The Cutler genealogical oddysey…..

A couple of weeks ago I decided to investigate the Cutler family.  They are connected to my family’s tree through my great-great grandmother Mary Cutler-Paulin(e). I have known for a while that her father was John Cutler, that he was from Eton, that he died in 1843, and that he worked as a clerk at the Tower Ordnance (yes, Tower of London).

Mary Paulin and child, circa 1860-70s, c. Kathleen Paulin

I had made some half-hearted searches on various genealogy databases and on the internet, but not much.  I found some notices from the Times for his marriage and his death, I had a copy of his wife’s will (she died in 1874), there is a lady in New Zealand who likewise found similar information on him and posted it online, in her search for more about the Freak family (his wife Louisa’s maiden name).  But there wasn’t much.  I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated by the number of John Cutlers I found when I bothered looking.

But really, how silly is that?  I mean, it is a relatively common name, but it is not Smith, like another two lines on my maternal line which I haven’t dared even looking into.  So I set aside my fear and decided to figure out the Cutlers.  After all, I am a good researcher, and I can do it!

So I started out with what I already knew.  John Cutler died in 1843, he was from Eton, he married Louisa Freak in 1824, he had a daughter named Mary, born in 1836, and he worked at the Tower. From his wife’s will I also know there was another daughter named Elizabeth and a son called Edward Francis. First of all there are two John Cutlers who died in March of 1843.  One died in Dorset and the other in Lambeth.  The one in Lambeth had the address of Camberwell New Road.  This was an important clue.

I tried the 1841 census for England, but I couldn’t find the family at all.  So I decided next to go to the children.  Mary’s birth was easy to find, I had the full date already.  I found her baptismal information, and John and Louisa are listed as living at Camberwell New Road.  So the death information was confirmed by the address.  He was listed as a gentleman.  I went on to find more children.  Elizabeth was born in 1828, and he was listed as a clerk for the Ordnance.  I then found a Fanny, born in 1834, and a William Henry born in 1835. All carried similar information, though Elizabeth and Fanny were baptised at Kennington St Mark, and Mary and William at Kew.  The 1851 census lists Edward Francis as being three years old, and the 1861 as 13, so he was not John’s natural child, born 5 years or so after his death.  I intend to get his birth certificate and see if his father’s name was listed.  Curious, but I digress.

So where do I go from here?  I decided to check out the member trees on Ancestry.ca to see if anyone else had some clues to provide.  I will say now that I am seriously cautious when I use these things, because a lot of the time people haven’t the sources to back up their allegations, they just pick ancestors.  What is even more unfortunate is that they post these trees online, and then never check them again.  Anyway, I found three different trees with John Cutler and Louisa Freak, and the generally agreed with one another, and in them all stated that John was the son of the Rev John Cutler and his wife Sarah Eliza.  Okay, so I go in search for baptismal information on John son of the Rev John, and find him in Dorset.  But he was from Eton according to all the stuff I had found.  I googled the Rev John and found that he was actually from Eton, but at the time of John’s birth, he was the headmaster of Sherborne School in Dorset.  Paydirt.

So here is where everything gets surreal, and damn cool. In that same Google search, I found out that the Rev John had attended Eton, had gone to both Oxford and Cambridge, was assistant master at Rugby, then master at Dorchester School, and then Sherborne.  His parents’ names were also listed.  Roger Cutler and Mary Bold.  I googled Roger Cutler of Eton and found that he had been part owner of the Eton waterworks.  More research on Google, Ancestry, Family Search, and Find my Past, and I had his siblings, his children, and more.  One family tree posted on Ancestry actually had an engineer’s certificate for William Henry Cutler (b 1835) working at the Eton Waterworks in the late 1800s. I was having a blast, but it gets better.

John Cutler portrait, courtesy of Sherborne School, Dorset

Once I had some information on John Cutler, I decided to see if I could find out about his wife, Sarah Eliza Guise.  I found their marriage registration, and they were married at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster.  On the thought that this would be her home parish, not his, I searched out Sarah’s name.  I eventually found her baptism at Windsor- St George’s.  Her father was Richard Guise and her mother’s first name was Elizabeth.  More searching and I found the parent’s marriage and her mother’s maiden name was Windham.

I then Googled Richard.  Oh lord!  According to a book about the burials at Westminster Abbey, Richard Guise was choirmaster and chorister at the Abbey.  On his death in 1806 he left an estate and money to his daughter Sarah Eliza Cutler. Bingo.  But step back a moment.  He is buried in Westminster Abbey, in the North Cloister.  I found that seriously cool.

I then went to the National Archives website (UK), and unlike its Canadian counterpart, it is marvellous, and allows you to search for and easily download material from its collection.  I found the will for John Cutler (d 1843), the will for Richard Guise (d1806) and the will for the Rev John Cutler (d1833). It’s like connecting the dots.

