Update On My Life

Some of you realize that I have had weeks where I missed posting an entry. There were days when I was so busy with other things that I would forget to post. And then there were other days when the energy had just disappeared.

This week was a little bit different. It goes without being said that having a long weekend can sometimes throw your daily schedule off for part of the following week. Well, that happened to me this week. I have not been sleeping well lately, but I am hoping that over the next week or two, it will be rectified.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Orofacial Clinic in St John’s. I had been to my dentist in early July as I was having some pain in my gum and it was also swollen. After an x-ray and some poking around, I was informed that it looked like one of my teeth had a fractured root. I was going to be sent to a specialist in St John’s who deals with root canals. It was going to be a six- to eight-month wait to get in to see him.

About a week or two later, I noticed something strange. After the antibiotics were completed, the swelling was gone but there seemed to be a white line in my gum. I didn’t do anything about it then, but within a week, it was starting to break through the gum. I did a quick visit to the dentist and, it turned out that the fractured root had decided that it didn’t want to stay in place and wanted to see the world. It had actually cut through the gum. The visit to the previous specialist was no longer the option. Instead, I was sent to the Orofacial Clinic to have the tooth and root fragments extracted.

This visit happened on Thursday of this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to go and still forgot to take some of the paperwork with me. My husband had to go with me as I was in no condition to be doing any driving on Thursday. We left to arrive in St John’s early enough to go see the Star Trek movie that is currently playing at the show. Then we checked into the Comfort Inn on Airport Drive. I chose this one because it is very close to the clinic. Unfortunately, I did not set my alarm properly and woke up about twenty minutes late. We still made it in time and we got lost along the way.

I was put right under because I made sure that I didn’t get enough sleep so that I would have no problem going to sleep. Apparently, the procedure only took about ten minutes. I was woken up about 9:16. My appointment started at 8:00 am after I filled out the prerequisite paperwork. We were sent on our way by 10 am.

I had a couple of places that I wanted to go to since we were in St John’s. One of them was the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University. I had sent them a list of ships’ records that I wanted to get a copy of. This was our first stop. We had the work done by 11:45. From there, we went to the library of the Newfoundland Family History Society. I asked some pertinent questions regarding cemeteries and found that my best option would be to join the society and I would be able to do what I needed to do to start that particular research at home in comfort.

From there, I had wanted to make a stop at the Family History Library and the St John’s Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see what records they have and a quick trip to Avalon Mall to get the hand soap that I like. I decided that I had done enough and needed to start for home instead. I still hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before and the freezing was coming out and the pain was starting.

We decided to see about filling the prescription for the pain killer and the mouth rinse that were prescribed. We went into a branch of the pharmacy that I deal with in Gander, but I would have had to fill out the paperwork again and didn’t have the insurance information with me, so I decided that I could wait until we got back to Gander.

We tried a restaurant in Paradise but they didn’t have anything that I could eat. We then tried a pub about five minutes away, but they didn’t serve any food. So we drove down the highway about an hour, when I told Gordon that I needed a stop. Within five minutes we came across a gas station with a restaurant called Monty’s Restaurant. They were quite happy to give me what I wanted. I needed soft food and asked for scrambled eggs, with soft toast, and a bowl of seafood chowder. The chowder was fantastic.

I slept most of the way home, but the road is under construction right now and my sleep was not very good. I honestly thought that I didn’t sleep very much, that it was more of a doze. When I went to bed last night, I had trouble going to sleep. The first stop that we did when we reached Gander was to fill my prescriptions, of which I took the first dosage of painkiller when we arrived at home.

Today, I was able to function more normally, and did some of the things that I needed to accomplish today. I am at a point that I think that I will be getting a better night’s sleep tonight.

In a sense, I am happy that I have been able to complete the entries for the trip to Ireland, but now I am betwixt and between what I want to write about now. I will find something soon as soon as my head clears a bit more. I know. I want to rant about having to fill out more forms for the chain of stores where I already frequent one. More of this next time.

Have a good weekend.

Why I Work on My Family History

I have been working on my family history since January of 2011. I had retired from the military in the previous September, and finally got to the point that I had the energy to start working on it. Backing up a bit, I had an interview with Veterans Affairs Canada in late 2010 and the interviewer asked me some questions, then insisted that I stay home on a back to work program to recover from stress. It took me to the end of January to start.

