Throw Back Thursday: My Dad

It's Throw Back Thursday, a day when many genealogists and bloggers post photos from earlier years.

I love this photo of my dad, Cecil McGinnis, taken ca 1918 when he was just 2 years old. It's the only photo I've ever seen of him before his marriage to my mother.

You can see that I cropped it from a larger group photo. Today I opened it in Picasa and created what is called a Museum Matte to surround it and make it look like it is behind glass.

The original large group photo and the original cropped photo remain untouched - no changes were made to them. It's a good idea when playing with old photos to always make a copy and never alter the original.

I miss my dad. He died Christmas Day when I was just barely 14 years old. He was just 47 years old

Here's to you dad, you were taken from us at far too young an age.

More Questions Than Answers: The Fun of Genealogy Research

Yesterday I posted about my re-evaluation of an old record I obtained several years ago.  It can be read at In-depth Review of a Record Leads to a Genealogy Solution!
Carrying on with my new theory that my  ancestor Joseph McGinnis with wife Fanny, their baby daughter Bridget and Fanny's sister Margaret Downey, arrived in Quebec from Ireland sometime in late June or early July 1846.

My good friend Sue Swiggum of TheShipsList website, explained that the trip took on average 42 days then  new emigrants were encouraged to move out of Quebec city, and out of Montreal pretty quickly. Since Joseph was sent on from Montreal to Hamilton on July 9, 1846 I might expect him to have arrived by ship end of June or 1st of July.

Since I know the family came from Belfast and area, I decided to check British newspapers for notices of ship departures from that port to Quebec. I found several arriving on July 3rd but that would almost certainly be too late. Then I found a notice which looked like a possibility.

Friday 05 June 1846
Armagh Union. Monday 22 paupers left this place for Belfast to embark on the Belinda for Quebec  sent by the board of guardians by this Union. The emigrants were very comfortably clad, and otherwise equipped for their journey, and were accompanied by the efficient clerk to the Baord, Mr. M. McNeal Johnston and Mr. McCall, master of the house 

However Sue informed me that the Belinda didn't arrive in Quebec until July 20th so that ship is out of the running. She found two ships sailing from Belfast that seemed like good possibilities:

Arrival 24th June, ship MILTIADES left Belfast 14th May, with 391 passengers. Sue checked the Quebec papers and there were no more Belfast arrivals in later June issues. Checking the  9th July issue there were  no more ships arriving from Belfast.

There was an earlier arrival, on June 18th of the bark CHIEFTAIN, McEwine, from Belfast on May 1st with 182 passengers. 

The Miltiades looked like the best bet given it's arrival date just 15 days before Joseph and family were sent on at the expense of the government. I also checked Marj Kohl's Immigrants to Canada and found this reference to the Militiades:

Miltiades  from   Belfast     arrived 24 June.  21 people were sent on with assistance 

Since Joseph's name is on the list of those who could not afford to continue their journey and were transported out of Montreal to other settlement areas, things are looking pretty good for my Joseph McGinnis to be one of those 21 people sent on with assistance. 

There's a very nice transcribed ad for this sailing on the Irish Emigration Database

 FOR QUEBEC.

          THE Splendid First-class Coppered Ship,
             MILTIADES, of Belfast,

             674 Tons Register, 1,000 Tons Burthen,
                  WM. [William ?] GROOM, Commander,

To Sail, direct from Belfast, on TUESDAY, the 12th day
of May, on which day Passengers will require to be on board.
   This Ship's well-known superior accommodations, and
Captain Groom's kindess and attention to Passengers,
together with his great experience as a navigator, render
this conveyance most desirable for persons about to
emigrate.
   As the "Miltiades" is filling up fast, to prevent
disappointment, immediate application is recommended to
                    DAVID GRAINGER, Dunbar's-Dock.
   Belfast, 20th April, 1846.

A search of British and Irish newspapers provided me with the advertisement for the Militades in the Belfast Newsletter

The Irish Emigration Database also had this transcript for the Miltiades just prior to her sailing

  NOW IN PORT.

      NOTICE TO PASSENGERS FOR QUEBEC.

          ALL persons who have engaged
      Passages in the Ship "MILTIADES,"
     are requested to be in Belfast, to go
     on board on TUESDAY, the 12th May, as
     she goes to sea the first fair [wind]
              DAVID GRAINGER, Dunbar's-Dock.

  Belfast, 4th May, 1846.

 The Miltiades will be succeeded by the splendid
new Ship "BELINDA," WM. [William?] KELLY, MASTER,
1,200 Tons Burthen, to sail for QUEBEC about the
25th of May; due Notice will be given of the exact
day of sailing.

 June 1846 saw the arrival of the Miltiades in this notice. No day was given.

