Closet Skeletons Galore

Website

2010-04-14T11:20:00.002-04:00

Topic:
Family Name Associations:
Location:
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We are aware the website is down at the moment. At this point it looks to be probably about another year before we're ready/able to get things back up and running to the norm.
We've suffered a loss in one of our branches, and are adapting. We thank you for your patience.
At this time, going forward, please refrain from contacting Jennifer, as time is at a premium right now, and we are focussing on the living. So sadly, our ancestors will have to have patience with us. :)
We're also looking into the facebook angle, as it never really took off as we expected it to. At this time, the facebook group is locked down.

Feel free to contact Jake at emrys@snowstones.com, and he will return correspondence as time allows.

We hope in the future to get back into unearthing our previous generations, but right now, it is not feasible.

The Administration of the Closet Skeleton Genealogical Society. aka Jake

Child migrants sent to Canada pleased with UK's apology; demand one from Ottawa

2009-11-16T10:06:00.004-05:00

Family Name Associations: Carr, Diceman, Keffer

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Our Western Home, 1906

Annie Stone, later to take her foster family's name, Carr, is adopted at about 8 years old after being rehomed in Canada from England, where all information about who she was or her circumstances has been suppressed by the government or the programs these children were relocated by.

Annie was one of the lucky ones, her family loved her, treated her as their own, and she loved them in return. She went on to marry, have children, and ultimately have us as her descendants. Not everyone was lucky. Most were not lucky at all. Our governments are long over due in an apology, but more so... They need to repair the damage they've done. A release of the records on these children, to their families, without 500 pounds in fees would be acceptable in our mind. So far, we haven't come up with that sort of money... And the information we've been able to gather about Annie is sketchy at best. But we're never going to give up... And Annie's journey is going to be recorded in our Family History forever.

Sooner or later, the truth will be free.

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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091116/national/cda_child_migrants_apology

Child migrants sent to Canada pleased with UK's apology; demand one from Ottawa

A group representing thousands of poor children who were shipped from Britain to Canada in past centuries, where many worked as child labourers, is pleased with a planned apology from the British prime minister.

Sidney Baker, 76, of Home Children Canada, said he also expects an apology from the Canadian government for the treatment of children who were scooped off streets in the U.K. and shipped to Canada between 1869 and 1939.

The British government said Sunday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would apologize for child migrant programs that sent as many as 150,000 British children as young as three to Canada, Australia, and other former colonies with the promise of a better life.

"When I first heard about this I was over the moon," Baker said in a telephone interview from his home in Sidney, B.C..

"We've been striving for this for so long."

An estimated 100,000 children were sent to Canada, 30,000 of whom came from Barnardos, the largest of the 52 organizations that sent children to the former colonies.

Baker said the victims and their families have never asked for compensation from the Canadian government - only an apology.

He said the group has been told that Ottawa has been working on an apology for some time.

Baker claimed that "between three and half and four million Canadians are descendants of the Home Children."

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration says on its website that many of the children, most of whom ranged from eight to ten years of age, came from families of the urban poor who could not care for them properly.

CIC says most of the children were runaways or abandoned, but some were also orphans.

Children were generally sent to Canada without the knowledge or permission of their parents, a move made legal by the British Parliament.

Studies show that more than two-thirds were abused by their patrons in Canada, Home Children says.

According to CIC, it was only after the death of one of the home-children at an Ontario farm in 1895, that Canadians would learn about the British program.

George Everitt Green, a young agricultural labourer from England, died seven months after arriving in Canada, his body emaciated and covered with sores, visible scars of the cruel treatment the CIS says he received from his employer.

Other home children committed suicide in Canada between 1923 and 1924, which prompted an investigation by the British Parliament and led to Canada's Immigration Branch introducing a regulation in 1925 that prohibited charities from bringing children under 14 years of age to this country.

Intended to last three years, the ban was made permanent in 1928 and the program came to a halt in 1939.

Baker himself was sent to a Barnardo home outside London when he was two, after his father died and his mother attempted suicide.

He and his five brothers and sisters were sent to different homes and he only learned of their existence after doing research for the Home Children.

"When I came to Canada I thought I was alone in this world," said Baker.

When British government records were opened to the public in 1996 Baker said he found his records and reconnected with his siblings in the U.K..

"I can tell you now, you can not imagine what that has done to my life," an emotional Baker told The Canadian Press.

He moved to Canada with his wife in the 1960s after serving in the Royal Navy.

He said he got involved with Home Children Canada because many of the children who were shipped here came from the Barnardo homes - where he spent many years.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized Monday for the treatment of thousands of children shipped to Australia.

"We are sorry," Rudd said. "Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. Sorry for the tragedy - the absolute tragedy - of childhoods lost."

There was no word on whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is in India for a three-day visit, would issue a similar apology.

The Snow is Coming!

2009-10-09T23:35:00.002-04:00

Topic: Searching the Great White North...
Family Name Associations: Campbell/Canuel, McKenna, Smith... And a few new names.
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario
Mood: Tired
Music: 3 am - Matchbox 20

So... First off, I have more information, as usual, than I can process, and I'm a little tired right now so if I miss updating anyone or anything I'm super sorry! I think we're going to get snow tomorrow, I have a feeling!

Spent all night tonight talking with cousins up here in the Great White North. I'm not sure what we've got... But there's a lot of research to be done, that's for sure! Lots of leads... Lots of future research possibilities.
We learned that Leo Campbell was a volunteer fire fighter, which is interesting with his sister Annette having saved lives from that fire in Timmins that was reported in the paper there. He also spent some time in Noranda, Quebec. Ironically where some of our Grahams were buried that we can't locate... I sense a field trip coming on! We need to get to Timmins too... You know, in every one's spare time.

We took some photos of Eva McKenna's grave - Although we have much better ones taken by Murray! And we managed to get some of Alexander Smith as well... So there's additions to be made to trees all over the place, but the McKenna - Campbell tree for sure. Lots of progress... Family stories too, I'm really interested in getting more together as far as these family stories... Maybe making a file or something.

I have several new names we're going to end up adding to the family files... Lots of new fun things. But for tonight, I'm going to head to bed because I'm getting foggy with names and dates with being so tired. It's Thanks Giving up here tomorrow for all of us Canadians, so I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone out there a very happy Thanks Giving. I wish you all the blessing of family, friendship, love and good company over the holidays.

Happy Thanks Giving from all of us at the Closet Skeleton Genealogical Society!

Out of Town

2009-10-05T16:52:00.004-04:00

Topic: Trip to Thunder Bay
Family Name Associations: McKenna, Canuel, Lequyer, and Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Ready to go!
Music: Greenday - When September Ends

So, no real huge progress... Lots of standstill. I have an inbox full of things that might happen if I have a 48 hour layover between here and Thunder Bay. (Ha!)

I'm headed up North, leave Wednesday, should be home Sunday... Hopefully this trip will add to the ever evolving insanity that stems from the Canuel line, and affects the Lequyers and McKennas. The latest there is that Angus Campbell - Auguste Canuel (Or was he?) might actually be MicMac First Nations Native Canadian.
How... I don't have a clue. But there's stories swirling... And where there's a story, there's a reason for it. So questions need to be answered. Hence my strapping on the travelling shoes... Or at least that's some of the reason.

I've had a cold so flying will probably be miserable. Everyone else is buried in Halloween and Real Life. I'll try to blog a little on the move. Someone, sooner or later, is going to have time to sort out the top of that Keffer Tree, I swear...

Notes of appreciation to Cousin Lee, who's sent me more Keffer information than I can find time for, and Cousin Marilyn who has been insanely helpful as usual.
I'll be back soon!

The stuff Genealogical Dreams are made of:

2009-09-30T09:55:00.000-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090930/ap_on_re_us/us_california_plane_found

Report of 1955 jet being found, stirs memories

AP – This undated photo provided by John Walker shows a diver at the site of a wreck of a Lockheed-Martin …
. Play Video Video:Missing Air Force Crewmen Mystery Solved? CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles .
Associated Press Writer Raquel Maria Dillon, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 30, 6:27 am ET
LOS ANGELES – A historian's report that the wreckage of an Air Force jet lost at sea 54 years ago has been found off the Southern California coast brought a surge of emotions for Thomas Theiler, 77, a retired executive and former Air Force pilot.

Theiler's older brother, Richard Martin Theiler, was in the front seat of a Lockheed-Martin T-33A that went missing just after take-off from the Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 15, 1955.

Aviation archeologist G. Pat Macha said Tuesday that he and a group of volunteers found Theiler's plane underneath 100 feet of water earlier this month.

When Theiler, of Savannah, Ga., was informed, he was shocked to find himself grieving for his brother all over again, 54 years later.

"He was five years older than me, a good athlete and everyone loved him, so there was a lot of hero worship involved," said Thomas Theiler, who followed his older brother into the Air Force. "He probably got his wings two years before I did. We were buddies."

Macha, 63, is an amateur historian who collects documents about military plane crashes. He is heading up a search for another historic wreck in Santa Monica Bay, a plane flown by a female World War II pilot who disappeared in 1944.

In April, a sonar survey turned up another missing aircraft, and Macha said he identified it by matching Air Force records to the serial number on a piece of the wreckage that the salt water had spared.

The Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Command says it appears likely Macha's finding on the Air Force jet lost at sea 54 years ago are correct, but Lt. Col. Wayne Perry says the command plans to investigate further and determine whether the water is shallow enough to recover the wreckage.

Thomas Theiler said his brother had a wife and a 6-month-old son. Both died years ago.

The younger Theiler also lost a close friend from flight school that day, Lt. Paul Dale Smith, who was in the cockpit. Smith and the elder Theiler were training to fly with the Aerospace Defense Command and practicing navigation and night flying.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Jack Ewell said his department notified Theiler.

"It's particularly shocking because it's so long ago. It's not like people are just sitting and waiting for news," Ewell said.

Divers are examining the site, but there's only a remote chance that they'll find personal effects, remains or any clue about why the plane went down, he said.

The plane had just departed in bad weather bound for its base in Yuma, Ariz., but the pilots didn't make contact after they cleared the clouds.

At his base in Minneapolis, Theiler got word that his brother and friend were missing and a commander gave him a plane to fly to Yuma and wait for news.

"A pickup drove up with a wheel that a lifeguard found. It was from a military aircraft and they don't just float up onto the beach. So we knew what happened," Theiler said.

Macha said Theiler and his daughter got emotional when he spoke with them on the phone.

Theresa Morton, of Lake Forest, Ill., the dead pilot's niece, grew up imagining her uncle living on a desert island with his friend Smith.

She said she was grateful to Macha for helping write a closing chapter to her family history.

"This news has rocked our world, but on the other hand, it's really neat," she said. "I've been pulling out all the family photos, my dad's fighter wings, to show to my kids. It makes for wonderful family time."

__

Associated Press Writer Christina Hoag contributed to this story.

Elvis has left the building...

2009-09-23T10:24:00.003-04:00

Topic: A wee break, sort of.
Family Name Associations: All
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Tired. I'm having coffee.
Music:

It's that time of year again. The one where I smile at all the genealogy going on, and take a step back to go make sure no one is spending this Halloween naked.
This year's theme is Faeries and Mythological Creatures.

We had to open it up a bit from Faeries and Gnomes because of the amount of people participating this year... There's going to be a ton of us. It's going to be one heck of a party!

Anyways... In my self imposed absence, Mark will mostly be dealing with things. Records, any e-mail I just can't get to and whatnot.

I'd like to take a moment this morning to say a huge thank you to cousin Lee from BC, who provided us with a ton of records this morning that all link into the Keffer tree... They're amazing, and so are you Lee!
We still haven't fixed what's going on at the top of the Keffer tree, and apparently the Bakers are having the same issue. We're also noticing hiccups with 'notes' and all that's on Mark's plate now :)

We also have some work to do on the Campbell/Canuel line. There's some questions there about a native link to the MicMac tribe, some interesting family stories... We have work to do, that's for sure! Right after Christmas is going to be a very, very busy time around here. Yeah, like it's not always busy, I know!
But a thanks again to cousin Cheryl for all those interesting hints... I can't wait to dig in and start getting more information :)

Oh and if there's anything big, Mark or Jimothy will post it... Did I get it right this time? Jimothy?
Good times.

Alright... I'll be back! Terminator style ;)

Thanks :)

2009-09-21T17:40:00.004-04:00

Topic: Just a few notes and a pile of thanks...
Family Name Associations: O'Neill, McKenna, Lequyer, Bentley/Walker and probably a ton more I'm forgetting.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Hungry
Music: Jordan Sparks - Battlefield

Okay... So. I have been way, far too busy. I've been ignoring things and it's just getting into our busy month so I'm going to do this now before something happens and I can't. In the shuffle, I'm scared I've been remiss in my job to say Thank You. First off, I need to talk about this amazing team of people I work with on a daily basis. And this is going to be a major post, because seriously... I am so, so blessed with the people that grace my life and make up the family I'm so proud to be a part of.

When we say we work together, I don't think anyone can grasp the level of communication, effort, and stupidly hard work that every person on this team puts forth... Between msn chats, sticky notes, just plain old fashioned talking (Even if it's on the phone!) we probably work 20 hour days on most days... No time off. Even when it's odd google searches for obits.
I'd like to personally thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your heart, your courage to go beyond stigma and limits... You friggin' rock. You amaze me, you all deserve awards for putting yourselves out there... For going above and beyond. You honour me by being my friends, my family, and the team I'm apart of.
Thank you so, so much. From the bottom of my heart. You are amazing. I love you :)

We've had a small advance on the O'Neill, Clement tree, and I need to say thank you to cousin Cheryl for the Trihey tip. Today we put Mary O'Neill as one of Catherine O'Neill's sisters (Catherine wife of Israel Clement) And I don't know if there's a link to our Bridget O'Neill in all of this or not (So many O'Neills, so little time) But to think this is information that hasn't seen light since 1900, that's awesome! So to cousin Cheryl and her work, her guts to contact us and for all of her help... I can't wait to see what the future holds for these lines! I'm so convinced we'll have it mapped out in ways even we can't imagine.
Thank you, so much for your efforts.

To cousin Joan in Chicago, who I just haven't had time to connect with further... It's going to happen! I know we're all interested in getting to know you and your O'Neill descendants better. We can't wait to see what's what!
One thing is for sure, we're going to get to Chicago sooner or later.

To cousin Richard who has helped us put faces to two of the most valuable people in our tree... To him for believing the Lequyer family was worth his research and his time through and through. You rock! You're amazing... Thank you so, so much for caring. You've preserved our family history, you could not give anyone a greater gift.

To cousin Marilyn... Geez, I can post this over and over and never get tired. I know there's a pile of documents and photos waiting for uploading... Your positive attitude has probably encouraged me 100 times, especially when I feel like giving up. I so hope that Art knows how special this connection to you has been for me, if it weren't for him I wouldn't have known where to start, and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have pushed to understand more.
You are an inspiration, your kindness touches the future in ways you can't imagine. Thank you.

To cousin Lee in BC, thank you for all your help, your offers for books and just putting yourself out there to get in touch with us. It really, really is all about connections.

To our Aunt Linda, who works tirelessly, who always, always has a kind word or a helping hand. Thank you so much! You added to our lives when you started in on genealogy, and we are so glad to have you... The Boxalls exist, and we're going to find every single one of them. After all, we're the oldest we've ever been and we're just getting started - LOL!

To cousins Claire and Frank, and cousin Patrick... You guys are so cool, seriously! Thank you, thank you, thank you. For everything from photos, to your open, loving hearts. This last weekend was stunning, I'm still not recovered from the sheer open, loving generosity you had for us. I wish there was some way to show you how special and amazing you are. Ireland 2011! (Hey, we have to have dreams, right?)

I'm probably forgetting people. I might add a new blog thingy in the title about who I need to say thanks to per post, really... There are so many contributions, I wish I could take you all out for dinner or something to say thanks... Even that wouldn't be enough. You guys, are in a word, awesome!

It's all about sharing the love!

Diva in the Family

2009-09-19T14:03:00.003-04:00

Topic: Diva in the Family

Saidah Baba Talibah, is Jake’s cousin. She’s got an energetic stage presence, and a voice that could tame a savage beast.
Raw, pure, dynamic and so many other words describe this Artist. She’s working on releasing her first Album. An indy artist needs as much exposure as possible, and she’s even more special because she’s family. She’s one of the hardest working people we know and are very proud of her.
She comes by her music honestly, as her mother was the incomparable Salome Bey, and was her biggest influence growing up. Check her out at Blog, and also on Youtube and Facebook. One listen and we were hooked, and not just because she’s family. ;)

My super super super long never ending day!

2009-09-19T00:24:00.002-04:00

Topic: The Day that will never END...
Family Name Associations: McKenna, Keffer
Location: Aurora, Ontario
Mood: Super exhausted - Been trying to get to bed for HOURS...
Music: Taylor Swift - Love Story

We had the most excellent meeting of cousins today with Claire and Frank! It was insane, there were a million crazy coincidences, and I am just so happy with how the whole day went. There were a million connections, things that I guess, family has that we didn't even realize we had...
Hehehe... Ireland in June might be something I beg Santa for!
I'm still so stuck on the Buddha with his hands in the air! I can't wait for more visits, really, we had a blast, Mum was just laughing, even later, over the crazy similarities.

I'm finding myself wishing tonight that this whole 'family' thing was always so much fun... I don't think people realize how often it's walking a fine line between playing historians, psychologists and genealogists. I think we should have a title like 'Humanists'! We don't just put history together, we put lives together. And we reconnect family.
That's a big deal.

