Wordless Wednesday - My Irish Ancestors,The Stevensons

James Stevenson immigrated from County Armagh, Ireland with his wife, Elizabeth Cowan Stevenson and three daughters, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth. I posted their 50th Wedding announcement earlier.

photos from public member tree on Ancestry.ca.

Ancestral Notes by Earline Hines Bradt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

St. Patrick's Day Parade at Small-Leaved Shamrock!

How are you spending St. Patrick's Day this year? Are you going to go out for a pint of green beer or maybe having corned beef and cabbage?

I am going to the 3rd Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade hosted by Small-Leaved Shamrock, I'm just an observer this year so I'm going to just relax and enjoy. Come join me for some old-fashioned Irish fun!!

Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture - St. Patrick's Day Parade 2008 & 2009.

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Twice Upon A Time - New Canadian Blog

I would like to introduce a new Canadian geneablogger to the community. Her name is Cheryl Lundy Stuart and her blog is Twice Upon A Time "Family history connected to the Lundy family who arrived in the New World in the late 1600's." Yes, she is a descendant of the Lundys who lived on Lundy's Lane, site of one of the bloodiest battles in the war of 1812. Her family was in Canada pre-loyalist, they were true pioneers of Upper Canada.

I first met Cheryl on a now defunct MSN genealogy group and we have been sharing information about common family lines for a few years. She has been following my blog and asked me the other day hew she can start her own blog to share her family's stories. My advice to her was to go to the Geneabloggers website and she will find everything and anything she wants to know about starting a geneablog. She took my advice and is off to a great start.

I am interested in seeing what stories she has to share, judging by her first post, she won't be keeping any family skeletons hidden away for long!



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Madness Monday - Evidence Unexplained

I have a mystery that I would like to solve, it is driving me mad! I am stumped! How could this be? My great-grandmother, Harriet Doan Hines, is my most recent brick wall. I thought that I knew who she was and how she fit in but the more I find out about her, the more I don't know.

Here's what I have about Harriet Fernetta Doan:

the evidence:

Harriet Doan was born in Dec. 1854 in Ohio, USA. (1911 census)
Harriet immigrated to Canada in 1855. (1911 census)
Harriet Doan was married to John Haines in Welland, Ontario.
Harriet Haines (Haynes) was living with her husband and four children in 1881.(census)
Harriet Haines was living and children in Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty. in 1891. (census)
Harriet Hines was living with her husband and children in Rochester, Essex Cty. in 1901 (census)
Harriet was living in Gosfield North, Essex County in 1905-06.(children enrolled in Gosfield North school Sept./05, daughter's obituary, Jan./06)
Harriet was living with her husband and children in Essex, Ontario in 1911. (census)
Harriet was living with her husband in the town of Essex in September, 1916. (news article about son's death)
Harriet was living with her husband on Maidstone Ave., Essex in 1930. (son's obituary)
Harriet was living on Maidstone Ave., Essex, in 1932. (husband's obituary)
Harriet died Dec. 20, 1935 in Essex, Ontario. (death notice, gravestone)
Harriet Doan Hines was buried in Woodslee Jarriet Cemetery. (gravestone)

This is what is conflicting:

Harriet died Dec. 20, 1935 at the age of 82 years, 16 days. That would make her birth date Dec. 4, 1853. (death notice)
Harriet was born on Dec.4, 1857. (1901 Rochester, Essex North census)
Harriet (Haynes) was born in Ontario. (1881 Monck, Moulton & 1901 Rochester, Essex North census)
Allen Clark Doan was Harriet's son's uncle and was present shortly after his birth in Welland in 1881. (affidavit on delayed birth cert.).
Harriet was not in the Linus C. Doan family censuses in Welland in 1861 and 1871. (censuses)
Allen Clark Doan's father's obituary in 1904 in Essex doesn't mention Harriet as daughter or sister, only mentions one living brother, Isaac, Jr.. (Linus C. Doan obituary)
F.W.Hines 1st attestation papers lists Allen Doan as cousin. (Allen C. Doan's son, Allen C. born June 11, 1886?)
The Doan family book has Harriet listed as the daughter of Isaac and Polly Doan, Linus C. Doan's sister.
Isaac Doan died in 1850. (1848 will, proved 1850)

I am planning on ordering Harriet's marriage and death certificate and see if they will give me some answers or just raise more questions.


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Sentimental Sunday - Mother and Daughter

Today is the 10th anniversary of my sister-in-law's death and it is also the 1st anniversary of her oldest daughter's funeral as well.

Barbara Fuller Lumley Hines' short life was filled with tragedy. She buried two of her three small children, Paul and Michelle, in the spring of 1983. She was dating my brother at the time and hired a babysitter and spent the night at my house with my brother. My dad gave her a ride home and when they got there, there was nothing left, the house had burned to the ground, and her oldest daughter,Jen, who was six at the time, was the only survivor, her two children and the babysitter perished. She never got over their deaths, but eventually my brother and she were married and had two more children. When their youngest was a few years old, they separated. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and died just after her 41st birthday. Jen, her oldest daughter, died March 9th last year of an aneurysm at the age of 32. She also left three children.