 Arrived out at Quebec, the ship Miltiades, of
Belfast, Groom, master, after a quick passage
of 35 days-all well.

My search in British and Irish newspapers also brought up some interesting details of the Miltiades and her journey. The Belfast Newsletter of June 19, 1846 had a notice that the ship, having left Belfast on the 25th of May had been spotted by the Ruby Castle at Latitude 48 and Longitude 23

 

A check reveals its position was about 1/3 of the way on its voyage. It was about 630 miles from the coast of Ireland and about 1400 miles from Newfoundland. Interestingly, another notice in the May 16th edition of the London Standard indicates that the Miltiades left Belfast for Quebec on May 14. This sail date seems more in line with the advertised date of May 12th. Ships often left later than they hoped but a sail date of the 25th is almost 2 weeks late.

From Montreal, Joseph and family would have been given passage (paid for by the Government for indigent immigrants) on a steamer to Hamilton. According to Marj Khol's website:

The actual cost to the Department of an adult passage, with an allowance of 1 cwt. [Lorine's note: 1 cwt.=100 pounds] of luggage, from Quebec to Hamilton, a distance of 571 miles, is 20s. 9d., = 16s. 4½d. sterling. The time required is 72 to 80 hours.

I can imagine Joseph, Fanny, Margaret and the baby struggling on board a steamer with their trunks packed full of belongings - no doubt that included bedding, cookware, china, utensils, candles if they had any, perhaps pillows, items for the baby, and as much clothing as they could fit in to their trunks. They were very poor so may have had even less than I have listed here.

Once they reached Hamilton, Joseph and his family would have found life even more difficult. It was not until the summer of 1847 that the city discussed erecting a platform or gangway running into the water of Burlington Bay with a shed over it for use of immigrants. The Council also contemplated procuring a building to be used as a hospital and the erecting of sheds in case of sick immigrants arriving.  But I find no evidence that any kind of sheltering or assistance was in place in 1846.

The population of Hamilton in 1846 was under 10,000 and the large influx of impoverished Irish immigrants must have been overwhelming. Luckily Joseph had family members in Puslinch Township near Guelph so he had a few options for finishing the journey.

He might have had enough money, or been able to earn enough, to hire a cart or wagon to head up to the Guelph area. It is far more likely though that he and his family either hitched a ride with a returning farmer or sent for one of their McGinnis relatives to come down and get them.  It was another 30 miles to Guelph and Joseph's relatives lived in Puslinch which was on the way to Guelph. The road was rough and July is prime time for mosquitoes, so the journey must have been horrendous. It might have taken the family another 3 or 4 days to reach their final destination, depending how long they had to spend in Hamilton before continuing on.

In summary, I don't have proof of these suppositions. But they are my working theory based on what evidence and clues I have been able to find.  Thhe details, based on certain facts and best possibilities, help me to bring my ancestors to life. My great-great-grandparents are more alive for me today than ever before.

I will keep searching in hopes of finding facts to support my theory or disprove it. Meantime I treat my story above with caution, and advise any descendants to remember - it is just a story based on what few facts are available.

In-depth Review of a Record Leads to a Genealogy Solution!

Several years ago I sent for a transcribed record. It was for a Joseph McGinnis who was being sent from Montreal to Hamilton in July 1846. I hoped it was my ancestor who I knew had arrived from Ireland in Upper Canada (Ontario) between January 1846 and  September 1847. Since ships passenger lists to Canada did not have to be kept before 1865, trying to find an ancestor's arrival is challenging. 

However I was disappointed because the abstract recorded Joseph with two adult females and no children. Since I knew that Joseph and his wife Fanny came during the Irish famine with a daughter under the age of 1, this record could not be the right family.

I didn't have access to the original record so I set the record aside but didn't discard the idea completely that somehow it might be my Joseph. Perhaps the record was in error and should have read Joseph and 1 adult female and 1 child? That was my rather vague hope. With the record tucked away I moved on to other research but it was always in the back of my mind. 

This year I had a chance to view the actual image of the record set that contained Joseph's name. To my disappoinment, the page definitely showed Joseph and 2 Adult women being sent on to Hamilton at the Government's expense. 

I decided to study the document carefully. My first puzzle was the ditto marks (") in several of the columns. If I followed up to where the ditto marks began on Joseph's page, it seemed to indicate that the numbers in the 4 columns were: 1, 2, 2, 4. There were no column headings on the page with Joseph's name but the most logical thing would be if those columns showed Adult males, adult females and perhaps male and female children.if so, this was most definitely not my Joseph.

So off I went to find the first page of this record set. What I found confused me even more because the 4 column headings were: Adults M (male), Adults F (female), Male Adults, Female Adults.

