Who Was Your First Canadian or American Born Ancestor?

I was curious as to who my first Canadian and American born ancestors were. It was fun looking in my database to find out. 

My first Canadian ancestor was Leonard-Tremi (Jonas) Le Roy baptised 1674 in what is now Quebec. 

My first Ontario born ancestor was Levi Peer who was born 1807 in what was then Upper Canada.

My first born American ancestor was Styntje Jans Snediker born 1641 in New Amsterdam (now New York City)

Caveat: I've omitted my Mohawk ancestor Ots-Toch (wife of Cornelis Van Slyke) because I have no idea of her ancestry going back in time but it certainly was hundreds of years before Styntje. 

My husband has no American ancestry. His first born Canadian ancestor was Ellen Montgomery born in 1822 in Quebec. Johannes Alexander Allen Butler, son of his black ancestor, was a close second being born in 1824 in York County Ontario. 

Who was your first North American ancestor?

 

A Baker's Dozen of Favorite Genealogy Websites

In 2012 I listed my personal favorites of Top 10 Genealogy websites. I've revised that list and created a baker's dozen of my most-used genealogy websites, in categories for Canadian, American and International research. 

Oh yeah, and there's an "Everything Category" too. There are many many other fantastic websites out there but I had to have a cut-off number so I chose the traditional "Baker's Dozen".

Everything Category

These websites have genealogy records for world-wide research

* Ancestry.com - ($) pay site but my absolute #1. I visit several times daily in my search for Canadian, American and English ancestors.

* FamilySearch - (free) Lots of images and indexes world-wide. I probably only frequent it once a week. I confess that I find the search function not as friendly as it once was. I use it for my American and English ancestry

American Genealogy Research

* Olive Tree Genealogy (free) Yes I know it's my site. But it is my first stop for ships' passenger lists to USA,  New Netherland research and New York records (births, marriages, naturalizations, almshouse, orphans etc.) It's eclectic and has a mix of genealogy records.

* NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) (free) NARA has lots of goodies if you take the time to look around the site

* Fold3 - ($) pay site- So many military records you could get lost for a week!

Canadian Genealogy Research

* Library & Archives Canada (free) - dozens of free online databases for anyone with ancestors who lived in Canada. I use this site at least once a month.

* Olive Tree Genealogy (free) Yes I know I listed it in my American research category. But I  use it as my first stop to find ships' passenger lists to Canada and for Loyalist and land records in Ontario.

* The Ancestor Hunt (free) I use Kenneth R. Marks'  blog for listings of online Canadian Newspapers. They aren't always easy to find and this blog has a great listing of links

International Genealogy Research

* Free BMD - (free) Civil Registration Indexes. My mother's ancestry is solidly English so I use this site a lot (several times a month) to find ancestors in the index to Births, Deaths and Marriages after 1837.

* The British Newspaper Archive ($) I love this site for finding newspaper articles about my English ancestors. I use it about twice a month.

* The National Archives UK (free) Lots of online documents and very reasonably priced documents you can download instantly. I use this monthly for my English ancestors.

* Trove. (free) Another newspaper site (and more!) for Australia. I have found many newspaper records here for my Australian and English ancestors.

* Cora Web (free) If I want to know anything about ships passenger lists to Australia I head to Cora's site. I don't go that often but I know it's there when I need it.

Since I listed my own site twice, I am adding one more site to complete my Baker's Dozen. That is the wonderfully organized and huge list of links to every resource imaginable on Cyndi's List

Ancestry.com Free Access July 3-8

Did your family fight for your freedom or work to establish our great nation?

FREE through July 8th, make your connection to early American ancestors in nearly 65 million Ancestry.com carefully selected historical records from the 13 original colonies and more, including:

U.S. Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage & Death Announcements, 1851-2003 and many more on Ancestry.com

WW2 American Soldier's Dog Tags Found in Australia: They're Going Home!

Success! With the help of an amazing group of readers of my blog, we have found descendants of our WW2 soldier who lost his dog tags in Australia some 65 years ago.

The clues we had were a dog tag found by Jill in a remote area of Australia. The dog tag gave us the name Randall E. Packard, his ID# and a next of kin name, presumably his wife - Margaret L. Packard, and an Illinois address.

