

Family stories are my buried treasure
Tracing ancestors in Canada, England, Scotland & Ireland
Sharing my love of digging through old documents, uncovering family stories, and sharing the real papers that bring our ancestors back to life.
Blog Posts

While performing a Full Text search on Family Search, I made a new discovery, which is rather rare for me. It was Registres journaliers des malades, 1689-1876 from the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, the oldest hospital in North America. I clicked…

In 1844, Jeremiah Norton stood in a crowded London registry office and lied. At sixty-three, he was too old for the sea, so he shaved a decade off his age to secure one last berth. He died a ship’s carpenter…

In 1899, my ancestor Robert Jeffery Norton rented the entire fourth floor of 66 St. John Street in Quebec City for only $5 a month. This 125-year-old lease brings his everyday life into focus — climbing narrow stairs, listening to…
-Micheal J. Fox-