 

Why would the clerk record adults twice? That made no sense. Because it made no sense I knew that there had to be a logical explanation. Perhaps the description of this record set would help. 

Before I tried to find the description I had another puzzle to solve. Some of the numbers were written in the first set of 2 columns, but some were in the second set. They were never in both.

I knew I need to scroll back through the microfilm until I found page 1. 

And there it was - the answer to my question. Reading very carefully and thinking about this description, the answer became clear. It was in the phrase  "shewing [showing] the adult persons single or in families..." Aha! The clerk needed to differentiate between married and single individuals. The columns were obviously for married adult men, married adult women, single men and single women! 

That also explained why some individuals were marked in Column 1 or 2 (they were married!) and others in Column 3 or 4 (they were single) 

But what about those ditto marks? A careful look at  the whole page showed that they could not be ditto marks because the totals added at the bottom would not work out. Those totals only worked by adding the actual numbers in each column and ignoring the ditto marks. 

 

It was pretty obvious now that what I thought were ditto marks (") were something else. And in fact a better look at the very last column for destination showed that the clerk used "do" for "ditto". Those marks (") meant zero, that is, no number in that column. 

And then came the biggest AHA! moment of all! This record set only recorded the numbers of adults traveling westward! It did not record numbers of children in the family. 

Going back to Joseph McGinnis and his record I took another look. A theory was popping into my head and I wanted to be sure I understood his record before formulating it aloud.

 

The original abstracted transcript I had received several years before was correct. Joseph McGinnis and 2 adult females were being sent on from Montreal to Hamilton on July 9th 1846. But the very important fact that had not been sent with the transcript was that the number of children in families were not recorded! 

This could easily be my Joseph with his wife Fanny and baby daughter Bridget. As for the second adult female, I have a very good possibility for that woman. Joseph's brother Daniel married a woman named Margaret Downey in Upper Canada in late 1846 or early 1847. My Joseph McGinnis' wife was Fanny Downey. I have always theorized that Margaret and Fanny were sisters but have not yet been able to prove or disprove this theory. 

If I go with this theory then  there is a very good possibility that the adult female travelling with them was Fanny's sister Margaret.

The last clincher is the fact that my McGinnis family had strong ties with the Hamilton community. As well that would be the only way to get to the Guelph area in 1846 - by taking a steamer west to Hamilton or going by land, and then taking the only road north which was between Hamilton and Guelph.

Thus it makes sense that Joseph would be sent to Hamilton and from there he would have to arrange a cart or coach to continue on to the Guelph area. 

I believe this is quite likely a record of my Irish ancestor's arrival from Ireland at the height of the Irish Famine. I will of course continue to research my theory by  looking for other records to support or disprove it. 

What did I learn from this? 

1. Always try to find the original, unaltered record

2. Study the original record. Analyze it. Question it. 

3. Study the record again. Make sure you completely understand how it was recorded and why it was recorded.

4. Develop a theory based on that record and seek evidence to prove or disprove your theory

5. Never give up - pull out records you found years ago and go through them again.

52 Ancestors: Joseph McGinnis - A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma

1871 Census Guelph Ontario Canada Joseph McGinnis & Family

I'm writing about my 2nd great grandfather Joseph McGinnis as part of Amy Crow's Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 

Joseph McGinnis came to Ontario Canada from Ireland in 1847 with a wife (Fanny Downey) and a toddler (Bridget aka Delia). He was about 20 years old and a general labourer. After the 1871 census was taken in Guelph, Joseph disappeared. What happened to him? 

There are two possibilities. Many of Joseph's family (either siblings or cousins, that relationship has not been worked out yet) left Guelph area after 1861 with their families. John and Daniel left after 1871 for Michigan. Constantine and Frank left shortly after 1861 - Francis for Ohio and Constantine for Michigan. Mary Jane left for Ohio after 1851 and Sarah left after 1864 for Iowa. It seems very possible that my Joseph could have left with John and Daniel, perhaps for the same area. Did he die there? 

Joseph is not found in the 1880 U.S. census, nor in the 1881 Canadian census. So did he leave Ontario after that 1880 census was taken but before the 1881 Canadian? My Fanny is found in the 1881 census for Guelph as a widow but with another puzzle added. More on that later in this blog post!

However there is another possibility - and another "wrinkle" thrown in to add to the mystery. For there was another couple in the same location, around the same ages, also named Joseph and Fanny McGinnis. Or was there? In 1877 a Joseph McGinnis died in Guelph. For years descendants, including me, believed this was our Joseph. But a search by me of the Catholic church burial records revealed that *this* Joseph was married to a Fanny Foster, not Fanny Downey! The thought that perhaps my Fanny Downey had been married more than once occurred. 