Jill asked for my help on my Ask Olive Tree blog to find Randall's descendants so the dog tag could be returned to family.

So I put out a call on both my blogs and miraculously, within a day, several readers put their genealogy research skills to work and found a great deal about Randall.

Then we hit gold - we found Randall's wife, still alive at age 90, and Randall's son. While I was pondering how best to approach Randall's son with the news, one of my readers (Gord) phoned Randall's wife. She was very pleased and excited and the word spread in their family.

Several grandchildren posted comments on the original story on my blog. Randall's son and daughter also posted comments. The comments show how loved and admired our soldier was. Everyone seems very excited and thrilled to think that their dad and grandpa's dog tags are coming home (courtesy of Jill in Australia)

But there's more! I've been corresponding with Rev. Charles (Randall's son) and on his Church website he wrote a Devotional which I think will interest readers.

Rev. Charles also shared with me an email from a former employee of Randall who wrote to Randall's son as soon as he heard about the dog tag. The email was very touching and showed once again what a strong impact Randall Packard had on those with whom he came in contact.

And one last thing, Gord has offered to put together a package of materials for the family which will provide them with all the data readers found in the search, as well as the sources. What a lovely gift!

So everyone who participated, give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back! You deserve it.

Now that we've had such wonderful success as a team, I'd love to do the same for our other WW2 soldier Stanley Thompson. Jill approached me for help with another find - the Dog Tag for Stanley Thompson With the help of my readers we found quite a bit about Stanley but never found a living descendant. Perhaps we can have another hunt for Stanley's family and bring the same joy to them as Randall's family found.

Outbound Ships Passenger Lists from USA Added

Olive Tree Genealogy added more ships passenger lists for outbound ships leaving New York. USA did not keep its outbound lists so finding any is very challenging. This
project is an ongoing one and is entirely free for all.

Today's new ships added are easiest to get to by going to the What's New in June page on Olive Tree Genealogy at

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/free0608.shtml

The new ships are listed below and they are linked from the URL above.

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Europa for Liverpool from New York 20 May 1852

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Jason for Liverpool from New York 2 Nov 1857

* Added partial List of passengers on board Steamship Kangaroo for Liverpool from New York 18 June 1858

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Kangaroo for Liverpool from New York 30 July 1858

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Minestora for Liverpool from New York 4 May 1867

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Jamestown from Norfolk, Richmond etc Virginia from New York 30 July 1858

* Added partial List of passengers on board steamship Jamestown for Norfolk, Petersburg and Richmond Virginia from New York 2 Nov 1857

Finding Naturalization Records in USA - Part 1

Naturalization in the United States was a two-step process that generally took a minimum of 5 years. These two steps did not have to take place in the same court.

In general, after living in the United States for 2 years, an alien could file a Declaration of Intent (also called First Papers) to become a citizen.

After 2 additional years, the alien could Petition for Naturalization. After the petition was granted, a Certificate of Citizenship was issued to the alien.

See Changes in Naturalization Requirements for information on specific time periods from 1790 to present.

Figuring out Canada Locations on USA Census Records

We've all seen it - an ancestor found in a USA census record and under place of birth "Can-Eng".

Sometimes this reference is misindexed as "England". It isn't England but where is it?

Earlier census records might indicate "C.W." or even earlier ones may have the notation "U.C" but what does that mean?? Where are these locations?

You can't find an ancestor in Canada without knowing at least a Province of origin. You will need to determine what Province your ancestor came from in order to search for records.

Here is a handy little guide for anyone finding a Canadian ancestor in the American Census Records. You will also find some of these same abbreviations in Canadian Census Records.

U.C. = Upper Canada. This is now the Province of Ontario and is often found in early Canadian Census records.
L.C. = Lower Canada. This is now the Province of Quebec

C.W. = Canada West. This was Upper Canada until 1842 and is now Ontario
C.E. = Canada East. This was Lower Canada until 1842 and is now Quebec

Can.Eng. = Canada English usually referring to Ontario
Can.Fr. = Canada French usually referring to Quebec

For more on name and boundary changes in Canadian Records see http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/can/ont/hist.shtml

If you are bewildered by Canadian Genealogy research you may want to start at the Canadian Genealogy pages at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/can/