Connection Made 126 Years Later

It has been slow going for me to link a letter I found in my grandmother’s papers to living family members, but guess what? It has happened.

Yesterday I logged onto Ancestry and on the home page, there is an interesting notification that shows up if someone edits a record you have saved to your tree. A note appears telling you a change was made

I quickly clicked on the person’s name to see why they would make a change to this record. And from there I was able to message them asking if they were researching the Brock family from Hackney, England. I had little hope of hearing a reply, you know how it is, but reply they did! And I have been on top of the world ever since.

Back story

I have been researching the Brock’s almost since I started working on my family tree. It all began with a letter found in my grandmother’s papers. And it meant going to the Family History Library and ordering records in. When the 1881 census for England came out on CD I bought it, just to find this one family. Slowly the puzzle unraveled. There they were four people living at the address 93 Glenarm Rd. in Lower Clapton, but they were all listed as siblings, there were no parents. Time and research filled in the blanks. I was happy to realize that these children including the letter writer Martha Brock, were writing to their uncle Richard Lee Norton who had settled in Quebec City in 1854, my great great grandfather.

Now back to present and me checking my email constantly with hope.

Later in the evening, I received the reply and to be honest, I was sort of scared to click the email in case it was another, “no, not my family, just a collateral line…”. But I couldn’t help myself and it was kinda that message BUT and this is huge, he knows descendants of the family!

They may not be as interested in the family tree as I but they have been found! I am not sure what they are going to think about some Canadian who has been working on their family tree for over 20 years but as they live in New Zealand so I am guessing/hoping it’s gonna be ok!

A huge shout out to my new favorite Britt who made a small correction to a record, replied to my message, and sent me a copy of the handwritten family tree. He has given me a Christmas present in July.

Title: I am counting the connection lost from the date Richard Norton died in 1893 in Quebec City.