But in 1890 Fanny (Foster) McGinnis also died. Since Fanny (Downey) McGinnis was alive and kicking in 1891 and in fact did not die until 1904, the two women were not the same individual. 

But what about Joseph? Could he have been married to both women? Is he in fact the Joseph who died in 1877?  Is that why he disappeared after 1871 and no record of his death or his residence has been found? 

There is no trace of Joseph and Fanny (Foster) McGinnis in any census records. There is one Fanny McGinnis, a widow in the 1881 Guelph census. A second Fanny appears in that 1881 census for Guelph, also listed as a widow and with her 15 year old son Joseph. Given the errors that creep into census records the age difference (Joseph should have been 17) isn't enough to say that this one isn't my Fanny. But certainly one of the women must be mine.

But because there is no trace of Joseph #2 (married to Fanny Foster) it leads to suspicion that indeed there may only be ONE Joseph McGinnis - married to two different women.

It is possible that my Joseph did indeed die in 1877 and that Fanny Downey left Ontario with her youngest children - perhaps to live with a sibling or other relative. Another intriguing fact is that Daniel McGinnis, who was either the brother or cousin of my Joseph McGinnis, and the man who moved to Michigan with his family after 1871, was married to a Margaret Downey. Was she my Fanny Downey's sister? Could my Fanny have left Ontario to live near her sister, then moved back to Ontario by 1881? Or did she never leave Guelph? There is not much to go on other than the census every 10 years. Catholic records for Guelph are not open to the public so I am unable to search to see if she happened to be a baptismal sponsor for grandchildren during those crucial years 1871 to 1881.

That brings me to trying to decide which is the most likely scenario - that my Joseph packed up his family and left Ontario for parts unknown, died there, and his widow Fanny Downey moved back to Ontario to be with her eldest daughter OR that my Joseph was married to both Fanny Foster and Fanny Downey and that he died in Guelph in 1877? 

I don't know. I waffle between one scenario and the other. I have spent years going over and analyzing the clues and the documents I've found on the family. Sometimes I feel I'm going in circles, hoping for that one clue that will provide me with an "aha!" moment.

A Wonderful Genealogical Find on Ebay!

Look what arrived yesterday! I found this on Ebay. It is the original group photo taken in 1909 of the Guelph Fire Department - on the first year it was official. Before 1909 the Guelph Fire Brigade was volunteers but in 1909 they became the first to be paid by the City of Guelph.

And guess who was in the Fire Department that year? MY GRANDFATHER Joseph McGinnis! Yep, found on E-Bay of all places....  I was pretty excited when this photo turned up.

I'd seen a scan of this photo at the Guelph Civic Museum so I had a copy of my grandpa cropped from the group photo, but had not seen the original. Now hubs is going to scan it and we'll  frame it for our wall of ancestors.

The original owner's name is on the back of the group photo - Mrs. Watt. Daniel Watt was the Captain of the Hook & Ladder so presumably this photo was given to him in 1909.  

Mrs. Watt's name plus an address which is illegible

The men in the photo are: 

1ST - A. SIMPSON, J. LANNIN, GEO. THOMPSON, W. MCILROY, R. DILLON.
2ND - J. MCGINNIS, J. THOMPSON, J. HEWER, J.G. THOMPSON, G. WHETSTONE
3RD - T. SPALDING, F. WAKEFIELD, W. HEBDEN, A. RICHARDSON, W. JOHNSON
4TH - A. ROBERTSON - CHIEF, G. SPALDING, W.J. ARMSTRONG ASST. CHIEF.
5TH - W. CRAIG, D. WATT. CAPT. H.+L., GEORGE COLSON SEC. ,C. CHASE FOREMAN, H.+L., N. WARNER

Grandpa McGinnis

I did a little research and found some of the men's full names. So far I've found John Lannin (the Guelph Civic Museum has his Guelph Fire Department hat which I wish I could show you here but I need permission from them first); George Whetstone; Charles Chase; Daniel Watt (his wife's name is on the back of my photo); William Hebden; Adam Robertson; Charles Spalding and of course my grandfather Joseph McGinnis.

From the Guelph Civic Museum

"Adam Robertson was the department's third chief; he held the position for quite some time. During that time, a new fire hall was put on the end of the building housing the Farmer's Market and it served the department until fairly recent times. A pipeline consisting of wooden planks wrapped with iron bands and sawdust was constructed from the Arkell Springs in 1907; it provided water for fighting fires throughout the city and is still of significance today. A ladder wagon was purchased about 1900 and Guelph's firefighters became paid public servants in 1909."