We had so much McKenna progress today, really I can't even convey it... We're so far behind with uploading that I'm worried a long winter won't be long enough. It could always be winter, at this rate, and we'd still be behind. Oh well... we'll give it 20 years right Jules? LOL

We heard back from the Artist of Adam Keffer's window about his sources, and I'm looking forward at following the leads... It might have us headed back to Ottawa.
They're so cool, really, the entire lot of those window artists rock... I love the stained glass! LA and I always talk about trying to learn how to do something simple for fun, there's just something spiritual about windows...
We'll do that in our spare time... Right! ;)

Oh, Hans - Johann - Adam Keffer, Lee was kind enough to point out we've done something to the top of that poor Keffer tree. I'm not sure what right now... We're looking into it. I'm thinking I might have erased something, and possibly merged two families.
Hehehe... Mark always tells me not to bang my head against the keyboard!

Holy COWS it is so late. I've got to go to bed. No more ordering sequins from ebay! LOL Thanks Jake. We're going to shimmer like ROCKSTARS!

Goodnight world...

I'm am SO not friggin' amused!!!!!!!

2009-09-16T16:56:00.002-04:00

Topic: I'm having a COW. This is a RANT.
Family Name Associations: Every person who was born, lived or died in Quebec... Names like Lecuyer, LaLonde, Page, Bedard, I could go on and on and on.
Location: I'm in Barrie right now.
Mood: Totally friggin' MAD.
Music: Beyonce - If I were a Boy

Okay... Deep breath, and I'm trying to speak slowly, in small words.

Check out Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

I've been busy. Okay, we've all been crazy, stupidly busy. Look at me trying to write everything all nice without cussing. Sorry, for the upstanding folks who are reading this and trying to get over my potty mouth - I'm really, really mad.

You know when your kid does something really nasty, and doesn't tell you, and it just compounds it because they didn't tell you?

I don't make sure Ancestry.com is doing it's job. I'm a busy, busy girl. I have four children, 3 cats, 2 dogs and fish. I have a family to feed, clothe and make sure is on time, because the heavens forbid I miss something I've said I'll do. It's also almost Halloween, we hand make our costumes every year and host a bit of an open house. Just one of our little traditions...
Trust me, I'm thinking about Walmart and some 10 dollar flimsy costume more and more these days.
I work with a team of 8 people, across Canada on genealogy, between us, that's 8 trees with various connections. We are constantly working. Rarely a day goes by that we are not making some sort of addition of family information or records.

We pay $30 a month for a subscription that I don't make sure is working. I type in my search, find the record, go on my way. How DARE they not make some sort of mass public announcement saying that the records we use are unavailable because THEY have failed their contractual obligations???

I want a refund for this past month, who only knows what searches I've preformed that didn't come up with results because I didn't know what to be looking for!
I want them to sort this out yesterday, because they make a fortune with this stupid nonsense and the fact that they're quibbling over pennies makes me insane... And I want a frigging apology and to be notified the next time they decide a huge alteration like this isn't going to affect my bloody research!

If Ancestry.com didn't do what they said they were going to do, they need to hire some people and get it done, and get this issue solved. What about everything in our shoeboxes? Heaven forbid, all those people who've uploaded their TREES??? Have they lost everything? Think about it a second... Every linked document out of Quebec... How many trees that we work with will be affected???

Ancestry said they could do something, and they didn't do it. Well I think someone has to hold them accountable, but not at the expense of our research. Hit them where it hurts, make them PAY... But put the documents back up while they're paying for it. Because we're paying for it now, not them... I can promise you that no one sitting on that website is crushed right now because they don't know who Francis Walker McKenna is, but if I don't find out soon my opportunity to commemorate his life might never happen.

We don't get paid for what we do. We don't make a single cent on the information we slave over. We actually pay for it, and it's bloody expensive. This is information that I, personally think is vitally important, and I know my team feels the same way. These people all lived and died, and we've done nothing but throw them in the dirt with vague stone references to who they were or what they accomplished... That's if they got a stone in the first place.
For the first time in human history, it's possible to record our genealogy, our personal family history in a manner that reflects a possibility of preservation for future generations. It can't be destroyed in fire, it can't be thrown out by the generation that doesn't care for it. With proper precautions, it can't be deleted or 'lost'.
We can contact long lost cousins by e-mail, phone or messageboard. We can find each other, find links, finds roots with so much as the push of a button... And it's not just family history, it's medical understanding and genetics...

I'd like some common courtesy from the tools we depend on - After all, Ancestry.com, you got to where you are from our hard earned dollars paying your way. And above all of this, I'd like a little respect for that fact that even the most amateur genealogist is working towards doing something that has been completely unaccomplished in human history. It might not sound as exciting as space travel or finding new planets... But maybe understanding THIS planet and the people on it is a vital importance that shouldn't be over looked.

I have updates to post, but I'm so irritated nothing would come out right, so I'm going to leave it for tonight... I'll be back when I can look at anything without swearing.

Quick Update before Bed :)

2009-09-11T00:25:00.002-04:00

Topic: Photo-bar gets names!
Family Name Associations: All of them!
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Mood: Super happy :)
Music: Earth Wind and Fire - September (Thanks to Beth!)

We have a lovely little update to make. Aunt Linda suggested we add 'names' to the photographs we use in our bar along our main tree page on skeletongen.com, and it took Mark a while to figure it all out... But finally tonight, with the help of Phil the Vulcan of Pointy Eared Code Knowledge, they got it working!

So now, when you scan along the image on our tree pages... Names for each photo in the blend bar we have there come up, so everyone knows who's who!

Thanks to Aunt Linda for the suggestion, cause I didn't even think of it, and uber thanks to Phil for his insight into evil code...
And big huge kisses for Markus for working so hard on this for so long. It was a little job with big time and effort and it looks awesome! Yay! We have people with names :)

Home again home again...

2009-09-07T15:37:00.002-04:00

Topic: An update from home.
Family Name Associations: Keffer, McKenna, Walker/Bentley, McKenna & Bandes through Chicago...
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Productive, I have coffee :)
Music: Johnny Reid - Dance with Me (He ROCKS! Absolutely the best.)

So... We're doing a little work on uncooperative computers this afternoon. Frontpage and Win7 don't like each other so we're going to try to make this work a wee bit more smoothly. Once that's done we should be able to put up our page for Adam Keffer with all our smarmy new photos of his window.
We drove over 1600kms this weekend. We saw St. Peter's in Ottawa, St. Michel's in Vaudreuil... We touched some pretty important grass on Mount Royal. We have over 1200 photos. What a huge accomplishment. And my parents... What amazing people. For them to pick up cameras and take photos right along with me, for them to take this huge trip to hunt for more information! I have an amazing family :)
The people from St. Peter's in Ottawa were so welcoming, so helpful... What an outstanding effort on their part! Really... We came out of this feeling so enriched. Oh and the women of the church are making quilts, old style, like what Aunt Elsie used to make... One quilt for every family who lost someone in Afghanistan. How amazing is that? What a stunning gift... Really, an amazing group of people.

We had huge issues with the gps this weekend, nothing worked - Admittedly it SO could have been user error, but I ended up with a general lack of coordinates and Mark's going to have to spend some time figuring out exactly how I went wrong there.

We've talked more about putting up a stone in Notre Dame Cote des Neiges... We know we have to find out first if a platform can even be erected in that grave site. It entails digging four feet into the ground and that thought is a little unnerving... Considering the grave was purchased in 1861 and a lot of the people in there were children and infants... I have concerns about how deep people were buried in the first place.
Even if there was something with the McKenna name on it, I'd feel... better. I think we all would. But now at least we understand why Gran and her siblings never thought to be upset about there being no monument - They thought there were monuments. No one knew the grave is unmarked now.
The cemetery folks, they were just amazing, I have to write that. The girl at the desk, I never did get her name, was phenomenal. She answered every question, drew us maps repeatedly. I know people get paid to do their job, but when they go beyond that, and she really did, it deserves mention.
I think it was a part of our trip that brought up more questions than answers, and we have a lot of leg work to do now to try and find out more about everything...
I said to everyone when I got home...
As much as we know, there is so little we know.

Jake's working today on the McKenna Bandes connection in Chicago. We have people married and living and no names! Once he's cracked the case of Sarah McKenna, we'll know more.

Cousin Marilyn has been sending me information and updates, she's so awesome :) I keep thinking how happy Grandpa would be that her and I managed to find each other. She's helping with sorting out all the Walker and Bentley confusion... Look for tree updates on that line as soon as I can manage it.

I think I packed 6 months of research into 3 days at this point. There is so much to DO... And with the kids going back to school tomorrow, I'll have more time to sort, to organize and maybe, vaguely attempt to get my act together!
Never mind getting the German translations up on the site, that's going to happen as soon as we can get a group meeting together :)

All in all, we're going like mad with no end in sight. Rock on CSGS!

Correspondence from Montreal

2009-09-05T19:06:00.002-04:00

Topic: The busiest trip EVER...
Family Name Associations: McKenna, LaLonde, Lecuyer
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Mood: Exhausted!
Music: Crazy elevator music on speaker phone.

Mum is on hold so we've got some lovely elevator music playing. WOW... My mind is spinning. Okay, so...

We left Ottawa about 8am, I didn't write yesterday because it was a whole lot of driving. Exciting, but driving.... We had dinner last night, and we went to the memorial of the Unknown Soldier... That was pretty major. There was a stunning festival of lights thing happening at the Parliament building. I have photos :)

This morning we checked out St. Peter's Lutheran Church but it was closed as we'd expected.

We took some location shots though, I'm looking forward to going back on Sunday to get shots of the window.

We drove to Quebec, and just sort of saw the sign for Vaudreuil on the way in, Mum remembered going there when she was younger to visit family. So we stopped there because I had a map (Thanks Mark and Jake!) saying St. Michel's in Vaudreuil was a major spot... And wow was it ever. A huge amount of photos... Probably 85% of the cemetery. At least one Emry LaLonde there... Lots and lots to do when we get home. LaLonde and Lecuyers both, Chabot, Chavriel...

We continued to Montreal, had lunch in Old Montreal... And went on to Notre Dame Cote des Neiges.

I have to admit, this afternoon was emotional, confusing and somewhat frustrating. First off, I'm so glad I was there with my parents. Because it was supportive and good that way for us to be there together. But really, when Patrick said there was nothing there... I honestly thought he meant nothing for Leonard. I did not think I'd be going to see a big patch of grass.

I have a photograph you see, of a small iron fence, and the stones that are supposed to be there. I'll post it, just to prove I'm not daft.
And I checked with cousins all around to confirm it wasn't anyone else in the family. And Mum even called Aunt Shirley and confirmed, sure enough, that's what is supposed to be there.

And nothing. No record of anything being there at all. It's absolutely nutso.

William John McKenna and Mary Ann Stafford have a lovely monument... Over in another section, but even then, I'm so confused. Two of the children in the McKenna plot were theirs. Why are there no stones?

And if James McKenna is indeed in Notre Dame verses being in Chicago like we thought, um, hello??? The man won the Stanley Cup, two times. It wasn't a financial thing, we have their income statements from the census... I mean, really? Really? What is going on here? And there were stones, but who's and what they said is apparently beyond me... All of us even. Bah. I'm just not sure where to go from here. Obviously talks about putting up a monument are in the works... But paying for that is huge, it's not a small space, you're talking a lot of effort. And what should it say?

Wow. Just wow. So much to think about. Thomas bought the plot in 1861 but isn't buried in it. It just gets more and more crazy the more I think about it.

I'm going to dinner now, maybe for a carriage ride... Something fun and happy :)
I'll see you all soon!

Montreal here we come!

2009-09-02T23:19:00.003-04:00

Topic: Mass insanity.
Family Name Associations: McKenna, Keffer, Lequyer, LaLonde and anyone out of Quebec, so half our trees at least. Eckert...
Location: I'm in Barrie until Friday around noon.
Mood: Exhausted and excited
Music: Whitney Houston - All At Once

So I'm going to take a little road trip with my parents.
LOL

My birthday is coming up rather quickly. And as a super fun time, my mum and dad decided it would be a good time to take me tromping through old churches, graveyards and in general, Ottawa and Montreal.
I'm soooooo excited :)
There's so much going on right now it's hard to organize my thoughts. We're printing maps, making sure everything is working and the gps is good to go.
Jake's uploading my playlists so the tunes can keep on rolling.

We're going to have luck with the McKennas, and therefore the Lequyers as well. Not to mention we're going to be where most of our families immigrated to and spent a good 200 some odd years marrying and having descendants! Woohoo!
Notre Dame Cote des Neiges... I'm going to go snap happy. I'm going to try and do drive-bys of St. Patricks, St. Michels and St. Agnes... Not to mention Notre Dame. And maybe some of the places Mum grew up, but we'll see how far we get. I'm going with the mentality that anything we see is something I haven't seen yet (Or since I was so much younger we're not even going to go there)... And it will be a good happy healing thing to see the places Gran lived.

Kev has had major progress with getting the Eckert German tree we had translated to english. As soon as we can start adding the new additions and photos, we'll be on it. With the kids going back to school this coming week it's looking promising.

We got permission from St. Peter's in Ottawa to come in and take pictures of the Adam Keffer stained glass window there. We're looking at doing that on Sunday.

I'm debating taking the scanner. It's not huge but I hate carrying... But what if I need it? Argh... Decisions.
I'm going to try and blog on the road as much as possible. One of those portable sticks would be nice... I really need a fairy genealogist godmother!
:) That's all for tonight. Lots and lots more to come!

Ah, 3am posts... They're becoming a bad habit.

2009-09-01T03:08:00.003-04:00

Topic: Posting practices, McKenna information, The closing of the Rocky Mountain Times... and so on and so forth...
Family Name Associations: McKenna
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Doing good ;)
Music: Colbie Caillat - Fallin' for You

Lots of records adds tonight... Mostly in the McKenna tree. I'm so far behind in gravestone adds I've stopped, and therefore Jules is behind... But since she's slammed at work as well as in research, she is probably glad I'm not sending more her way.

My personal favourite for tonight's adds was the obituary for Thomas Edward McKenna out of the New York Times, published 12 March 1906. And I quote:

THOMAS E. McKENNA, managing editor of The Rocky Mountain News and of The Denver Times, died on Saturday night at a Denver (Col.) hospital of heart disease, age 45. He was born in Montreal, Canada, and for four years was secretary and manager of the Shamrock lacrosse team, which held the championship of Canada and England. Mr. McKenna had been connected with The News for seventeen years, and managing editor of the paper for the last ten years.

I remember in the news when the Rocky Mountain News shut down, how I watched the clip in complete ignorance as to the future impact it would have on my life. If I'd been 10 years earlier in the progress we've made with this research, we would have known, there would have been someone to ask... And now, of course we just wish we could have been so ahead of our time!

I'm going to push to give Mr. Boylan a call tomorrow... And we found a connection through the O'Neill side on FindAGrave tonight we're going to drop a line to, Caldwell side... Didn't even realize we had a Caldwell side until this week!
Kev's not having any luck dating the two boys with the guns in that old photo. He'd thought maybe it was older than we had originally thought, maybe some sort of Civil War, Union pose... The rifles are (possibly fake) flint locks... In my uneducated way, I get they're really old guns! Anyways, he's going to plug away at it and see if we can't place those two boys.

Oh and I made some updates to the Shamrock team page, now that we know who's who... I have another photo of James Henry (Jim) McKenna I'll upload before I pretend to sleep tonight.
I think that covers everything we're sort of going at... Oh, I have a fun blog coming in the morning... We had a great dinner with the Cox family the other night and there's some cool stuff from that - I have to get some help from Jake to post it all.

Okay, so that's that. :) Updated!

Normal people...

2009-08-30T03:06:00.003-04:00

Family Name Associations: McKenna

Normal people sleep at night. I've personally decided sleep is over rated and I'll do it when I'm dead. On that note, in a vague attempt to date a photograph from the early 1900s Quebec, I stumbled across something I've looked for until I'm green in the face and have never been able to find. I can't wait until people check their mail in the morning.

This winter we were planning a little trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nothing fancy, but we needed some time in their archives - Although they did give us a nice offer to help us look for things at the economical cost of $100 an hour (Insert Jules squealing 'What?!' here). We know that James Henry McKenna, son of Bridget O'Neill and Thomas McKenna had played hockey with a team called the Montreal Shamrocks. That team had won the Stanley Cup in 1899 and 1900. We've even got a little information page for them on the website. And while we knew our information was correct, we could not place which member of the team was my Great Great Uncle in any photograph.

Tonight I once again proved my theory, that we only find things when we're not looking for them.

1899-1900 Framed Photograph of the Montreal Shamrocks

He could have been any person on that page, and he could have been one of the ones that got cut off, but apparently someone is looking out for us up there. He's on the top, right hand corner. J.H. McKenna. And someone, somewhere, has a $2000 photo of him... LOL

How absolutely crazy is that???

On the original note of 'What are those kids doing with guns?'... This is the photograph I know nothing about and can't seem to dig up any information on what-so-ever.

Maybe I should go google 'Do brown cows produce chocolate milk?'

Because I'm sure then I'd find the answer. If anyone can point me to the direction of infinite answers, I'd so appreciate it.

I think I'm going to try and go to bed now... Really, not much can cap off this day... Thanks everyone for the laughs, the support, and the super good times!

Keffer-Fest a roaring success!