And just when you think it cannot get better, it does.  I had decided to see if Sherborne School had any records of my John Cutler, if he had attended his dad’s school, etc.  And that is when things get amazing.  So after several emails to the Sherborne alumni association, then their archives, I get the comment that Sarah Eliza was the niece of William Windham.  Who?  I had to ask, and I googled him too.  He was a Whig politician in the late 18C, and the son of a prosperous Norfolk family, living in Felbrigg Hall. According to a Wikipedia entry on his father, William sr, an illegitimate daughter was born to him. and his mistress Mary Morgan, named Elizabeth.  No I don’t take Wikipedia at face value.  I asked the archivist from Sherborne for her source of information, and it was a book on the school, and the author had researched not only school archives for information about the Cutlers, but also read the diary and letters of William Windham Jr.  He wrote to his sister, his niece wrote to him, and he wrote about them in his diary.

After a lot of Googling around on the net, I have been able to piece together the Windham family, and there are pictures, because Felbrigg is now owned by the National Trust, and they have the family portraits, some by some pretty famous painters, such as Lely.  I can trace them back into the 17C, and if I try hard enough, I think earlier, and I can look into their eyes and say my many times great grandparent.

William Windham, (1717-1761) portrait by Dagnia, copyright National Trust, Felbrigg Hall

I have to say that I was not expecting such discoveries.  I had this image of my family of being essentially of the middling sort.  Certainly not that socially high, where they have a family estate, and portraits by Lely.  What a fascinating journey it has been, and so quickly too.

Seeing the success of my Cutler search, I am now wondering what searching into the two Smith families in Birmingham might bring.

Well, I might just wait a bit on that…..

Upcoming Lecture by Gilliandr!!!!

Very Exciting!  Have also been interviewed for a podcast on the same topic, which will be uploaded onto the BIFHSGO website next week.  Will update all when this happens.

Unlocking the Devereux Connection/ Fascination in the Family Tree

There is this amazing mansion in Salt Lake City called “Devereaux House.” According to various websites which discuss this historic building, it was built ( or heavily modified)  in 1867 by William Jennings.  (My great-great grandfather’s brother)

“William Jennings purchased the property in 1867 and developed the present Devereux House, incorporating Staines’ original cottage in the expanded structure. Jennings was also an English convert to the Mormon Church. Arriving in Salt Lake City in 1852, he entered the mercantile business. Taking advantage of the business opportunities of a rapidly-growing regional center, Jennings branched out into freighting and banking, becoming Utah’s first millionaire. In 1864 he founded the Eagle Emporium, which was later sold to the Mormon Church and became the forerunner of the present-day ZCMI department store. In 1882 Jennings was elected Mayor of Salt Lake City, serving one term. A hospitable and gracious host, Jennings entertained the famous and influential of the day. Devereaux House was the scene of lavish dinners and accommodated such prominent guests as Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes, and General William T. Sherman.” [http://history.utah.gov/apps/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2671]

“He named the half-block after his birthplace, Devereaux estate at Yardley, near Birmingham, England.” [http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705337698/Devereaux-House-Salt-Lake-Citys-stately-estate.html?pg=all]

Well, there is no Devereaux estate near Yardley, so what to make of this?  And what to make of the generations of Thorntons (William’s mother’s family) who named their sons Samuel Devereux?

I have gone over the family trees as far back as I could go, and consulted some work some of my distant Mormon cousins have posted on the Family Search Website to try and confirm any relations to a Devereux, and nada.

Here are my ruminations, and it sounds a bit far fetched, but with no evidence to actually link them to a Devereux family it is the best I can come up with.

First of all there are Devereux in Yardley in the period that my family actually lived there.  There is also the Devereux family, which owned Castle Bromwich Hall [http://billdargue.jimdo.com/placenames-gazetteer-a-to-y/places-c/castle-bromwich/] until 1657.  A Devereux family also became the Earls of Essex.  Pretty posh name – and with local connections.  Now are the Devereux in Yardley in the late 17^th and 18^th century connected to the Devereux of more exalted birth?  No idea.

Castle Bromwich Hall

It is entirely possible that one of the Thorntons married a Yardley Devereux, or were good friends and named one of their children after them, or because they were godparents.  Records cannot be found to confirm this however.  The first Samuel Devereux was born in 1755.

Immigration is often used as an opportunity to reinvent oneself, and I think that William Jennings, who had enjoyed much success in his adopted Salt Lake City used the Devereux to shine his image.  He even changed the spelling to Devereaux make it more exotic sounding.

My Family and Religion

 

Religion has played an interesting role in my family’s life, particularly that of my father’s family.  Mixed marriages were, up until recently, uncommon.  Most people found their life partners amongst their own denomination, and often congregation.  This is where most had their social networks, meeting with their community every Sunday, and participating in their church’s events, clubs and schools.