Over the years I've found a few treasured genealogical items that connect to my ancestors, but this is the first time I was lucky enough to find a photograph. I've bid on and won an advertising ruler from Biltmore Hats in Guelph where my dad worked, two blank cheques from Biltmore Hats, a lovely watercolour of a rustic stone bridge in Guelph painted by a well-known Guelph-born artist, and a few other interesting items.

My advice? Don't overlook Ebay as a source of genealogy treasures!

What Would You Do With a Genealogy Time Machine?

Wouldn't you love it if Time Machines were available? I think all genealogists, archaeologists and historians would. So let's pretend we are being given the opportunity to use one.

Here are the rules of the Time Machine:

1. You can travel to any year you wish

2. You can travel to any geographic location you wish

3. You only have the time machine for 24 hours

4. You will be invisible to those you encounter so it will be challenging or impossible to interact with them

5. Be cautious about bringing back mementos. Any action you take may affect the present timeline. As an example you decide to grab that precious family bible and bring it back to the future. But the loss of the bible creates a huge fight in the family and one of the sons (your direct ancestor) storms out and never returns home. He does not marry the girl next door (your ancestor) and thus his future changes. So when you return to your present time, nothing is as you left it. 

So - what are you going to do with your Time Machine?

I had so much trouble deciding what to do and where to go. There are three ancestors I desperately want to visit but doubt I have time to see them all in 24 hours. 

McGinnis Family Guelph 1849

My first thought was to hop out Guelph way to 1847 which is when my Irish ancestor Joseph McGinnis arrived from Ireland. But then I realized that without knowing his exact date of arrival the chances were good that I'd get there before he did! And even if he were there with his wife Fanny and toddler Delia, what are the odds he'd be sitting around reminiscing about the good ole days in Ireland?? Because what I want to find out from him is the name of his parents, or siblings and maybe even the town in Ireland he came from. 

Then I had another thought - he and Fanny baptised my great-grandfather Alex in the Church of Our Lady in Guelph in 1849. There must have been a party, a celebration of some kind. I wouldn't be surprised if family members went to the church to witness such an occasion. Decision made, my first stop is going to be that christening in the church. Maybe I'll even follow the family back to their log cabin in Puslinch after the ceremony. I bet there's a gathering at their home and hopefully he'll greet someone with "Good to see ya Uncle xxx!" 

Even if attending the party as an invisible guest doesn't yield any further information, I'm going to try to take some photos with my digital camera. Wow wouldn't that be cool? At the very least I'll get to see what my 2nd great grandparents look like. 

Once I decided on that course of action my mind began whirling, and I started second guessing myself. Maybe I should make my first stop a wedding of an ancestor. After all, weddings bring dozens of family members together! I could run around taking pictures but I might not figure out who everyone is. 

So my first stop is definitely my great-grandpa's christening in 1849. 

My Mohawk Ancestor 1640s or Jacob Peer 1790s?

Then I have to choose between trying to find out  more about Ots-Toch, my Mohawk ancestor born ca 1620 in what is now New York state, or Jacob Peer, who cannot be found before 1793 in New Jersey. I'd sure love to know who his parents were! Or his wife Anna's maiden name. 

Decision made - I doubt I'll learn anything more genealogically about Ots-Toch although it would be fascinating to see how she lived before and after her marriage to the Dutchman Cornelis Van Slyke. So I'm going to hop down to New Jersey to September 1793, specifically to NewTown, Sussex County where I know Jacob Peer and his older sons were being taxed. My goal for this part of my time machine travel is to look for a family bible. It's a long shot but Jacob and most of his sons left wills and that makes me think they might be the kind of ancestors who also kept a family bible with births, marriages and deaths in it.

At least I'd get to see their faces and hang around for a few hours to see how they lived. But once again I'm torn in my decision-making! I do know the exact date and location one of Jacob's sons was married. Would it be wiser for me to attend that wedding to see if any of the guests are family members? I think that's a bit of a gamble because maybe there were no relatives living nearby (other than siblings I already know about) or maybe the couple ran off and married quietly that day with no family in attendance. 

Photos

And then just as I was about to end this blog post, I had another thought - what if I took my digital camera and simply hopped from place to place, from year to year - popping in and taking photos like crazy of each of my ancestors. I'd build quite a collection in 24 hours! And it would be so amazing to be able to see so many of those lost faces. I could run around New Amsterdam (now New York City) snapping photos of all my Dutch ancestors who settled there in the 17th Century. I could go on to various parts of Ontario Canada where many of my father's ancestors settled. It would be kind of like speed dating which I've never participated in but I've read about it) except I'd be speed ancestor hunting. 