When I first started, I didn’t know very much about how to research my family. I knew that I needed help learning what to do, so I joined a couple of family history groups, the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogy Group in Pembroke, the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, and the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I joined the group in Pembroke so that I could develop contacts in the local area so that I could get next to immediate assistance with how to research. The BIFHSGO was an idea to join regarding British research, and the OGS, regarding Canadian research. I have learned a great deal from all three groups and am maintaining my membership as, eventually, I will be back in Ontario.

Another thing that I like to do to increase my knowledge about the researching end of things is that I love to go to family history conferences. For the first couple of years, I was able to go to one almost every month from late March/early April until September. I hope to, someday, go to one in England called “Who do you think you are? Live.” It is a huge conference that is now held in Birmingham. I use all types of conferences as education to develop the knowledge for my own family history and to help others.

You can learn a lot about your family if you can find the records. Sometimes the Spirit will influence you to do something that you don’t normally do. I have been influenced by the Spirit to google names of some of my ancestors. It is amazing what can be found this way. 

Because I did the research of many of my ancestors, I have been able to submit their names for temple work. I was able to be present when John’s baptism and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost was done. I had a chance to talk with the young man who stood as proxy for my grandfather's brother, John, for the laying on of hands and I told him a little about John. I didn’t know at the time, but that same young man is my eighth cousin.

When a Ron who was involved with family history moved away, he told Joyce to ask me to help her with her family history. When I was starting to resolve a problem that he should have looked after, I discovered that Joyce is related to me albeit very distantly. It made a huge difference for me as I thought that I did not have any family in the upper Ottawa Valley area. I had already learned about the family connections not far from Ottawa. 

Heavenly Father blessed me for my diligence in family history and helping others with it.

I can promise you that if you work on your family history, you will receive blessings. You will be led to the information that you need to complete temple work for these people. I have prayed to Heavenly Father to help me find certain information and, I have found that, if the time is right, you will find it.

I have also learned that these are not just names and place-names. The people whose names you find were living people. Without them, you would not be here. They made it possible for you to have a life here in Newfoundland. Yes, you may have problems of your own, but the problems may be there to help you to develop into the person that Heavenly Father wants you to be. Your ancestors were chosen by Heavenly Father with extreme care. He knows you better than you know yourself. Your ancestors have given you the physical traits that you need for your life. They did their best for you and all of their descendants. They may have slipped up, but we all know that no one in this life is perfect.

About a month and a half ago, there was a trip to the Halifax Temple. My husband and I did not go on that particular trip as we had a wedding in Ontario to go to and went to the Toronto Temple while we were there. During our visit to the Temple, we were able to seal fourteen couples for time and all eternity, ten sons and eighteen daughters to their parents. This was the first time that we have been able to do sealings as we had to wait for some of the ordinances to be completed. This does not entail just my side of the family. It was almost equally divided between Gordon’s and my families.

I came to the realization a couple of years ago that these people are waiting for us to do the temple work for them. We cannot do the work for our family unless we know who our family members are. And, when we do the work, they are very excited about it. Some of them have been waiting for hundreds of years. When I did the work for my grandfather’s sister, she was so excited that her emotions almost overcame me and I almost could not finish what I needed to do. I had to ask her to back off a bit so that I could complete it. She did and I finished it.

I do not have things like this happen all the time when I go to the Temple. However, I can say that I am happy for my ancestors whose work that I completed and know that I will see them on the other side when I get there. Because there is so much work to be done in my family and because I and my son, Stephen, are the only active members of the Church in at least one of my lines, I cannot do all the work myself. I came to the realization that I will always have more work to accomplish than I am capable of doing. So, the next best thing is to reserve the temple work and choose what I can get done, then share the rest with the Temple. This way, the work shared should be completed within two years.

So, you may possibly be thinking, “How can I have experiences like this?” I can give you an answer that you may not like. It is not called family history work and temple work for a reason. You will have to make a sacrifice if you are not interested in doing these things. You will have to sacrifice time and make the effort to work on your family history. For those of you in or close to a chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there are people working in family history as consultants. 

One thing that you will find is that researching for ancestors may not be anywhere near as hard as it used to be. You will find that you may be able to do most of your research online. However, there will be times, when you will have to use the older methods such as sending to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for microfilms and waiting for them to come in. You may find that you will still have to send letters but most of them can be sent by email. The recipients usually respond quickly. There are also paid websites that you can get free access to in your own homes. These include Ancestry, Find My Past, My Heritage, and one or two more. There are paid websites that you can access free of charge through the Family History Center which has a portal to about twelve or thirteen family history sites.