 

The Leitchs however were a bit of a rebel bunch.  In researching them I at first assumed that they were Presbyterians, like many of their Scottish brethren (those raised in theLowlands).  Perhaps it was foolish, but there you go.  Big mistake.  It appears that James Leitch (1789-1842?) was a Baptist.  He was married as a Presbyterian to Jean Frew, but then disappears from the records, as do his children.  I at first thought that the children were not baptised because of the expense of this was an impediment, but it could be that the family had since converted to the Baptist faith, and believed in adult baptism, so the children wouldn’t be baptised until much later. There was aBaptistChurchin Saltcoats, where they lived, in the period when the couple were having children.  His son William on the census inOntarioand on his death certificate was listed as a Baptist also.

 

So what about this?  Baptist churches were rare inUpper   Canadain the mid nineteenth century.  Baptists relied on circuit preachers who made their way in the wilds to various communities on a seasonal basis.  This meant that they were often without the services of a minister, and had to rely on other faiths to fill the gap.  Another consideration was the legal aspects of the church, and the legal recognition of the church in matters of marriage.  The Presbyterian, Anglican and Catholic churches had the authority of the state to keep registers, registering baptisms, marriages and burials up until the mid nineteenth century.

 

Of the marriage records that I can find for James’ children, they married in the Presbyterian Church, and with the exception of William, were listed as Presbyterians in the census.  William, his only son, was married to a Presbyterian, and their children were all Presbyterian as well.  Interestingly, my great grandfather William Christopher was only baptised when he married, at a Presbyterian church inMontreal(1893).  Even more interestingly, this was a marriage to a Roman Catholic.  His sister Jane also married a Roman Catholic, Aeneas Macdonald.

 

Jane converted to Catholicism.  William did not, and neither did his wife, Mary Jane convert to Presbyterianism.  They both kept their own faith during their marriage, and because of it were buried in different cemeteries.  Their children were raised Catholic, and the two who married, married Catholics.  And then there was my dad, who was William’s grandson.  He married an Anglican, mom, and their children were raised in her faith.

 

You can see a remarkable fluidity in the practice of faith, and the willingness to marry outside their faith.  So the Leitchs in my line were, from 1800 to the present, as follows: Presbyterian, Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Anglican.

Figuring out my Grandfather’s War Time Service, another Archives Adventure!

W Clair and HJ Leitch, “Leitch Brothers in Khaki”

 

When my great-aunt passed away we were sent several boxes of photos and things which her nephew had retrieved.  He had determined that these items were Leitch photos, and not his side of the family, so he sent them our way.  This stuff was great!

 

My father was not very sentimental, and had not kept most of the family photos after his parents had died in the sixties.  So growing up my brother and I had not seen many images of the Leitches, including pictures of my dad as a child, or his parents as children.  These boxes finally gave us a glimpse at our father’s early life, and the life of his father and his family.  But of course with these new items comes more questions, questions that Dad couldn’t or wouldn’t necessarily answer.

 

So here was one of the sets of questions that came from these boxes: what did my grandfather do during the first and second World Wars?  There were two clues present.  The first was a picture of my grandfather and his brother in uniform.  Entitled “Leitch Brothers in Khaki” the picture dated from the period of the First World War.  The second was an undated newspaper clipping that said “HJ Leitch takes Munitions Post.” So the research began.

 

First World War

 

First off, I knew my great-uncle Clair did serve during the First World War.  Among the things in the boxes we received were tons, and I mean tons of photos he took at Shorncliffe Camp in England, and the postcards and letters he sent home to his family. [They have since been donated to the CanadianWarMuseum: William Clair Leitch http://www.warmuseum.ca/military-history-research-centre].  If you go online to the Library and Archives Canada website you can see his enlistment papers. [RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166,Box   5560 – 42] You go on the same site and look up my grandfather’s name, and there is nothing.  But I have a picture of him in uniform, the above photograph.  He is the one on the right, in the darker uniform.

 

So I start out by going to Library and Archives Canada and I talk to an archivist (Back in the day when this was possible).  Maybe he was in the militia?  The archivist couldn’t think of another reason for him not to be in the records.  After all my grandfather was born in 1900, so he turned 18 just when the war was ending.  So I had to make a formal request for information from the Archives for access to his records there, providing proof of his death.  While I was making the one request I decided to see if they had information about his service during the Second World War (more further on).

 

Here was the response:

From the information you provided, we have been unable to positively identify the above-named individual as having served in the Canadian Armed Forces after the First World War nor having been employed with the Federal Government of Canada.

“If Mr Leitch served with the Militia, we would have no records.  The records of former members of the Reserve Forces are destroyed under the authority of PAC 60/014 (DNDP II) when the person reaches the age of 70. [Letter, from Alena Duffault, 24 Nov 1994]

So there it is, a bit of a brick wall.

 

Second World War

 

HJ Leitch Takes Munitions Post

Ottawa, Feb 24—(CP)- Munitions Minister Howe announced last night appointment of HJ Leitch of the Algoma Steel Corporation as assistant to the Director-General of the Shipbuilding Branch of the Munitions Department.