Having a Time Machine at my disposal might not be quite so much fun as I originally thought! I'd have to do a lot of planning - figure out where ancestors were (exact locations) on precise days and years. And that takes me back to choosing weddings, funerals and baptisms as my best bet for finding certain ancestors and family members. So that's my choice. I'm going to time travel to as many celebrations where my ancestors were involved, and take as many photos as possible while eavesdropping to try to hear names of other family - parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and so on.

It was fun writing this and letting my imagination go wild, but I'm curious to hear what you would do with a Time Machine!


Credits: 
Log Cabin drawing by Brian Massey of AncestorsAtRest 
Time Machine image by Salvatore Vuono, on FreeDigitalNet

Creating a Family Story Book Using Flip-Pal and Shutterfly

Yesterday Volume 2 of my McGinnis Family Story Books arrived from Shutterfly. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

First I used my amazing Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to scan the family photos I wanted to use in my book. I like using the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner because I can sit on my sofa and watch television while I"m scanning the photographs!

After transferring the scanned photos to my computer (easy with the memory card and USB adaptor that comes with the scanner!) I organized them into a directory on my laptop Then I uploaded them to Shutterfly. I created a different size book this time.  Usually I go with the 8x8 books because they are small, easy to pick up and glance through and I just like the look of them. But this time I went with the 8 1/2 x 11 and I'm really glad I chose that size.

The 8 1/2 x 11 allowed me to insert a census image that was legible but had room around the edges for the page background. I could have added a border around those images or embellished the page with a "sticker" but I like the larger images to be simple and plain.

You can read how I organized my book at Creating Memory Books on Shutterfly  It's important to plan the layout of your book before starting. Decide on how you want to organize the pages and photos - by person? Chronologically? You can always switch pages around once you've created pages in Shutterfly but you need a plan to begin.

Think about how many pages you want. I create mine to be between 20 and 25 pages. If it is going to be bigger, I break the book into separate volumes. As an example, my Story Books on my McGinnis family are in 4 volumes, one for each generation starting with my father. The smaller the book, the more manageable to create and the more likely your recipients will be to pick it up and skim through it. Anything larger than 25 pages is, for me, overwhelming to create and I believe would be too much for most people to want to glance through.

Shutterfly allows me to create photo pages, or text pages or a combination of both. It's easy to quickly pick a layout for each page using their layout options. So if you want to place two photos and one text box on a page, for example, you choose from their options for 2 photos plus text.

Then by using the "customize" feature found on each page you can resize and rearrange the photo and text boxes. You can add more text boxes if you want. Then you can change the background by choosing from their options for whatever theme you are using.

In this volume of the McGinnis family story, I added scans of newspaper clippings from a family double wedding. I am lucky enough to have the actual wedding invitation so I added that to the page along with photos of the church and of the happy couples. Using my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner this section took less than 10 minutes to scan and upload.

In the end the book is a lovely coffee table book resembling a scrapbook. But it has enough genealogical information and documents to give family members a taste of what I have found on the family. It also allows me to share the wonderful family photos, documents and newspaper clippings in my possession.

I can hardly wait to start on my next family story book project! 

Creating Memory Books on Shutterfly

Creating one of the McGinnis Memory Books

As you can imagine, I've been researching my McGinnis family for many decades. Part of my ongoing quest is researching all siblings on all generations back to the immigrant ancestor who came to Ontario Canada from Ireland in the 1830s.

The immigrant ancestor John McGinnis had 7 sons and 2 daughters that I've found so far, and most of them left Canada to settle in the USA. I'm sure you get the idea of how much data I have now on each generation of each branch!

Recently I decided it was time to organize and preserve my research - documents, photos and so on. I've wanted to do this for a very long time but keep re-thinking and changing my ideas on how best to accomplish this.

Finally last month I decided it was time. Make a decision and go with it! And I'm pleased to say that I've done that with the help of Shutterfly.

Making Decisions

My first decision was that these books are just for family. So I am comfortable with showing photos, documents and information for living people.

My second decision was that I would create one book (volume) for each generation starting with my father and working backwards.

Normally this is the stage of the process where I start second-guessing myself. I end up with several different ideas on how to best create the book(s) and as a result - I become bogged down in minutia and am unable to forge ahead!

With the encouragement of my husband who simply shrugged his shoulders and repeated (often) "Just set it up how YOU like it and do it!" I was able to minimize the internal "maybe this way is better" agonizing that I usually face.

Creating Different Volumes Within One Surname

My final decision was to create one title that would be used for each volume, and number the volumes starting with my father and working backwards. I know - one would normally number from the immigrant ancestor coming down the generations. But unlike my usual flip-flop over what was best, I simply made the decision and went with it. No looking bad, no second-guessing, no "gee I wish I'd done xxx instead of yyy" It was liberating!