When you travel, you can visit places such as archives who have genealogical consultants who can give you personalized direction. They won’t do the research for you but they will suggest what you should do. I actually think that even though you can gather a lot from online websites, you should go to visit the places that your ancestors lived in, even if you don’t know the exact location. I went to Ireland in April on a family history trip that included some things for family members to do while we were researching. We only did research for four days, but we came away with information about how to continue our work. The rest of the time, we saw the land that our ancestors came from. We learned about the Great Famine and we saw some of the conditions of that time and of the time of troubles in Northern Ireland and saw some of the progression that our “cousins” across the water made over time. Every one of the researchers were of Irish descent along with some of the family members.

When I retired from the military, I did something that I had waited for over thirty years to do. I went and visited England. While I was there, I visited the farm that my fourth-great-grandparents, Joseph Armstrong and Mary Scott, owned in northern England. I felt so happy that I found it, I was crying. I almost felt like I had returned home, but this was only partly returned home as the other part was Ireland. I knew that I had to visit Ireland, too. Well, I did that with my brother in April. Two places that we visited was Galway City, which I strongly believe that our ancestors, John Robert Sanderson and Margaret Nesbitt, with their little family came through in 1830, and the other place was the harbour for Wexford City, which I believe our ancestor, John Jackman, came through in 1820. Nothing beats walking the land that your ancestors walked.

You can also involve your family with your research. I did a talk in Petawawa shortly before coming to Newfoundland about putting the fun into family history. I am going to give some of that now:

In the September 2014 issue of the Ensign, there is an article “Put the Family into Family History”. In this article, Sally Johnson Odekirk describes a number of ways to help your family become interested in family history. She had some of the same ideas that I would like to suggest.

You can have a competition with other families to see how many names that you can have prepared for temple work by the time the next temple trip happens.

You can have a competition with family members by giving each member that is old enough a different branch to work on to see how many names you can have prepared for the temple within a certain period of time.

You can assign each family member the name of an ancestor to see how much information that they can find within a certain period of time and have them introduce that ancestor at a family home evening.

Along with finding the information about the ancestor, find out what was happening in the world at that time. Was it during war time? If so, which war and what part did your ancestor play?

Along with the younger children, try doing some role playing about parts of the lives of some of your ancestors.

Take a family trip to a place where some of your ancestors lived. Walk around the community; take a tour of the local church that your ancestors would have attended; visit the cemetery that your ancestors are buried in. If you visit a cemetery, call ahead to find out what section, row and plot that your ancestors now reside in. It will make it easier to find them.

During family home evenings, tell the stories about your ancestors that you know. Your children want to know about them.

Plan or attend family reunions and find out what other members of the family know. They may not have all the correct facts, but they can give you some good leads.

If your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are still living, have them write their life histories. Have them write about the family members that they knew. Also, have them write out the stories that they were told about the family. If they are not willing to write them out, ask if you can record them telling you these things. If they don’t agree to the recordings, ask if you can write them down so that when they are gone, you can still tell the stories for them. Then when you get home, digitize these things and keep them for you and future generations.

Sort out your family pictures, get them digitized, and share them with your family and extended family.

Family history is not about just collection the names and the facts. It’s about identifying your ancestors, praying about them, getting to know who they were, doing their Temple work for them and teaching your descendants about them.

I personally have found over 7,000 people. I can’t wait to meet them and the rest that I find while here in this world. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and wants to bless us. We will have rich blessings if we help our ancestors by finding who they were and taking their names to the Temple. We will be blessed to be able to find the information necessary for this work if we will just try. Heavenly Father is waiting for us to do this sacred work. Our ancestors are waiting for us to do this sacred work. We have already been commanded to do this sacred work. I cannot force you to do it. All I can do is to try to encourage you to do it.

A Medieval Dinner

How many people have been to Medieval Times for a dinner show? There is only one place in Canada that you can go to Medieval Times and that is at Exhibition Place in Toronto. However, there are 8 more places in the United States: Kissimmee, Florida; Buena Park, California; Lyndhurst, New Jersey; Schaumburg, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Hanover, Maryland; and Lawrenceville, Georgia. This dinner show features jousting, falconry, and a showing of medieval arms. My husband and sons took me for my birthday in 1997 and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I had been thinking for about the last six months that it was time to go again. After all, it has been almost 20 years since we went and I enjoy watching things like this. I especially enjoy it if I can be at a live performance. Imagine my surprise when I read the itinerary to find that we would be going to a medieval dinner in a medieval castle while we were in Ireland.

