Sourcing Genealogy

In this context, 'Sourcing" means using historical records to document genealogy.

A common phrase is "Genealogy without sources is actually mythology." Of course, the further you go back in time, the fewer contemporary records exist.

While I strongly endorse sourcing, I have a few personal reservations about the saying "Sources prove your pedigree." life is not always that simple. (My great aunt Maggie's parents, as listed on her marriage record, never existed, but she was marrying a cousin and didn't want too many questions asked.) 

A more common problem is sources being attached to the wrong people, But usually this is easily determined. Of course,, if you have seven brothers who settle in the same area, and who name their sons after their brothers, it does get a little complicated. (e.g. "Old Andy's Young Andy's Wee Andy" and other Buchanans in Donegal, Ontario, after 1847)

Still, I spend a lot of very rewarding time sourcing my genealogy. I try to be extra careful when I know that there are other people in the community with the same names.

I try to live up to the standard required to make the saying true: "Sources prove your pedigree."

I wish you success in using sources.

Easy Sourcing
If you have a family tree on FamilySearch or Ancestry, I am happy to see that RecordSeek is working again. This is the free web app that I find so handy for creating sources for these sites from other websites. It works slightly differently than before, but it works. Thank you for your work RecordSeek.  https://recordseek.com/ 

What Does "Normal" Mean, Grandpa?

 What Does "Normal" Mean, Grandpa?

"It usually means what you are accustomed to; what you are used to."

His question made me think about how "normal" has changed for me over the past 80 years.

As a small child, my parents farmed 160 acres about 10 km west of Breton, Alberta. The town had a Delco power plant that provided electricity for part of the day, but out on the farm we had no electricity. We lived like farm families a century or two ago.

We had no power equipment so we got a lot of exercise. The house was heated by burning wood in a wood stove. Water was drawn by hand from a dug well and drinking water was accessible by using the dipper in the water pail on the wash stand. Any visitors used the same dipper. The wash basin on the wash stand was for washing your hands and face, and the dirty water was poured into the slop pail. Baths took place in a metal tub measuring maybe a meter in diameter. Meals were cooked on the wood-burning stove. At night we used kerosene lamps in the bedrooms and a Coleman mantle (gasoline pressure) lamp provided brighter light in the main area of the house. There was no refrigerator or indoor plumbing. 

The Moose Hill school closed before I started school in Grade 1, so I rode to school in Breton in Mr. Prentice's army jeep. It was a 3 km walk to where he picked me up. He was hired by the school district to take the Moose Hill students to Breton. Back then, Jeeps were the only 4-wheel drive vehicles and when it was really muddy the Jeep struggled to reach its destination. When I was in Grade 2, Reg started school so we walked the 3 km together. In 1951 we moved a half mile closer to Breton and the new school van picked us up at our driveway. We loved the new version of normal.

Most Saturdays we travelled to Breton to do the weekly shopping. It was about a 2-hour trip each way by horse and wagon. This was normal at the time. In town we could play with our cousins and friends while our parents did the shopping, and we could enjoy dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Ing before our journey back to the farm.

During the winter, Dad usually worked in the logging camps during the week. About 1952 he was hired as a pipe-fitter's helper in the Camrose oil field by Canadian Construction. He had a 1928 Model A Ford car to come home on weekends. This was later replaced by a 1938 Ford V-8. In 1953 we moved to Camrose and lived in a skid shack in a trailer park. School in Camrose was hard and neighborhood bullies made life even harder. I was glad when our parents decided to move back to the farm.

But re-starting the farm was hard. (I think they had sold all the livestock.) Then they had a small miracle. Dad received a telegram from Edgewater, British Columbia, offering him a job in the planing mill for Edgewater Sawmills. Soon we were on our way to Edgewater, a wonderful place in the valley of the Columbia river. We had electricity and running water. Suddenly I felt that we were really in the 20th century. And we were only 3 blocks from school. 

Normal had become much, much better. 

[Lloyd, 

I would welcome any corrections you can make. You started school in 1951, didn't you?
Some of this describes life in the log house on the McNeil place. But life on the Broughten place was basically the same, just a newer house with the same amenities. - Bill]

My Early Family HIstory Efforts

 I received an email from a friend asking if I knew of an Isabella Buchanan who had married a Walter Hunter.

This brought back some memories.

I remembered visiting "Watt" and "Bella" Hunter in 1962.I had asked my relatives in Alberta for all the family information they had, then I hitch-hiked to Neepawa, Manitoba looking for more relatives. I was helped and blessed all the way. 

Someone at the newspaper told me "You should talk to Merv Buchanan who manages the Windsor Salt plant, He is interested in Buchanan family history."

Merv immediately invited me to stay with his family. and after supper each day we would drive off to visit out-of-town relatives that he thought might be able to help. While he was at work, I would visit relatives in town.

One of these was Bella Hunter, one of Dad's first cousins. When she answered her door, I explained that I was Bill Buchanan, son of William George Buchanan, son of Willie the Blacksmith.(There were so many with the same name that they used nicknames to tell them apart.) 
I mentioned that my dad was born in 1906 in Riding Mountain.

She said "No, your Daddy wasn't born in Riding Mountain, he was born on my parents' farm here at Neepawa, I know, because I was there when he was born. Aunt Lizzie stayed with my parents for a few days before the baby was due"

Wow. What amazing people. I returned home to Calgary with a stack of completed family group- sheets.

Dad had been trying to get his birth registered so that he could eventually get the old age pension. He had been told that if he could get an affidavit from someone present at his birth, that would meet the requirements. Bella was glad to do that for him. (a fringe benefit of my family history efforts.)

I hope that you are all making a record of your own history and sharing it with your families.

Bill