Having one book for each generation worked well for me. I forged ahead quite quickly, gathering my scattered documents and photos, uploading them to Shutterfly into "albums", one album for each volume I planned to create, and then inserting them into the appropriate books.

Using Albums in Shutterfly

Once I had my photos and documents that I had uploaded into what I called McGinnis Album Dad inserted into Volume 1 (my father, mother and children) it was easy to write the text and photo captions that I wanted to add to each page. 

A hard lesson I learned after creating dozens of other books in Shutterfly was to carefully and precisely name my albums where my photos and documents were being uploaded.  I had not done this, instead leaving the default name/label which was simply the dates of the upload. That meant that I had to look through dozens of albums every time I wanted to move more photos from the albums to my books!

It took me awhile to figure out how to rename albums in Shutterfly so I urge you to name them with an identifier immediately. You can see in this photo on the right that I have not finished renaming all my original albums.

Organizing Pages Within the Book

I kept it simple. I started with the marriage of my grandparents, then the birth record of my father. The next several pages were devoted to information, photos and documents that pertained to my dad, up to his death. Items were placed chronologically for ease of reading. The nice thing about Shutterfly is that it is easy to rearrange pages if you need to add or move a page.

I allowed 2 pages for some photos of myself and my siblings, but I already have a book I created about us so I didn't need to go into details in this project.

After my dad's section was complete, I created pages for each of his siblings. Some siblings only have one page as I don't have much information on them. Some have many pages.

Consistency & Organization

Backgrounds for my book theme

Consistency is my downfall. On this project, which incorporates 5 volumes on one family (McGinnis) I knew I could easily slip into a freer less-consistent method of organizing the books. It was important to me that each volume had the same look and feel, so I created a plan on paper ahead of time.

My plan listed what fonts and text colours I wanted to use. I chose one book style (theme) to use for each volume.  I listed my method of organizing within each book - parents, then child who was my direct ancestor, then siblings of direct ancestor.

As I began to create each volume, I listed what records I had, and what I should get if I didn't already have it. This included census records, vital statistics and so on. Then as I added those documents I ticked them off on my list.

This is the most organized I've ever been on a project and it helped me to finish two volumes very quickly.  The photo you see above is the volume for my great-grandparent Alex McGinnis and I'm almost finished! The volume for my dad has been ordered. The volume for my grandfather is done but not ordered.  I'm amazed at how quickly these are coming together, and very excited to carry on with other family surnames.

Michigan Vital Records Responds to My Complaint

Incorrect Transcript 1876 Michigan

For those following my saga of ordering a marriage transcript from Michigan Vital Records, I received a response to my letter of complaint.

To summarize events - Using the VitalChek service, I ordered a rather expensive ($70.25) 1876 marriage record for Barney and Maggie McGinnis from Michigan. It arrived but Julie Cahill Tarr found the original image online and pointed out several errors in the transcript, including the wrong witnesses.

If you want to read about what happened, see

Disappointment of a Michigan Marriage Record

Caveat Emptor? Or Does Michigan have a Complaint Desk?

I wrote to Michigan Vital Records and explained what had happened. I kept my email brief and ended it by asking what they were going to do to rectify the situation.

It took 48 hours before I had a response. That was much faster than I anticipated! The email began with the fact that they had reviewed my order. The process of creating the transcript was explained

"Unfortunately, our searchers made an error when completing your request.  They actually have to photocopy the pages in a very large journal so that they have the information for our keyers when they transcribe the record.  They make the photocopy and highlight the information; however, in this case, they highlighted the wrong line on the second page."

Whoever wrote the email (there was no name included in the email) went on to say that they were redoing the transcript to show the correct information and would courier it to me at their expense. I understand why they would not offer a refund. The fact that the original image was online and I overlooked it is not their problem. I ordered a transcript (although I confess I thought I was ordering a copy of the actual image) and they were willing to correct their errors and send me the transcript I paid for.

It was disappointing to learn that the items that were omitted on the transcript (Barney's occupation and the church where the marriage occurred) are not part of what you pay for!

"Also, the name of the church where the marriage took place and Barney’s occupation are not issuable items on a transcribed marriage record."

The unsigned email ended with this apology

"I apologize for our error in processing your request.  We always try to provide good customer service, but sometimes we don’t always do that.  Please accept our sincere apologies, on behalf of the whole staff."

What gave me a chuckle was the added notation that "...we are including a self-addressed stamped envelope with your corrected record and ask that you put the incorrect record in it and return it to our office so that we can dispose of it properly. "

I had to laugh for two reasons - I think I can throw out a piece of paper either by crumbling it and tossing it in the garbage or shredding it in my shredder! Second chuckle was that I had a feeling that Michigan Vital Records didn't have loose Canadian postage lying around and the "stamped" envelope would arrive with an American stamp. Does everyone see where this is going?