Born in Westmount, Que., he graduated as a civil engineer from McGill University.  He is on loan from his firm. [Montreal Daily Star, 24 Feb 1942, page 9]

 

The above is the article I found.  I have since found out what paper and date it came from, but when I started my research it was not known.  So back to the Archives.  The archivist suggested a history of the Munitions Department in the National Library, which should help find out when this all happened.  History of the Department of Munitions and Supply: Canada in the Second World War by John de N. Kennedy (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1950) is the book that was suggested.  And in a sense it is great, after all he lists everyone who worked for the department for the War.  Problem, while he lists the Assistant Director Generals, he does not list my grandfather.  Grandfather is there though, listed as an “employee” at the back of the book (page 579).

 

So this is where you have a crisis in faith, sources, etc.  Who is right, who is wrong?  I felt that while the book was probably well researched, he missed out on my grandfather.  The newspaper article felt more valid because it was of the moment, not five years after the war.  So I went back to the archivist, and we had a great discussion.  First of all we talked about how my grandfather must have gotten the job, and I was told a lot of these appointments during the war were made by order in council.  So there was my next step.  Off to the Privy Council Records.  Thank goodness for indexes!

 

5 Feb 1942, PC#902: Date of appointment January 26, 1942, per diem allowance, Nil expenses. Living expenses except in Montreal, his normal place of residence, salary Nil, salary reimbursed to company, Nil. Branch shipbuilding, date of termination of appointment December 2, 1942.  [LAC, RG 28 Volume 179]  So there Mr N de Kennedy!

 

Once I knew this, the archivist helped me choose which part of the department files I wanted to see to see when grandfather Leitch was in the department.  And here again stuff!

 

In the course of this visit a tour and review of the organization under the Director General of Shipbuilding was made in the company of Mr HJ Leitch, who dwelt  at length on the functions of the various departments, and on the manner in which these functions were organized and carried out. [Letter 9 May 1942, HR Carlson to DA Clarke, LAC, file 1-1-166, RG28 Series A, Vol 77]

 

I take pleasure in announcing that Algoma Steel Corp., Limited have made the service of their General Sales Manager, Mr Hugh J Leitch, available to the Shipbuilding Branch. . . .We attach copy of our revised Organizational Chart, Shipbuilding Branch, date 27 February, 1942, from which it will be noted that Mr Russell Yuill is now appointed to the position and title of Director, and Mr Hugh J Leitch to the position and title of Assistant Director General of Shipbuilding, and Executive in charge of production. [Circular Letter no. 8, 27 Feb 1942, from DA Clarke, LAC, File 1-1-166, RG28 Series A, Vol 77]

 

So there it is, what my grandfather did in the Second World War.  I would love more information about the mystery of the uniform for the end of the First World War, so if anyone out there sees something they recognise, please feel free to contact me.  Would love to solve this.

A Serendipitous Archives Moment- Following an Obituary’s Trail, 2012

I had amassed a list of Montrealrelatives’ dates of death, and had decided to go on an obituary hunt. I felt that this was an excellent avenue of research to take, as obituaries have been known to say some interesting things. I grabbed the Montreal Star, Standard and Gazette for the relevant years, and sat down in front of a microfilm reader and started to read.

After a while, I had reached the date of death for my great-great grandfather, John Patrick Cuddy.  I was looking at the Montreal Star, the 13^th of January 1896 [p. 18] when I saw this:

Death of Mr Cuddy

Mr John P Cuddy, who was liberated from Longue Pointe Asylum a few weeks ago by order of the court, died at his late residence 153 Berri Street, yesterday.  He was sixty-five years of age, and was a large owner of property in the East end.

Oh wow!  Being a specialist of nineteenth centuryMontrealI knew immediately what the Longue Pointe Asylum was: the Roman Catholic run insane asylum.  Oh boy!  This was utterly amazing.  So what did I do?  Well I started reeling the microfilm back a few weeks to see what on earth the newspaper was talking about.

I found my answer on the 31^st of December 1895.  The headline screamed: “Mr Cuddy Not Insane.”  This was historical gold. There had been no hint of this in the family lore, no talk of insanity or court cases.  He was just an oil painting that hung on our dining room wall.

The article was full of court details, stating that he had been confined on the 11^th of September as a dangerous lunatic, and he petitioned the court for his freedom.  The article called the evidence conflicting, stating that Mr Cuddy was married with six children, and had been strict in the running of his household, and that it was from the violation of the house rules by his family that discord had occurred.  It then said that the “whole family had conspired together to shake off the paternal yoke, which weighed them.”  The judge decided that Mr Cuddy was not dangerous, but that “there was little hope that a harmonious life of the family to be restored, but that the proper remedy for the wife in such a case would be an action for separation.”  Tantalizing, very tantalizing.  I went back through the rest of the paper up to September when he was committed and found nothing else.  The Montreal Gazette also covered the result of the trial, and it read much the same as the text in the Star.