The castle in question was the Bunratty Castle in County Clare. There are other castles in Ireland that hold medieval dinners but we only went to this one. I don’t know how the others compare to this one. Maybe some day, I will have the chance to visit all of the Irish medieval dinners and write a blog on it.

When we arrived at the castle, we were piped into the Great Hall to be greeted, given the bread of welcome, and a cup of mead (fruit punch for those that don’t drink alcohol). There was entertainment provided in the form of a harpist, a violinist, and singers. We socialized and the “Earl of Thomond” for the evening and his Lady were chosen.

Once the Earl and his Lady were conducted to another room to learn of their duties, we were then led to the dining room. There we sat on benches at tables which designs would have been used during the medieval period. The Earl and his Lady were piped in to be seated at the head table. All of the announcements were done by the Earl’s butler. You have to remember that when you go, everything is meant to give you a fun look at the medieval time period. As an example, every dinner will have a “scoundrel” who gets thrown into the dungeon and has to do something chosen by the Earl to be able to get out of the dungeon. In our case, Brian Anderson was the scoundrel and was supposed to sing a song. I don’t know if he actually did as I know that he doesn’t like to sing.

When eating dinner, you are provided with only a knife. Our ancestors from that time period did not have such things as forks for eating. A fork was considered a tool for serving food. They had wooden spoons that they would use for soup. They would drink the soup from the bowl as from a cup. The spoon was to assist with the chunkier parts of the soup such as bits of meat and vegetables. Everyone from that time period carried knives. They were used for cutting rope, meat, etc, defending yourself from mad dogs, and so on. When our ancestors visited for a meal, they provided their own knives, but the host would provide the spoon when necessary.

The dinner that we had started off with some spiced parsnip soup which was quite nice. This was followed by spare ribs and honey and whiskey sauce. I don’t usually care for spare ribs, but I was hungry and the meat was tender and flavourful. The main course was pan smeared supreme of chicken, fresh garden vegetables, baby roast potatoes, and Bordelaise sauce. I tasted the chicken but could not eat much of it even though it was delicious. I had some of the vegetables which were nicely good, and I did enjoy a couple of the roast potatoes. The final course was Bramley apple and cinnamon crunch with Chantilly cream. This was a nice finish to an extremely delicious meal. Although I was not able to eat everything, I did enjoy what I was able to eat.

The staff gave us some fine renderings of medieval Irish music. There were some songs that told serious stories and others that were fun songs. I do have to say that I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Medieval Times in Toronto 20 years ago. Would I do it again? Yes, I would. Do I recommend others to go? Yes, I do recommend it.

I did find a review that said that it was crowded seating with not much room to move about. I suppose that this is true to a certain extent, but if you want to get the Irish experience, sometimes you need to take a bit of discomfort to understand how your Irish ancestors lived.

Life was not as comfortable for them as it is for us today. Those of us that think that they have it hard would be shocked at what their ancestors took for granted. They were happy to have a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and clothes to wear. They had to work hard to provide for themselves. There were times when the poor of Ireland of long ago actually had better conditions than the third or fourth son of a nobleman. This son would not be able to marry until he was able to support his wife or have his eldest brother guarantee that he would be able to live with his eldest brother and help to keep the family home safe and in working condition. Many younger sons either went into service as knights. They just could not afford to have a wife and family for many years if at all.

Just think about your ancestors when you think about your problems. Think about how much harder they had to work to get maybe a quarter of the way in society that you have the privilege of being in. Would you like to go back and take their place so that they can experience your life? Count your blessings that you live in the 21^st century and not the 12^th century.

Family History Fireside Chat – 7 May 2016

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a Family History Fireside Chat which was sponsored by the Family History Centers of Newfoundland. This was originally planned as a one-day conference but because of lack of preregistrations, it was considered to be unfeasible to continue on as a conference.

As Lesley Anderson was scheduled to fly into St John’s from Ottawa and already had her ticket booked, there was a certain cost that had to be covered whether Lesley came or not. So, the decision was made to have her come and change the venue into a fireside chat. It gave Lesley a chance to tour St John’s and to visit places that she hadn’t been to before.

