I Do: Love and Marriage in 19th Century Canada

Library and Archives Canada has a wonderful online exhibit explaining the institute of marriage in the 1800s, as love finally enters the picture. "I Do: Love and Marriage in 19th Century Canada" covers courtship rituals, the wedding and challenges facing the couple and women of this time period using the letters of Mary Eleanor Westcott and the journals of Louis-Joseph-Amédée Papineau. There is a link to the Upper and Lower Canada Marriage Bonds if you want to search the database which covers the years 1779-1865. It's a very interesting look at social life in Canada during this time period. The "Educational Resources" section is still under construction, but the "Further Research" section has a nice list of links and a good bibliography, should you interested in learning more.

Encyclopedia of Genealogy

I think of the Encyclopedia of Genealogy the first genealogy wiki. It's a free-content encyclopedia created by users. It's sponsored by Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (an excellent newsletter on important issues and happenings in the genealogical community), RootsBooks.com and RootsBooks.co.uk.

The Encyclopedia will not have information on your exact ancestor. It will, however, tell you what an accoucheuse is (a midwife), tell you what information will be found on the 1841 U.K. census, give you information on the Dallas, Texas Genealogical Society. It's a great place for how-tos, terminology and finding societies. It's a work in progress because it's put together by users, but what is on the site is valuable for genealogists.

Be sure to check it out, and if you have something to offer the website, be sure to contribute!

Why Did They Move?

We're relocating to California, and it started me thinking about my ancestors' movements. Why did they move around? Economic reasons, military assignments, to be with family - there are lots of reasons. If you find that your family's movements are part of a larger migration pattern, you'll be happy to know that there are lots of published books available that can help you understand the whys, whens, wheres and hows of migration. There are atlases and maps that can show you the probable route your family took. You can find very specific books about ethnic groups, states, provinces, countries, time periods and occupations. I found the following using the search terms "migration internal history" :

• Bade, Klaus J. Population, Labour, and Migration in 19th- and 20th-Century Germany. German historical perspectives, 1. Leamington Spa [UK]: Berg, 1987.
• Bakken, Gordon Morris, and Alexandra Kindell. Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, 2006.
• Berry, Chad. Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
• Dollarhide, William. Map Guide to American Migration Routes, 1735-1815. Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 1997.
• Dodson, Howard, and Sylviane A. Diouf. In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2004.
• Gregory, James N. American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Flanders, Stephen A. Atlas of American Migration. New York: Facts on File, 1998.
• Hoerder, Dirk, and Leslie Page Moch. European Migrants: Global and Local Perspectives. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1996.
• Manning, Patrick. Migration in Modern World History, 1500-2000. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000.
• Morrison, J. Clinton. Chasing a Dream: Prince Edward Islanders in the Klondike. Summerside, PE, Canada: Crescent Isle Publishers, 2004.
• Painchaud, Robert. Un rêve français dans le peuplement de la prairie. Saint-Boniface, Man: Editions des Plaines, 1987.
• Robinson, David J. Migration in Colonial Spanish America. Cambridge studies in historical geography, 16. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
• Smith, Edward. Migration Patterns in Canada --. Toronto: Heritage Productions, 2003.
• Stein, Walter J. California and the Dust Bowl Migration. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1973.
• Widdis, Randy W. With Scarcely a Ripple: Anglo-Canadian Migration into the United States and Western Canada, 1880-1920. McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history, 4. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998.
  

Hopefully books like these can help you understand your family's motivation for moving and how they might have done it. I think one of the best outcomes of studying migration is to see how your family fits into the larger picture - into the history of the region and country.

Old Bailey Online

Old Bailey is the the Central Criminal Court located in central London. Some of you might be familiar with the name Old Bailey since it is mentioned in the English nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons."

Luckily for many genealogists, Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 is now online! It contains 197,745 fully searchable criminal trials that have been held at the Old Bailey. This is very important because here we have in detail the lives of many common people during time periods when sorting out your London ancestry can be difficult because of the lack of detail. It's amazing at the severity of some of the sentences passed out for seemingly petty crimes.

You can search by keyword or reference number. The later records contain more details and actual court transcriptions compared to the earlier records. You can view the original published records as well.

This is a great resource for anyone with London ancestry. And you don't necessarily have to have rapscallions, thieves, or murderers to make use of this database - it can also include information about the witnesses and those prosecuting. It is a fascinating look at the lives of Londoners.

Finding Mothers

In honour of Mother's Day, I'll be focusing on tracing the female lines in our ancestry. Often we hit "brick walls" because we cannot find a woman's maiden name. Here are some hints to help you in your search for those women:

1. Vital records - For more modern problems, look at birth, marriage, and death certificates of all family members. Her children's birth, marriage and death certificates often list their parents' names, including the mother's maiden name. Also, the husband's death certificate sometimes also lists the wife's maiden name.
2. Obituaries - A woman's obituary may contain her parents' or siblings names which would give you her maiden name.
3. Indirect evidence and climbing family trees- I have been able to find a woman's family through indirect evidence which was later confirmed by direct evidence). I had a Barbara Tytler living in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and although I knew her surname, there were two Barbara Tytlers born about the same time in neighbouring parishes and I needed to figure out which one was mine. I used given names to help me sort out the two Barbaras. My Barbara had the following children: Barbara, William, Moses, Mary, and Archibald. One Barbara Tytler, the daughter of William Tytler and Barbara Farquhar, had the following siblings: Archibald, Anne, Mary, Barbara, Jean, Jean, and William. The other Barbara Tytler, the daughter of Harry Tytler and Anne Gordon, had the following siblings: Katharine, Margaret, Jean, Jean, George, and James. The second Barbara Tytler had family names that did not occur in my family - Katharine, George, James, and Harry, while the first Barbara Tytler's family names were almost the only names my Barbara's family used. I felt strongly that Barbara Tytler, the daughter of William Tytler and Barbara Farquhar, was my Barbara Tytler. I decided to do some more digging and came across a will of Archibald Tytler, merchant of Aberdeen which named my Barbara Tytler as his sister and several of her children and grandchildren in his will. I also found a Service of Heir naming William Tytler, my Barbara's son as said Archibald's heir. Sometimes you have to use the indirect evidence to explore family trees in hope of finding positive or negative evidence linking families together.
4. Military pensions - Many military pensions mention family members and some may even give a wife's maiden name or a daughter's married name.
5. Church records - Some church records will give you the mother's maiden name (a common practice in France and Scotland where women keep their maiden names through life). You will also want to look for a marriage record for the couple as well.
6. Bible records - Some family bibles will have a woman's maiden name, or at least more identifying information to help you locate her.
7. Probate records - You would have to look at probate other than the woman's to perhaps find her maiden name. A father will often use a daughter's married name, sometimes even naming her husband. Look at other suspected siblings' or close relatives' probate records for names as well. This won't be the most efficient search, but if you have some suspicions as to which family your woman belonged to, it might give you the evidence you need to go back another generation.
8. Published books - County histories, books on certain areas, ethnicities, biographies, church histories, etc. may mention you ancestor.
   

Some books that can help you in your search for your female ancestors are:

• The Hidden Half of the Family by Christina Kassabian Schaefer
  
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
• Chasing Elusive Women: A Historian's Guide by Diane Snyder Ptak