My next step was to go to the Archives Nationales de Québec a Montréal.  Here I knew from past experience were the court records.  I went to an archivist, and he was great, with his help and the use of a few finding aids, we were able to find the court records for JP Cuddy’s case.  So here is what happened.  According to the family and to William Hingston, the family doctor, [see: http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6784 (10 May 2012)] John Patrick Cuddy had been a known drunk.  He seems not to have been a very nice person, and mean.  Things however seem to have specifically deteriorated five weeks prior when Mr Cuddy had some kind of seizure, suffered partial paralysis and could not speak for a while.  Dr Hingston attributed this to his intemperance (actually it sounds a lot like a stroke- but I am not a medical doctor). During the last years John Patrick Cuddy seems to have come to the idea that his family was poisoning him.  He behaved erratically, locking the doors before his children came home from work or events (they were all adult).  By September the 9^th, all of his children and his wife had moved out of the house, and gone to live with Mary Cuddy Hicks, one of JP’s married daughters.

What got JP Cuddy locked away happened the 9^th of September, when his wife Jane O’Sullivan returned to the family home with his brother James to retrieve some of her belongings.  He attacked his brother James with a set of shears.  The police were called, and he was arrested.  The family came together with Dr Hingston and Dr Thomas Brennan and motioned the court to have him incarcerated in Longue Pointe.  This involved a meeting together with the court and a series of depositions from family members stating that he was not of sound mind, and also a deposition from him stating he was.

In his deposition he said:

Q- Who are the members of the family who have lived with you?

A- I have a wife and seven children.

Q- Who drove them out of the house?

A- Themselves.

Q- Who has prepared your food?

A- Myself for the last twenty years.  I was always in dread they would take my life- my brother attempted to murder me about two weeks ago.

Q- What has been your wife’s conduct?

A- She has allowed herself to be twisted by her children.

By October JP Cuddy had gone to court to challenge his stay at Longue Pointe, and his wife’s control of his finances.  The court case is positively fascinating to read.  The interviewed most of his children (except my great-grandmother) and asked the oddest questions.  The main thrust of the questioning towards his daughters Mary, Theresa and Nora dealt with a trip toIrelandthat Theresa took with Mary and her husband a few years prior, and how it was paid for.  It is not clear who did pay for it, but most likely not her father.  I am still unsure as to why this was important.  The lawyers also asked about other trips made toIreland.  John Patrick had made many trips to hisIreland, the place of his birth over the years, and had brought his children with him on many of these journeys.

The children were also asked about his behaviour and life in the house.  His son Sarsfield talked about how his father would visit his room at night, and light matches to see his face, and then the matches would fall to his bed.  His daughter Nora stated that:

That day he came into my room and told me that he heard me and my brother plotting to murder him.  He frightened me terribly at the time because he seemed so excited; in fact I judged that he must be made the way he looked at me.  He said, “You have plotted to murder me and if you don’t get out of the house I will take your life.” At first he took hold of me by the shoulders and threw me onto the bed, but I got off again on the other side.  There is a writing desk in the corner of the room, and then he got me in the corner there, and said “if you don’t get out of here” and then he shivered.

Other testimony was given as to how he did business.  Mr Cuddy was a landlord and collected rents every month at around fifteen properties.  According to the newspapers his fortune was valued at around $150 000.  His son John Jr. gave testimony that the properties were in decline, and many tenants had failed to pay, or were not paying enough, and that some properties were vacant.  A lawyer he used for his property business, Allan Oughtred described him as litigious, and did not seem to like him greatly.  There was also some testimony as to a sum of money he may or may not have given my great-grandmother Margaret Corley, or as John Patrick said “Maggie.”  He said that she had “to compromise with her creditors.”  He accused his daughter Nora of giving it to his son John instead.

The most interesting testimony was from the family maid, eighteen year old Mary Ann Connelly.  Her testimony is the longest in the collection, and they grilled her a fair bit about life in the house.  I am thinking she was asked the most questions because she was considered an outsider in all of this, and thus a more impartial witness.  And she did witness some acts of violence, specifically when he threw a stone scraper at his son Sarsfield.  When asked what she thought was wrong with him, she said: “Sometimes, I knew he was drinking, then again he was not drinking at other times, and there was something wrong with him- even when he was not drinking.”

I am somewhat perplexed as to why with his family’s testimony and the testimony of two doctors who knew the family, including the very reputable Sir William Hingston (former mayor of Montreal) why the judge ruled in John Patrick’s favour.  He clearly was exhibiting anti-social and violent behaviour even by the norms of the day.  Thing is the doctor at the asylum stated he thought he was fine.  Then again, he was away from his family, the people he claimed were trying to kill him, so perhaps without these stressors he behaved.

