Family

Today, I had the opportunity of working on my family history. I had sent an email last night to a cousin in Vancouver asking about some information that he might have. Well, Jim answered the email and sent me information as well as an obituary about the person that I was asking about.

I sorted through the information and was able to make sense of most of it. After I had entered it into my tree, some more information came to the surface. I use websites that have an automatic search function. This function does about 80% of the work when the information is on their website. This function can only sort through the information and records that the website has available. Not all information that is needed is on websites or is not yet digitized. It costs money to digitize records, but, fortunately, there are people that do the work needed.

Anyway, there was a bit of the information that he sent that did not fit easily into place. As it turned out, this information was on the tree of another cousin. This cousin lives in Rainy River, and we have been in touch previously. It just didn’t sink in which part of the tree was the one that she belonged to. I found out today.

We have just spent about an hour and a half, getting to know each other. I also took the time to sort out those hard-to-fit pieces of the puzzle and can now put it to bed (so to speak). I also asked for more information concerning the family and she was quite happy to give me the information. I found out that she is about a year and a half older than me and that her brother is about three quarters of a year older than me as well.

We plan to stay in touch as we are family, albeit distant family. My husband has been told that if we were to travel west in Canada, we will be stopping to visit.

I have found that when you research your family history, you have a marvelous opportunity to meet family members that have drifted away. This drift is not always intended and, sometimes, you think that there are not many members of the family.

Family history will help you to discover your living family as well as those who have gone on before you. It helps you to rebuild the ties that should never have been severed. It can make your family stronger. Once you discover how large your family actually is, and you may never know the full extent of the family, it’s up to you what you do with the information. It can be a very joyous trip.

On the other hand, you might dig up some information that some members of the family do not appreciate. Just remember, your ancestors were people too. They made their mistakes just as we make our mistakes. Life can be very rewarding even with the mistakes that are made. After enough time, we should be able to look back and say, “Yes, I made a mistake, and it was a bad one. But I learned from it.” Or “Yes, I made a mistake, and I thought that it was a bad one, but I survived and am trying to do better.”

Live life. Love your family. Look for the missing members of the family that should be there. Work together. Have fun. Support one another. If you don’t have your family, you don’t have one of the most important things in life.

Day 8 – Field Trip, April 2016

Last night, the group that stayed for the late hours at PRONI were back about 8:30 – 9:00 and had their supper at that time. I’m glad that I didn’t stay as I would not have been able to go so long without food.

This morning, we left the hotel shortly after 9:00 am and headed towards the Ulster Historical Foundation. Fenton, Gillian, and Michael each did a presentation for us and provided a small snack at mid morning. One of their board members also spoke for a couple minutes and thanked us for going to their facility. They then spent some time one on one for anyone who wanted to ask about researching in Ireland.

As I am not at the point where I could do anything, a thought came into my mind. I then asked about the origin of two of the surnames that I am researching. I was taken upstairs into their office and Fenton provided me with two books regarding surnames. I found some interesting information on one of the surnames, but not much on the other. While looking them up, I realized that this was a good chance to look up two other Irish names. I will write about the information that I learned at a later date.

About noon, we loaded onto the bus and travelled to the North of Ireland Family History Society’s library. We had access to their books and the expertise of two of their members. Because of the status of my research right now, I worked on a computer to see if I could find a list of their library holdings. I found their publications and ended up making a purchase of five of their booklets. I know that these will help me after getting home.

My brother was not interested in going to these places, so he stayed in the vicinity of the hotel and wandered around with the company of two other members of the group.

After we arrived back at the hotel, my brother and I decided to go look for a pub to have supper. The first one was not to the liking of either of us. We then wandered over to The Bridge House which is a Wetherspoons restaurant. They had a special on fish and chips and our meals were both under £10 each. It was good. I couldn’t finish my meal because it was too much for me.

After dinner, I wanted to wander around to get some pictures. My brother took me around some of the areas that he explored over the past couple of days and I took some good pictures. I will have to download them from my phone as I was expecting to go back to the hotel before going for the wander. In some respects, I was glad that he was with me. There were one or two areas that I probably would have avoided if I had been alone.

I’m hoping to be in bed early tonight as we have an early start in the morning and it will be a long day. We will be visiting Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, followed by a trip to Ballymoney. Tomorrow evening, we will be having dinner at the Crumlin Road Gaol.

Your Cemetery Tool Kit

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the wealth of information that a headstone could hold. I also mentioned that, sometimes, headstones need to be cleaned before you can read it. Today, in preparation for spring, I want to pass on information that I learned about in 2012. I wrote the following in December of 2011 for publication in a newsletter in 2012.

During the snows and cold of the Canadian winter, it is difficult to visit the final resting places of our ancestors to gather information about them.  These visits must be done during the good weather of the spring, summer and fall.

As many of you know, you will need to prepare to visit a cemetery so that you will get the most of your visit.  This preparation can be done during the cold winter months.  The first piece of information that you will need to find your ancestor is “where is the dear one buried?”   Bits of information that will help you with this are things like:

Where was his residence?

What Church did he belong to?

Was there a family plot?

Is there a published family history?

What cemeteries are in the area?

Now, you think that you may have your ancestor located.  Are you ready to go to find his final resting place?  The groundskeepers do not have the time to look after individual headstones, so you need to be prepared for this. 

