52 Ancestors 2025

 INSTITUTIONS Most of my ancestors, generation after generation were farmers.  By my father's generation, some were leaving the family farms and working in various trades.  So it was a very big deal when my older brother, Garry, graduated in 1974 from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.  My mother's brother and his family attended the graduation along with my parents, myself and younger brother.  Neither set of grandparents were able to attend, but one of our grandmothers had my brother's graduation photo published in every community newspaper available to her. Queen's University, located in Kingston Ontario, was established in 1841 by a Royal Charter issued by Queen Victoria.  It's original name was Queen's College at Kingston.  Kingston is known as 'Limestone City' and most of the original buildings at the university were built with limestone.  It is still a beautiful campus, despite buildings constructed for the past few deca...

 DNA I have yet to jump on the DNA bandwagon, but I know I will eventually do so.  In the meantime, I continue to document the branches and twigs in my family tree.  And occasionally my husband's tree.  However, I am a strong believer in Nurture versus Nature.  If people listed as family in the household on a census were not biological, they still had a strong influence on anyone that is genetically related to me. In an update to its software, RootsMagic has included Associates which allows one to tie in to specific family members people in the FAN club.  An example of this would be in my husband's Legere family tree to include a few generations of the Perkins family. In the 1950's, my father-in-law, Ken Legere, left his hometown of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, Canada to find work in the Toronto Ontario area.  His father and his brothers eventually joined him for work.  Ken met and married an Ontario girl, Mae Johnston, and they settled in Georgetow...

 Oldest Story Many of my ancestors lived into the mid or late 80s - even the ones in the 1800s.  But my Mother lived for about 7 weeks after her 95th birthday, passing away February 16, 2025.  So I believe she is my longest living ancestor. Pearl Mary Eveleen Schell was born December 24, 1929 on the family farm in Brentwood, Sunnidale Township, Simcoe County in Ontario.  She was named after her grandmothers: Pearl Bates (nee Mumberson) and Mary Schell (nee Deadman).  When she was born on her Aunt Effie's birthday, her parents also added Effie's name of Eveleen.  Effie was not an actual aunt, but a cousin and close family friend.  However, Mom grew up not using any of those names.  Her sister Lena, older by only 15 months, tried to call the baby 'Sister' but was unable to properly say the word and called her 'Sisser'.  It was shortened to 'Sis' and everyone in the community and extended family only knew her as Sis.   Even when she ma...

 Big Mistake I have previously written about one of my big mistakes at the beginning of my genealogical journey was believing that my Allen ancestors were English.  My belief was because I grew up hearing about Orangeman parades on the 12th of July.  As I started getting into genealogy, I was made aware of an entry in a family bible belonging to my great-great grandfather Robert Allen.  It stated that he and his family sailed from Liverpool to Quebec in 1831.  So when starting to research, I discounted entries of Irish Allens.   But when I started working on my Allens, i did it "the proper way", starting with myself and working backwards.  I was able to determine my Robert Allen in households in the Canadian censuses with ethnicity of Irish.  The youngest sibling was born in England - a short time before the family set sail to Canada, but the rest were born in Ireland. Another mistake was concerning my grandmother, Gertrude Georgina Cooper wh...

 Language Canada may officially be a bilingual country, but the only bilingual province is New Brunswick.  French is the only official language in Quebec, while the rest of county is officially English. My late father-in-law, Kenneth Joseph Eric Legere, was very proud of his Acadien heritage.  He was born and raised in Port Elgin, New Brunswick.  Being from a French family, he would have grown up speaking French at home and with relatives, but undoubtedly had to speak English at school.  As a young man, in the 1950s, he moved to Ontario for employment opportunities.  He met and married an Ontario girl and their sons were born in Ontario. As a young boy, my husband can remember speaking French with his father and English with his mother in the family home.  But at some point in the mid-1960s, Ken decided to only allow English to be spoken.  He felt that his employment opportunities were hindered by his French accent and did want his sons to suffer ...

 Home Sweet Home My parents were from the same small hamlet, Brentwood, in Simcoe County, Ontario.  In the mid-1950s, my father was transferred to Kingston Ontario by his employer.  I was born and raised in Kingston but spent my childhood travelling back to Brentwood every holiday weekend to visit both sets of grandparents.  By my teenage years, I was growing to resent this, but in adulthood and interest in genealogy I can now see the benefits.  I grew up not just spending time with my 30 plus first cousins and their parents, but my grandparents and extended family.  Apparently, that is not normal for most families. We would stay at my mother's parents and go over to my father's parents for dinner and his 9 siblings and their families would visit in the evening, if they had not made it for dinner.  By my childhood, my paternal grandparents were living in a bungalow on the family homestead while their youngest son (who was operating the farm) and his fa...

 HISTORICAL EVENT To date, I have found that my ancestors led relatively dull lives and were not directly involved in any historical event.  Most were farmers and stayed home tending the farms instead of going to war. In North America, my ancestors settled in Ontario (or Upper Canada or Canada West depending on the year in question).  My husband's Acadian ancestors managed to stay in eastern Canada after the Explusion.   So there has been virtually no crossing of paths.  However, one historic event did have a connection to both lines.  The event was the British Royal Tour of Canada in 1939.  This tour by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (aka Queen Mom in later years) was the first time a reigning monarch traveled to Canada.  (While Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII did travel to western Canada, but he was not the reigning monarch at the time.)  The tour is also historical as it took place of the cusp of World War II. The roy...