My great grandmother’s family life seems to have been awful.  It is hard to imagine how she and her siblings lived, and dealt with this constant chaos and violence.  While the family was quite well off, and lived in a lovely house, in a good part of town, their father seems to have made the home a living hell.  My great-grandmother, her sister Mary Hicks and her brother James were able to escape this with marriage, and the creation of their own homes, but their single siblings Nora, Theresa, Sarsfield and John endured a longer time there.

I gave a presentation at the Institut de l’histoire de l’Amerique Francaise a few years ago about John Patrick Cuddy.  I was trying, with my presentation, to give an image of an Irish Catholic family that did not live in Griffintown, but in the city’s east end.  I get tired of seeing the Irish Catholic experience inMontreallimited to this one section of the city, when I know they lived in other areas, and not necessarily as enclaves.  Anyway I never mentioned the going to the asylum part, but rather concentrated on timing of immigration, education and marriage of children, work and where they lived.  I was approached by Thierry Nootens who said that he mentioned JPC in his book “Fous, prodigues et ivrognes.”  And I figured that he had done so, because of the topic, but no, he had dedicated many pages to JPC.  I went back to the book again, and there he was “John C.”  Oh my, he was one of the few people to challenge his incarceration, and win.  Most of the time, the courts supported the order to keep them in the asylum.

So there is the journey I took from looking up obituaries.  It was amazing!

Using Oral History in your Family History

Using Oral History in your Family History

 

Oral history is a very important part of doing family history, after all the stories are the cornerstone of the history itself, and are most often the starting point we as historians use to go back further in the family’s background.  We probe, we prod, we unmercifully ask all our relatives questions about family members in order to find out more about the family.  It is therefore important to go about asking questions in a systematic and traceable way.

 

First of all I recommend that you pester yourself first.  Start learning about your family’s history and the techniques of oral history by asking the questions of yourself first.  You can do this by just taking the questions you intend to ask your older relatives, and ask them of yourself. You can just write your answers, or even better record them.  You will get a better appreciation for the time answering such personal questions takes, and the process of actually remembering.  You might also gain an appreciation on what should and shouldn’t be asked, or how to ask the questions without ticking off the person you are talking to.

 

And for more fun, transcribe your interview before you start interviewing others.  You learn more about the better placement of the microphone and the need not to mumble questions.  If you are video taping the interview you will also get a better feel for where to place the cameras for a more flattering angle and good sound.

 

Always have a plan.  A list of questions that you intend to ask your subject is a must.  But make sure that the list is not that long.  Planning is great, but also remember they may not have the same plan as you.  Your interests are yours, and the person you are interviewing may have a whole different agenda.  I remember interviewing a cousin about her grandfather, and she kept going off on a talk about her other grandfather.  And while it was slightly interesting, he wasn’t related to me.  But I couldn’t stop her talking about him.  You might run out of tape before your list is exhausted (especially if it is long).

 

People lie.  They sometimes don’t do it on purpose, sometimes they do.  My dad hated not knowing the answer to a question.  Rather than saying, I am sorry, I don’t know, he would make something up.  He did this often when I had questions about the family.  Sometimes they soften the truth so that you are not disappointed.  When questioning a cousin about my grandmother, she would say that she was a wonderful person.  When pressed to talk about her being kicked out of school for bad behaviour (a story told by several sources) she said, ‘oh no, your grandmother was not like that, she was lovely.’ She told me what she thought I wanted to hear.

 

I have also found that you should transcribe the interviews right away.  I say this because I have about two hours of interviews with my mother on tape, and I have yet to listen to them.  It is too hard.  She has been gone over ten years, and I find it difficult to hear her voice.  I wish I had transcribed it, so I could at least have her words. The black and white of the printed word is less fraught with emotions.

 

A note from a person who has transcribed many interviews- please don’t eat when you interview someone.  The sound of cutlery makes the recording hard to hear, and hard to understand. If there is coffee or other drinks around, make sure the microphone is not nearby.

 

Interview as many people as possible.  Don’t wait for them to be the oldest or the last member of their generation before you get their stories.  And have fun, these are your families’ stories.

Digging up Information on Your Ancestors: Cemeteries as Sources

Digging up information on your ancestors:  Cemeteries as sources

By

Gillian Leitch

I love visiting cemeteries.  I know that this statement will make me sound particularly odd, but bear with me.  Cemeteries are the most amazing places to understand the lives of our dearly departed, and more importantly the lives of those they left behind.  You only have to read the inscriptions, the symbols on them, the statuary around them, and then also look at the size, material and placement of them to get what powerful things are being said.  They are an excellent source of information for the historian, family or otherwise.

There are a number of considerations you should make when researching the grave of someone.  The first is the cemetery itself.  Look into the history of the cemetery, does it tell you something about the deceased?  Is it attached to a specific church or congregation?  If so, it is clear that this place might have had meaning to the deceased, particularly if there were other burial options available.  Is it an expensive cemetery- posh?  It might indicate that the person buried there was a part of the elite, or of good financial standing.