2009-08-29T22:44:00.004-04:00

Topic: Keffer-Fest
Family Name Associations: Keffer, Diceman, Line
Location: Barrie!
Mood: Exhausted but happy! Wow I'm so tired!
Music: None right now, but Pink's Please Don't Leave Me is in my head!

We had such an amazingly successful day that I can't even begin to convey it. For those who are checking out our site after the reunion, here's our photo of Lewis Fenton Diceman as requested! More photos are coming, I just finished scanning right this second.

We had great times with cousins, great food, good conversation, cousin Barry gave us some great hints about where to find a few of the graves we've been looking for! We have 100s of new photos. It's going to take us an eon to get everything into the system. Really, huge thanks to Uncle Greg and Aunt Caroline for the most amazing Keffer-Fest yet! We can't wait for next year :)

After posting this I need to hit the grocery store (Yes I know it's almost midnight) to pick up some last minute details for the super yummy supper we're going to have tomorrow night... And then we're going to see just what sort of gooey desserts I can make!

This week is going to be a mad dash to get as much posted as fast as we can. There will be updates constantly so check in often and if you're missing anything at all, drop us a line via e-mail or pick up a phone.

I hope everyone checking in is keeping well! Yay for progress! CSGS rocks!

The Night before Keffer-Fest!

2009-08-28T22:11:00.002-04:00

Topic: The night before Keffer-Fest
Family Name Associations: Keffer ;) Lequyer and McKenna... Baker, MacDairmaid, Cox.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Beat dead tired!
Music:

Ah, Michael... Seriously what music video can you say, 25 some odd years later still entertains you? Is there any wonder I like to muck about in graveyards?! Hehehe...

Well it's about 10:15 and I'm in dire need for coffee, but almost all my baking is done and we're geared up for a great day tomorrow.
We were hoping to borrow a slide scanner this weekend but it's going to have to wait until next weekend. I can't wait to see what's on some of those old negatives from the Keffer - Diceman side. All in all, there should be some big developments on the Keffer side in the next few weeks. We're going to follow up a few leads, get some permissions and what not... Good times!

We got in touch with Patrick Boylan this week, we're going to give him a call and see what we can scare up on the McKenna side next week. The Lequyer tree has grown in leaps and bounds for days now but I really need to cut back on my research time and focus on costumes or everyone's going to be going naked for Halloween this year :)
Once the weather hits it'll be time to sit with my tea and sort through the ton of information and general 'stuff' we've been given this year. I left off this morning trying to hunt up some more information on some of the earlier Lecuyer generations. Lots of documents poorly written in old french. I'll post when I come up with something solid.

Of course there is work going on elsewhere... Off the top of my head... Jake's headed to Edmonton to do a few cemeteries in mid October. I know they'd talked about archives and whatnot, but there will be developments on the Baker and MacDairmaid trees soon. Maybe the mystery of who Minnie is on the 1901 - I think it's the 1901 - Census will be solved. Jake's writing a personal history page for Thomas Davidson Baker. Oh and we have the Cox family joining us on Sunday night, that's going to be a great time, always is... We'll see if there isn't anything we can get from them as far as new leads too. We were waiting on an Aunt to get a few hints from down south... We'll have to tap her in a bit and see what's come up.

So that's all I can think of for now. There's always more to come :)

Lequyer Lecuyer oh my...

2009-08-26T22:10:00.003-04:00

Topic: Huge accomplishments!
Family Name Associations: Lequyer and the 100 different variants of it... Ladouceur too :)
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Tired, a little hungry which should be impossible but I want more cornbread... And super happy with a crazy productive day.
Music: Paradise City by Gn'R... Jake is playing the music. Someone help me, please... Oh oh Hedley, we're listening to Hedley, apparently I rolled my eyes enough to get good tunes. Old School :) Woohoo! Jacob rocks!

Seriously nothing like a 500 word blog post that's all about nonsense and has no relevance.
Okay, so I have this theory, about how you don't find anything you're looking for when you want it, but when you're supposed to be working on the Keffer tree, there's a 100 new Lequyers and everything makes sense.

I'm going to post everything in here in a huge rambling gob just because that's how I roll. Old School baby! But I can safely say that this is huge, and it really answers a lot of questions a lot of people have had for eons with no answers.

Albina Lequyer, or Lecuyer as she was born as, was the first born daughter of Rose LaLonde and Leon Lequyer that we have record of. We assumed (Stupid us!) that she'd died in infancy like Marie Rachel Cordelia. However... Today we realized Albina didn't die, as a matter of fact her descendants are running all over New York and probably half the US... It started when I found this record for Anna May Ladouceur - A wedding record for her second marriage that listed both her parents, John and Albina Ladouceur.
I thought they'd just gotten the parent's name wrong - They do it all the time with old names, right? And stranger things have happened.
I was so wrong.
It was bugging me though... So I started digging... It all seemed rather strange that it wasn't Pamelia and William Ladouceur, I mean that's the relationship we know about. The sister we were aware of. Who could have guessed that Albina was really alive and married to William's brother John, who is really Jean Baptiste Ladouceur!
I found Anna May's first marriage license, and low and behold, John and Albina are listed as her parents again... I raced back to the Drouin records to confirm Albina's name...
Holy cows! Then I pieced together the whole tree... I'm still hunting census, what I can't find Kev will. Jake did addresses for me tonight... But it's all so true, and stunning!

John and Albina's son Adolphus Ladouceur moved back to the US (Apparently he was born there, maybe that's why we're having trouble placing everyone) and we know that Albina's family (Rose LaLonde and Leon Lequyer) had been to New York because their daughter Josephine was born there. Adolphus Ladouceur married a girl here in Ontario, her name was Julia Gaughan, apparently a ton of her siblings moved south too... And bingo. We have a huge tree we didn't have this morning. It's going to take us months to sort all this out, and go further back with the Ladouceur family.

When Jake got here and started looking, all I could say was 'There's newspapers!' There's a pile of obits and general chatter about the family in Syracuse, New York. How frigging cool is that?!

Needless to say, we're probably related to every Ladouceur in New York at this point. I haven't even had the time to check into FindAGrave, but that's on my list. I'll be adding it to the tree as I can. The newspaper articles are slow because my laptop is crying over memory (It has 4 gigs for crying out loud!) but I'll get it all... We'll get it all. Cause we're rockstars ;)

We need to get back to Washago and do some leg work. Uptergrove for starters... If we didn't have the reunion this weekend we could do it. Hey, who's free Sunday???

Big stuff going on...

2009-08-24T22:27:00.003-04:00

Topic: WOW
Family Name Associations: Keffer, Diceman, Boxall and Lequyer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Super super excited!!!
Music: Kings of Leon - Use Somebody

Okay, first off we have been updating the Keffer stuff like crazy mad monkeys. Mark's actually getting a scanner here on Thursday that scans negatives and slides, woohoo! Which means the 200 some odd negatives Dad had hidden in the basement are going to be actual photographs in about a week. There's one of the Diceman girls in a sled, I cannot wait to see it done up. Really, these are thrilling times people!!!
Graves are being added daily to our site... I just sent a DVD of photos out tonight to the US in hopes of helping out their research down there. We haven't gotten anywhere with FindAGrave... But I'm thinking of making clones of myself. Then maybe we'll get through half of the things we have to do in this lifetime :P

Great connection with a Diceman researcher this week. Can't wait to get together with them and share stuff, really, time is the biggest issue right now! Considering going onto the Maple archives to see if they ended up with the Family Bibles, but we might ask around first at Keffer-Fest because it's on SATURDAY! Woohoo for yummy food and furthering research!
We're hoping Aunt Caroline is going to have some sort of internet access... Oh, for a rich patron who wanted to buy is all internet sticks! ;)

Short chat tonight with Aunt Linda, we're stuck on finding a birth certificate for Lorraine Wallis Boxall from about 1893 in New York, USA. He's soooo difficult. If we can't find him, really there's not going to be any hope of getting more information together on Lillian Wakeman, or what really happened to their family. Did she die as Alfred later claimed on a census? Is the family rumour about her remarrying Alfred, only to find out her MIA soldier husband really wasn't dead and he'd come back to claim her really true??? Enquiring minds want to know!
Seriously, Days of our Lives could take tips from our notes...

And finally... The Lequyers, oh I'm bouncing in my seat typing this! It's huge. HUGE... We've made contact with living descendants who have PICTURES and INFORMATION! Imagine!!! Cousins :)
Absolutely thrilled there, more information is bound to come. And we uploaded a few errant census that had been missing from the site - I don't know why, you know what it can be like around here, right? Chaos... Especially when we're working in the summer verses sunning ourselves by the bay.

Link

Check out how Leon Lequyer progressed through a little paper trail... I'm still hoping for US papers, but we'll see where we get to. Right now, we're knocking off to go watch 'Horsemen' and nibble popcorn.

Blogging on the Road

2009-08-20T19:03:00.002-04:00

Topic: Blogging on the Road
Family Name Associations: Keffer, Quantz, Line, Watson, Murray and more!
Location: Maple, Ontario
Mood: Exhausted but accomplished!
Music: Black Eyed Peas! Good Night!

We're headed to Maple this morning - Well, it'll be noon by the time we get there, but cool none the less. This morning it's to the Zion Lutheran Church, one of the cornerstones of Ontario Keffer heritage.

We haven't been in about 10 years, believe it or not. It was one of the first locations we ever did, and going back all together is just a cool experience and a little bit of a trip down memory lane!

We should be able to locate our Great Grandparents graves today, and several generations back, so we're looking forward to updates all around. We might do Thornhill again today and hope it's open, and Glenview if we can pull it off.
Big dreams to get three places done but we'll have a pile of us with cameras :)

You know what's the yummiest on road trips? Coffee. Tim Horton's coffee makes CSGS happy!

Oh, and last night we heard from a cousin in the Lequyer Family. How exciting is that??? A fellow researcher too, way too cool, there will be more updates when we've managed to connect all the dots and add to the tree.

Wow it's hot today. Really, it's got to be 30 out here. The smog is crazy. Oh and we just hit construction, LOL oops.
You know what's the best about Kev on roadtrips? He DJs the whole time through, seriously it's me Jules and the kids in the back with the tunes, grooving away!

Okay, here we go... I'll be back once we've hit our first stop!
Oh, Black Eyed Peas! It is going to be a good night! :)

---

We had outrageous success at the Zion Lutheran Church, we did every stone, I'm hoping the shots were good. There was also some sort of head stone with a massive index of our earliest burials and their corresponding lot numbers. I wrote them out - Not thinking I should have typed it! We also got a huge amount of photos, really, we're all exceptionally pleased with ourselves.

A short break at Kelsey's for lunch... And then we're hoping the office at Glendale/Glenview will be open to direct us to Goldie and Gib's raves. After that, there was a set of stones in Maple on the way through we'd like, and that strange set on Duffrin... Both are game if we can pull it off.
Okay, lunch and then more... Woohoo! Go team.

---

So we got out to Glenview, Glendale, whatever they're calling it today... We had the office tell us where to find Granny and our Grandfather... We put out poppies. It went well, was emotional, and we felt really accomplished.

Then we hit Richmond Hill, got quite a few shots in there... Then headed towards the second smaller cemetery back in Maple. All went well and good until it started pouring...
We got absolutely soaked, and drove home wet :)
I'm waiting for my turn in the hot shower! And posting this so it's all updated :)
Photos and updates to come!

The unupdate update!

2009-08-18T13:24:00.002-04:00

We've been so crazy busy with so much, really... It's insane. Really, we all just need to give up sleeping, then there'd be enough hands for all this work!
I'm looking forward to that quiet time when it's all snow everywhere and it's just the team doing our thing... I know, I know, looking forward to snow is just all wrong.
I just found a comment and uploaded it because apparently I missed it in my mail... Some how... Anyways we're going to have to check it out because promises of a huge family St. Vrain tree is super exciting.

We've got Keffer Fest looming, about 70 photos that still need to be uploaded and probably double that waiting to be scanned. Lots of information coming in about the British Home Project lately... And the need to research the Carr family rather extensively, but we'll get to all that. We've got some great grave photos right out of King, we've been adding stuff to FindAGrave but we really need more time on it all.

An obit passed on from a contact in Missouri this morning for one of the Durnell descendants... I was going to post it here but I might wait a bit and see if we can't post it directly into the tree. I've got some feelers out to see if we can't place exactly who's line she's connected to.

What else? On a personal front... We've started our Halloween costumes, the kids are driving us all bonkers and can't get back to school fast enough... And we're supposed to get together with the Eastern Team in the next week.
We have a draft letter to the Reeson side of the family ready and just need to mail it out. Once that's done we'll see if we can't scare up some more hints about Canadian descendants.

It think that's about it, I said, it's an unupdate update!

Paying Our Due!

2009-08-05T14:19:00.003-04:00

Topic: Paying our Due
Family Name Associations: Hedgecoe, McKenna, Carthy, Miller, Berry... There's more, but that'll have to do for now.
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada...
Mood: Getting a little tired... We've been at it about 8 hours now.
Music: Vertical Horizon - Grey Sky Morning

We really should have been loading photos all this time we've been out playing and taking photos. But hey... Winters coming right? It has to slow down sometime... Really... It does.

Confirmed Mary Eva Adelaide McKenna is in Riverside Cemetery in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Section 48, but oddly no plot. Added her to FindAGrave, might see about a photo request.

Can't find an Obit for Roscoe Miller Sr. Thought it would be easier than this. Also thought he'd pop up in the Baptist Ministry Registry more, or at all... Not as much information on this man as their should be. Time to do more digging... And we don't even have real dates for Stella, his second wife. Really, there's just a lot of small details missing from these pictures.

Found Captain Benjamin McDiarmaid's grave in France on FindAGrave, forwarded it to Jake because we've had no luck finding him or the cemetery before - Maybe because we were looking in Germany verses France!
Benjamin

Huge issues with continuing the Carthy branch in Arnprior, Ontario any further. I figured out that Ellen Carthy was the mother from Ireland, no idea on the Father's name yet, but she was the one who died in 1920, not Ellen Dillon Carthy. Possibly ___ Carthy's brother living with the family, the name was Path Carthy. Have them on one census in 1881, and that's it! Beyond that - just graves... We have Ellen Dillon and John Carthy's stone and a Leo A Carthy who we can't place yet. I'm going to set Kev on it all once our 'Northern Computer Issues' are figured out.

We added a pile of photos from King City Cemetery - Random shots - To FindAGrave, including quite a few photos of the Ireland family, who Jake liked and therefore took lots of photos of.
We also added LOTS of family members to their cemeteries in there, and to our own site, and organized like busy little worker bees.

Having issues with an Infant Berry grave in California... They can't confirm burial where we expected it. We're going back to the drawing board on that one.

Jake figured out how to add new pretty flower photos in the memorial section on FindAGrave. Now I want to go redo all our memorials with pretty flowers :) Can't we hear Julie's joy over that idea?
But pretty flowers Jules! Think of how pretty it would look!
I think we're having a day in Bracebridge this weekend. We need to get the gps doing it's thing and go from there. Once we get computers doing what they should be up North there's a pile of other things we'll be able to get done.

I'm going to post this and go get back at it before dinner... Mmm Mucho Burrito. Mmmm!
I still haven't put up last weeks photos too, really, I'm a slacker. Alright... Work, food... Work... Yeehaw.

Blogging on the Run

2009-08-03T23:03:00.003-04:00

Topic: Blogging on the Run
Family Name Associations: Diceman, Keffer, McKenna, Hedgecoe
Location: Southern Ontario
Mood: Excited :D

So, today's adventures involve... Field work! Woohoo! Admittedly we should be working on the 100 graves we have to post, but the weather is fair enough, we're all together and hey, we've got all Winter, right???
I also should have posted those information posts from the other night. But we've been slammed. Not a little, oh wow we're busy... But like, gee, what's my name again? slammed.

So we've just hit King City Cemetery, found a ton of our Diceman relatives including Aunt Elsie, and photographed a ton of things, stones included.
It really is a super nice cemetery.

As a side note, the Country Donut place in King City is closed on Holiday Monday :)

We're going to try to find the Mausoleum where Gran is in a niche, and then we're going to grab some supper. We'd thought about trying to get photos of where Goldie and Gilbert Keffer are, but really, it's 5pm already and we all know I'm an over achiever.

And what's with the little white old church thingy on Duffrin just north of hwy 7 on the east side? There's a Keffer in there, Jake saw it driving by, but there's no driveway and a big fence. I didn't wear the right shoes for climbing fences. (Mark found a google map view of that church or little building or whatever it is, we are SO going to go back to that one!)

Ohh... And to 'ZD Dave' in the silver Honda CRD, I really hope someone gives you a clue. You drive like an idiot and your arrogance is going to get someone hurt or worse... If it was only you - I wouldn't care, but it's the other people on the road with dangers like you going on. That just isn't right.

---

Notes: Gran is on the second floor, in the back, at the west end, over looking the red building. We got lost :)

Found the Thornhill Cemetery where Maria and Sarah Keffer are, but it was locked up with a padlock... I wanted to scale the fence, Jake didn't think that was a good idea. Geez being so close burns my butt, but really, b&e for two photos probably wouldn't make anyone happy in my family. Can we see that phone call to my Mum & Dad? Hehehe... Really though, it was a small fence! It even had sort of foot rung things.

Oh oh we found Goldie and Gib's cemetery and we're there now :) Woohoo for over achievers! No luck on finding them though, there's a millon people in here and they're all flat plaques, there's no hope on that front! We'll come back a day the office is open :) Yay for finding it though!

That's enough insanity for today. Tomorrow it can start alllll over again.

