Rosalie Fellows Bailey, , NYGBR; vol 94 no 4 pp 193-200 (hereafter ENN)
7. De Scheepvaart en handel van de Nederlandse Republiek op Nieuw-Nederland 1609-1675 unpublished thesis by Jaap Jacobs [hereafter JJ][Olive Tree Genealogy database]
8. The records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674 [hereafter RNA] [an online book from Ancestry.com]  

The Eendracht sailed from Amsterdam on January 25, 1624. the following names have been reconstructed from other sources.

 
Joris Rapalje and Catalina Trico were married in Amsterdam on January 21, and we know from her depositions that they sailed on this ship. 

Jean Monfort and his wife Jacqueline Moreau and their son Pierre (and any other children still living) also sailed on the Eendracht. [Source: Attestation from Amsterdam's Walloon Church on January 23 "pour le West Indes" as outlined in 375th Anniversary of the Eendracht and Nieuw Nederlandby Harry Macy, Jr., F.A.S.G., F.G.B.S Originally published in The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1999] 


Ghislain and Adrienne (Cuvellier) Vigne and their children Marie, Christine, and Rachel were on either Niew Nederland or De Eendracht, as their son Jan would be the first male child born in the new colony. [Source: 375th Anniversary of the Eendracht and Nieuw Nederlandby Harry Macy, Jr., F.A.S.G., F.G.B.S Originally published in The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1999] 
 
Search for an ancestor on 81 ships sailing to New Netherland (New York) 1624 to 1664

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album 23 R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

Surnames A-Z: B Names

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

B SURNAMES: Badcock, Baertie, Baker, Barentsdr. Baylie, Beery/Bieri, Bell, Bellinger, Bellingham, Best, Bex, Blanden, Boertgen, Boughton, Bradt, Brooke, Brown, Browning, Bruchhausen, Brunger, Burgh, Burkholder, Burrey,Buss

Join me - maybe we connect! Find previous surnames on Surnames A-Z

How the 'Mother's Curse' Came to Canada

Do you have a Filles du Roi in your ancestry? I do, and my daughter-in-law does too. My Filles du Roi is my 8th great-grandmother Claude des Chalets (ca 1651 France - post 1706 New York). Claude "Blandina" was one of three orphaned sisters who were sent to Canada as a "Filles Du Roi"(King's daughters).

The Filles du Roi (Daughters of the King) were impoverished or orphaned women who were given a dowry by the King of France if they agreed to go to New France (present-day Quebec) to marry and help colonize the land. Over 800 of these women left France for New France. 

With them they brought mutations in their DNA - some common, some more rare. Thus descendants of these Filles du Roi stand a better than average chance of inheriting a rare genetic disorder. According to the article 

"One of these is Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, which causes vision loss, usually in young men. Recently, geneticists using French Canadian genealogy have reexamined the effects of Leber’s and found a striking pattern of inheritance: It seems to show a long-theorized but never-seen-in-humans pattern called the “mother’s curse.”"

Continue reading this fascinating article How One Woman Brought the 'Mother's Curse' to Canada

Surnames A-Z: C Names

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

C SURNAMES: Caplin, Carr, Casier, Caspall, Chevallereau, Clark, Clauss, Clement, Clopper, Coburger, Cockling, Coerte, Cole, Concklin, Cooke, Coppin, Covell, Creest, Cresson, Crunden, Cullmer, Curling

Join me - maybe we connect! Find previous surnames on Surnames A-Z

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 16

 

Standing we have William Elgie holding Roberta (she was the keeper of these photos inherited from Florence who inherited them from her mother Mary Louise Facey Elgie. After Roberta's death the photos came to Helena, my mother-in-law and then to her son, my husband), Mary Louise Facey Elgie holding Helena, and in front are Donna (I do not know how she fits into the family) and Joan Elgie (Harry Elgie's daughter and another granddaughter of Mary Louise Facey Elgie). This photo would have been taken ca 1943

Hundreds of Irish Famine Graves Discovered in Massachusetts

A Rhode Island woman researching her husband's Irish ancestors found approximately 600-900 gravestones marking the second resting place of bodies previously disinterred from the Irish Catholic Cemetery in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Discovering that her husband's ancestor was no longer buried in the Catholic Cemetery but had been moved, along with hundreds of others, to a new location, she set out to pay a visit. To her surprise only 4 headstones were seen in that new location. She knew from her research that the stones had been laid flat on top of the coffins when the bodies were moved, so she began scraping away dirt and grass. And there she found the stones, hidden under dirt and grass since 1947.

