It can be frustrating when you have an ancestor’s name, year of death plus the location and, the civil registration records for the area are fully indexed with links to the digitized record images but the death record can’t be found. Experience teaches us to try variations of the surname – still no luck.

I typically start broadening my search parameters. Maybe I didn’t have the right year after all so I search the year I believed the event occurred plus or minus some years (I will usually use two years for this purpose). If I’m convinced about the year of the event, I will broaden my location criteria from searching in a specific town to searching in a province or state – or in desperation, I will ‘ask’ for the records of everyone by a certain name who died anywhere in the year I think is correct. The ‘desperate act’, by the way, usually returns more results than can possibly help so its not recommended!

Susannah Horton’s death fell into this category. Susannah was born in 1808 in Sydney Township, Canada West (now the Province of Ontario), the daughter of Jonathan and Hannah Horton. Susannah married Archibald Guffin likely around 1827. Between 1828 and 1849, Archibald and Susannah had six children – two boys and four girls.

Family information indicated that Susannah (Horton) Guffin died in January 1876 in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada. As civil registration commenced in Ontario in 1869 and as Ancestry.ca has the Ontario death records indexed with the original images, obtaining a copy of Susannah’s death record image was going to be easy. Unfortunately, even when searching for any Guffin who died in 1876, the closest result offered is for Elizabeth Giffin who died in another part of the province.

Well, fortunately, Alaric (Ric) Faulkner has come to the rescue. Ric along with John Carew are co-Faulkner family researchers (Faulkner is my wife Ellen’s paternal grandmother’s family). Ric found Susannah’s death record – indexed under “Griffin.” Susannah died in December 1876 – so the family information was cutting her life by almost a full year – in Belleville, Ontario.

Below is part of the death record image and its easy to see how someone might have misread the Guffin surname (indexers are human!) as Griffin. It’s also easy to see the importance of checking all or ‘as many as you can think of’ surname variations as sometimes the one you least expect to be helpful may be the one that finds that ‘missing’ record. Excuse me now while I go and update my source citations for Susannah!

In my haste with my last post, I forgot to include some additional, and I think, important information. So the ‘forgotten’ in today’s post title refers to me and, I hope, is not a sign, with an upcoming birthday, of things to come.

In mentioning Lisa Louise Cooke’s podcasts, I failed to mention that Lisa will be speaking at the Ontario Genealogy Society’s annual conference, this year being held May 14 – 16 in Toronto, Ontario. This year’s program is themed “Essentials, Innovations, and Delights” and includes an opportunity to join a pre-conference program on Thursday, May 13th. On-line registration is available and a pretty impressive line-up of speakers will be presenting. I’ve attended these conferences in past and can assure you that they are fun and informative – and, of course, this year you have a chance to meet Lisa!

I also wanted to recommend another podcast series, this one from the National Archives of the United Kingdom. This podcast is particularly beneficial if you have British ancestors as it provides a series of presentations based on the Archives records collection. My ancestors are almost entirely from north of the border in Scotland but as I’ve learned, there are ‘British’ records that from time to time include Scots. I have found the podcasts of particular interest to me though as they do a terrific job of setting historical context that give just that little bit of a better glimpse into what life might have been like for my ancestral family. While you may find some presentations a bit academic, many are filled with great British humour. If only the National of Archives of Scotland would do the same!

And finally, I’m a big fan of Scotlands People, the portal into Scotland’s genealogical records. I know from discussion with archivists that making record indexes searchable on-line and providing access to record images on a pay-as-you-go fee basis is seen as a model to be copied. Such a system not only provides ease of access to the records but provides revenue for the archives operation. My research has certainly benefited and many a family mystery has been solved by being able to retrieve, view, and save electronic images of Scottish family records. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the search criteria available from some record types are too broad, resulting in too great a number of results. I’ve used the website for several years and the criteria really hasn’t changed. For example, the criteria for births includes only: surname, forename, sex, year range, county, and district. If you aren’t certain of the location, you may find yourself using a lot of pay-as-you-go ‘credits’ viewing documents that are not the one you need. I’d love to see parent’s names added to this criteria. It’s doable and would certainly be helpful.

It’s likely that I’ve forgotten something else but if I have, it will just have to wait!

Just taking a short break from sharing family history information and stories to share some news and comments on happenings in the genealogy world.

First, there is growing excitement, certainly evident in the United States genealogy community about the finally announced debut on the NBC network of the show Who Do You Think You Are? Produced by Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame, the show is clearly hoping to become as popular as the original British version that continues to be a huge success. I’ve read that the British version is in fact being credited with an genealogy explosion across the British isles. I hope that the show is a success but – and here comes the opinion part – its seems to be forgotten that a Canadian version, despite being well produced, aired 13 episodes and didn’t really get off the ground. Not every British import captures the North American imagination but maybe this is the right time.