Our Western Home

2009-07-30T12:44:00.003-04:00

Topic: Our Western Home - Annie Stone
Family Name Associations: Stone, Diceman, Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: A little tired, I didn't sleep well last night. Too much going on in my head and not enough room to think!
Music: Faith Hill - Breathe

This is probably going to be one of a few posts today. There's so much going on my head is spinning. This sort of needs it's own post, because honestly it's huge. There is so much going on!

So, the chest in the basement, the ultimate glory in my Dad's ability to hide historical, possibly genealogically important information in the farthest reaches of the universe...
We got into it last night. Corsets, old porcelain potty pots aside... There were photos found, and photos taken of the chest. The crown jewel. And Mum's been doing a little digging of her own based on what the trunk reads.

Low and behold, Annie Margarent Stone was fostered in Canada by a program called 'Our Western Home', run in a converted prison near Niagara, Ontario. Brought as an orphan from England, she traveled by ship to Canada where she was cared for, taught, fostered or paid to learn useful skills and take care of herself as a working member of society. - Yeah, a history page is coming... I'm sooo behind, it's going to take me winters to catch up! Like 3!

So we're on an entire new journey now, to learn about who Annie Stone was, if she had siblings, what the circumstances of her leaving England were... And maybe, maybe if we can get back further past her own amazing life. Really, a whole new leg of information, just opened right up.

Immediate concerns are that we have a family note of Annie arriving in 1907, but on the marriage certificate in 1913 it claims her future husband, Lewis Fenton Diceman had known her for 8 years at the request for license. We'll pin it all down, map it all out... But WOW.

Planned trips in the near future will include the King City Cemetery in York Region, as well as finally getting down to Glendale Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Etobicoke, where we've confirmed Goldie Diceman and Gilbert Keffer are buried. (Dad knew the location so finding the right place wasn't too hard. And oh, he's on file there! Good times I tell you...)
We'll get some photos happening and woohoo, more accomplished on putting these trees in order :)

Right now I'm off to add graves to FindAGrave, and to keep at the mountain of research that's running off my plate... Wow, it's going to be a busy night.

Upppppppdates!

2009-07-28T23:43:00.002-04:00

Topic: Skeleton Gen Update, Tom Baker, Felix St. Vrain and the Tillery Family.
Family Name Associations: Tillery, St. Vrain, Baker, Eng
Location: Barrie, Ontario... It feels like Mars?
Mood: Wide awake, which is an issue at 11:43pm
Music: Jake is singing Stairway to Heaven!

I've been writing at Genealogy Wise, looking for links, people... LOL help. No real connections today. But we're trying. Jake's joined it with me. Together, we shall take over the world! (Now he's going to hum the Pinky and the Brain theme song!)

We wrote to a Chinese Genealogy website about help with Chong Eng. We're hoping they've at least heard of the place he's supposed to be from. That might be a big lot of hope pinned on nada, but hey, all we can do is try. Then 60 years from now some great grand child of Jakes can really look into it. Assuming there aren't some nasty political papers shuffled off to Area 51.

Jake is working on a page for the illustrious Thomas Davidson Baker, patron of arts, medical sciences and teachers everywhere. He's got some nice thistle brushes for PSP 9 that he's going to have to start sharing. I'm uber jealous.

We read up on Pea Island and all the Confederate and Union Soldiers at Fort Delaware... I hope I spelled all that right. Basically now it's a question as to misfiling... I dunno.
I have what could be a record for Felix St. Vrain signing up in PA, I need to do more research... So within the next few days we're hoping to have a little more insight.

We updated SkeletonGen.com with some pretty graphics. It looks super cute, Markus gets all the credit!

There's been some updates with the Tillery's, progress with cousins and new information we'll be adding over the next couple of days. We're looking into a Rountree branch descended from Mary Ann Lenox and Andrew Jackson Tillery. I'll write up how that turns out.

Beyond that, it's insane here. Really, it might as well be the full moon for all the insanity. I mean we're usually busy, added to the burst of genealogy stuff it's been nutso, but the added crazy... Well, it's making things special! Oh and the weather has been all storms, which makes me happy but my grass has grown a foot! And the kids are sick of being inside. So, that's my personal bit in there. :)
I'll be here tomorrow, same bat time and same bat channel! More updates to come!

It's never cut and dry...

2009-07-25T16:23:00.002-04:00

Topic: Civil War Soilder for the Confederates and POW, Felix St. Vrain
Family Name Associations: St. Vrain, specifically, Mister Felix St. Vrain
Location: Barrie, Ontario, in the lovely rain.
Mood: Confused
Music: George Strait - I Get Carried Away

What does that even mean, cut and dry, I mean I know it means simple, but really... Cut and dry, or is it dried?
Hehehe... Here's what it means. Fitting that it comes from Frontier terms and I'm stuck in the 1860s right now.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cut3.htm

So we know that Felix St. Vrain was born at St. Vrain Fort, New Mexico in 1842. The first son of Marcellin St. Vrain and Red, a Sioux woman of noble heritage.
We know that in 1851, Marcellin took his sons from the fort to live with himself and his new wife, Elizabeth Jane Murphy in St. Louis, Missouri. His sons were educated along side their step siblings.
We know that when Civil War broke out, both Felix and his younger brother Charles served with the Confederates, Felix was placed in Company A, 2nd Missouri Infantry. Charles didn't join until the last year of the war, he served with Company E, 39th Missouri Infantry.

This is when things start to get confusing. And resources run out the window...

The Fort's site about Marcellin states that Felix fought a variety of battles. Battle of Iuka, Battle of Corinth, Battle of Grand Gulf, and Vicksburn. There the Unit surrendered on 4 Jul 1863, was immediately paroled and merged with the 6th Missouri Infantry.
Then participated in the Battle of Atlanta, Kennesaw Mountain, Allatoona Pass, Franklin, Mobile and Fort Blakely. (Note: Well, his regiment participated, somewhere in here he became a POW)
Felix St. Vrain died as a Prisoner of War in 1864.

St. Vrain Fort's Marcellin St. Vrain Page

So finding a grave shouldn't be too hard, right? Actually, FindAGrave has a listing... Of course we did a photo request right away, eager to prove where Felix's final resting place is.

Felix St Vrain at Finns Point

We get an immediate response form Debbie - Who rocks and we're very thankful to. But now we have more of a problem. Felix St. Vrain has a listing followed by 'PA' as in, his state of representation. Huh?
And uhoh... He's listed on the Union Memorial.

Mark rushes off to e-mail Debbie and ask more questions.
How is it that Felix St. Vrain is listed as from Pennsylvania and serving with the Union Army???

Okay, here are my theories.

St. Vrain is NOT a common last name, it's localized around Ceran and Marcellin and their descendants. It was pretty much chosen, from what we can tell, as their family name, based on a small town in France near where Jacques originated from. More of the family took names like DeHault, or Delassus, or even Luziere.
In the 1860 time frame, there are NO hits for a St. Vrain family in Pennsylvania.

A. It's a misprint. They weren't exactly organized about how POWs were kept, let alone how they were buried or where. Felix got shuffled around, a few names looked like they could have been St. Vrain and they just did what they could when the monument committee was trying to sort out the mess of Fort Delaware.

B. Felix got captured in 1863 and somehow decided he was switching sides. He signed up with the Union in Pennsylvania, then died at Fort Delaware. (The most unlikely suggestion, and the one with the biggest holes in it!)

C. Felix was captured as a Prisoner Of War shipped to Fort Delaware, and signed with the Union as a Prison Guard. The whole Pennsylvania thing is a point of confusion... Maybe he needed to be from some northern state and they made it up.

Seriously, we are so stumped. There HAS to be answers here.
I'm having a diet pepsi... And maybe chocolate. There has to be some rewards for getting this cross-eyed over 150 year old questions.

Keepin' at it...

2009-07-24T10:34:00.004-04:00

Topic: We are so buried in stuff!
Family Name Associations: St. Vrain, Tillery, Miller. McKenna... Probably more.
Location: Barrie, Ontario - But I did just get stuff from Francis, Oklahoma.
Mood: Tired but productive
Music: Kreesha Turner - Lady Killer

Talk about absolutely crazy, slammed insanity... We've been soooo busy. Who gets to take time off in the summer? It's been busier than winter!
Group meeting on Sunday, here, for supper at least.

Jules has finally caught up on FindAGrave. Yay Jules! A crazy amount of photo requests and general networking going on. I'm still on that Genealogy Wise thing... But honestly I haven't done much but change my photo. Too swamped. Maybe soon, if it ever slows down.

Mark has been going over a paper written by J C Tumblin, who I think he's decided to contact... About a branch of Knox, Tennessee Tillerys that relates to all of our research with them. Huge progress there. More records than I can file.

Information just in from Francis. Confirmed Jessie Miller died of a flu epidemic while enlisted for WWI, he should be buried in Hugo, Oklahoma (Geez but where is the question! NO luck on finding him at all. We'll keep digging.)
And we've got a pile of photos... It's going to take us a while to sort through everything, but wow. Huge updates there. I'm super behind with FindAGrave adding graves. We need to take over a few Keffers too, I need to go through them and work on it all. LOL In my spare time!

Photo permission from Steve Yaryan on FindAGrave.com for the grave photo of Mary and Ben St. Vrain... Still not idea what Mary, his third wife's maiden name was. She was born in Illinois in about 1861. Anyone with ideas, I'm open to suggestions! We know there was Mary Quinn, and then Laura Bell Annis... and we have no leads as to where either of those women were buried. But Benjamin Scott St. Vrain was buried with wife number 3, Mary... Mary no name. And no leads. We'll keep digging.
We have a pile of information we need to upload on Marcellin St. Vrain and books from Google books on Ceran. We also have a history page to load for Ceran... Just as soon as we can.

We still have a huge amount of photos to scan from Montreal and surrounding area, mostly based in McKenna research.

Oh and Mary E and Jacob Franklin Tillery are twins. Did anyone know that? I'm almost 90% on that one. I wasn't getting it at first... But I think I'm good now. Twins, in the 1800s, Wow! Not impossible but sure not easy. I'm so used to finding the bad news lately. Anyways... I've got to get back to working on things here. Maybe I can make a dent before everyone gets home and we start all over again.
I think it's a good night for pizza :)

Keffer Connection

2009-07-20T16:35:00.002-04:00

Topic: Genealogy Wise Connection to a Keffer Researcher
Family Name Associations: Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada, Planet Earth.
Mood: Getting hungry :) Almost time to quit for the day.
Music: Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold

Awesome connection to a distant set of cousins right here in Blogger. All you silent Keffers (And connecting cousins) check them out!

http://ks-gt.blogspot.com/
Can't wait to learn more from them :)

Genealogy Wise

2009-07-20T15:10:00.002-04:00

Topic: I'm probably asking for trouble... But I joined a thingy called Genealogy Wise.
Family Name Associations: Everyone!
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: I'm a trouble maker in a silly mood :}
Music: Blue October - Hate Me. I love this song.

So... We all know why I'm not allowed to get bored, right? It causes issues. I was avoiding adding graves, looking for records or generally doing anything I'm supposed to be doing.
I was supposed to be doing my Flickr upload this morning and instead I joined Genealogy Wise for fun, LOL
I have no idea where this is going to get me, it's probably just asking for trouble... But there I am. I can hear everyone now 'But you don't play well with others!' Yeah well, in limited doses I should be able to behave, right? Really, how much trouble can I get into when it's just me?

I even joined a group for Keffers. Look at me, I'm a joiner!
I joined a bunch of groups but I'll probably weed them out. Hey, it was this or Twitter, and Jake is convinced I don't need to be on there. Although I think it might be smart for 'Hey I found this!' or 'Hey I added that!'
Really, he's just worried I'll break Twitter like I break everything else :P

I got a badge, I'm trying to post it here but it probably won't work - Again, the breaking thing.

I need to go take over Markus' FindAGrave account so I can work on two new graves he just aquired ownership of. We have about 10000 grave photos that need sorting, uploading and whatever... I might leave the majoirty of it for now. Winter will be here soon enough, and I'll be buried under snow with only the pre-1930 census records to keep me warm. LOL
Geez, we need a vacation from our vacations. All hail the concept of year round school and kids who don't get bored!

Visit Genealogy Wise

Tillery

2009-07-19T01:51:00.002-04:00

Topic: Lots of Tillery Updates
Family Name Associations: Tillery, Barnett, Paxton and more... Keffer-Fest Plug :)
Location: Barrie, Ontario - Although we have people close to Oklahoma right now, near Francis getting ready to go snap happy picture hunting, Woohoo for pictures!
Mood: Excited for research breakthroughs.
Music: Jamey Johnson - In Colour

We've met up with a few people who have some more Tillery information, including Randy who's going to connect us with some of Harriet Tillery Paxton's information and hopefully we can do the same for him through some of our work. We've been e-mailing, hunting and scanning as usual.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for every little detail to be expressed! The smallest details are SO important to our work. If you're sitting somewhere reading this thinking about sending us a note, please do! Your thoughts are important and what you know is valuable. Drop us a line... We don't bite hard at all ;)

We put up two photos today that we've been sitting on since last year... Mostly because we wanted to have as much information as possible. We've finally managed to name James F Tillery's wife as Mattie and we're going from there... But none the less it was time to get these photos up!
New photo (Well new to the site, we've been working on clearing up some of the damage on the original for a while now) of Bertie Mary Tillery as well.

Again, huge thanks to the Berry Family for their generosity, their grace and support as we piece together these families of outrageous historical significance. Without people like the Berry Family we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing here. They make all of this possible.
Oh, and they also donated our new computer gps system, so we'll have coordinates for some of those tricky to find locations in no time.
We're thrilled with these new developments!

With Keffer-Fest around the corner we're working like dogs to get ourselves up to snuff. Can't wait to show off all our research and ask more questions. We're hoping some of the older generation will be around (Like our parents) so we can drag out old stories and fill in a few gaps. All in all our 'slow' season this year has been busier than most of our spring! Woohoo for productive research and moving ahead with the master plan!
We hope to see you all in August... Bring your memories and an empty stomach!

Woohoo for Oklahoma!

2009-07-17T09:59:00.002-04:00

Topic: Francis Cemetery and other updates...
Family Name Associations: Miller, Lee, Durnell, St.Vrain - Boxall & Graham.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: B u s y :)
Music:

Meeting last weekend went well, lots of fruit was eaten and we enjoyed getting all together. We've decided we're going to collect a few of the family graves listed on findagrave so that we're running them and we can add more personal information on the people to their listings. We added more in depth information on Alfred Charles Boxall and really got into his life - There's notes on his personal listing.
Still sifting through the things from England... So much information, so little time.

So, company came and a good time was had by all. Huge leaps and bounds of information - As always :)
Family is heading back to Texas by way of Oklahoma, so we're going to have (finally!) more information out of the Francis Cedar Cemetery which I personally can't wait to get my hands on! It's one of those crazy places that you know the headstones are going to give you more answers than paper will anywhere ;) We're hoping for vast insight into the Lee and Baker families, with me guessing there's really sooo much more information there to be discovered. Woohoo for Mom and Dad Berry being willing to go grave hunting for us :)

We have sooo much to do. Showing off the tree always helps me realize how far we've come, and how far we have to go. I think we're going to do some movies at home today, maybe make cupcakes with the kids... And all in all, we're going to lock down on getting some answers for some of these long asked questions. More updates to come!

Huge Updates - Boxall, Graham, Reeson, Rayner, Troop Line!

2009-07-09T13:57:00.002-04:00

Topic: I need sleep...
Family Name Associations: Boxall, Graham, Rayner, Troop, Reeson - Side note on Miller, Hedgecoe and McKenna.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Soooo sleepy!
Music: Allison Krause and Brad Paisley - Whiskey Lullaby

Okay, so for this post spelling doesn't count. I am honestly just beat! It's been a long, busy week, and it's not even done yet!

Big plans for this weekend that include berry picking, jam and banana bread making, and genealogy. Big plans for next week with company in from Texas and no doubt - More information to add all over the place. But I really, really have to convey the massive success we've had on the Boxall-Graham side this week!

We've managed to piece together descendants from 4 of the children of Edderline Troop and Arthur Reeson. Thomas Leonard, Blanche, Jennie and Edderline (Us via Jules) and I think that's pretty hugely amazing! We have people in Canada - East and West, and England so far, and we're looking for more. I'm stunned by the progress, it's been absolutely phenomenal!

Updates on the tree are happening hourly at this point. Huge progress in supporting documents as well, and we're hoping for photos as well.

We've managed to post up the rest of the information we had in the Miller family as well from those old family pages. We've also managed to connect the Lindsay family from Scotland through Mary Lindsay back in the 1700s! Not too shabby! We're definitely going to have fun processing more information along those lines. A trip to Scotland can't be out of the question, can it??? I mean, we'd need those really old records first hand ;)

I'm going to try and keep typing, just to keep up with everyone but seriously there's so much happening right now my head is spinning!
Oh, and on top of everything else, there's a pile of old photos to be scanned from the Hedgecoe/McKenna line - They turned up in my parents basement. And I mean a pile. Most of them seem to range from the late 1950s, but there is one that's way older, early 1930 maybe 1920s, of two young boys dressed in some sort of children's military uniforms. We're ecstatically excited.

I'm going to sign off now and get back to work!

Big Work!

