• Using AI to Assess a Canadian WWI Soldier File

    Using AI to Assess a Canadian WWI Soldier File

    I have been trying to find ways to have AI be a functional research partner for my genealogy. I think I have found a great fit. Library and Archives Canada has digitized their WWI soldiers records and can be accessed with this link. I downloaded the file of a relative and uploaded to the AI…

  • Is AI a Friend or Foe for Genealogy

    Is AI a Friend or Foe for Genealogy

    Genealogy demands accuracy above all else. One wrong link can unravel generations of work. I wanted to see what AI does for us researchers. What I found was that it can create more problems than it solves. A look at what happened when I researched a Family I decided to experiment its abilities on the…

  • Uncovering My Family in the Québec Hôtel-Dieu Patient Registers

    Uncovering My Family in the Québec Hôtel-Dieu Patient Registers

    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… and was quite thrilled with what I saw. I was able to find a…

  • The Master of the Hull: The Lifelong Service of Jeremiah Norton

    The Master of the Hull: The Lifelong Service of Jeremiah Norton

    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 on the Norma, leaving behind a mystery of ghost dates.

  • 1899: Robert Norton Rents the Fourth Floor – A Glimpse into Our Ancestor’s Everyday Life in Quebec City

    1899: Robert Norton Rents the Fourth Floor – A Glimpse into Our Ancestor’s Everyday Life in Quebec City

    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 the sounds of horses and street life below, and making a simple home in old…

  • Profile of Thomas Lee Norton a Master Mariner

    Profile of Thomas Lee Norton a Master Mariner

    Lee Thomas Norton (often Thomas Lee Norton in records) was a mariner by trade, plying the seas around England. Thomas was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, baptized on September 18, 1816 to parents Jeremiah Norton a shipwright and his wife Elizabeth Sharpe. When Thomas was 15 years old he became an indentured servant to William…

  • Are Your Irish Immigrants to Canada In this Database at the National Archives Ireland

    Are Your Irish Immigrants to Canada In this Database at the National Archives Ireland

    I am a member of the East Galway Genealogy Facebook Group and Martin Curley recently shared a new resource that I had not explored. The collection of records are from Chief Secretary of Ireland’s Office records found on the Archives of Ireland website. These records are described on the site as: “The records of the…

  • Bakery Boys in Quebec Expose an Embezzlement Case

    Bakery Boys in Quebec Expose an Embezzlement Case

    Don’t mess with Bakers In 1877 a group of bakers in Quebec City decided to get their picture taken. Because of that they expose and solve an embezzlement case.

  • Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal Canadian Artillery

    Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal Canadian Artillery

    This year, 2021 is the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Royal Canadian Artillery. In 1871 the British Military were handing over the reins of guarding Canada to its own people. It was not as prestigious as it may sound, in 1905 the reminisces of William Jordan were given to the Kingston newspaper The…