Week 15: Big Mistake

 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 who was born in Wales.  She came to Canada in 1902 with her parents and siblings.  I spent time searching Wales records for information on the parents and siblings to no avail.  Eventually, I discovered that the family was actually English but moved to Wales at some point between the 1891 and 1901 censuses.  Only my grandmother and two brothers were born in Wales.  The older siblings had been born in England.  

I am consoled by the fact that my grandmother did not know everything about her birth.  In preparation to apply for Old Age Pension in Canada, she had to provide her birth certificate from Wales.  She had to contact the government in the United Kingdom and when it arrived, she discovered that she was actually 3 years older than she had always believed.  Of course, by that time she was not able to ask her parents why they raised her believing to be younger than she actually was.  I suspect it likely had to do with cheaper passage on the ship to Canada, but I am only speculating.  And I never heard anything about her youngest brother, Reginald who died as an infant in 1902 shortly before the family emigrated to Canada.

To avoid the Big Mistakes, do not assume.  Do proper genealogy research, starting with yourself and work backwards. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 22: Reunion

Image
 REUNION I have been fortunate to have grown up in a family that valued family gatherings.  As a child, I did resent having to travel 4 hours (each way) every holiday weekend back to my grandparents.  However, as my interest in genealogy and family history developed, I appreciate having grown up knowing not just my aunts, uncles and first cousins, but the aunts, uncles and first cousins of both of my parents.  My parents were from the same small community in Simcoe County, Ontario and both families lived in that area for several generations.   Before my time, the Allens (my fathers side) had started an annual family reunion at a provincial park near Barrie Ontario.  It was established as the descendants of my great-grandparents: William Daisley Allen and Mary Jane Woodland.  My grandfather, Henry "Harry" Woodland Allen was the youngest of 12, so there were many many descendants as Harry as well as many of his siblings had large families themselves....
Read more

Week 10: Siblings

Image
 SIBLINGS My interest in genealogy stems from the closeness I witnessed all my life of my father and his siblings.  As I got older, I realized that that closeness would have been a result of the closeness their father had with his siblings. My grandfather, Henry "Harry" Woodland Allen (born June 27, 1897) was the youngest of 12 children of William Daisley Allen and Mary Jane Woodland.  On the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary, the large extended families of William and Mary Jane gathered to celebrate the milestone at a local public park.  I do not know if that was the start of the family reunion or not, but the children of that couple established an annual Allen Family Reunion, held at a Provincial Park near Barrie Ontario.  These reunions have fizzled out, but I do remember attending some during my childhood in the 1960s.  The reunions were scheduled for the last Saturday in August.  We travelled from Kingston to Brentwood every holiday weeke...
Read more

Week 24: Artistic

Image
 ARTISTIC I have made mention before of the needlework crafts done by my mother, Eveleen "Sis" Allen (nee Schell).  As a young girl she learned the usual knitting and crotchet as well as tatting from relatives.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember if it was her paternal grandmother, Mary Schell (nee Deadman), who lived with them (the woman was quite ill her last few years of life) or one of her many aunts that frequently visited.  Some of the lessons may have come from her mother, Irene Schell (nee Bates) but for most of my mother's childhood her mother was busy helping on the family farm as well as providing room and board for one of the local teachers.  Mom used to say that she and her sister Lena were rarely given cooking lessons by their mother as the woman would be rushing to get the meal done and did not have time to teach her daughters.  So I suspect there was similar limited time for teaching needlework. Growing up, I would see my mother knitting and c...
Read more