2009-07-07T13:14:00.002-04:00

Topic: Huge amount of tree updates...
Family Name Associations: Troop, Reeson, Carthy, Miller, Buckles/Buckler
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Tired but busy and super productive!
Music: Sheryl Crow - The First Cut is the Deepest

An absolutely huge amount of updates going on. First off, kudos to Aunt Linda, who's begun her own quest for research and is going great guns! Thanks to her for all her help on putting together parts of the Boxall/Graham tree. We look forward to working together in the future!

We've got the Troop family back to 1881 in England, just trying to flesh out the family and their children, leading into the Reeson family... It looks like the families spent time in or originated in Yorkshire and Lancashire at this point, but we'll see how much further back we can get.

We've got the Carthy family, through Mary Mildred Carthy, headed back through her family in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada. We're just waiting on permissions for Millie and Buck's grave stone right now.

The Millers... Well, we're going great leaps and bounds with them right now. Finally uploading a ton of the paperwork we have going on over here. Not a lot of luck with graves but there's a paper trail a mile long, and it's going quickly. Mark and Jake have been just scooping up the documents, we're adding them as quickly as our little fingers can type.

Can't find Jessie Francis Miller though, it's really got us all stumped. Born in 1897, we're pretty sure he died in the First World War, and can't find supporting documents. Family research papers confirm a death in 1918... We're sure that something is missing... War records, even then, are pretty clear. So what gives? Where is Jessie Francis? I'm about to ship him off to Kev to see if he can come up with something.

Is it Buckles or Buckler? Can anyone answer that question? I have a family document with Buckles, and research with Buckler... And only once census with original writing so far for Henry - And it could be either. Geez Louise! Because our link on here is Mariah Buckle- I've managed to track down where she ended up. A daughter named Sally Emma Miller married a man named James Tanner, Mariah lived with them after the death of her husband John Miller. I won't start on my rant about how women historically get lost because they loose their maiden names, but I'm finding a lot of trouble once we get past 1850 that's for sure.

What else?
We're expecting company next week, so of course we'll have updates and fun things to add. There's about 100 new supporting documents on 3 different trees in the past two days, so honestly we're not slacking!
Updates to come on FindAGrave.com too, we're going to be adding memorials to the people we've located, and soon, we hope more transcriptions. Our own graves section will be up sooner or later on our site as well. We're concerned with organization - But there might be a meeting this weekend about that, and hopefully pizza! So I'll write up here whatever is decided in the outcome.

I think that's about it, yay for rain that lets me get blogging done! :)
Oh... And gps program should be cool, soon, we hope. Then we're going to go on a few field trips to get locations noted, so we don't loose any more cemeteries!!!
I'll be back on and off over the next week, and we're all on different branches doing research at this point... Drop us a line of there's something you'd like to add!

Chicken Noodle Soup and Windows 7...

2009-07-02T13:16:00.003-04:00

Topic: An update on Win 7, General stuff and GPS
Family Name Associations: Lequyer/Lecuyer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Cool
Music: Rascal Flatts - Here Comes Goodbye

So we had some computer issues... That's putting it mildly. Vista has always caused us huge issues, really, it was the worst OS I've ever had. So it's gone... Mark's put Windows 7 on here, and we're going to update the rest of the monsters until we're all running it. Basically what happened was that we were working on fleshing out some of the Lecuyer branches before Leon changed the spelling to Lequyer... And nothing was saving! So we're going to hope we didn't loose any of our documentation there, but none the less, that's what we were working on when things went nutso. Now it's just a matter of reloading all the saved stuff and learning the changes in 7.

So far the one thing we're pretty sure about in recent research is that Leon Lequyer, upon moving to Ontario changed the spelling of his name. Certain links, like Josephine Lecuyer Campbell, kept the original spelling, but most of the sons seemed to use the 'Q' spelling, either as Lequyer or LeQuyer after hitting the Washago area. And we do have trails of at least one of Leon's sons heading to the US, and two daughters being from that line being American residents... But there's a lot of details missing. Now that we're running computers that can save documents we've got a better chance of adding to our research!

The kids are off of school, it's been a good start to the summer despite the weather. We had some chicken noodle soup to warm us up today, all in all it's going to be good times. We're looking forward to having company from Texas in the next few weeks too, so we'll be sure to add any points of interest we manage to gather up during our visit.

What else?
Oh yes GPS... Mark's convinced the easiest way to map where we're at is a gps software program run off the laptops we take out on location with us - So I'm thinking that's what we're going to give a try verses putting gps in one of our vans.
We've had a LOT of trouble getting solid locations for certain very small, very old cemeteries, and of course in building that section of our site, a location would be a good thing :) Especially when you've got some places going by 3 different names and supporting multiple denominations.

I think that's about it for today, I'm probably forgetting stuff!
We've been talking about doing Twitter... Just as a sort of track all for research. No super sure plans so far, but it's an interesting idea and it'll add to connections and contacts.

The photography challenge is in it's 8th week and going strong, we're all having a blast with it :) It's a nice branch from our original purpose and all the eye-crossing joy of endless research.

Alright, I think that's it for today... We'll be back with more soon.

Sadie Constance Keffer is repaired :)

2009-06-11T11:41:00.002-04:00

Topic: Errors and more documents!
Family Name Associations: Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Hungry!
Music: Cold Play - Viva la Vida

Not much to report, small things... We got Sadie Constance Keffer sorted out, and her husband, they weren't loading properly but Markus figured it out and fixed them up.

We've got a pile of about 15 new records going into the Keffer tree, assorted birth, marriage and death records. It's all just a matter of adding them in there...
We're looking at being in Bracebridge this weekend for a group meeting. LOL If we can pull ourselves away from farmtown on facebook!

Photo Challenge is going really well, there's only the 5 of us doing it but we're having a blast. I almost like it more with just a small group, a few people together... You explore each other's work so much more. Really we're just having a good time - That was the WHOLE point!

Oh we added a tag cloud to the front page... It's a css experiment Phil and I are working on. I like it. Might play with the look a little more but css is cool and I like the effects.
I think that's about it!

I have a pile of sickie kids here today, so I'm going to make a yummy lunch and try to get them all into bed for naps. Then maybe we'll document hunt some more, woohoo for documents! LOL or... Maybe we'll farm more like the crazy addicts we are!
Alright, all of you be safe, stay well!

Summer's Here...

2009-05-29T09:27:00.003-04:00

Topic: Well, sort of... Summer like?
Family Name Associations: Keffer, Lecuyer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Tired
Music: Jim Brickman - Picture This

Argh... When Mark travels with work I never get any sleep, last night was worse than most, I need coffeeeeee!!!

Okay, so we're waiting to hear back from a possible connection to a Lecuyer branch... They found us through the mailing list and I'm super excited about finding a link!
We still need to do a little cemetery touring but things have been a little crazy. LOL When are they not around here? We might be able to get up to Bracebridge this weekend, that's a good goal. We have new computers to install up there and general work that needs to be done as a group.

A lot of work for us to do on FindAGrave... I have to admit we've been slacking :) We slow down a LOT in the summer, mostly to get to graves and do a lot of road trips. We really need to go to Montreal and Timmins... LOL Montreal is one of those places we'd go for fun though, Timmins would be... A long trip for grave stones!

Maybe we'll scout some other things to do in the area and see about camping or touring or something. Still, not this year I don't think... This summer is filling up fast with plans :) Oh and we're starting costumes soon for Halloween. LOL 13 people's costumes this year... And I'm experimenting with leather masks. Good times!

Oh and I have to mention that in Week 3 of the Photography Challenge we've all taken on, we're having a great time and it's a huge success. Really... way to go for everyone involved. Gold stars all around!

Alright, I've got to get some coffee going on here. We'll be in and out, off and on, I'm going to try and keep up with the updates about everything. I'll do my best!

Memorial Letter

2009-05-22T10:20:00.002-04:00

Topic: Found Letter
Family Name Associations: Boxall, Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: I was okkay, but when I couldn't log in to update I got cranky. How many times do you have to ask it to remember the user name and password so you don't have to look it up??? Blogger makes me cranky :P
Music: Fiest - 1 2 3 4

Not much going on right now - We're all addicted to playing Farm on Facebook and it's keeping us distracted, which is cool, this is usually our slower season. We'll get out more to sites as the summer progresses but the weather's been slow on warming up this year.

Anyways, out super cool find of the week was a letter discovered by my Aunt, addressed to the late Edderline Reeson Boxall, confirming the grave location of Lance Corporal Leslie Alfred Boxall at the Canadian War memorial in Holland. We managed a scan of the letter - Which is a huge find for this line, we have very little that's survived from their personal lives.

We have been doing a little more for the Keffer line as far as grave research and general record searching. Nothing really new, just adding to the copies of available records.

Thats about it really :) Just doing our thing!

Keffer Update

2009-05-16T22:10:00.003-04:00

Topic: Bugs
Family Name Associations: Keffer
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Busy
Music: Vince Gill - Go Rest High On That Mountain (Guess who's Playlist? LOL)

So... 650 some odd Keffer's later... The Legacy bugs are out, and we're ready to start importing documents and figuring out what's what there. Adding some photos... We have so many graves to sort out there too. I'm looking forward to finding Keffer's down at St. John's Norway Cemetery the next time we're due down there...
They're such a nice group of people working there too, really... Helpful, polite... I can't sing their praises enough. They rock.

So... Update beyond that... We have some photos in from Mister Larry Boyd, who ROCKS! and we need to get them added in the Kester family.
We've been playing a lot with our little photography side venture, it's a good time, we're all enjoying the first of 52 weeks. LOL We might not be so keen in a year, but we'll see, right? It's all about learning and exploring and having fun.

We are going to start going through FindAGrave for Keffers soon... Jules is going to have a great time doing all the memorial work there. We have so many of our own memorials to add there too, it just takes a long time to add them, so it's sparing at this point.

We're talking about trying to have a team meeting in Bracebridge tomorrow, we'll see how it goes the weather is a little crazy - They're expecting SNOW! LOL Poor buggers.

I think we're going to end with a site back up tonight too, we're due for that.
LOL Mark's making Lego people at his desk. I think we're kicking off for the night... Ooo... We have 'The Tai Chi Master' for tonight, a little Kung Fu, some popcorn... Good times my friends! Hope you're all having a great long weekend in May!

Helping puppies.

2009-05-11T14:20:00.003-04:00

We have a request of anyone who is an animal lover. A family friend runs an animal rescue in Nebraska, and is trying to win some funding go to http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3 Type in Stickneys in the search area, the state is Nebraska, and cast the vote.
She's genuine, and one of the kindest people we know.

Yay Mary!

SCubed!!!

2009-05-06T10:06:00.002-04:00

Topic: The Skeleton Shutterbug Society
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada, Planet Earth!
Mood: Kookie :P
Music: Avril Lavigne - Complicated (Think it's a sign???)

So... You know when you have one of those ideas... And it explodes and turns into something completely insane and way bigger than you thought it was going to be?
Yeah, we had one of those.
What went from an 'Oh I think I want to do that' to... 'Okay, invite everyone, open it up, make a webpage, come up with a name! Let's go crazy!' Is now in full swing. LOL Check it out at the link on SCubed or http://www.snowstones.com/SSS.html
We've decided to add to our already insane lives and drag everyone with us. All you need is an e-mail account, a camera and access to yahoo groups and Flickr. The 52 Week Challenge... A themed photo essay of your own creativity year round.

Come play!!! It's not hard, you don't have to be a 'photographer' and we're really excited about having company. :) Can't wait to meet you!

What a day! :)

2009-05-02T21:47:00.002-04:00

Topic: It's 9:47... I'm beat and I can't go to bed for hours. But what a day!
Family Name Associations: Lequyer, St. Vrain, Keffer, McDairmaid, Eng.
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada, Planet Earth.
Mood: So tired I'm silly!
Music: Amy Winehouse - Will you still love me tomorrow.

Update... Well, since going live we have corrected a few hundred small errors. I'm right about to go in and fix some pdfs the Captain loaded by mistake... We're aiming to not use adobe at all, it's a big pain and one of my personal pet peeves.
After that I have some Keffer work to do, we'll see how far I get.
I still have to make a midnight run to Walmart for supplies for tomorrow. It should be a good day! Grave hunting, grilling meat... Good friends, a couple of good dogs... Playing happy kids, that hint of summer in the air. I love group meetings up north :)

We loaded the storm pics - Jules finally found them in her 8000 photos on her hard drive. They're in the Odd Gallery. We have other images, LOL Somewhere. We're getting there. Really, we're doing pretty well with getting everything together. Considering how easy it is to be unorganized.
Mark's talking GPS today... We got a new card for my camera that throws us up to a 2 Gig ability. I can't wait to fill that puppy up. Anyways, it's a possibility our American parents might bring us some new toys to make our hunting all that more entertaining. I mean, who doesn't need GPS? LOL

So we're hoping to hit Saint Joseph's Black River Cemetery on the way through Washago in the morning and check in on our Lequyers there. I have some cute little things I wanted to put up there and some fake flowers. I hate the fake flowers usually, but this time of year everything looks so dead, a little colour won't hurt. And I always think poppies are good fake or real :)
We might hit the Saint Joseph's in Bracebridge too. We found one Lequyer in there before, and I'm really thinking a walk though wouldn't hurt anyone... It's a pretty big place, oh... And I could use a shot of the gate. I hate loosing the gate shots.

Mark had a great time last night linking up that St. Vrain family in New Jersey... All of that and the records are getting posted up. That family is honestly huge. Just when we think we have them all! LOL They're like the Keffers. Speaking of which, Mark's talking about doing a little leg work in Maple within the next few weeks so I'm hoping for some grave updates there. We're still missing Michael. We know he's there somewhere! I'm so there on the GPS... See, so much of my issue is that I can find these places once! And then I loose them again :(

McDairmaids... Oh, the Captain has huge leaps and bounds on them. Really, they're almost up to par. Anyone who hasn't seen the picture Joan scanned and sent over has to go see it. It rocks.

Eng... LOL Oh dear. Seriously who gets into trouble like we do??? No one, let me tell you.
Okay, so one of our trees is a little... Complicated. Okay, so they're all complicated. But this one really is. We have a Chinese man who married a French woman, they lived in Canada... And he has a Chinese marker on his grave. So we call in a favour and ask a contact to translate the stone... Yeah, that didn't go so smooth.
Apparently his whole family freaked out over the bad omen and now we're out of luck completely. We're going to call in a few other markers. LOL Geez Louise who has issues like we do???
We'll see what goes on when we get stuff in from Edmonton and Taiwan... Someone somewhere will do it for us. The more information we get, the more likely a trace is possible. I'm still betting he was a political problem in the revolution. It'll be interesting to see.

Ooohhh... Jules is super cute on Flickr.com Everyone should check her out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30696455@N03/

Alright... Midnight at Walmart shopping trip for supplies!!! Can't wait to leave in the morning :)

WE ARE ONLINE!!!!!!!!

2009-05-02T00:03:00.005-04:00

Topic: Online Online Online!
Family Name Associations: EVERYONE!
Location: Across Canada! We're LIVE!
Mood: Estatic!
Music: Beyonce - Halo

WOW!!! Look at us!!!!!! Even the plauge couldn't stop us from running LIVE baby! WOOHOOO!!!

Mark's up to his ears in St. Vrains right now, half our profiles are loaded, we're missing history pages and we still have about 500 documents to load... No to mention photos, missing stuff we've just not gotten to yet - Like tartans, oops...

OMG we're live. It's only taken us since what, 1998 to do this?! LOL Woo-frigging-Hoo baby! We're live!

I have to go fix the skeletongen.com index... I can't wait for the errors to start rolling in. We're so not ready... But who is? I mean, this site will never be done, it's a constant example of life, learning and living. Holy COWS we're ONLINE!

Huge updates on the History pages, I'm working on those, Mark's helping but again, we had some St. Vrains pop up in... St. Louis, go figure, they're always in St. Louis... Anyways, we'll get back to that.
Jaken'Bake is working on fixing the tree he broke earlier this week - He deleted it trying to show off for cousins Mary & Tommy. LOL I'm going to get hit for that. Anyways... He's reloading.
Jules is filling out her profile, LA did hers like a good girl.

Mina and Phil are going to do theirs... Really. Soon. Really... And Markus will do his or he doesn't get to sleep! MWUAHAHA! Isn't it fun to be the Apprentice of MEAN?!
I should add that to my profile. I think I will :)

Holy cows you guys... We rock. 10 years ago, I said this couldn't be done. I was wrong. TEAM CSGS ROCKS!!!

I'd like to take one personal sappy moment. If it wasn't for you guys, none of this would exist. You're the best group of people there is. That's it :) If there's karmic bonus for being the bestest... Ya'll are due for some virgins. I love you. Blessed be.

It's raining it's pouring the old man is working...

2009-04-28T08:58:00.003-04:00

Topic: Deleting the Agner family tree by accident, and the Babcock uploading.
Family Name Associations: Agner and Babcock... Oh and Bedard-Page and Eng.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Cozy with my tea on the inside and the rain on the outside.
Music: Backyardigans, LOL I am putting on music and earphones. Of course rainy mornings and no one here to complain call for A Fine Frenzy... We're starting with Almost Lover... Followed up closely with Near to You, which has still got to be my favourite.

SO... This morning I got a manic e-mail from the Captain super upset from 2:30am about deleting the Agner tree in it's entirety... Some sort of 'test' button and him pressing it and it deleting everything...
WOW it's a good thing we backed up at the end of last week. So no worries, Markus will reinstall the Agners and we'll go from there. Poor Jake... It just goes to show that the only thing to do when you're tired is search. As sad as it is, mucing with trees when your head isn't in it isn't a good thing!
And I'd better have him show me that button, LOL Cause I need to stay the hell away from that. Geez... Seriously it should be painted red with a big 'Do not touch!' written on it. That way, if we did touch it, it really would be our own faults... LOL Not like we all touch buttons like that or anything... Really, we really good mutant genealogists. Really!