Check the cemetery records to see if there were choices in where the person could be buried within the cemetery itself.  Were they offering lots in certain sections at certain times, or was the entire field available from day one.  For example I was curious to find out why certain members of my family were buried close to one another, I thought  that this was an indication that the family members wanted to be buried close to one another, but not close to their father, who was buried in another section of the cemetery. (see Matthew Hicks burial posted 1/19/2010; Wright family plot posted on 3/8/2010; and Corley burial posted 2/28/2010)

Cuddy Monument, Montreal

This wasn’t exactly the case.  The portion of the cemetery where he was buried was no longer available, and all new sales for the period they purchased were in the same section.  And further checking of the dates indicated no pre-planning for this, as they bought their family plots on the death of the first burial in the plots.  They were close together, which might indicate a bit of choice, but as they were limited in their options, it was most likely random.

Was the plot pre-purchased, or was it, as I saw in the case I mentioned above, a matter of buying as needed?  Pre-planning shows that the deceased were concerned with where they were buried.  It would show that it was the deceased doing the planning and not the survivors.

How big is the plot?  Did the purchaser intend to bury just themselves there, or was it a family plot?  This is indicative of a desire to keep the family together, and perhaps a bit of establishing a family presence somewhere.  In the end, how many family members actually are buried there?  Is the plot full, or did other members choose to be interred elsewhere?  For example, one person I researched, Michael Morley, purchased a huge plot at Notre Dame des Neiges in Montreal. (see the blog on the Morley Crypt, posted 4/18/2010)  On the site he built a pretty substantial mausoleum, with the family name engraved on the top.  Only three people are there, although he and his wife had a fairly large family.  What does that say about the person who bought the plot, and the people who came after?

How is the grave or plot marked?  Did the family or deceased choose a showy headstone, a mausoleum or a plain marker?  This says a lot about the people who made these decisions.  Are the materials expensive, luxurious, do they stand apart from other graves in the cemetery?  Did they choose to decorate the area with any statuary?  Are the decorations especially religious?

How are the names placed on the marker?  Are certain names more prominent than others?  Were titles or jobs placed within the information on the marker?  What about national origins, dates and places of birth?  Did they mention parents or siblings not interred there?  Are some people buried there missing from the monument?

There is this one family plot at Notre Dame des Neiges in Montreal which is most illustrative of the ideas of name, title, decoration and placement.  It is a double plot situated beside the Monument des Patriotes.  It is the plot for the family of Sir Lomer Gouin (B66).  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomer_Gouin ]  It is an impressive monument that is a semi circle of columns in the classical Greek Style with a bust of Lomer in the centre.  The plot is full of his family but the main monument is to him.  The others interred there are listed on a step leading to the main monument just off the path.  So what does this say about the family?  About Lomer?  It says in many ways that the important one is Lomer, and even successive generations have not tampered with the monument itself, instead choosing to honour the rest of the family in a noticeably more modest manner with just their names and dates of birth and death inscribed on a flat stone.  Even placed beside the Monument for the Patriotes which is tall and quite imposing, the Gouin monument makes a mark.  A serious contrast to it is the family plot of the Corley family, which lies just off to the side and behind one row.  There is a simple flat marker for the husband and wife Timothy and Margaret Corley, and to the side one for Hugh and Virginia Leitch, but little else.  There are eleven people in this plot.

By asking yourself these questions you can get some interesting information about the families and the lives of the people the monuments honour.  They tell a story, and with a little digging into the circumstances or context of the burial, you can have a clearer picture of these people buried in a cemetery.  Not so creepy after all?

War Diaries as a Source for Social and Family History, 2012

War Diaries as a Source for Social and Family History

 

2nd Canadian General Hospital- Matron's Diary, LAC, Mikan #2005097

War Diaries are a great source for the historian.  They are essentially the day to day record of a base or unit in the armed forces.  That means that whoever was responsible for them, wrote out what had happened in their environs on a daily basis.  I repeat, a daily basis. 

 

Now of course these are great sources of information for the military historian who is interested in how policies are implemented on the ground, for accounts of battles and the like.   But I would like to point out to others who really don’t care much for information about wars and such that these are of great value for other reasons.

 

Of course it all depends.  Just like any routinely generated sources, it depends on who filled them out.  The diary was created to keep track of events on the base so as to know what happened, and how.  But what information was actually recorded depended on the person doing the entry.  Some diaries are rather dry, with one or two sentence descriptions, saying perhaps nothing happened of note, or all is well and the like.  Then there are dairies that went into the most amazing detail.  Some will note marriages that took place, visits of dignitaries, sports events, theatrical events, weather, etc.  And many diaries include photographs, newspaper clippings and other ephemera. 

