my genealogy life

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.


Category: Norton

  • IT’S ALL THERE IN BLACK & WHITE Sorry, still doesn’t mean it’s true

    IT’S ALL THERE IN BLACK & WHITE Sorry, still doesn’t mean it’s true

    Digging into the family tree often leads to more questions than answers. This time I found the answer. Long before Library and Archives Canada started adding their WWI soldier files online I was systematically ordering the records of family members. (On a side note these records are a treasure and the fact that they are…

  • The Inkwell and the Captain

    The Inkwell and the Captain

    It’s a simple item, an inkwell that was given to me a few years ago by my great uncle. He said it was an inkwell that had belonged to his grandfather Richard Lee Norton and he used it on his voyages. Richard was a sailor/seaman born in 1819 in Great Yarmouth, England. His father before him…

  • Quebec TipTypes

    Who are the children in these tintype pictures?

  • Open the DNA Floodgates

    Open the DNA Floodgates

    The floodgates have opened for me in the last two days and all because of DNA. Yesterday it was all about my Norton family from Great Yarmouth, England. A person emailed me, yes you read that right, they contacted me! Our trees didn’t jive though because I had an error in mine. I had the…

  • Death Notices – Check Multiple Dates

    Death Notices – Check Multiple Dates

    I would like to encourage you when researching death notices in newspapers to check multiple dates. Yesterday I was browsing through the Quebec Chronicle newspaper, the focus was the date of the death of Hannah Pozer (Jeffery) Norton my 2x great grandmother. Hannah died in Montreal, having had lived most of her life in Quebec…

  • My Military Ancestor – Alfred Lee Norton

    My Military Ancestor – Alfred Lee Norton

    Day 5 of the 11-day Military Challenge Alfred was born in Sorel, Quebec in 1888 to parents Thomas Lee Norton, a baker and his wife Esther Douglas, joining siblings Thomas Lee and Alyce May. Four more children were born after Alfred but only one of his younger siblings survived. When Alfred was ten he lost…