On Sunday Jake and Markus and I went on a fieldtrip to eastern Ontario area... We sought out some graves, did a good job on about half of the Zephyr Zion cemetery and managed to snap a photo of a house that was built a looooong time ago over that way. Part of the Eng family farm, and where they organic farm now... So that was good, for whenever we post anything on that tree at all. We also ended up with a Chinese headstone inscription that we need translated. We have a few people to hit up about getting it translated. The crazy positve end of all of that is that before when we only had an english translation of a Chinese name, the chances of being able to track the Chinese individual was slim to none - English names are basically custom's agents versions of how the Chinese names sounded and had little to nothing to do with the actual person's name. Hence the number Five - Our link on our tree - Sounds like Ummm when you say it in Chinese, and is spelled Eng, Ng, Ing and the like in translated English names for immigrants over the last 100 years. But we now have a Chinese name... And possible information, and birth and death dates. WOW that's huge!
So there might be some searching going on there, we'll have to see what happens after we're public and doing our thing. There's the Eng Benevelont (Sp?) Society, and a few Chinese Canadian immigrant services we can look into... I'm going to wait on that translation - I'm hoping to get two just in case there's dialect conflict. Then we'll decided where we're going from there.

Babcocks! We're getting up there... We've got records to link - Not all of them but a good few, and people to add to the tree, so it's going along with great progress. All in all, we're posting Friday with what we've got and I'm happy with it. I'd reeeeeally like those history pages to be done, but we'll see how I get going. Right now I've got little ones who need snacks, dogs who need out and are going to want treats, and I need another cup of tea :)

Did I mention we have some amazing old Eckert photos? Yeah... We're waiting for a German translation of a family tree that Omi did... She rocks, seriously, when I'm 94 don't bug me for anything, LOL But we'll add her information as soon as we've got it out of German. I have to babble for a minute about the amazing support we get daily from family and just good people who care about preserving history.
It's so important to share, to have more than one copy, to let other people know what you know and to help people out! I mean we take a ton of pictures that have nothing to do with 'our' people just in hope that we'll have pictures for someone looking for a grave that isn't ours. And you know what? Sometimes we're doing a cemetery someone's done. But it's not going to hurt to have more than one copy of those photos or transcriptions by FAR... The more, the merrier... What if our site (heavens forbid it) crash and we loose everything? What if someone elses does? We can only do better by helping each other and having as much as possible.
It makes me realize that people are good, and can work so well together - Money not involved - Just to work together for the future... So our kids and their kids and know what we know if they want to.
It's a warm fuzzy thought to have on this grey skied morning. Have a good day everyone! I'll be in touch as the week progresses.

Working like Madness.

2009-04-24T11:08:00.002-04:00

Topic: Mass insanity.
Family Name Associations: Lequyer, Durnell, McDairmaid,
Location: Barrie for me... Jules and Kev are in Washago getting lost.
Mood: Busy and a little mental with it.
Music: Pink - Who Knew

Alright... I don't even know where to start, we've been doing so much it's hard to keep up. It's 11am and I still haven't finished my first cup of coffee, that should say it all.

Lequyer - Jules and Kev are off to Washago today to try and figure out if there are graves we've missed out there or what. We know there's a few cemeteries we have to go back to, there's graves we've missed or haven't transcribed... Yeah. Did any of that make sense??? Who lets me talk?!
Basically, the cemeteries out there need a going over, they're starting it today. After we've managed to go through some of them maybe I'll actually be able to get organized enough to post stuff in our cemetery section.

Durnell... Mike and Lynda Proffitt sent us a TON of Durnell photos. It's going to take us a bit to go over them all, but they're awesome... Woohoo for Mike and Lynda, they rock!

Jules has been doing mass work on FindAGrave... Huge amounts of posting and sharinig and getting permission to use other people's photos where we need them.
Kev's been working on finding different missing documents...
He wasn't happy about adding profiles to our site, LOL but we'll make him cooperate.

Jake scored a huge bonus in the McDairmaids this week with a family photo from the early 1900s. He managed to get names and everything! Woohoo rockstar!

LA is going to do a little cemetery legwork in Edmonton - We finally managed to pin down her first site, so we're looking forward to her finds later in the week.

I've been adding documents. 1300 or so... Photos, records, you name it. Posting, linking them to the right people and so on. I also have history pages, Mark's going to help me there... We'll write them up and get them online, hopefully before next Friday! We're going live on the first no matter what.
Oh... And we still have the Babcock tree to do something with. LOL Geez... And to decide what's happening with the Keffers. We'll get it sorted out. Sunday looks to be a prime work day :)

More updates to come, no doubt.

Rain rain rain!

2009-04-20T16:17:00.002-04:00

Topic: It's really wet out there...
Family Name Associations: No one. It's a long story.
Location: Maple, Ontario - Well, we're back in Barrie, having gotten wet in Maple.
Mood: Wet. Cold. In need of a cup of tea.
Music:

Okay, well I'm going for a long hot bath after that. We had to run down to Ikea today, and of course I can't pass up an oppertunity to go mucking around anymore than Jake can, so there we are, in the pouring, freezing rain... Clicking away.

There's a monument down there, we THOUGHT we were getting Michael Keffer... Guess what? No Michael. We figured this out AFTER we were soaked to the skin. This is our second time trying to get this monument, the first time (Last Summer) the road was under construction and we couldn't pull off the road for the foot jump it would have taken to pull onto the gravel.

WOW Maple is special on the best of days.

So... We're going to have to go to a few other places down there, once it's warmer and nicer out! And see if we can't find Michael. We know he's there... But not where someone said he was... Crazy people.
The things we do for graves, LOL

I'm wondering if he isn't in the wall in that old cemetery over there. We'll try there next. Maybe the same day as we go down to do the Union Cemetery and part of the Church... I know we have to go visit Uncle Ken too. Ah... We'll see :) So much to do and so little time!
I think I'm getting in the tub now.
I'll be back when I have feeling back in my toes!

May 1st, Um...

2009-04-19T21:44:00.003-04:00

Topic: My mental issues with being live by next week!
Family Name Associations: Blincoe, McKenna, Durnell and Tillery... All of them. This is honestly just a huge rant. LOL
Location: Barrie, we were in Aurora earlier but we're back!
Mood: In love :)
Music: I'm watching Twilight. Edward and Bella make me happy.

I don't know. Geez, I say that waaaay too much. We have issues. When we imported the Keffer tree from Legacy it came in with errors, to the point where we've entered the McKennas-Hedgecoe/Hitchcock, Bentley, Walker, and then the Miller, Berry Durnell... Everything else... LOL Geez if this doesnt' make sense blame Mark for deciding I needed to blog.
We've entered everything else but the Babcock tree - Which I'm debating about all on it's own... By hand. It was a stupid amount of work. And irritating because hey, we'd done all this once, right? But the amount of crap in the conversion wasn't worth the fixing up... Nevermind accidental importing of live people, and missing of others! Argh.

So we either enter everything again, or go through the trees trying to fix them. Bah...
And then... Adding the Babcocks to a seperate tree might not make the most sense because we know they're connected a few times to the Keffers - mostly through the Snider family. And adding trees together is a nightmare all of it's own...
Double bah.

The biggest point to all of this is we don't want to make more work for ourselves, we just want to do it all right, with minimal issues and no problems in the future. We've waited this long to do the website because we sort of wanted technology to catch up with what we wanted. I mean even after decided on the site it's taken us a year to perfect the concept.
After spending all this time linking documents and adding photos and just working on all this. We want it to look and work right, and display these families with the dignity they deserve.
And really this has just been so much work for so long... We want other people to be able to look at what we've done and take what they need from it. We want it to be... Right. I don't know there's a discription that fits it beyond that. We've put time, money, ages of effort into making it right... Finding the truth and putting it all where everyone can reach it. And we're so close to our goal, it's right within reach... But the technology needs to be with us on this, and right now I feel like it's not. But then, I'm a sap watching Twilight with Jake and might just be whining tonight ;)

On top of tree issues, there's questions we can't find answers for. And we've been doing this long enough to know there are some answers you just can't have, but damned if some of these aren't right within our reach and aren't coming up...

Blincoe... Mary Ann Bentley married William Henry Blincoe in 1901. And that puts her as a child for Selina Young and Stephen Bentley, but we've got no proof beyond records about them once they're married... And his signatures on supporting documents involving them with the family. Where is the link?

McKenna... Grrrrr... The Hockey Hall of Fame irritates me. So we're like, inches away from nailing James HenryMcKenna as the Goalie for the Montreal Shamrocks in 1899 and 1900. We know it's supposed to be that way, but pictures, information supporting it would be... Right. Of course we're no closer to securing a 1900 photo collage with his name on it. The other option is going to the hall of fame and asking for his name on the cup, LOL I'm sure they'll be glad to hand that over for us to examine...
I've linked the crappy copy of it. It's so close, and of course we've got to inform Wikipedia of it all... It's right within reach.

I'm handing Pamelia Lequyer Ladoucier over to Kev... LOL Seriously she's making me mental. We know she's here somewhere, near by... And no grave. There has to be a grave... 1918, near here. We'll find her.

I should stop complaining, LOL and finish our movie and get back to loading trees and linking documents.
Does it matter if everything isn't loaded by May 1? I don't know anymore... Tonight isn't the time to be making the decision.
Group meeting! What's everyone doing Friday??? Maybe we should vote on going public... All in favour for May 1 come high water or something else?

101 Tillery's on the Wall!

2009-04-14T23:03:00.002-04:00

Topic: 101 Tillerys! Take one down and pass it around... Oh, but we should be putting them up, not taking them down... Maybe this song doesn't work for that. Progress report, general babble and a bit of a rant.
Family Name Associations: Tillery, Durnell, Miller and Brown
Location: Barrie, Ontario, on my bed :)
Mood: Tired, but productive in a good way.
Music: Stevie Nicks - Landslide

So I spent today going through the Durnell Chaple Cemetery in Missouri on FindAGrave.com with Jules, Mark and the tree... There have to be 200 people in their that are ours.
Its all just a matter of making the connections and sorting them all out.
Gotta love the knotted dead people!

It was a super productive day. At this point, we have Babcocks to add, and then all the document linking to do... And we're semi-done.
It's all just details!

Jim's putting text on crests right now, we have tomorrow together to get into all sorts of nonsense... so we'll see what we can come up with. May 1? Sure, no problem... LOL
We'll see. I mean, it's not set in stone, it's just my fondest wish... Or one of them at this point.
Right up there with lotteries, goverment grants, mac book pros and a live in maid ;)

Still no luck with getting more family information on the Millers. That makes me sad. I was really hoping some family could pass on some good information verses me going digging, but it looks like digging is going to be it.

It's the same with some of the other stuff too... Really, if people were smart, they'd be helpful, and not just saying this as a genealogist... But if you're scared of what I'll find out (Which I think is silly because who doesn't have a million crazy relatives? There's a reason we're Closet Skeleton Genealogical baby!) then the best way to make us aware of a sensitive situation is telling us about it verses letting us dig it up on our own...
And if it's about people just being cranky, well, guess what??? This record is going to be around a hell of a lot longer than us... LOL New genealogy blackmail... Be nice or we'll write you in as an ogre!
Really, I just think the more we work together, the more will be left for our children. We all know I'm in it for the future generations though ;) It's my standard rant.

Okay... Bed now, work tomorrow. Night everyone!

Arms and Badges

2009-04-13T23:10:00.002-04:00

Topic: The never ending quest of Arms and Badges
Family Name Associations: All
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Exhausted but WIDE awake
Music: Mark was playing twangy country... Unhuh... Okay then!

So we're in the home stretch on Arms and Badges. Everything up to G is done, and everything else is waiting text and posting... With the exception of about 6 names that are what I like to call 'Nightmare Names' Because they have no noted arms, mottos, badges, crests... No anything but people who have the name!

We've been working on this straight for four days. Jules, Kev and Jim and I... And sometimes Mark have been slaves to the Arms.
Jim's just going to finish up the text (I suck with curved text!) And we'll be done. A good 90 tree names with cute little pages all about the names we come from. Yay us!!!

My 'To-Do' list is longer than my arm... Tonight I'm gathering graves for Jules, then seeing if I can't get a few more tiny tasks cleaned up.
Tomorrow it's back to adding people, documents and whatnot... History pages need more text, images... The cemeteries are a mess, all the photos still need banners...

May isn't that far away.

Will we be ready???

I know we can't be 100% ever... But there was a certain amount of 'finished' I know we were all looking forward to before we went live.

Oh, that's Jim home... I have lunches to make and details to fill in. More soon, I'm sure :)

Ooo... a Book!

2009-04-09T09:57:00.001-04:00

How exciting does that book look!?
I wonder where we could get it. I still know we need to talk to Uncle Ken, it's probably sitting on his shelf! LOL

Detours

2009-04-08T08:46:00.002-04:00

Topic: Getting lost on the road to having a published website.
Family Name Associations: Eckert, Miller to De Hault De Lassus De St. Vrain to LaLaurie, and the case of Felix St. Vrain and George Wallace Jones.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Obsessed LOL
Music: A Fine Frenzy - Near to You

Okay, so Kev had outstanding luck this week in locating the ship that our first Eckert arrived on, her being a living relative, we can't really talk about all the details... But he did manage to get together a couple of links that require our extensive further investigation. So far we've had no luck in digging up ship records, but we'll head down to the archives if we have to, or hire someone if we run out of avenues... We're all about doing it independantly, but sometimes even independance needs a hand.

http://freespace.virgin.net/donald.hazeldine/history.htm

http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/arosa.htm

Then while entering the Miller line we went on a little field trip... Well, okay, we went on two. The first one was actually the St. Vrain Massacare, in which Felix St. Vrain, Indian Affairs Agent was brutally murdered, along with others in his charge, while out delivering disbatch between forts... This was one of the events that spawned the Blackhawk War, without a doubt... And we knew about it roughly, so we knew we had a history page to work on... One of our first, most immediate questions though, was how George Wallace Jones was related to the family, as in the accounts of the War, Jones is listed as St. Vrain's brother in law and indentifies his body.

After about a two hour search, rather than eliminating one of the de Hault de Lassus St. Vrain girls, we added more people! It ends up that George Wallace Jones, who goes on to be a Senator for two terms and become a General in a distinguished military career... Marries the sister of St. Vrain's wife's sister.
Wow, did that confuse you because it had me totally stumped for a while. The sister's family name is Gregorie... It should be a good time to search up, Jones had 9 kids... LOL

And that brings us to the big news.
After hours and hours of research, I don't feel like I'm any closer to making my own mind up about Marie Delphine Macarty de Lopez y Angulo Blanque LaLaurie. At first I was excited... I mean, a ghost story, Woohoo for fun and a bit of a thrill right?
Then I started reading... Ew. okay, not fun, sereal killer. How could she have survived if she'd killed 100 people?
Then the research started... I scratched the surface... And discovered the woman could actually have been pretty innocent.
Now that's not okay.

As a side note, Tim Hortons breakfast sandwiches are the food of research gods! Jim rocks with the breakfasts and coffee, oh... Coffee is how research happens until 4am and I'm up again at 8am!

Admittedly, I don't agree with even the basic concept of slavery... It disgusts me. And mistreating anything... Chaining anyone up is beyond me. Some of this stuff really turns my stomach... Ew, LOL Now I am going to have trouble finsihing breakfast... Oh dear.

Okay... What's wrong with this entire thing is that someone wrote a book in the 1990s that made this situation what it is, to make a quick buck on a book, and damn the lies they told to do it. I mean seriously if you're writing fiction, sell it like fiction, go for it! woohoo! I love the fiction...
But taking someone's family and perverting it to create a mass murderer is crap. It's dispicable. It's beyond yellow journalism or creativity... It's lying. Like bold faced lying. There is NO historical proof here beyond what I'm gathering up to put on a webpage... And I'll be honest, this woman was stunningly beautiful and highly envied by everyone in New Orleans... If she was a mass murdering whack job, there'd be PROOF in paper, everywhere. I mean compared to the people she'd be in league with, think about it... HBO documentary anyone?

I mean, these people aren't even a direct link to us, so I'm not indignant in some misplaced sense of family pride. But this woman had children with every husband she had. People procreate, or we wouldn't be so hard at work... What did this all do to those children, and their children?

I mean the woman doesn't even have a respectable grave now. How does that work? How do you even get to the truth for all the bullshit written in there to scare people, or disgust them because I have to say, these people that get off on writing about torture need their heads read... My only thing to say there, is really, that's not entertainment. You need to get a life! And that coming from a girl who sorts out dead people all day is a pretty sad statement.

We're ovbiously doing a history page on all of this now. It's sad that we have to... I mean don't get me wrong I'm as hyped up about a good ghost story as the next one... But make it real! The real details alone should be enough to chill the blood... Or make it up, use your brain...
Ugh I'm sick of people in for a free ride. I'm sick of pretenders... I'm so done with wannabes.

To that writer? Who I won't name here, but it's out there so ya'll know who I'm talkin' bout...
Two fingers up. And not my tumbs honey.
You give humanity a bad name. You should be ashamed.

Find A Grave

2009-04-05T22:08:00.003-04:00

Progress. Yeehaw!

