On The Book Shelf...

A friend recently reminded me of a book on short stories of Charlotte County that was published a few decades. The book, “Stories from the Fog’s Inn” was not on my library shelf and so I went off to search and after a month of poking around online and in the corners of local used book stores, I finally have a copy. Published by Charlotte County Community Ventures Inc. back in 1990, the book is a collection of short stories steep in local folklore. The majority of the book’s sources come from “storytellers” from many of the county’s schools. Despite being full of “stories that my grandfather told me”, this book does provide for an interesting read and sheds light on many local folklores include tales of ghost and place names. A few of my favorite stories include: “Lake Utopia Sea Monster”, “Milkmaid of Tunaville” and “The Legend of Deer Island”. Though not built on facts or historic research, this book is a must for anyone interested in the tales of Charlotte County.

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Stories from the Fog’s Inn

Charlotte County Community Futures Inc. 1990, Beacon Press. ISBN: 0-9694552-0-8

Remembering those that Served in your Family’s History

Few family trees are without at least one or two relatives that served in a major conflict. Some of us may have a dozen relatives serving between the two World Wars and numerous more serving in wars of long ago such as the War of 1812 or the Boer Wars. More recent branches on our tree highlight those who participated in the Korean War or the recent conflicts in the Middle East. Whatever the conflict may be, it is at a time such as this (Remembrance Day) that we stop to think about those that put themselves in harm’s way or those that gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedoms that make our society what it is today.

Each November, I take time to reflect on those in my family tree that served. My great-grandfather, Donald Bradford Sr., had four brothers that served in the First World War: Harold, Martin, Eric and Winnie. These brothers, like so many young men in Charlotte County, enlisted to fight in the war. From my own research, approx. 1,170 men (and women) served in the First World War from Charlotte County. With respect to the 1911 Census, that is approx. 18% of the population of the county. As many New Brunswick men, Harold, Martin and Eric serve with the “Fighting 26th”, the New Brunswick Regiment.  While these three older brothers went overseas, Winnie, the youngest of the four, served at home in various guard duties with the 236th (The New Brunswick Kilties) Battalion. Through their individual war records and the information obtain in battalion diaries, a picture of their lives can be seen as well as a story on a period of time for the Bradford family.

Bradford Brothers

(left to right) Winnie, Eric, Harold, Martin

On July 23, 1916, Harold, Martin and Eric departed on the “SS Olympic” from Halifax, Nova Scotia however they would not see action until November 1917. During their time in England, the brothers learned that their father, Martin Byrne Bradford, has died. By the Christmas of 1917, their second Christmas away from home, they were encamped not far from the front lines. By the follow summer, Martin was killed in action near the town of Arras on August 28th, 1918. One family story says that his older brother, Harold, watched as Martin lied wounded amongst barbed wire, unable to reach him. He was only 25 years old and is buried at Sun Quarry Cemetery, not far from Cherisy, France. A year prior, younger brother, Eric was severely injured when he was shot in the head during the Battle of Hill 70 near Lens, France. Eric eventually made it back home however he died from his injuries on May 19. 1919. I have heard many stories of Eric’s return and how his injuries were so severe. He would go into mad fits and experience excruciating headaches. One medial report in his military records indicate that “brain pulsations are visible at the wounded area” and that little could be done for him. One doctor did little but prescribed eye glasses. Eric is buried in the Blacks Harbour Community Cemetery, not far from his parents. Harold, the eldest of the brothers, returned back to Canada in August 1919. He would cross the same ocean that he and his two brothers sailed across only three year prior. In those three years that passed, two of his brothers, his father and several close friends are dead. However, if there is a glimmer of hope in this story it is that Harold returned with a new wife and a baby daughter. Harold, with his new family, settled in Oak Bay, Charlotte County and many of his descendants remain in that area today.

I’m sure you family tree has wonderful stories such as these. The Library and Archives of Canada can offer so much to family historians with military records. Be sure to reach out to the LAC for assistance in discovering your family’s military legacy. (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/military-peace/index-e.html)

One of my favorite books is “New Brunswick's Fighting 26th: A History of the 26th New Brunswick Battalion”, written by MacGowan, Heckbert & O'Leary (1995, Tribune Press; ISBN: 1896270026). This book is must for anyone researching their family’s participation with the 26th Battalion. Not only does the book draw extensively on the Battalion diaries with a detailed timeline of troop movement and engagements, but the books also offers an index, or muster roll, of those that served with the battalion. The book is now long out of print and used copies can easily catch up to $100-$150. It worth the catch and far worth the money.