The committee decided to also ask Yvonne Sorenson from FamilySearch.org to also speak. Yvonne was invited to Skype in from Salt Lake City which is what she did.

There were four locations where you could go to attend the fireside chat. They were the chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook as well as the meeting place for the members in Grand Falls-Windsor/Gander area. Those attending in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook were treated to a potluck dinner. Those attending in Grand Falls-Windsor had light refreshments during the fireside chat. This was because the facility in Grand Falls-Windsor is not big enough to be able to have a meal like the others and then immediately go into the other room for the program.

I am not sure of the attendance in the other locations, but in Grand Falls-Windsor, we had eight people in attendance. It looked like the other locations had approximately 20 to 30 people each. I personally think that, for this area and the fact that this is the first time that we have done this, the fireside chat was a success.

Lesley Anderson was the first speaker and spoke about Ancestry.ca. She explained how to get started on your family history as well as how Ancestry can help you with it. Ancestry has come out with some new initiatives and Lesley explained how they worked.

Yvonne Sorenson then spoke, giving a quick history of Newfoundland, the Atlantic provinces, and the northeastern states and how they related to each other. She then demonstrated what kind of records that are available online with FamilySearch.org and also mentioned some of the records that are available through Ancestry, Find My Past, and My Heritage. Yvonne also touched on the Indexing program and how anyone could index the records through this program. She mentioned that the Indexing program is about to make available some additional options that will be offered.

As we know, there are many records that are not available online as of yet. There are some in archives that may never be online. However, all of the records held in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will eventually be online. In the meantime, these records are on microfilm that can still be ordered into Family History Centers for viewing. Personally, this is the case that I have, some of my records may be the last records to be digitized and put online. Living in Gander, we are hours away from the closest Family History Center, but, at least there are two here on the island.

This Family History Fireside Chat was an initiative that may have been a way of making the best of things for the conference, but I can see that it can produce good things. We are hoping that we will be able to continue with them, highlighting various organizations here in Newfoundland that hold records and explain how they can help us find and understand our ancestors.

My direct ancestors did not settle here in Newfoundland. My mother’s ancestors went to what is now Lanark County and Huron County in Ontario, and my father’s parents and grandparents left Liverpool and moved to Toronto.

However, there are records pertaining to my great-grandfather here in Newfoundland. This is part of the reason why my husband and I are here. These records are the ships logs for the British Merchant Marines for all the years except those ending in 5. These also have the crews’ lists. I am also thinking that I might be able to find some passenger lists in them as well. I have already made one trip to St John’s but I have more than just my great-grandfather who was a sailor in the Merchant Marine. I have a number of indirect ancestors who were sailors and I want to find their records and be able to tell their stories to my children, my grandchildren, and possibly even my great-grandchildren.

May we work towards finding the records of our ancestors to tell our descendants about these people who came before us. May Heavenly Father help us to find the records, the people and the stories to become the family historians that we need to be. May our ancestors help us by prompting us about where to look for this vital information. May our love for our families, past, present, and future grow to encompass every member from the babies that died so young to the parents and grandparents who guided their children, to the black sheep and the white sheep, the adventurers, the tree-huggers, those that stayed at home, and those that trusted that the future would be all that it could. These are they that come before us and come after us. Let us remember them all as we find them. Everyone deserves to be remembered no matter what they have or have not done.

Researching The Perth Military Settlement

In 2013, I did a presentation on The Perth Military Settlement covering the years 1816 to 1823.  This presentation covers why the military settlements were established, where they were generally located, who this action involved, what the expectations were, the kinds of records that we can hope to find, and where we can find the records.

There were a number of reasons why the military settlements were established.  This was a period of time that Britain had a lot on its plate.  The war in North America was over, the Napoleonic Wars were winding down, there was an economic downturn.

 

War is an expensive proposition.  Once the war is over, there are soldiers who are no longer needed to fight battles and the economy has to change from providing military supplies and food to a peace time economy.  Every country goes through this after a war.  Towards the end of the War of 1812, some of the regiments from the European theatre could be released to go to the aid of Upper and Lower Canada.  Prior to that time, there were regular force regiments in Canada.  They, along with the militia forces were able to fight a more defensive war.  Once they were joined with more regiments from Europe, they were able to become more aggressive.  To thank the participants, both regular force and militia, everyone who fought on the side of the British were entitled to land grants, the amount of acreage depending on the rank.