The American version will delve into the family history of celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Spike Lee, Lisa Kudrow, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and Emmitt Smith. I’m sure this will provide an ample variety of family histories to be, at the least, entertaining. The show premieres on Friday, March 5th at 8:00 p.m. EST.

On another note, I wanted to single out two genealogists (and Facebook friends) who keep me entertained and informed – Lisa Louise Cooke and Randy Seaver.

Lisa is the producer and host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast and, if nothing else, is high energy, fun, genealogy tips and techniques, all rolled into one. I really don’t know where she finds the time with family commitments (including being a new grandmother), genealogy conference speaking engagements in addition to being involved in the production of at least four (yes, four!) podcasts series to which I have listened. Lisa’s ‘gems’ include a free, downloadable genealogy toolbar for your browser (I have it – it’s great) and her new genealogy ‘app’ for the iPhone and iPod Touch – clearly ahead of the curve! Perhaps one of the best examples of her unique blend of fun and information is found in Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #79 – a live podcast recorded (I know – live and recorded don’t seem to belong in the same sentence) at a family History Expo in Mesa, Arizona. It’s worth listening to, you don’t need any fancy equipment as you can listen right off your computer and it’s free!

Randy Seaver is a blogger extraordinaire! Randy doesn’t just have a blog – he has several! I personally follow his Genea-Musings blog, interspersed with reads of his Geneaholic blog. Without a doubt, blogging is a great way to share information. That’s why I started a blog – to share family history information in an easy and efficient manner, accessible to all who may have an interest. While blogging is fun, there is some work involved thus my amazement with Randy’s energy and enthusiasm for keeping folks like me up to date – every day!

Finally, while I have enjoyed honing my skills as an ancestor hunter, I had an experience this week that had me feeling like the predator had become the prey! I received an email from a second cousin – someone who I had in my database thanks to family information I had obtained along the way – but not a cousin with whom I had ever been in contact. It seems that this cousin’s aunt passed away last year leaving behind a number of loose pages of family ‘history’ notes. My newly-connected cousin found my email address through Ancestry.ca and decided to take a chance on my knowing something of the information his aunt had gathered and that I would be able to then help him ‘connect the dots.’

As I am always willing to help in these matters and as I was able to quickly determine our relationship based on the information he provided, I gladly began sharing information and helping him, through email, sort through the various notes. As it turned out, he found a page about me, complete with dates and the names of my children (first and middle). I’m not certain about his aunt’s source (like many of us, it seems her ‘work’ didn’t include source citations!) but I have my suspicions. I’m continuing to exchange information with my ‘found’ cousin but I couldn’t help but be startled at the realization that while I have been researching, I have also been researched!

When my great grandparents, Alexander Shand Hadden and his wife Jessie Mckenzie Gaull moved their family that included my grandfather John Gaull Hadden, to Toronto from Saskatchewan, they moved into the east end of the city. Jessie had a younger brother, George Irvine Gaull, who lived in Toronto already, having moved there from Scotland about 13 years earlier.

George operated a small grocery store at 87 Pickering Street. The store was on the main floor of essentially what was built as a house. For a time George and his wife lived in the upstairs but later they lived on another house not far away from the store. Pictured above is George’s ‘store’ as it looks today – more like a house and under constant renovation.

My great grandparents initially moved into a house one street away from George’s store but soon after moved the family into the house shown above at 109A Pickering Street (theirs was the one on the left). The ‘A’ designation is not completely unique but was unusual and typically would be used when a semi-detached house like this was built on a single lot. When the Hadden family lived in the home, the brown bricks had not been been painted their current white colour. It was from this house that my great grandfather and eventually his sons went off to work each day. It was also the family home during the time of my grandparent’s courtship. And, most importantly perhaps, it is the house in which my father, Lewis John Hadden, was born.

After a few years in 109A Pickering Street, Alexander and Jessie moved a little further up the street. This time to a house at the ‘top’ of Pickering Street where it ended at Gerrard Street. This house became their home until their deaths in 1945. This house, shown above with my great grandfather Alexander and his dog ‘Queenie’ sitting on the front steps, was also the location for one of the better family myths. As the story goes, when the family moved from Saskatchewan, my grandfather’s oldest brother, Alexander Gauld Hadden or, Uncle Alec as we knew him, brought his six-shooter hand guns with him. His mother, Jessie hated the guns and was always worried that only something bad would come of them. So one day the guns disappeared and Jessie confessed that she was responsible – she told the family she had buried the guns in the backyard and never did tell anyone the location. For decades, the family wondered where they were buried as they never were found. You can imagine Uncle Alec’s surprise then about 40 years later, when visiting family in Saskatchewan, he was presented with his guns by a relative who told him that he thought Uncle Alec was old enough to take care of them himself. I can still recall Uncle Alec passing a large, very ‘cowboy’ like six shooter as well as a much daintier silver six shooter to me about 30 years ago. I got to hold and inspect the guns of family lore that I grew up believing were still buried in the backyard!