2009-04-05T21:46:00.002-04:00

Topic: What we got done this weekend :)
Family Name Associations: All
Location: Back in Barrie, sorry I didn't blog in Bracebridge!
Mood: Good to go, with a little upset tummy, but I'lll take something!
Music: Paramore - Born For This

So, WOW what a weekend. We got to Bracebridge around 3 on Saturday, loaded with goodies, and ready to work. All in all... We went through a super long lesson on how to add documents in TNG, we found the rest of what we think we're ever going to find in Family Mottos and Crests to add to our research section... And we hunted for an explaination of the Bentley's. No answers there, we're going to have to keep looking.
We also joined Find-A-Grave - Which I will post more on with links and such... But it was a super productive start for Jules and I because we're going about putting memorials (Virtual ones for now!) Up for some of the people we've located through that great service.

We plan on adding a lot of our own records in there, but for now we're just trying to get our own site up. Personally, I think the more places you have information posted, the more chances you have of reaching out to people seeking their heritage... And people seeking information. And it's all about sharing, right?

So... There's all that.
Really it was just super good to be together doing stuff on the Eastern front. We're all really looking forward to getting together more often - And not just for the Kevie Burgers - Which were fantastic.
Alright, so that's my update.
We've now inputted the entire McKenna-Hedgecoe Tree, and the entire Graham Tree, with names like Boxall and McMillan in association. We're just adding documents as I speak ;)
Live before June, that's my goal.
May 1, maybe??? Go team!

Day One - Starting Over

2009-04-01T08:48:00.002-04:00

Topic: When there are just too many errors, what's left?
Family Name Associations: The entire database with the exception of the Agners and McDairmaids.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Resigned. I have a headache but I'm gonna take advil :)
Music: Beyonce - If I were a Boy

So... When do you work to fix the errors, or give up and start over?
Last night at about 1am we decided the errors in the uploaded trees, specifically the McKenna - Hedgecoe line, are just too much to continue fixing.
Of course, this adds another week onto our projected timeline, okay, my timeline... And the concept of having to redo the Keffer or Lequter trees is giving me a few rough moments, but really... Mark fighting with deleting 4 copies of the same person is a nightmare he doesn't deserve. And there's just no promise that the horror of Legacy isn't lurking behind some corner with living people.

If we enter everything manually, at least we'll know we're done right. Linking the documents will then really fall to Jules and Kev... And if we have to re-add everyone it'll take us about three weeks in total I think. But it'll be done right!
LOL At this point that's the only thing I can cling to and keep saying.

I'll put in a good three days here, we'll spend the weekend or at least Sunday in Bracebridge, and we'll get 'er done with good old fashioned team work. Yeehaw.
Alright... Here we go! Hang on to your hats...

TNG, Jim McKenna and the Shamrocks and an Update :)

2009-03-30T22:44:00.002-04:00

Topic: A general update with lots of babble.
Family Name Associations: McKenna
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Zen
Music: A Fine Frenzy - Near to You (OH I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!! I'd add a youtube link but it's having a cow right now - they're disbatching monkeys to fix the errors, I wonder if they're flying monkeys? They're my personal favourite.)

Okay, so... HUGE issue with Legacy and TNG has lead to a total revamp of the McKenna/Hedgecoe line, who needs it? Not me baby. I'd rather eat LEAD. So we've been pulling ourselves back from the brink but seriously it's sucked the whole time. Double people, crazy sources we don't know where they originated from, children having parents having grandparents... Cants and dogs living together in sin! Sorry, Bill Murray moment there...
Um, yeah, it's sucked the big one. I keep saying if we're ready by June I'll be happy, but I'm lying. I really want to be ready to go NOW... It's just so not happening.

We worked on Tartans tonight, Jules is the Tartan Queen. So we'll get those done, and sometime I'll get my butt going on the crests - Ugh they totally bum me out. It's the colours, we were working in b&w but what's the point of that? Everyone needs colour! So we're still sort of ...
OH!!! Jim just brought me icecream. Yes, I know it's 10:52pm... ICECREAM WITH HOT FUDGE SAUCE... Yes, I know it's still snowing outside. Oh oh oh! I LOVE ICECREAM!!!
Holy cows I don't even know what I was talking about, holy COWS!!! Jim is my absolute favourite, seriously!!!

Okay, um, sorry. Update, yes... Oh, James Henry McKenna and the nightmare of American Census... Yes, okay.
So we know James was a hockey player and won the Stanley Cup, which us uber cool... Except someone on Wikipedia screwed that all up, there he's listed as Joe McKenna, and linked to some guy born in 1951... HELLO???
How did he win Stanley cups in 1899 and 1901 and was born in 1951... Seriously that's just sloppy. We'll set them straight, but GEEZ. LOL As I'm all mean, I should be nice, after all, I have icecream and poor Wikipedia just has the wrong man.

The good news there is that once we figure out who the right guy is, we're going to have actual photos of James Henry McKenna. How frigging exciting is that? And I thought having one of Charles was the bomb. This guy is history made solid, it just rocks.

Okay... So we have James in 1901 with Bridget before her death, and then we loose him... Think we might have picked him up in Chicago in 1920... But the Census looks like it was written by a youtube flying monkey, and is completed wacked.
We might just publish it in the 'Hey, general world, if you know the answer to this question please explain it to us!' Pile...
Anyways, through all the insanity, we were in google looking at a street map of the house - or in this case where the house WASN'T, and I got to see the streetview in action. That is so super cool, and I know I'm a dork but really, WOW... I was impressed. Okay, so I was like a small child with a lot of candy... It was super fun.

Back to James, it's been indicated he dies in 1928, so the 1920 census is all we have to go on, and if he's single with no wife then... Well, it's not looking promising to his line continuing on.
I'd really, really like to get a hold of that Catholic Church in Chicago and their records... I wonder what we'd have to do. We could send LA, seriously, I think that's going to be her new job... Church liason! LOL ;)

Alright... So what else?
Oh... I made e-mail sigs and joined a message board - Jim's going to help me make it work - Seriously we all know I'm new.
They have a huge hockey section and I'm hoping someone will have more info on the Shamrocks.
http://www.canadaka.net/

I think that's about it jellybeans... Seriously, it's like I just come here and talk to myself for an hour, really, someone needs to get a blog-login and talk to me!!!
So night for now :)

Progress Report

2009-03-27T16:41:00.003-04:00

Topic: What we're up to.
Family Name Associations: The website, in all it's glory.
Location: Barrie & Bracebridge, Ontario
Mood: Productive and Super Powered!
Music: State of Shock - Best I Ever Had

So in an odd twist of fate, the twins have to provide a four generation family tree for their classwork this week... And while sitting at the dinner table we were dicussing the various elements that each teacher required. Suddenly Ethan asked... Is there An-brothers to go with my An-sisters?

Ah, my son... LOL Takes after his Dad.
After a lecture about the meaning of the word Ancestors, I'm sure they're leaning never to bring anything up at the dinner table every again.

So, we've been super productive and we're going to have a great night tonight... We've got pizza and a group session planned, all online so we can connect across the board.

Today we did the majority of the titles, I think we're up to like, 100 family names... Now all we have to do is the crests and tartans... A few Mottos. It's shaping up though, seriously it looks great. Jules and Kev have put in a huge effort towards the titles, each themed around some sort of family connection or name meaning or location... They are just awesome.

We are going to spend time linking records to their people tonight, straightening out our trees and adding more of what we have here into the TNG system... Oh and making TNG look right, we have been having a few issues getting stuff set up exactly how we want it... But we'll get it all straightened out, we work best when we're all together so I have high hopes for tonight.

Oh, and on a more personal note... We got that photo of Charles McKenna out of the ancient tape and saran-wrap... Bless my Gran, she loved to wrap stuff in tape and plastic! There isn't much we can do about the staining, but I'm really looking forward to the scans we should be able to make of that portrait of young Charles now. It's the oldest and most complete photo we have of the McKenna's of that time, to be sure.

I'd better get back to work, there might be more later, if not I will try and catch up on a few days :)

Update number nine million six hundred and thirty three... LOL

2009-03-23T22:35:00.002-04:00

Topic: R C Miller, The Website and Tartans
Family Name Associations: Miller mostly.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Super duper tired. Just more of me talking to the voices in my head.
Music: Please don't stop the music - Rhianna

Okay so... Today's bout of useless research was on R C Miller of the line that goes no where to no one Millers... Bleh. I'm cranky. Jim and I spent hours searching to try and get further back that good ol' RC... Nada.
Roscoe Cole Miller, we think, is a pain in my bum. Born in Kentucky in 1872, he's a frigging dead end... Two dead wives, Clarissa Hulett and Stella Jones... And so little records I'm actually starting to wonder if we don't just have it allllll wrong.

We know he was in Missouri, and in Oklahoma eventually, but can't nail him in a 1900 census... 1910-1930 we've got, social death we've got... Bleh. Seriously why is the US turning into the hardest thing ever for me? It's supposed to be agreeable!
I'm all for Mark hitting up his relatives for more info, but we know how easy it is to convince him to send an e-mail :P

The website... Um, we got ftp access today. Thank the frigging stars. So now there's the issue of linking about 1300 records to their people. Woohoo for jobs that'll take me longer than my lifetime to complete!
Mark's starting to learn how to change around the appearence of the program, TNG, we use for our records. Which I'm super all for cause I hate white and plain and boring.

Um... Oh, tartans... Yeah, well, Jules and LA and I have gone on a little tartan hunt. Still no copy of the old McKenna one I know exists because I have the fabric somewhere... Red and Green. It bugs me that it's not sitting somewhere with confirmation just waiting for me to say, hey there it is!
A good bunch of O'Neill samples... We've got Graham covered. Apparently McMillan is ugly, LOL But we'll put them all up anyways.

We're working like dogs, a lot of personal crap going on... Flying crystal and all that... Seriously I think we all need a nice vacation in Hawaii with surf and sand for like a month.
Who's with me?!

LOL I'm such a Rockstar. I won't be waiting for you all to answer!
I'd better get back to work before Mark starts cracking the whip :)

Website Wonders

2009-03-19T17:21:00.002-04:00

Topic: Woohoo for Progress! Website Wonders!
Family Name Associations: Everyone!
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Frigging super crazy excited!
Music:

WOW... What a day. Finally, FINALLY... We have skeletongen functioning to the point where it might, maybe actually sometime in the near future be possibly able to work. LOL
I know, I know... I need language lessons, but who put me in charge of the blog anyways? I think it was Mark, blame him.

So, basically, what we have, is a Keffer and Agner family tree. I know, two branches out of 100, Wha?! , but it's better than a kick in the pants, right?
It's not prefect by a long shot, but it's seriously a million times better than it was. And because skeletongen.com and TNG is functioning, we can therefore add it to the snowstones menu and have some sort of working link thing going.

Seriously, it sounds completely stupid but it's very, very exciting. We're actually about two steps closer to being public. Ooooo... Ahhhhh.... Seriously what are we going to do when we're public? People will know how retarded we are verses just assuming we are because we have a front page that doesn't lead anywhere. LOL
It's exciting stuff, I tell you.

Tonight we're going to have a group designing party with Mark, Jim and I... Just focusing on getting the bugs out, and getting the design for skeletongen.com set in stone... Possibly trying to upload the McKenna tree just to see if we can... Oh and sorting out the ftp program we're going to use, everyone's going to need lessons (Ew) to figure that out.
All I can say is that we're at about 49% right now. Okay, maybe 48, I know the graphics slacking is totally my fault. It isn't online and public, but it's a hell of a lot closer than it was.

Oooo! And then when the cemetery function is set up we can start uploading photos. That is huge, honestly I can't wait to fill it up. This summer is going to awesome for being out there and getting stuff photographed and indexed too. Good times!

Okay, so, go team go!

Happy Shamrock Day!

2009-03-17T10:45:00.002-04:00

Topic: The Missing McKennas
Family Name Associations: McKenna, O'Neill, Sexton, Cracknell
Location: Barrie, Ontario - But I'm thinking about being in Montreal today... If only to solve the mysteries!
Mood: Cherrful and Sappy
Music: Who Wants to Live Forever - Dune

Well wishes and pots of gold to all of you this fine morning!

A little update, and some general whining from my end... Massive accomplishments, really, with the McKenna lines in Montreal. Oh and we've had some success with possibly getting our host to cooperate... Man, I hate Linux, I hate the whole bloody thing... But if we actually get somewhere with the host - It might be possible to publish our site sometime this year. LOL We've been having such a hard time with getting all this publish, but I know the rest of the team knows where I'm at.
We don't want to put up anything half done... But at this point, it might have to happen.

We're trying to divide our time between research, feild work and website design... And it's a hard bloody task, with only vague mention that learning new programs is complicated too. And loosing Gran this past October really put a wrench in things for me personally, because it was hard to get back to all of this. Not to mention we all have businesses, jobs, kids and life to deal with... LOL I'm really on a rant today.
ANYWAYS... I'm looking forward to publishing, but I'm not going to push it. After all this has been in the works since '98, right??? LOL When we were in Maple talking about all the things we were going to do in the graveyard of the old church there...
Poor Dad is still trying to hide those old trunks in the basement. I will get them... Sooner or later, he'll have no choice!!! Then they will all be mine, whale bone corsets included! Mwuahaha!

Alright... So onto my McKenna rant.
We've had some exceptional luck, and some really poor luck. Amazingly, it's the later records we're having no trouble with and the later ones, specifically in regards to Clement and Charles that we're pulling our hair out over.
We know Clement died in 1963 and Charles died in 1944... Staunch Irish Catholics... But damned if there's a record available. I'm thinking about looking into outside help. Perhaps cousin Marilyn... Maybe looking for someone to help out on Randmon Acts...
The point of finding the records?
Wives.
We 'think' (Well, I know, but I always KNOW!) Charles married a nice girl named Ann Cracknell. She converted for him too, we have her baptism. Ann is actually Hannah, of the Ontario Cracknells Arthur and Evelyn... But, I'm getting ahead of myself... Mark asked me last night, what's the point? Why are you pushing this???
Not that I'm not normally obsessive, but I'm stuck on these two.

I want to know if the name survived from our line.
I've got a few connections to make, some questions to ask of my own family... But from what I understand... The line, the name, it doesn't continue with us. That's my drive... I'd like to know that it is carried on by someone from our side...
It's such a name... McKenna, with such a heritage, and Bridget O'Neill's determination... I'd like to know it doesn't end. But then, I guess the whole reason we're working on this like we are, is to preserve the heritage... So our kids will know. So all the lost cousins we'll know we're here, and know how to find out about their pasts, their people.

Ah, green beer makes me sentimental.
We'll raise a pint tonight, for McKenna's and O'Neills alike... And we'll find those missing links, it's what we do! LOL And my Aidan just came in step dancing...
It's a good day... And there's time to figure it all out. We'll get 'er done!

Am McKenna Update

2009-03-14T12:28:00.001-04:00

Topic: Am McKenna Update
Family Name Associations: McKenna
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Hungry
Music: None, isn't that a shame? We'll have to fix that.

I’ll post this on the blog too, so we’re clear all the way around for what we’re still looking for, oh and I have some photo searches for Julie – Or information searches.

Jules we need a copy of the McKenna and O’Neill tartan so we know what we’re looking for to post on the site. There may be more than one version, there’s often an ancient, modern, dress etc. LOL Let me know what you find out.
I need a couple of nice big stock photos of old looking ships – as in, we came across the ocean to get here ships. I also need some nice shots from Ireland. The bigger the better of course. Maybe some rainbows over green hills or something. Let me know when you’re done with that, there’s more stuff I’ll need J

What’s interesting is last night this website became available – It had been down, maybe host issues I’m not sure. But it confirmed a lot of what we already had, and gave us a very interesting list of McKenna’s in the Montreal Cote des Neiges Cemetery. http://www.boylans.com
One way or another, I’m going to be contacting Patrick Boylan as soon as our site is up to a point where we don’t just sound like freaks… Seriously if this host doesn’t smarten up, I’m going to set Kev and his ‘I’m dealing with Bell’ attitude on them.

So, information updates… Margaret ‘M’s mystery name is actually Moynaugh, apparently. We’re going to see what we can dig up on her, but we’re assuming she died in the US with Thomas Sr. at this point.
Thomas Edward did stay in the US, although he returned to coach a Lacross team for a time. He is apparently buried in Colorado, we have to find census information to support everything, but apparently he died leaving a young daughter named Catherine and a wife named Margaret or Rita Reilly.

What we’re still search for, for the most part. We know the dates, it’s just a matter of matching up records to be sure we’re on the right track… Which we are, because I know we are, but it’s hard with the US’s crappy birth and death records and so much moving around.

Birth Records:

Thomas Edward McKenna 1861 Quebec Canada

Grace McKenna – No information, born in Quebec or Chicago, it’s unclear but she could be an infant death.

John C est. birth in 1871, possible infant death.

James Henry McKenna 1872 Chicago

Francis Joseph McKenna 1875 Chicago

Death Records:

Mary Moynaugh McKenna – est. b. 1800 Ireland, Chicago in 1870, no further information.

Mary Alice McKenna 1943 Quebec

James Henry McKenna 1928 Quebec

Census Records:

Thomas Edward McKenna – In Chicago Illinois, or Colorado

And I think that’s it for now.

Durnell, Darnall, Darnell, Dernel... I could go on. The Durnell Cemetery.