 

For the social historian this kind of information is brilliant.  When the diaries include information about the social life of the base, and its interaction with its surrounding community, it demonstrates the creation of community on the base.  People interacted.  When not doing their military obligations, these people organised social events- theatrical entertainments, sports teams, clubs, etc.  They went out of the base and went to events in the local community; they competed against other bases in sporting events, or with local teams.  They created a wide network which constituted a larger community. This is an aspect of the military that is overlooked by non-military historians.

 

For those searching their family history, these diaries could be of great use.  Again, as stated before, the content of the diaries depend on who wrote it, but I urge you to consult the diary for information.  The best chances that your ancestor will appear in the diary are if: they died while in the military, they were absolutely amazing at their jobs, or they were absolutely awful at their jobs.  Then they are more likely to be mentioned in the diaries.  If your ancestor was good at their job, but did nothing to make them noticed, then the chances are less.  However, there are diaries that talk about sporting and other activities, so if you ancestor participated in anything; they could be mentioned, or even in a photograph.  Even if your ancestor does not get mentioned by name in the diaries, they provide a glimpse into the experience of living in the military.

 

2nd Army War Diary, LAC Mikan #2006044

I urge you to go out now and read a war diary!

‘The Confetti Trap’ and the Uses of Material History in Genealogy

 By Gillian Leitch

 

There are many objects that litter our home that we hold dear because of their connection to members of our family, many of whom have since passed on.  These objects hold value to us because of their association with our memories of their owners, the situations where they were present.  As a historian, it is important to catalogue these values along with the other characteristics of these items in order to preserve their historical value.  

 

I thought I would use an example to illustrate the recording of the value of an item of historical interest.  

 

Behold: the hat!

Pink Hat, 2012 c. GLeitch

 

 

Any evaluation of a historical item must begin with a description of the item’s physical characteristics.  As you can see, it is a pink flowered hat, which dates from the 1960s.  When worn, the hat covers the entire head and much of the wearer’s hair.  It is made of pink and white silk, cut into flower petal shapes and a few green silk leaves.  

Close-up of pink flowered hat, 2012. c. GLeitch

 

 

 

From the inside of the hat is clear that these silk flowers were sewn onto a pink nylon mesh.  The hat has the label of the famous Canadian high end store “Holt Renfrew.” The hat is in good condition, and is relatively clean. 

 

Interior of pink hat, 2012. c. GLeitch

This hat belonged to my mother.  She bought it at Holt Renfrew for her ‘going away’ outfit for her wedding in 1966.  She affectionately called it her ‘Confetti trap’ because she found that the construction of the hat made it very good at keeping in the confetti from her wedding long after the fact.  She once said that even years after the wedding she was still shaking out the confetti from its depths.  She loved this hat, and wore it long after it was fashionable.   The last time she wore it was at my cousin’s wedding in 1977.

 

Going on the honeymoon in pink hat, 1966. c. Leitch family.

Looking at the pictures of Mom wearing the hat, it is clear that the hat, when worn does not have to cover all of the hair, and it was worn back from her forehead and fringe.  

 

Family at A's wedding, 1977. c. Leitch Family

 

 

 

 

The hat then has many values.  The first is as a piece of material history, a hat which was popular, and worn in the 1960s.  Its good condition, or excellent state of preservation is valuable to clothing historians who study the history of the construction and appearance of fashions over time.  The label indicates that it was an expensive item when originally purchased, and was also likely made by Holt Renfrew, inCanada.  This then stands as an example of a time long past when Canadian women could purchase fashionable accessories that were domestically produced. It likely also possesses a monetary value, as it is in excellent condition and there are a number of collectors of vintage clothing pieces, who seek out this kind of item for themselves.

 

From its history of a piece of clothing owned by my mother, the item represents how such a piece of clothing was worn.  While purchased for a specific event in her life, and a quite significant one at that, her wedding, the hat was not relegated to the heap after its use.  It was kept and re-worn at other special occasions, such as family weddings.  It was well kept during her lifetime, and treasured.  It also speaks to the traditions of wearing hats to weddings, and the need for this kind of formality in culture at specific occasions.

 

For me, the current owner of the hat, it too holds value.  I don’t wear it, as quite honestly I can think of no occasion where it would work.  This makes me sad, but realistic.  I have a lot of other hats myself, so Mom’s hat is a treasured piece in my collection.  I have distinct memories of her wearing the hat, happy occasions, and I do remember the odd piece of confetti falling out of it.  Sadly all the confetti is now gone, like my mother. But the hat is on display in my home as a testament to the happy memories I have of her, and of her wearing the hat.

 

The hat then is a piece of my family’s history, by virtue of it having belonged to my mother, who loved it, and by virtue of my keeping it and displaying it.

 

By taking into account of the various streams of history attached to an item, and by recording its specifities down, the genealogist, or family historian makes their family’s stories richer, and gives context to items valued by its members.