In 1815, soldiers in the British army regiments that did not go to Canada were being released from their military service.  Many of them became Chelsea pensioners.  Because of this, it was costing the government a lot of money and these soldiers needed jobs which were non-existent. It actually gave the government significant savings to pay for passage to Canada for a former soldier and his family, providing them with food, tools, and land.  In return, Britain had a next to ready-made loyal army in the event of another incursion from the United States. During the war of 1812, some of the loyalists were not so loyal.

The Military Settlements were established in 3 main areas, along the St Lawrence River, around Kingston and the Bay of Quinte, and in the Niagara Peninsula.  A 4th area was considered.  This was around Detroit, but the land ended up being turned over to the Americans.  As I have alluded to earlier, the veterans from the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic War were provided with necessities.  Civilians also moved into the area at the time, but they were provided with land at a price for 100 acres.  Some purchased land from the soldiers who had filled their obligations and found that they did not want to continue either because of the work involved or the land was not good land.

From this point onwards, my remarks will pertain to the military settlement at Perth.

The first military settlers in Perth arrived approximately 1816.  My 4x great-grandfather Jean Baptiste Fournier and his family arrived at this time.  His son, Jean Baptiste Jr was also entitled to a land grant and he got the other 100 acres of the lot that his father was assigned.

As I said before, the amount of land depended on the rank the veteran had.  Officers received anywhere from 100 acres up to 400 acres, the higher the rank, the more acreage the veteran got.  Sergeants received 200 acres and any rank under sergeant received 100 acres.  Everyone received food for a year, and implements for clearing the land and growing a crop.

The settlers were expected to do 4 things before the grant was finalized.  They had to live on the land for 3 years, they had to build a cabin to live in, they had to clear a specified amount of land in that 3 years and they had to start growing crops.  They were also expected to keep up their military training and report for military duty in times of threats of invasions.

How did I become interested in the Perth Military Settlement?  Well, last spring, I was finding that the information about my family was not exactly how my mother told me.  She said that either her grandfather or her great-grandfather came out from Ireland.  Through the census records, I found that her great-grandfather was actually born in Canada.  This is a pedigree chart of my Farrell line starting with my great-grandfather.

Last spring, I found a book that headed me in the direction that I am now travelling with this family.  

I did not pay a lot for this book, under $2.00.  I did not know why I needed this book until I came to this page.  

I have not found a copy of the book entitled "Upper Canada Located Settlers" yet, but the appendix has given me a lot of information.  This first part of the appendix is an index to make it easier to find the information on your family.  It is arranged alphabetically and gives you the page number and the line number that your information is on.  By turning to the page number and finding the line number, you find more information.  It gives the Regiment that your ancestor was part of, the number and sex of persons in the family, the location of the grant, and the authority that entitles the grant.

Now, as you can see, Edward Farrell was a member of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons.

There was 1 adult woman and two males over 12 that accompanied him.  From his burial record, from St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, we learn that his wife's name was Elizabeth Leonard.  

From one son's marriage record, we know that the son's name was George and he married Bridget O'Keefe in Montreal Basilica in 1822.

We strongly suspect that the other son's name was Bernard, but we have not yet been able to confirm it.

As you see, I had to go outside the Perth area to find the information.  The same situation arises with Jean Baptiste Jr.

He married Frances Lalonde in February of 1817 by the Rev. Wm. Smart.  I found their marriage information in a book listing Brockville marriages.  The Rev Smart was not a Roman Catholic and neglected to pass the information onto the Roman Catholic church.  Because of this, when Father John McDonald moved to Perth in 1823 to become the first parish priest, he had no record of their marriage and insisted that they be married again.  So, Jean Baptiste Jr and Frances were married twice.

There are a number of things that you need to know when searching for records for Perth between 1816 and 1823.  The first thing that you need to know is that there was no clergy in Perth until 1823.  Circuit clergy from the different churches took turns and were to note what church that the family belonged to.  They then performed any necessary ordinances, such as baptisms, marriages, and burials.  When they arrived back at their home church, they were to inform any other churches of the work that was performed on their behalf.  The other thing is that if somewhere seems to be to far away for the record to be, check anyway.  I saved myself a lot of heartache when I was Algonquin College.  I had asked for any information on Perth prior to 1823.  The librarian was going to take away a book on the Brockville marriages, but I asked to keep it.  That's when I found Jean Baptiste Jr's and Frances' marriage information.

