BRRR FALL IS HERE

It's been really cool this week so I have spent my days indoors. I have been back at it, sorting through old pictures and working on my family history.  

 

I only pay for Ancestry.ca for a few months per year.  I try to do other research, scan in old pictures, rely on the research of other family members, etc. for the rest of the time.  Then I pay for Ancestry.ca for a month at a time and research all the questions and gaps that have come up during the time I am not paying for it.   

The  family stories are, quite often, far more interesting than the mundane truth that you find in the records, but sometimes the records will reveal something far more interesting than the family has ever told you or even want to admit.  Families are inclined to elaborate on some stories, to make them a little more interesting.  They will leave out details that they are possibly embarrassed of or have forgotten about.  But it is the stuff that they leave out or try to hide that is usually the most interesting part of the family history.  The older generations would in no way tell you about an uncle or cousin that was “Gay”, because they would have considered them odd by the standards of their days and they would have been completely fine and acceptable nowadays.  But the records will show many arranged marriages between 40 year old men and young girls barely out of puberty and they think that is OK or they think nothing of it, but we are horrified by it today.  I have found over the years of doing this Ancestry research that you think you know a little about your family from the stories you’ve heard along the way, growing up, but I will tell you from experience, DIG DEEP, because what you think you know is probably all wrong.