Skip to main content

Welcome!

Welcome to my first post! You made it, and more importantly, so did I.  This blog has been a over a year in the making, which in hind-sight seems a bit silly, but I got mired down trying to find the perfect name. Read more about my blog naming tribulations here.

It really shouldn't have mattered so much what I called it, and perfection is clearly over-rated, but that's what happened. Then I proceeded to get sidetracked down 6852 rabbit holes (before I lost count), and here we are.

So let's get you caught up. I spend a LOT of time playing hide & seek with my ancestors, and sometimes other peoples' ancestors too. Some have been quite easy to find, while other ancestors are particularly good at the game and are still in hiding. But I'm also pretty good at the game, and persistent too (did I hear someone say obsessed? shush!) With a combination of digging through records, solid detective work, collaboration, circumstantial evidence and/or plain dumb luck, one by one I've been flushing them out of their hiding spots.  


I also use genetic genealogy to find ancestors and make connections with living DNA cousins, sometimes as far back as 6th cousins. It was very gratifying to identify the birth parents to help a cousin who'd been adopted .


My current main focus (as if I only have one!) is researching and writing about the immigration odyssey of a group of Scottish settlers who came to Ontario via Venezuela (as one does). Stay tuned for more!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering those who kept the home fires burning

In the course of my family research, I often come across people who served in various theatres of war. There are always a few moments of anxiety until I can find out if they survived, or if they made the ultimate sacrifice. Whether on land, in the air, or at sea, it is sad to learn of lives cut short by war.  In past years I've written about the lives and service of some of those in my family tree who fought for their country.  Recently, I've developed an additional appreciation for those who didn't see active battle, but stayed home, quietly holding things together on the home front. For families in North America and Australia, life was very different from what families experienced who lived with privation, under fire, threat of invasion, actual occupation, in England, Scotland, Europe and Asia.  Some men, like my grandfather Stan Ticknor & great-grandfather Charlie Ticknor,  worked in factories that were essential to the war effort, like General Steel Wares (GSW) her

Lest we Forget- Thomas Humphries Tickner

                   I have an interesting connection to my Great-great Uncle Tom. Not only am I proud of his service and appreciative of his ultimate sacrifice, I had his hat.  Thomas Humphries Pratt Tickner was born 22 Feb, 1889 in Portsmouth, England. He was my Great-Grampa Charlie's kid brother, and eventually followed Charlie to Canada, arriving in 1909. I haven't been able to find out much about his life in Canada, but am certain he must've stopped in Ontario to visit his brother Charlie and family on his way west. He settled in Edmonton, Alberta and somewhere along the way became a clerk and got married. When he enlisted in Jan 1915, he listed his previous military service on his Attestation papers. I know that when he was a teenager in England, he was what we might today call a cadet with the 6th Hampshires for 3 years. He was also a part of the 19th Alberta Dragoons for 3 years, and then 2 years with the 103 Calgary Rifles. Since his wife's family, as well

Everything but a witch

Everything but a witch. I thought of this idea for a title or theme to write about while lying in bed one morning. I was pretty much avoiding the day, so let the idea twirl around in my head, which in turn churned up some other good ideas. Since I was trying to be intentional about actually writing when I get an idea, as opposed to just writing it in my head and promptly losing track it in the general busy-ness of life, I got up and headed for the computer.   That was about 7:45 on a Sunday morning. Clearly there was something magical about the idea – prophetic even.   By 2:10 that afternoon, I had found a witch.   No kidding. Since I’ve discovered more branches of my family tree firmly planted in colonial America, I find I have a veritable checklist of American historical stereotypes. My tree has pilgrims and Puritans, farmers and founders, lawmakers and soldiers who fought to protect their homes and ways of life, first against the native Americans they took their land f