Along with Archie Bennett, Waltham historic preservationist; Sheila Fitzpatrick of the Waltham Historical Society; and The Irish Ancestral Research Association, they decided to begin a restoration project to uncover all the stones.

Continue reading Irish Central's story Rhode Island woman's quest uncovers hundreds of Irish Famine graves

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album OV

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

GO AHEAD TOURS, ANCESTRY COLLABORATE TO LAUNCH NEW TOUR PORTFOLIO

The following announcement was sent to Olive Tree Genealogy.

GO AHEAD TOURS, ANCESTRY COLLABORATE TO LAUNCH NEW TOUR PORTFOLIO

This unique portfolio of tours will offer experiences that will take travelers on a journey into their personal histories

September 11, 2017 (CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS) – Go Ahead Tours and Ancestry today announced a new portfolio of tours that will take travelers on a journey into their personal histories. These exciting trips combine Ancestry’s proprietary DNA technology and access to expert Genealogists with Go Ahead’s high-quality international travel experiences. The new portfolio of heritage trips will launch this fall with itineraries in 2018 to Ireland, Italy, and Germany. New tours featuring additional destinations will be announced in early 2018 with first departures in 2019.

“We are thrilled to team up with Ancestry to introduce this special way for travelers to experience a destination in a new light,” said David Henry, VP of Marketing at Go Ahead. “So many of our customers travel to connect with their heritage, and this was our inspiration to collaborate with the team at Ancestry. These trips will help our customers explore their family story with even greater insight and visit the places where their ancestors once walked.”

The journey begins with an AncestryDNA kit, which analyzes DNA and provides a breakdown of a person’s ethnic background. Go Ahead travelers will then have the opportunity to build their family tree and discuss their results with an expert from AncestryProGenealogists during a pre-trip family history review. Every journey will be led by a local Tour Director and Ancestry Genealogist, who will provide family history context and bring a personal perspective to each destination. Genealogical adventurers will gain a deeper understanding of their family’s past and the knowledge of how to continue learning about their ancestors’ history once back home.

“Personal genealogy is so important, and certainly means different things to different people,” said Kyle Betit, Senior Genealogist and Travel Program Manager at AncestryProGenealogists. “We believe that these trips will give people the opportunity to trace their roots on a deeper level and maybe even discover something new or exciting about their own ancestors.”

For more information, please visit www.goaheadtours.com/ancestry.

Information and Registration for Tours:

Go Ahead Tours will be taking calls and registering travelers for the tours. To find out more about tours and to sign up for them, interested persons can either:

1. Go online at www.goaheadtours.com/ancestry
2. Call Go Ahead Tours at 1-800-242-4686

On that URL link you can also see the descriptions of all five tours (two tour types in Ireland, two tour types in Italy, and one tour type in Germany)

Here are the links to information about the individual tours:

• Sicily Ancestry Tour: Palermo to Taormina
• Irish Ancestry Tour: Highlights of the Emerald Isle
• Italian Ancestry Tour: Puglia & Southern Italy
• German Ancestry Tour: Hamburg to Munich
• Irish Ancestry Tour: The Wild Atlantic Way

See the short video about the tours here: https://www.facebook.com/goaheadtours/videos/10155950672147223/?hc_ref=ART_nfCec2EUX8Lm_wYCBq-E8a6NApbjhNkYGHiNVVyYiKG-fxF99Pmq8gtE-FQWquc

Also, there is a Q&A interview with me about the tours here: http://travelblog.goaheadtours.com/ancestry-genealogist-q-a-heritage-tour/

 

Surnames A-Z

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

Here are my "A" surnames:

A SURNAMES: Abel, Allard, Allen, Alman, Ammis, Andrews, Ansell, Austin

Are you ready to join me? Maybe we connect somewhere!

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 15

 

This photo was taken circa 1920-1921 and shows Annie, Florence and Luella Elgie and their pet lamb at the Elgie Farm.