Rabbit Holes

I may have been a terrier in a previous life. Terriers were originally prized for their ability to dig and get into small holes and burrows to hunt small animals such as moles, badgers, and rabbits. Now those who know me and have heard the profanity that sometimes falls out of my mouth might suggest I was probably a pirate in a previous life, but that is a whole other story. But I do think it's quite possible I spent at least one life as some sort of terrier, bred to pick up a scent and rocket down a rabbit hole after it; mindless of what I’m supposed to be doing, or whether I even know what I’m after.

Looking at my family tree one day I noticed I hadn’t tried to look for the parents of Laura Mallory, one of my 4th Great Grandmothers. Available records for early Ontario settlers (Upper Canada at the time) tend to be pretty scarce. So I popped into Ancestry.ca, completely ignoring the 8 browser tabs I already had open for other tree branches-in-progress. After all, why continue with existing, interesting work when I can jump down a brand new rabbit hole? That would be way too linear and logical.

It didn’t take long to find her place of birth in eastern Ontario –Mallorytown in fact. So that was pretty neat, as it meant there were very likely to be some records if she was part of the founding Mallory family. I didn’t take long to gather 3 more generations up to my 7th Great Grandfather Ebenezer Wright. This was an abundant rabbit hole! Not only did I find several Ebenezer Wrights, which in itself resembled a ball of yarn, but it turned out this one was a United Empire Loyalist (UEL). I was a bit chuffed, proud even. Finally a bit of history I knew a little something about.

So of course, I made a sharp right turn down a smaller rabbit hole to learn more about UELs. These were people who had left, or had to flee their homes because of what they believed in. UELs are described as people who were settled in the “American” colonies before April 1775 who remained loyal to the British King, and who fought on the British side and/or settled in British North America (eventually Canada) after the American Revolution. After an hour or so gaining much interesting but generally useless knowledge, I grabbed myself by the scruff and backed up into the original track.

I returned to untangling the various Ebenezer Wrights. Ironically the best help came from applications to the Sons of the American Revolution organization. Sadly the Wrights appeared to be from a house divided, with family members fighting on both sides. I really hoped they hadn’t fought against each other in the same battles. So far so good (at time of writing t this), but I plan to circle back at some point to learn more. The description for this rabbit hole could totally be “Everything this Canadian knows about the American Revolution was learned from Hamilton, and Outlander." So huge gratitude to Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series and to Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical Hamilton, for saving me the research heavy lifting about this time in history in a compelling, engaging, and most of all memorable way.  (I will NOT admit how many times I have listened to Hamilton, nor how many times I have read & re-read Diana’s books,  mainly because it is so many that I have lost count, but it is a LOT).

So far this round of digging was providing quite the Roller coaster of emotions – of discovery, sadness at a family at war with each other, relief at survival, and anticipation of further discoveries. Bring on this rabbit hole!

I continued pushing my way back through history. Gathering ancestors through the relatively well-documented pre-revolutionary colonies can be fairly easily if you are lucky enough to have founding families. As I got into the 1600’s my anticipation sharpened. How far back was I going to get? Was this a branch that arrived earlier than my Massachusetts Bay colony ancestors in (1634/5)?  Maybe from the Mayflower? My focus shifted slightly from gathering all information to finding and confirming the next generation; pushing farther back. Getting the names on the tree and moving upwards. I finally hit a roadblock in Abel Wright, my 10th Great Grandfather who sources agreed was born in 1631, but not on which continent. There seemed to be equal information supporting his birth in both Lincoln, England and Connecticut. It was clearly unclear, and likely two people had gotten merged into one; requiring a fair chunk of time to tease them apart, if that was even possible.

I had added 6 generations in a very short period of time which was quite incredible, but I was also feeling a bit frustrated at the roadblock, so it was time to step back. Take a breath, strategize. My usual approach to a roadblock is to back up, and broaden out the tree around and below it, to find clues in the documentation of the family members that can help me do an end run around the roadblock.

While reviewing information “hints”, I came across a record for Abel’s wife, Martha. Immediately upon opening the link, the words “extravagant dressing” caught my eye. Huuuuh? This offered much more than the standard dates of birth & death, and family relationships.  There was an option to "Read More". Did I want to read more?  Yes! You bet I did.  Off I intently veered into a new rabbit hole!

It was an account from a court record of September 1673. Martha Kitcherel Wright and 8 other women from Springfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony were admonished for wearing “silkes contrary to law”. Wow.  From previous research I knew that the Massachusetts Bay colony was largely governed by conservative Puritans who were very strict in the rules they lived by, so this was rather fascinating. The account said they were “admonisht of their extryavagancyes and dismist.” Well. Public shaming. Wow again!  It entirely fits in the context of the times, but what a challenge for my modern brain to wrap itself around. I can imagine it in a cinematic way, as though watching on a screen.  But when trying to put myself in their shoes – it must have been a terribly embarrassing, shameful, frustrating time.

With that little nugget rolling around in my brain, I read on. Things did not end well for poor Martha. Many years later, on 26 July 1708, local indigenous people attacked Springfield, which was situated on the frontier at that time. Martha’s infant grandson was killed immediately, and her daughter-in-law was captured, found, and died soon after. So very sad. I can’t even imagine the terror they must have experienced. But then I read that Martha was scalped and died 3 months later from her injuries. Scalped? Scalped?!  This was horrifying. Tragic. And if I'm being honest? Kinda cool, in a macabre sort of way. I let that sink in for a minute. How was it even possible to survive 3 whole months with a such a head injury given the scarcity of medical knowledge of the time? Typically the local medical professional was a Barber Surgeon, heavy on the Barber, if there was one at all.

The suffering from such injuries must have substantial. This poor brave woman. I needed to learn more about these attacks, and scalping in that time and place. What were the tomahawks made of? Or did they use knives? Was this common? So many questions!

I sensed a new rabbit hole opening up before me.

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With full recognition of the irony involved, I was doing something else when I came across this incomplete blog post. So of course I abandoned the work at hand, hopped down the rabbit hole, and finally got it posted.