I am always struck by the high child mortality rates, particularly in the 19th and first half of the 20th century that I see in my family tree. I can’t imagine a parent’s pain and anguish faced with the loss of a young child and only when I became a parent myself, did I appreciate what my parents must have experienced with the loss of two children. While child mortality rates have very fortunately lowered significantly, families still face the dark world of losing a son or daughter. And I need to look no further than my parental family for an example (see I Remember Stephen).

A letter that Hadden co-researcher and cousin-in-law Alan Cope shared with me speaks volumes about this subject. The letter was written was written on December 3rd, 1922 by William (Willie) John Duncan Hadden Gordon (my first cousin, three times removed) to his sister and brother (who I believe were living in the United States at the time).

“My Dear Sister and Brother,

Just a few lines to say that we have lost our 2 dear children Willie and Nan. Willie died at 7:15 last night and our wee Nan died at 10:50 p.m. in the hospital. She died 1 hour after getting there. Willie died with bronco pneumonia and I think Nan had the same but I won’t know until tomorrow. They will lie side by side in the Liberton Cemetery. Be thankful dears for this is an awful blow to us but God has called them to His Skies. They were running around this day week. Now Dear Sister and Brother I come to ask a favour of you if its in your power. Mother and Father will do what they can but Dad is pretty quiet just now. So now dears I can’t say any more just now and I trust this finds you all well.

I will write Don [another brother] tonight also, so night night dears.

Your loving Brother, Willie”

Seeing an image of the original letter, the pain and despair seems to fill every word. This offers another example of the difficult times, even if its not that long ago, that our ancestors faced. Perhaps now I understand why to my grandparents catching a cold could “be the death of you.”

In 1911, someone in the Breithaupt family of then Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario, published a Sketch of the Life of Catharine Breithaupt: Her Family and Times. The book was printed by R.G. McLean in Toronto and included seventeen family photograph ‘plates.’ The author was not specifically identified but it is clear when reading the twenty-seven pages of the ‘sketch’ that it was a family member, someone close to Catharine, and most likely her son William.

I took advantage of some time recently to examine the book at the Toronto (Ontario) Public Library, North York Central Branch which includes the holdings of the Ontario Genealogical Society in its Canadiana department. Also, by way of a tip, I brought along my digital camera and rather than making photocopies of pages, I took digital images of pages with the camera. No more worries about enough coins for the photocopier!

Catharine Hailer (pictured above left) was born in 1834 to Jacob Hailer and Margaret Riehl, a little sister to Margaret who was born in 1831. In 1853, Catharine married a friend of her brother-in-law by the name of Philip Ludwig ‘Louis’ Breithaupt. Louis as he went by for much of his life, ran a tanning or leather goods company in Buffalo, New York with his father, Liborius. When his father died, Louis entered into a business partnership with Jacob Schoelkopf of Buffalo. Jacob was described as the capitalist and Louis the businessman, traveling broadly throughout the mid-west. “There may here be mentioned that in the way of business requiring the services of a lawyer, he made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., and ever afterward retained intense admiration for this national hero.”

Catharine and Louis Breithaupt are the 2nd great grand aunt and uncle of my wife, Ellen. In fact, Ellen’s 2nd great grandfather and the brother-in-law who introduced Catharine to her husband, Rev. Jacob Wagner died suddenly at the age of 33 as he was preparing to join Louis Breithaupt in business together. Catharine and Louis had ten children and the Breithaupt family, as I have recounted in previous postings, became very prominent in the life of Berlin, Ontario. Louis died in 1880 and Catharine passed away thirty years later in 1910. During those thirty years, it is clear from the ‘sketch’ book of her life, she was cared for as the much loved family matriarch. Her death on July 5, 1910 was reported in the Toronto Globe newspaper on July 7, 1910 as follows:

“Death of Mrs. Breithaupt: Berlin’s Oldest Native Resident And A Prominent Church Worker

Berlin, Ont. July 6. – The death took place on Tuesday evening of Mrs. Catharine Breithaupt, relict of the late Louis Breithaupt, at the family residence on Margaret Avenue. The deceased had been ill since April with heart trouble.

The late Mrs. Breithaupt was born in 1834, and was Berlin’s oldest native resident. Her parents immigrated to Canada in 1830, and were the first German settlers in Berlin. In 1853 she was married to the late Mr. Louis Breithaupt, who then resided in Buffalo. In 1861 they moved to Berlin and Mrs. Breithaupt has resided here ever since. Her husband died in 1880. She is survived by four sons and two daughters.

During her long residence in Berlin she has been connected with almost every charitable and philanthropic movement in the town. She was a life-long member of Zion Evangelical Church and one of its most liberal contributors. In addition to assisting in the erection of the new church, she also donated the beautiful organ in memory of her deceased husband and son Carl. She was a valued member of the various organizations of the church, and was also officially connected with the Deaconess’ Society of the Canada Conference and of the General Board in Chicago.”