Sure enough the corrected transcript arrived yesterday and yep - one American stamp on the envelope for me to return the incorrect transcript. Problem is that last time I checked Canada was not (yet) part of the USA and an American stamp doesn't cut it with Canada Postal Services! In other words if I mail something from within Canada I have to use a Canadian stamp!

It's mind-boggling to me  that an official organization such as Michigan Vital Records doesn't realize that every country has its own postage and that the sender of snail mail must use postage from their own country.  Since they were issuing me a new transcript they had my address and must have seen that I live in Ontario Canada.

And being a bit of a nit-picker I didn't like that the follow-up email from Michgan Vital Records didn't start with my name (it had no salutation, it just jumped into the body of the email) and had no signature of the person writing it. Just my 2cents Canadian (that's right, I'm not using American money) opinion that a business or professional email or letter should begin with Dear xxx and end with Sincerely yyy

And Now a California Death Record Disappointment!

About 30 minutes after I published my blog post yesterday called Disappointment of a Michigan Marriage Record, the California Death record I ordered through VitalChek arrived.

That's it on the left. The good news is that the names of Maggie McGinnis' parents are given! So I know now which McGinnis couple were her mother and father - Daniel & Margaret or my ancestors Joseph and Fanny. 

The bad news? The huge label printed across the death certificate effectively hides many of the facts! For example I cannot make out the name of the cemetery where Maggie is buried. The address of the informant (her son) is hidden.

And if I didn't already know the exact location of her birth and if I was not familiar with Ontario towns and villages, I doubt I'd be able to figure it out from the record. Much of the name (Plattsville) is obscured.

Since this death record cost me $48.50 I'd have expected to be able to see it. All of it. A kinder way to handle this would for the originating record office to use a hand stamp that a clerk could place partially on the record (where there is no writing) and partially on the white border.

But the bottom line is that $120.00 later (for the Michigan and the California records) I have what I wanted - the names of Maggie's parents.  It's been an adventure and an experience getting there!

Disappointment of a Michigan Marriage Record

Recently I ordered an 1876 Marriage Certificate from Michigan through VitalChek. I desperately wanted the name of parents of the bride (Maggie McGinnis)  and FamilySearch does not have the image online.

Maggie is part of my McGinnis family in early Ontario but I cannot determine if she is the Margaret baptised at Church of Our Lady in Guelph on January 17, 1857 to parents Daniel McGinnis and Margaret Downey *or* if she is the Margaret baptised at Church of Our Lady in Guelph on December 6, 1856 to parents Joseph McGinnis and Fanny Downey.

She married Barney McGinnis who was the son of Daniel's brother Hugh McGinnis. I lose track of both girls after 1871 census so have not been able to eliminate either as the Margaret who married Barney.

The marriage certificate might have the information I need. On the plus side, the certificate arrived very quickly at my door. On the disappointed side, neither bride nor groom's parents' names were recorded. And on the negative side - the cost! The total cost was $70.25 U.S.

Have you picked yourself up from the floor yet? Let me give you the breakdown.

Certificate      36.00
Processing       8.50
Shipping        25.75

Yes I knew the total cost before I ordered so there was no surprise there.  But I think it's exorbitant.  Especially since on  the same day I used VitalChek to order Maggie's death certificate from California. The cost of that order totalled $48.50 That's a big difference! The breakdown was a bit different:

Certificate     16.00
Processing       6.00
Shipping        26.50

So why was a Michigan certificate $20.00 more than a California one? I don't have the answers to this difference by state and in the end it's no use complaining. I wanted the certificate and I paid for it. End of story.

Let's hope that Maggie's death record has her parents' names! Otherwise I've just spent almost $120.00 for two certificates I didn't need. To say I'd be disappointed is putting it mildly.

But that's the price we often pay in this wonderful hobby called genealogy.

Genealogy Stocking Stuffer For My Father

Photo courtesy of Annie Tobin.

The 8th Edition of Smile For the Camera: Stocking Stuffer asks us to "Show us that picture that would make a great Stocking Stuffer and tell us whose stocking you'd stuff."

The photo above is a framed early photograph of Sarah Tobin nee McGinnis, sent to me this year by a descendant, Annie Tobin. Sarah was the sister of my 2nd great grandfather Joseph McGinnis. On the back in period handwriting is written the town where Sarah was born - Katesbridge in County Down Ireland. For over 25 years I have searched for this information on where our McGinnis family originated.

My father was consumed with curiousity about this and he often spoke of wanting to know our origins in Ireland. My father died on Christmas Day when I was 13 years old and so I am stuffing his stocking with this photo. I know how happy this would have made him.