New Brunswick's Fighting 26th: A History of the 26th New Brunswick Battalion

MacGowan, Heckbert & O'Leary; 1995, Tribune Press; ISBN: 1896270026

Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker

I have never hidden the fact that I don’t use Family Tree Maker. And even until recently, I have avoided using Ancestry.com. That was until recently, when I discovered a distant cousin sharing a family tree on the website which provided me with a few missing pieces of information. The principal reason for my lack of support of the website is that I tend to question the practice of sharing family trees so openly with other people. It is not that I have a concern with privacy (because tree setting allow for very good privacy especially on living people), it more of a concern that the information being shared is not actual fact. Perhaps a date of death was an approximate (aka “a guess”) and now this data is being passed around as if it is fact. Few people using the website are actually doing the leg work and will attempt to verify the information whether it is through source referencing or simply by asking the questions: “Where did this person get all of this information? Are they legit? Can their data be trusted?”

Despite being reeled into Ancestry.com, I still remain skeptical on information obtained from the website. And when I do find data, I verify sources and attempt to double-back and check on the data myself. However, despite this issue, there are plenty of positive aspects of Ancestry’s service such as its access to plenty of legitimate databases. To date, I have subscribed to the “paid” service of Ancestry.com for a number of months here and there, as I can not see the benefit of long term subscription with my current schedule. It anything, Ancestry.com has turned thousands of people onto an interest that love so that is a good thing. Also, I have just recently begun to use the family tree maker on the website which has turned me on to Family Tree Maker 2012, the popular family tree computer program.

So, I must now admit, publicly for the first time, that I like Family Tree Maker. Yes, I should have taken the advice of those fellow genealogists who repeatedly tried to sell me on the wonderful features of the program years ago. A few of those features that I enjoy is the ease at printing generation charts/reports and the ability to produce a calendar with all of the vital dates of your family tree. In minutes, I can have wonderful documents of my database. Plus, my family tree is saved as single computer file versus the 100+ files of my currently method.

Will I give up on my manual database and utilize Family Tree Maker? Probably not, but I will now enjoy maintaining two databases.

Seasons of the Genealogist

Seasons play a major part in our lives, not to mention their effect on sports and television. Genealogists are not immune to the seasonality of their interest. Maybe our seasons are not as well-known or noted on a calendar as they come and go, but for many researchers they are as real as the dates on your family tree (at least the dates your have confirmed yourself through years of work). Seasons may vary from genealogist to genealogist and likely vary from geographically locations, however I thought I would share the “Seasons of the Genealogist” for researchers in my neck of the woods…

Spring - This season is primarily the time where you start hitting those “roadblocks” that you have uncovered during those wintry days reviewing your family database. It’s still too wet outside to venture into cemeteries and some smaller archives/museums are still closed. By now, most of your relatives living nearby are tired of you and no longer find interest in your “exciting” stories of the past. The weather is better so you can now venture out to review collections at archives or libraries further away than that of your local library where by now the staff is well aware of your research and may even know your name. You’ve become such a familiar face that even amateur researchers are asking for your help with loading the microfilm reader. You now take pride in your speed at loading the microfilm reader and have even given pet names to a couple of the readers, like “Squeaky Susie” or “Dim-light Donna”.

Summer - Warm weather and green grass makes this the perfect season for touring cemeteries or making long trips to visit far-off relatives or distant archives. Many museums and archives now have extra staff so inquiries have a fast turn around time. This is the season of family reunions and other life events such as weddings where a family historian can easily talk with relatives and jot down names and dates on a napkin (get their phone number and call! Napkins disappear and make terrible reference material!). This is also the season where you must decide between yard-work or visiting a cemetery a few hours away… it’s a beautiful day for a drive; the lawn can wait! Plenty of sunlight allows for long days in the cemetery. By the end of this season, the cemetery groundskeepers are familiar with your car and tend to go in the opposite direction when they see you come.

Fall - The leaves are on the ground and the cold wind starts to blow. Life gets busy and your paperwork begins to pile up in your home office or research corner. Not only does Remembrance Day provide you with a time to share your family’s military history with other family members but it also marks the last time that you will likely be in a cemetery until spring. This season is also a time where you make visits to all of those family members that you made promises with during the summer. Hopefully they will provide a few tidbits of data or family photos that you have never seen before. On your trip back home from visiting a distant cousin you run into a snow storm… Duho! You forgot to put on winter tire on your car!! With school in, you receive a few requests from younger family members on material from their school project: their family tree. Oh how you wish you could be back in school and make that presentation because you know you would get a great mark with your material!! Sigh…

Winter - During the cold and snowy days of winter, time is spent inputting data into databases. On clear days, you might venture out to your local library and take a seat in front of a microfilm reader in search of a few “stranglers”. At the close of this season, you feel that you family database is nearly complete… then you find a section of your family tree that you did not notice before… what the!? You spend a few long nights sending information request via email but not all data can be found through email or letters. Now you have compiled a list of “research needs” and anxiously wait for the icy roads to clear and snow to melt away. It is during this season that you even ponder whether or not you could locate a headstone in a cemetery with 3 feet of snow on the ground (thankfully cemeteries are officially closed during this time or many researchers would like have been lost in snow drifts). Wait it out, this is what some call “cabin-fever”!