Genealogical research often turns up more than you really want to know. I got a rude reminder of this truism before the Christmas holidays, when a genealogist working in Cobourg, Ontario discovered that my earliest North American ancestor, William Thompson (1806-1849), assaulted a tailor, didn’t pay the fine, and spent time in the lock-up. The […]
Margaret Maguire’s Parents Hated That She Married a Tailor
Though we know very little about the life of my third great grandmother Margaret Maguire (1794-1880), this much has been passed down: Her parents were pretty pissed when she took a tailor, John Robinson, for a first husband in Belfast Northern Ireland. Tailoring may seem like a pretty noble occupation today. But Maguire’s father, a […]
Mother’s Agonizing Childbirth Made Disbelievers Out of Some Thompson Boys
Anne Marie Boyce attended church at least once every Sunday. She often went to prayer meetings on Wednesday night. She regularly cooked dinner for ministers. She was steadfast in her faith. But when this “invalid” woman who suffered from Bright’s disease was screaming out in agony during the birth of her 10th child, God was a […]
The Magnate Came Up Largely Empty Handed in His Genealogy Research
Stop the digital press–this blogger recently obtained copies of genealogy reports commissioned by William Boyce Thompson that shed light on the family’s distant past. Unfortunately, researchers working for The Magnate ran into the same dead-ends that befuddle family researchers today. That said, The Thompson Reports include some exciting new information. H.H. Plate, Thompson’s secretary who in 1923 was sent on a fact-finding mission to […]
Thompson Line Seems to End at William Thompson, Sr.
Like most amateur genealogists, I have reached a maddening dead-end in the quest to trace my family roots. The end of the line is William Thompson, Sr., who appears to have lived most his life in Ontario, Canada, but was probably born in Scotland. Thompson’s very common name, which shows up often in Census counts, church […]