Part of your preparation for your trip is your tool kit.  Why do I need a toolkit, you say.  I have gone to a few cemeteries without one and regret it every time.  You don’t need much, but here are some items that will help with the success of your trip.

Notebook and pens or pencils (for copying the inscription)

Carpenter’s apron (handy way of carrying your equipment)

Gardener’s knee pads (to pad your knees when kneeling)

Garden shears (to trim grass and weeds)

Whisk broom (to remove trimmed grass, weeds, and dirt)

Sponge and water (to rinse the headstones)

Sunscreen or Sunblock

Non-ionic detergent and a white soft-bristled brush

Moist towelettes

Bug Repellent

Camera (Film or Digital)

We have learned over the past few years that great care must be taken with cleaning headstones.  They are delicate artifacts that give valuable information about our family.  We must learn non-abrasive ways of maintaining these treasures for future generations of our families.

Headstones - A Valuable Source of Information

I fully intended to have this ready about three to four hours ago, but, as I said, I must spend part of my time looking for employment. I found a job posting today that I have pretty much all of the qualifications for and did the work to submit my cover letter and resume.

Well, it looks like spring is on the way.  We may have a couple more snow storms, but then again, Mother Nature may surprise us and give us an early spring. 

Because of this, some people will want to get out to visit the cemeteries earlier than usual.  However, there are some precautions that you need to take.  You really should wait until the ground is dry before going to the cemetery.  According to one article that I read, walking on the grass before the ground is dry will compact the earth and not allow the roots of the grass to grow.  You will likely get muddy and soaking footwear as well.

A few years ago, a number of people that I know were discussing the cleaning of headstones.  They talked about the methods that had been used in the past and how much damage those methods have caused.  The people who look after the cemeteries don’t have time to look after individual headstones, but I have found some guidelines to follow. 

One of the first guidelines that I found was about doing gravestone rubbings.  It is recommended that you ask permission first.  A lot of cemeteries will no longer allow it.  If it is allowed, there are certain materials that are no longer permitted.  Among these are chalk, shaving cream, and graphite.  If you have difficulty reading the inscriptions, it is suggested that you angle a mirror to direct sunlight across the headstone.  This uses the shadows to help make the inscriptions more visible.

Headstones sometimes need the dirt cleaned from them.    You cannot use just any cleanser.  They can damage the stones.  Quite often, water and a soft-bristled brush are all that you need.  If you need anything stronger, you need to find non-ionic detergents which should be available from conservation, janitorial and photographic suppliers.  The ratio of cleanser to water is 1 ounce of cleanser to 5 gallons of water.

I have found a website that goes into greater detail about cleaning gravestones and I suggest that you look it up.  It also includes a list of tools to use when cleaning and the types of materials used in making headstones.  This website gives a great deal of information about the preservation and maintaining of headstones.  It is as follows:

          http://www.gravestonestudies.org/

          Primarily, I looked at http://www.gravestonestudies.org/faq.htm.

Please go to this website and see what they have to say before heading to the cemetery.

Some people may wonder why people go to cemeteries. There are a number of reasons. Everyone that goes knows why they go. You can “visit” your family who have passed on. Some cemeteries have maintained their grounds so that it has a park-like atmosphere.

Then you have your family historians. They are looking for long lost ancestors or other relatives. Why would they look in a cemetery? Well, most cemeteries have headstones, or grave markers. These usually have some information on them. Those with the least amount of information is usually the deceased’s name and year of death. You might get lucky and it might have the year of birth. Some have much more information. It could have the dates of birth and death. Some will have the date of the couple’s marriage. And others will have a list of their children even if the children aren’t buried there. Yes, a headstone can hold a wealth of information. Then there are the grave markers that were wooden crosses. Obviously, these will not last very long. Usually, they would only hold the minimum of information before the wood rots away. In these cases, you would have to consult the burial records to find who is buried where. Every cemetery has these records. A couple of years ago, I was talking with a clerk to find out information regarding my grandfather’s headstone. At the time, I was unaware that his second wife was also buried there. As the clerk was answering my questions, she also informed me that she was there. As proof, she gave me the date of internment. We all thought that she was buried in Toronto, and not in Waubaushene. What a surprise! I found a few other surprises like that regarding other family members.

One of the things that I would like to be able to do is to find a way of determining the inscriptions on very old headstones, those that date back to the 17^th, 18^th, and early 19^th centuries. These headstones are in the process of crumbling and they either need to have some restoration done or new stones put into place. Most of these stones are in Europe but I wouldn’t be surprised to find some in North America. I personally think that when the headstones crumble like this, the information is not completely lost. I believe that the underlying stone retains an impression of the inscription that was carved into the stone in the first place. I think that, with the right technology, that we would be able to retrieve this information for the coming generations. I would love to be able to prove it, but I do not have the funds or the education to prove or disprove this. I don’t know whether infra-red scans or ultra-violet scans would be the way to go. I would sure love to find out and find a cost effective means of doing this. It could be that the technology is already available and those with that technology never thought of putting it to that use.

Ah, well, I do like to dream. It has been said that it takes a dreamer to come up with the ideas, but a success-driven worker to make the dream work. There’s one of my dreams. How about someone to make it work?