2009-03-13T15:57:00.004-04:00

Topic: The miss spellings of one name. The Durnell Cemetery in Weaubleau, Hickory, Missouri, USA on Find-A-Grave
Family Name Associations: Durnell, and all it's variations. Brown, Gibson, Howlett, Frasher and so on...
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Confused.
Music: Faith Hill - This Kiss

Well... This has been a super, super productive day in regards to locating a pile of imformation in the form of graves in the Durnell Cemetery in Weaubleau, Missouri. There have been some surprises, some added questions, a little sadness... But all in all it's been a great addition to our records. We have a memorial now for Nicholas Monroe Durnell, and a lot of answers about his family - Although we do have some pretty complete census records there... Just fleshing out the branches here, there's a ton, and I mean a ton of American history involved, once it's all on the site (Hahaha) It'll really give a very good look at this family.

What I really think we're going to focus on with this line is inching backwards... I really feel that this is going to be one of our furthest reaching historical lines yet. I mean, when you say 'I can trace my family back to the 1600s' it sounds cool... But when you CAN trace your family back to the 1600s... The power in the papers, the trails upon trails of where people have been, what they've done, that's huge.
And of course, it all adds places to our 'Have to be there!' list.

McKenna/O'Neill

2009-03-13T15:50:00.002-04:00

Topic: The first of two posts, one from yesterday, one from today, different topics completely, I swear! I sent this as an e-mail and didn't think to blog it - Sorry, still trying to get back in the grove with this.
Family Name Associations: McKenna, O'Neill
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Low on Sugar
Music: Hot'n Cold - Katy Perry

Alright, this is what we do know, and at this point it out weighs what we don’t know, but it also looks a little crazy… So maybe more eyes will prove I’m off my rocker, or that my family really is a pile of dancing skeletons.

Both the McKenna and O’Neill families were in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA… We have the McKenna family in 1880, starting with Thomas Sr. (b. 1790) and Margaret (b. 1800) McKenna, Thomas William and Bridget O’Neill (b. 1834), and their three surviving children who were born in Quebec, Canada. Thomas Edward (b. 1862 - No birth or account), Mary Alice (b. 1865 - Birth account, no death account) and William John (b.1686 Birth account, Marriage to Mary Ann Teresa Stafford – birth accounted for – And son Thomas Edward accounted for, no death accounts or graves).
Two others are listed with the family at that time, Emma J O’Neill (17 born in New York) and Richard Gihan (20).
Thomas Sr, Thomas Jr and Richard are listed as Plumbers.
All but the children are listed as born in Ireland. We have no other records about the older McKennas or where Emma and Richard ended up.

Now, we have this one account in the US, that’s ALL from that side of the boarder, and there are no customs accounts (Odd eh?). We know Thomas Jr. and Bridget were married in Quebec in 1857 at the Notre Dame Basilica. In 1891 Bridget shows up widowed in Montreal again, we have the 1900 Census and she dies in Montreal in 1910. No death accounts for Thomas Jr. who’s full name is Thomas William McKenna (b. 1830)

We have two accounted for deceased children.
James O’Neill (1863-1864) Montreal, Quebec
Margaret Josephine (1867-1868) Montreal, Quebec

We have a huge conflict about these two children born here after.Jun 1875 in Quebec, Francis Joseph (Frank) McKenna
Oct 1875 in Quebec, Patrick Charles McKenna

And a note of two questionable children that could have been born in Chicago due to timing…
1872 James Henry McKenna (Who is on the 1891 Canadian Census) and 1871 John C McKenna (Who I think died at birth or shortly after given his absence from 1891 Canadian Census, and that’s assuming he ever existed in the first place!)
No further information available and they haven’t been coming up in any searches so far, so I’m calling in the team.

What we’re looking for:
- The birth record for Francis Joseph McKenna. (Possibly born a year earlier in Chicago?)
- Immigration records proving or disproving any of this country hopping – What a mess!
- Accounts of birth, death or marriage for Thomas Sr., Margaret McKenna (Her maiden name started with an M but is illegible, rough guess is that it would be Mopeugh or something close), Thomas Jr., Emma J O’Neill (My personal belief is that she’s Bridget’s sister).
- Who Richard Gihan is and why he was living with the McKenna family?

Every little bit helps, so buckle down and keep the team informed.

Moving on… We have the O’Neill family, Bridget’s older brother John (b. 1822 Ireland, died in 1887, no proof) is established in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA as early as 1860. John is a brewer (I thought that was exciting, LOL) and marries Ann McGillen (b. 1830 Ireland, dies 1861, no proof) they have 5 children.
1851 James, 1854 Mary Ann, 1855 Alice, 1856 Margaret Frances, 1858 Elizabeth, and possibly an son named John Henry.
Now, the fun begins when Ann dies… As the hired help, Mary White (No information but that she died in 1908), apparently marries John some time before 1870 and takes over wifely duties… Producing a daughter named Sara Ann Benedicta (b. 1869)
I do have a question as to whether there were more servants in the household and possibly another brewer as well. I’ll publish the census for you to all take a look.

What we’re looking for:
- Proof. Someone who knows American records better than me! Graves… This is our least proven branch so far. Help sorting out the American records is appreciate.

---
In addition, a later thought:
The 1891 Canadian Census notes James Henry and Francis Joseph were born in the US, so we are looking for proof of birth on American soil now.
As well, something I thought of afterwards, Military records should be available for most of these guys… I’m thinking WWI???

---
And today's developments...

We're looking for Thomas Edward McKenna in Chicago, thinking maybe he didn't come back to Quebec with Bridget and the kids when Dad died. Assuming that Chicago records are going to need some thorough going over pretty soon... There's too many holes.

Cemetery Decisions

2009-03-08T18:41:00.003-04:00

Topic: Meeting in Bracebridge over yummy Pizza!
Family Name Associations: All of the Above
Location: Bracebridge, Ontario
Mood: Full - But there might be room for Struddle!
Music: - No, but the hockey game is on, go figure!

So I believe we've reached a couple of decisions :)
Once the snow clears we're looking at picture galleries of the cemeteries we've researched and photographed. We're going to catalogue each cemetery by name, digital photos will be taken two per stone, one of text and one further back... Unless the stone has text on both sides or more than two sides in which case the stones will be numbered after each name.
We're also going to include overview photos, because it's nice to have some idea of what the place really looks like.
We've SO struggled over maps and the concept of marking the yards out, but honestly, there's just no way without a huge investment of time, beyond the massive stake we've already taken.

We're still arguing over transcriptions. LOL We couldn't agree on everything in one day!
We might end up with scans of stones or possible transcriptions of certain stones. I think what we're worried about is the older stones that just aren't going to survive... Especially some of the ones at the old Lutheran Church.

Okay, it's time to head home, it's been a great day, we had lots of fun... Woohoo for the Spring Thaw!

Where oh where are the Boxalls from?

2009-03-05T13:03:00.004-05:00

Topic: The Boxalls
Family Name Associations: Boxall
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Hungry
Music: Call me when you're Sober - Evanescence

So the answer is to drive right into everything, right? To update what has been done over the last few months while I was in mourning and then dealing with Christimas and then dealing with Chinese New Years and then dealing with a month of Birthdays... I know I said we have all been insanely busy, but I can't convey the insanity. Anyways... To update what has been going on:

We changed the layout of the site for last names so that we've got a rather huge alphabetical index that's easy enough to use and will house pages on names, heraldry and so on. It looks pretty good, now if we can just get skeletongen.com sorted out, we'll have a working menu on all pages, and we'll actually be able to get everything funcitioning online.

Anyways, the biggest issue in all of the pages is the Boxalls. Where the hell are they from??? I honestly think someone made the name up. We have a possible connection in England but the guy is confused at best. Possibly has 3 wives and 25 some odd accredited children. Hello?!
The population is completely located around New York and Ontario... It's obvious that we're missing something. But what?
If they weere Foxalls, why the error, and there would be proof... Even if it's just a census writer's error, there would be proof some way or another. Really, what's demanding is British census research... LOL What else is new.

Blinkies... Yeah, I have an obsession to admit.
Our profiles are a mounting thing of disgust for me, so I finally snapped and decided we're adding blinkies to our little descriptions for something fun. And if we don't get pictures soon I might make everyone dollz in their place. Isn't it a little sad that we can't even get this organized? It is hard though, especially with everyone working so hard.

With St. Pat's Day coming up, it's praying on my mind that we really need to focus on the McKenna's and when they came here from Ireland. Of course, this means more long hours of reading records in archaic french... You can see why we're all slacking - Especially me, being the only one who's bilingual.
But there really is more of a need to work on those lines... So maybe within the next few weeks.

That's really about it. With Gran's passing we inherited a pile of papers that we're still sorting, organizing or scanning. One of the most stunning finds for me personally was my mother's baby book that had the name 'Lecuyer' written in it as A. Campbell's wife... I mean, I know we know what we know, but that's like living history for me. I mean it doesn't get any more like confirmation than that.

So there's my real update. I have promised to keep at this... It should all go smoothly until something else hits the fan!
Go team go...

To those of you who are wondering... We didn't fall off the side of the Earth in our explorations.

2009-03-04T09:46:00.003-05:00

Topic: Update - And Death Notice...
Family Name Associations: McKenna, Hedgecoe
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: At Peace
Music: Time After Time - Eva Cassidy

The Blog has never been my favourite place to post, but it's due time, and Mark was finally able to find the password so we could get back at it. First off, for anyone who doesn't know, I need to make an announcement.

In October, on the 16th of 2008, Leonore Frances McKenna Hedgecoe died peacefully in Richmond Hill at the Hill House Hospice. Her life was a valiant testament to her unyeilding strength, and we're all so honoured to have had her in our lives.

It's taken my a while to get to this, for those of you who know me, you know how hard all of this has been, and why it's taken me so long to get back to our project. Not that you ever really stop gathering the information or filing it all away... But winter is such a slow time for us up here in Canada to start with, and for me personally this winter has been especially difficult.

I'm thinking of putting a dedication up to Gran on the site, we'll see how far I get with it all... But I've opened things up again, and we're back to business... With the summer months coming, and all those graveyards waiting for us to be out digging around, who can contain the excitement?

On another personal note, a thanks to my friends and family who have helped me get through. You all rock, but then, you knew that already.
With love,
Jenn

bah!

2008-07-15T11:45:00.004-04:00

Topic: Jenn being cranky because school is out and the children have all taken to psychotic episodes... Not really, but it would be a fun topic if I could rant about it.
Family Name Associations: Layne. Sort of.
Location: Barrie, Ontario
Mood: Insane. Is that a mood? It'll have to do.
Music: None. Because music would only add to the noise of screaming children.

Summer vacation... The bane of every mother's existence.
Weeks ago I was soooo looking forward to the joy of having the kids home, of being able to do fun activities and hang out together as a family.
We're getting nothing done. Let me revise that, we're getting nothing genealogically done at the Layne house right now. Summer has apparently infected our children with misbehaviour, tempertantrums and moodswings enough to make me look balanced...

Jules and Kevie are about to go on a hunt for some US census records... Beyond that it's quiet on that front. 10 minutes of normal!

We're expecting company over the next few weeks so it's going to be quiet, until we come add all the new information that said company reveals. It should be a promising few weeks with a lot of insight into our US and Scottish connections.

No idea when we're going to start posting open links... I'm getting a little cranky with it all. Maybe we should just post it open and go from there. No sign of when the bb is going to be up and running either... So much to do, and so little time.
We need a govn't grant... A few million dollar donations and a nanny.
It's pretty bad when your dreams of winning the lottery are founded on getting gps and enough digital cameras to outfit your crew!

Believe it or not, the website is actually up, it's just not link-ready... You can see it now, I linked it through the title.
It's just such a huge undertaking... I hate publishing things before they're ready. Last time I worked on anything, it was the heraldry page.
Alright, I need to go arrange an activity... And take the boys off timeout. Although thoughts of leaving them there are very appealing.

So this is my un-update... Sort of like an un-birthday... Nothing really new to report... Hopefully I'll have more next time.

Ugh... Food good, sleep bad.

2008-07-07T14:01:00.006-04:00

Topic: Just a note on what's goin' down...
Family Name Associations: Baker, Lason
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Mood: Still sleepy, but sugar intake starves off sleep!
Music: Chantal Kreviazuk - Under these Rocks and Stones

So, I finished the title graphic for the Baker front page... It's looking snappy. 3 down, only 30 left to go!
I was thinking I'd devote some time to setting up the 'odd photo' gallery off the main page today. It’s the section we’re planning on adding for all our interesting photos with light anomalies and such in. I was thinking something with a creepy looking front gate would be a good entrance… It’s about the only part of our site that has to do with anything ‘other worldly’… So I want it to look fun and creepy. We’ll have to see what I can come up with.
I want to do thumbnails and captions for photos, maybe even a section that allows comments… LOL I don’t know why we don’t just put it up at facebook at that rate. Who knows… We’ll find something fun to do with it all.

We spent a few hours on the Larson family last night, Barb remembered a re-marriage, spawned by Jake’s finding a census that didn’t make sense… It sounded something like
Jake: ‘This census has the right name, but it’s not matching up!’
Barb: ‘Oh wait! He did remarry and it really made Grandma angry…’
Jake: ‘And you’re telling me this now?!’

I swear there was a pulsing vien in Jakes head that was going to explode!
So they’ve got a new branch going there, even if it is short lived – I think they were too old to reproduce in the remarriage, which might be a good thing considering Jake’s non-entertainment at their existence.
I’m still rather stunned at the amount of people that share the same names and birth or death dates. It’s almost creepy at the lack of individuality we all have, even when we think we’ve got unique names and such. I mean, maybe with Smith or Jones, you expect common names… But the amount of Larsons is almost spooky. Bakers keep popping up everywhere… And names like Ruby Gladys shouldn’t be popular in my world, but… We all know I live mostly in my head!

What else? Yesterday we had a good time working on the Lee line from either Tennessee or South Carolina, but we’ve hit a dead end in the census search so we’re back to not knowing who Thomas Van Trump Baker is all over again.We’ve got some updates going into the TNG system tonight.
I’m not really sure when we’ll be online and ready to go. I was thinking maybe August 1… It would be sort of symbolic and happy. Who knows... Nothing's going to get done if I don't get to it!
Anyways… there’s today’s update :)
Cheers!

Testing... And Updates.

2008-07-05T19:01:00.002-04:00

Topic: The New Blog
Family Name Associations: Everyone!
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Mood: Sleepy :)
Music: None, as sad as it is, but Barry Manilow was on in the van earlier and he will not DIE!!!

Our updates section on the site was getting too big, and we'd discussed this option in full about a month ago, but TNG and it's rampant overpowering of everything we do happened... Sucking out our will to live! Or at least make site edits. So, here's what we added to the site, and we'll be posting our updates to our smarmy new blog as they come up. Woohooo!!! We rock. Like Rockstars!

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05/07/08 Well, we're progressing. Big progress with the St. Vrain family in Missouri, we're getting along in Legacy pretty well, and once we're happy with the basic tree we'll import it to TNG and set it up. No further work on a lot of online stuff... It's been pretty hardcore research lately. Up to our eyeballs in books and records. We've had a major setback with the cemetery transcriptions up in Northern Ontario, we're thinking we'll just do a photo record at this point - mapping is our biggest nightmare and without gps there's not a lot of hope of it getting any easier. Considering getting non-profit status as well... So many options, so little time!

19/06/08 Lots accomplished today. We're not going to have a Mid Summer grand opening, but close enough! The Keffer Tree is online, vaguely, Marks been adding Googlemaps and Jenn's been helping drive him batty by touching things she shouldn't. SkeletonGen.com is running with the addition of The Next Generation Genealogy software. We've got records galore to upload, things to organize... But we're getting there. Go team!

17/06/08 Long gruelling hours and little sleep... And that's before we start researching. Some site changes, but really we had Father's Day activities until we were all near death this weekend so little got done. We've decided to post a War Memorial for soldiers, Jenn's working on the graphics. Jules has been on the phone with Monument companies all morning about getting Rose Lequyer's headstone repaired and Mark's been up to his eyeballs in genealogy website program possibilities. Jenn still thinks we should go Linux and use 'The Next Generation' stuff. It would work wonders for the phpbb too, but it's lotsa work. New computer should be up and running asap. WooHoo!

07/06/08 Huge breakthrough last night. We're thinking about some sort of blog... Probably for Jenn to keep up because that's the way the cookie crumbles. The super computer is also on the mend after a brutal reformatting. We've got some cool new fonts, and our play lists have been recovered - THANK ALL THAT'S HOLY - Because we were going mental with satellite pop adult mixes. Oh and the message boards are in the works. Sort of.Anyways - Breakthrough with the Berry line... We had a lost son that we pieced together with his wife and her family after hours of diligent footwork. It really is just another piece of the puzzle that is 'Berry'. But from one person's name to an entire family tree is nothing to sneeze at either. Oh, and we're considering a flash intro... Maybe. So many options, and so few minions to accomplish the evil deeds.

06/06/08 A lot going on behind the scenes right now. There's huge amounts of Heraldry that are almost sorted out, once it's 100% we'll post. We're beginning a Google Notebook at Vulcan Phil's suggestion... Too bad he can't be here to teach Jenn how to use it! Between Phil and Mark it'll get sorted out... And LA, because she's the Princess of You-Tube How-Tos! So look out for graphics, links, heraldry additions and so much more we can't even think of it all!

30/05/08 This board, for starters. We've had a productive day, with the addition of the Site Map and the Thanks and Links page. We're still working the bugs out of the way we're going to display the html pages for the Family Lines, it's giving Jake a few grey hairs. We're hoping this weekend gives us the opportunity to get the website public - and to get our membership concepts figured out. And maybe we'll actually find some time to get to a few cemeteries in all that. Go Team!