Genealogy takes time!

 

When I started researching my family history decades ago (in the 1990s), I never dreamed that it would take so long and that I would still look at a giant project 30 years later, and that, still mainly only on one side of the family. Genealogy is a marathon, not a sprint, and just researching the timeline of one ancestor's life can take many months. This is not only because finding the records to document everything in their timeline takes time (even though Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org will present you with possibly documents easily), but evaluating and comparing documents like census records takes time, and then you find more clues in those records, so you track down other leads and clues. Keeping it all organized is key, and this includes making a research plan, keeping a research log, taking good notes, reviewing frequently, analyzing and writing up conclusions that then lead to more questions. I've been researching one family line for 8 years, and still feel like I have much work to do in building out that part of the tree. 

I came across this document in family papers that I ended up with, and it seems like a mystery to me. Why did my great-grandfather's sister, living in New Brunswick, Canada, file with the Canadian government for proof of her brother's age, a few months after he died? And he died in the US, having emigrated from Canada in the 1890s, and having been awarded US citizenship in 1920. Another family mystery to solve! This could tack on months to my project of building out this particular branch and timeline... here goes! 

If you find yourself in need of a consultation or coaching session about doing your own genealogy project, please let me know. I'd be happy to consider that. Some people want to do their own family history research but don't always know where to begin. Message me to get started and see what's possible!

History and Legacy of Native American Boarding Schools and Survivors

 As genealogists, we often find ourselves unraveling complex historical narratives through family histories. One of the most challenging and poignant chapters in North American history is the story of Native American boarding schools and their survivors.

From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, and for some even earlier, Native American children were forcibly removed from their families and communities to attend hundreds of government-run, or church-run/ government-sponsored boarding schools. The stated goal was to "civilize" these children by stripping them of their cultural identities, languages, and traditions.

Hundreds of these institutions were established across the United States and Canada. Many students died, and those who survived carried the trauma of this separation from their families and communities and denial of their heritage and culture. Many students were given new "English" or "Christian" names and denied use of their own names, making them hard to trace. Separation from their cultures broke the bonds of oral history and passing down heritage through storytelling. Some of the churches who ran the schools did not want their records being researched.

Now, the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive, part of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, has digitized many records from the schools so that the truth can come out and the healing can begin. Kudos to all those involved in this worthy effort.

 

For this month of Latino/a heritage, I thought I would share a little history about languages here in North America... we may all have heard of Ponce de Leon and the fountain of youth (OK, or maybe not, but roll with me!) but to stop and think about it, when you wonder what was the first European language spoken (and first permanent settlement), it was SPANISH in what's now Florida in 1565 - that's not a typo - 1565 -  just 73 years after Columbus' first voyage. Pedro Menendez de Aviles was the first governor of Florida in that year. ("Florida" means "flowery" so there must have been lots of beautiful flowers growing in the region of St. Augustine, Florida at that time.) That settlement in what is now the northeast corner of the state of Florida is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the US.  And then, there was New Mexico (Santa Fe as its capital)... in 1610, whereas the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock (now Massachusetts) in 1620. Jamestown Virginia was established in 1607, so the Virginians beat the Plymouth Mayflower folks by 13 years. 

And as a little "lagniappe" (or extra, in New Orleans creole speak), Quebec (New France) was founded by the French in... 1608, just a year after Jamestown. So we had Spanish and French way early in North America. But hopefully this gives a little perspective on languages spoken on these shores, in addition to the thousands of Indigenous languages that were already well established before these Europeans ever came ashore. What languages did your ancestors speak?