Nothing is worse than the crushing blow of dashed expectations, especially when it comes to genealogy research. I had high hopes that a recent visit to Charleston, S.C., would turn up something — a gravestone, a house, a place of business, anything — related to my fourth great grandfather, Philip Benjamin (1779-1852). My spirits rose […]
Major Life Events Probably Forced Simmers Family Moves
One thing that’s often lost in genealogy research is why families move. It’s relatively easy to find a family’s change of address using the Census or City Directories. And you may even find that the houses where your family once lived are still standing. What you can rarely figure out, unless it has been passed […]
Was King Tut’s Curse the Real Cause of W.B. Thompson’s Demise?
It’s been pretty well established that an early visit to Kit Tut’s tomb wasn’t good for your health. A long list of famous people were presumably laid low for disturbing the pharaoh’s 3,000-year repose. Maybe it’s time to add the name of William Boyce Thompson to the list. According to a letter written to an […]
No Surprise: Isaie Gingras Was Buried in a Catholic Cemetery
It’s getting easier to figure out where a relative who died in the last 150 years is buried. The larger cemeteries often publish Internet lists of who was interred there. They may even post a map to help you find the grave. Sometimes, if you are really lucky, a volunteer has taken a picture of […]
Discovered: The Gingras Ancestral Lands
Luck was certainly on my side when I went searching for the mercurial Gingras ancestral lands. I had all but given up the search, when I caught a glimpse of the marker on the left. Background is certainly in order. All Gingras (pronounced Gin-Gra, bozos) in North America descend from my eighth great grandparents Charles […]
Hugh Simmers: Walking in his Cinematic Footsteps
In the summer of 2017, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland, where my grandfather Hugh Simmers worked as a projectionist from 1916 to 1917, before he emigrated to the United States. Originally called the King Cinema, it’s the oldest continuously operated movie theater in Scotland, dating back to […]
Discovered: Gingras Home in St. Johnsbury
It was no easy find. First, there was the hassle of getting there — to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in the northern part of the state, a mere 49 miles from Canada. Then there was the matter of trying to find the home where the family had lived in 1880. The Census provided an address, the […]
J.E. Thompson Jr. Tells a Few Tales About His Storied Life
It’s good to catch up with a relative, even if they are long gone. I never met my great uncle J.E. (Joe) Thompson, Jr., but thankfully he left behind hand-written notes that chronicled some important, and some not so important, events in his life, including a few details about his legendary trip around the world. […]