Barb and daughter, 1985 at my house

Jen and daughter, Aug. 2004 at my son's house

Barb was more than my sister-in-law, she was my best friend, if I wasn't at home I was at her place. I was her matron of honour at her wedding and even made her wedding dress. She babysat my boys when I was working. My youngest son was a handful, but she didn't mind, when he started throwing a tantrum, she said that he needed hugs and she hugged him until he settled down. I gave up my job to babysit for her while she went to work in my place, my brother was off work because of a back injury and she needed the job more than I did. I will always remember the friendship we had and I know that she is with her children now.


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I Am The Sum Of My Ancestors

Faces of America's final episode aired last night, about how similar we are genetically to our ancestors. I was thinking about this yesterday, I have many traits that come from generations of women passing on their skills to their daughters, whether it be sewing and needle crafts, cooking, gardening, or family values, child-rearing, beliefs, and traditions.

It makes sense, when you think about it, that certain traits run in families, such as singers, actors, politicians or athletes. It is more than just outside influences that steer people towards their vocation, genetics plays a large roll in it as well. People are born with natural abilities that predispose them to follow certain paths.

From quite a young age, children are praised for their performances, so are more apt to enjoy doing the activities that they are able to do well and get the most attention. If they enjoy the activities, they are more likely to keep doing them and "practice makes perfect".

I have often wondered why I have so many different hobbies and interests, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my genes, my maternal DNA. My mother and grandmothers were all creative, whether it be sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, cooking, gardening, woodworking, painting, etc.

I have my female ancestors to thank for the skills and talents I have come to take for granted. I can't count how many times that I have saved money because I had the skills to do-it-myself instead of paying someone else to do it. I just wish I would have had a daughter to pass my knowledge on to as well. Being the mother of two boys, I passed on as much of my skills and values as I could, they weren't interested in cooking and sewing, but I think that the one trait that I passed on from my ancestors was their "can do attitude", you can do anything you put your mind to.

I see it in them all of the time, whether it be my oldest son, working on his truck, or my youngest son making a shelf, with every achievement, they have more self-confidence. I think that I passed on the best of my ancestors to my children; honesty, perseverance, attention to detail and taking pride in their achievements.

I've repeated my mother's words to my children more often than I can count, "a job worth doing, is worth doing well," "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," "tell the truth and shame the devil", but I never gave much thought to where she heard those words herself until now. Of course, she heard them from my grandmother, and my grandmother heard them from her mother, and so on....



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Geneabloggers Winter Games 2010 - The Podium

I would like to thank Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers for organizing the Geneabloggers Winter Games 2010, and footnoteMaven for designing the medals for the Winter Games.
I would specially like to thank all of my ancestors, without them I wouldn't be able to be here, accepting these medals. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the geneabloggers that cheered me on and gave me encouragement.

Go Back And Cite Your Sources

Back Up Your Data

Organize Your Research

Expand Your Knowledge

Write, Write,Write!

Reach Out And Perform Genealogical Acts Of Kindness

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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - If I Won

It's Saturday Night, time for more Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver of Genea-musings!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) If you won the grand prize in the Ancestry.com Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes of $20,000 for genealogy travel to places of your choice, where would you go, and what would you do?

2) Tell us of your dream genealogy trip using the prize money in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook.


I would book a cabin on a cruise ship to Great Britain, I don't fly so an airplane is out of the question. I would visit all of the places that my ancestors lived, Cheshire, England, then across the English Channel to La Rochelle and Perche to learn more about my French-Canadian ancestral homes. I would then go to Etaples and visit my grand-uncle's grave in the Etaples Military Cemetery. My final stop in France sould be the south of France, just for a break.

I would cross over to Germany and see if I can find out who my 5th great-grandparents were.
I would then set sail for the Scottish borders, visit the site of the Battle of Culloden, Fogo, Coldstream and Edinburg, tour some castles, then to the eastern shore to Port Patrick, then to Ayrshire and Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. I would then go to Ireland, to County Armagh and County Kerry to find any records of my ancestors there and tour more castles. Of course I would stop at every antique store and museum that was in my path, that goes without saying!

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Surname Saturday - Stevenson

I recently found an announcement in the newspaper archives about my 3rd great-grandfather, James Stevenson's 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1913 and I was surprised at how much information it contained:

He was born in 1841 and his wife was born in 1843 in County Armagh, Ireland.
They were married on November 12, 1863 in County Armagh.
Their three oldest children were born in County Armagh .
The family immigrated to America in 1869 and the voyage took nine weeks and three days.
The family came to Maidstone Twp, Essex County, Ontario and have lived there since.
They had three sons and nine daughters.
They had fourty-six grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren.
They were both in good health.



Finding this article has given me more information on where and when to look for records. I had very little information about him before this, only that he was from Ireland and he had a daughter Mary who married Robert Queen.






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Follow Friday - FTM Fab 40

The geneabloggers have voted, the tallies have been counted and the best of the best have been chosen, Family TreeMagazine's Fab Forty . If you haven't already subscribed to these blogs, I highly reccommend that you add each and every one of them to your reader. There is a lot of great advice, stories and information about anything and everything "genealogy" in these blogs. I am following all of them and I hope you will too.

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Ancestral Notes by Earline Hines Bradt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.