One thing that I have not made mention of yet is the Johnstown papers.   These are yearly census records for each township from 1816 to 1823 and a couple more years before 1841 when the federal census started.  Not all of the census records have survived.  The 1817 census is a nominal census and most of the rest are head of household or agricultural census records.

I have a list of places that you can look for records for this time period:

• ·       Lanark County Genealogical Society Library - I did not find much personally, but you might find more than I did

·       Archives Lanark for some wills, and land records - I have to go back there, one day was not enough for me.
·       Algonquin College, Perth Campus - They have a good section on local and family history.  Again, I need to go back, I haven't looked at a quarter of their holdings.
·       Local churches
·       Roman Catholic Archives in Kingston, Montreal, Brockville, Ottawa, etc.
·       Anglican Archives in Ottawa - they are only open on Mondays and Tuesdays.  You need to call ahead.
·       Anglican Archives in Kingston, Montreal, Toronto
·       Local libraries in the small towns where your ancestors lived
·       Library and Archives Canada - you can use their website first to determine what you want to look at.  Some things are online through their website
·       Ontario Archives - Again, you have to prepare for your trip by visiting their website.  A lot of their information is online or on microfilm that you can order via Inter-Library Loan to a local public library

Again, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share the information that I have found thus far regarding the Perth military settlement.

The following is a picture of the original cabin built by Edward Farrell and his sons.

My Experience at the 2011 British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Conference

I wrote the following in 2011 after attending the conference sponsored by the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa. It was only the previous January that I finally stopped dabbling and started to do some serious work on my family history. At that time, I knew next to nothing and I knew it. Since then, I have attempted to attend every family history conference that I could afford to go to. Over the past 5 years, it has been relatively easy to do so as I lived in Ontario. This year is different. I do not currently live in Ontario, but in Newfoundland for the next few years instead. This year, I am doing a major trip abroad and, six weeks later, a smaller trip to a son's wedding. I am hoping that I can go to at least two major conferences next year, the one for the Ontario Genealogy Society (this will be hosted by the Ottawa Branch next year to celebrate the 150th birthday of Canada) and the one for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa. My reasons for attending conferences have only slightly changed. I still use conferences as a means of educating myself in research methods and sources of information for research purposes, and to network with others that I have developed a relationship with.

The 17^th annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference took place at Library and Archives Canada on Wellington Street in Ottawa on the 16^th to the 18^th of September.  The conference program featured London and the Home Counties in England.  There was a good variety of speakers and topics, all of which I am presuming were well attended.  The sessions that I attended certainly were.  Conference attendees had the opportunity to learn more skills in conducting general research as well as research in more specific areas.

I certainly learned more about merchant marine records.  Maybe, I can now find some information about my mariner ancestors on the internet.  I have been provided with a great deal more information about some records that I knew about and other records that I knew nothing about.  Between my trip to England this summer and the conference, I have come to realize that there is information in a great deal more places than I realized.  I now have a lot more work ahead of myself than I realized.

In another session, I learned that I have not been using enough research methods to do a thorough search for the information that I want.  I have been going at my research only using basically one method.  I need to step back, go over the work that I have done, and try other methods to see if I can find more information to build the stories of the lives of my ancestors.  It is not enough to find the names, dates, and places.  I owe it to my ancestors to find all the information that I can so that they will be known by future generations in the same way that we may possibly be remembered.

Another tool that I learned something about was the social media.   Social media is a way of getting help from others who may also be researching some of the same people.  In the past, I have been discounting the social media as a research tool, but attending the session showed me that I just might be wrong in not using it.  I don’t have to use everything, but I should, at least, give it a try.

Every time I attend a family history conference, I come away with more information about how to better my research.  I also meet people who are interested in some of the same things that I am interested in.  This aspect is important as it is an outlet that can be used when your family and other friends don’t understand why you work so hard on something that they don’t see much reward in.  However, we, as family historians, gain a great deal of reward.  We get the chance of really getting to know our ancestors, the times that they lived in, and the conditions that they had to deal with.  We may live a life that is much more comfortable, but would you give up this life to deal with what your ancestors had to deal with?  We learn about their problems, their mistakes, and their solutions.  We can also learn about the family traditions that have fallen into disuse, discover why this happened, and determine if it is worth the effort to adapt the tradition to suit our “modern” lifestyle.