Alexander Shand Hadden with his dog, fresh from the Saskatchewan, Canada homestead, which accounts for the hat!

The headstone for my wife Ellen’s great grandparents in Seaforth, Huron County, Ontario.

Vimy Ridge

Today, across Canada, memorials were held in honour of Canada’s victory at Vimy Ridge during World War 1. Many consider this battle, that started on April 9th, 1917, as a defining moment in Canada’s nationhood, when Canada transformed from colony to country. Although other allied forces had tried vainly to take the ridge, it was the Canadian troops who finally succeeded. The battle marked the first time that all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had joined and participated in a battle together. As far as I can tell, my great grand-uncle, James Gammie was one of the Canadian soldiers who participated in and survived this fierce battle, only to be killed over a year later in another battle. It was just a couple of months ago that Canada mourned the passing of its last surviving World War 1 veteran, John Henry Foster ‘Jack’ Babcock, of Kingston, Ontario.

Scareware

I thought I should share some ‘techie’ advice from my office about scareware, or sometimes referred to as rogueware. If you have had pop-ups saying things like “You have been infected!” or “Malware Infections Found” then you have likely been exposed to scareware, one of the latest technology scams. Essentially, scareware is fake security software. Here’s the advice our IT department has offered: 1. Remain calm! Things usually can get worse if you try to click your way out of the pop-up. Clicking on ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘cancel’ might even likely cause run the scareware software to run on your computer, no matter what you click and no matter how many times you click. 2. If you are running the Windows operating system, go to your task manager (simultaneously press “ctrl+alt+delete” to open the task manager) and end the Internet browser program you are using. You may lose the page you are working on but you can go back later. Remember also to keep your anti-virus software up to date.

Who Do You Think You Are? Renewed

The new genealogy based series, Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC has been renewed for a second season, much to the delight of genealogist across North America (and beyond). No news yet on what season will cover but the series ‘won’ its timeslot last week to earn the renewal!

OGS Conference 2010 Just Weeks Away

The Ontario Genealogical Society’s annual conference is being held from Friday, May 14th until Sunday, May 16th. This year’s conference, hosted by the Toronto Branch of the OGS, will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The conference features more than 25 speakers and includes focused streams on Dutch and Italian ancestry. My wife, Ellen, and I will be attending and are looking forward to meeting among others, Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems Podcast who will be making her first ‘north of the 49th‘ appearance! On-line registration for any of the six registration packages is still available along with registration for the two pre-conference programs being held on Thursday, May 13th. Hope to see you there as well.

The excitement of discovery – I think that sums it up! I have certainly felt that excitement as I have broken through to a new generation of ancestors and all the associated family discoveries that may promise.

This week, Who Do You Think You Are?, NBC’s genealogy based hit (I don’t think based on the ratings so far that it is premature to call it a ‘hit’) took actress/model Brooke Shields back to her royal ancestral roots. While I may not be able to fully relate to the royal discovery of a direct line ancestral connection to French aristocracy, with the historical close ties between France and Scotland, who knows? Maybe, one day? Maybe not, but I’m happy enough to settle for many of the discoveries I have made to date, especially on my wife’s side with a direct United Empire Loyalist connection, a connection to the Paul Revere ride, a vice-regal appointment in Ontario, Canada and connections between her family and mine that date back more than fifty years ago but which were totally unknown to us.

I’ve discovered Scottish ancestors with Irish roots and Irish ancestors with Scottish roots and for me, most importantly, come to appreciate the sacrifices of my ancestors that landed me where I am today.

Perhaps I could get back more than 400 years in my family history with the aid of a team of professional genealogists and historians but I would have missed the voyage of self-discovery that so fascinates me. My team is made up of fellow researchers who work collaboratively, sharing tidbits and clues that can be woven into the fabric of the family. Like Brooke Shields’ family, my family history contains stories of tragedy that help explain family decisions made long before I was a ‘twinkle’ in anyone’s eyes! War heroes making the ultimate sacrifice, a family drowning – these events have shaped my family, have given my family texture and character.

I cannot yet relate to a royal mansion in Europe but would easily settle for an ancient castle in the Scottish highlands!

To view episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? on-line, click here, and enjoy!

My paternal grandmother, Agnes Little was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1908. Twenty years later, she left Scotland for Canada where she met and married my grandfather, John Gaull Hadden, in 1929.

Agnes’ parents were James Little and Margaret Mitchell, both also natives of Greenock and both born in 1889. Margaret was one month shy of her seventeenth birthday when she married James. The 1901 Scottish Census perhaps casts some light on her early-in-life nuptials.

Margaret was the second of five children born to William Mitchell and Agnes Sweeney, likely my grandmother’s namesake under the Scottish naming convention. Margaret’s father, William was a shipyard labourer. Margaret was born at 3 West Quay Lane in Greenock, the address associated with the Greenock Poorhouse, serving not only as a sanctuary for the indigent poor but also as the lunatic asylum. An 1868 report on the conditions of the poorhouse indicates that it was generally kept in good condition but that “there are no means of regular amusement or occupation.” The same report indicates that “lunatics’ were annually sent to both England and Ireland!

In 1901, Margaret is found living with her grandmother Helen (noted in the census as ‘Ellen’) Sweeney (nee Dickson). Helen was operating a boarding house at 3 Shannons Close. 12 year-old Margaret was there with her four siblings. Her older sister, Ellen was working at the time as a ‘Message Girl’ for a local fish shop. Her parents were not present but there were nine lodgers, eight of whom were men, labourers from likely from the shipyards.

I can only guess that the boarding house environment was rough and uncomfortable for a young lady. Was marriage a few years later an escape from that environment? More research is required to unlock the answer.

This past week has brought about a new cousin connection, with the granddaughter of Margaret’s youngest brother James. Kathy Holmes lives with her husband and their three sons in Loughborough, Leicestshire, England and we have begun sharing information on our Mitchell family common ancestors via email. More cousins that I didn’t know I had!

This week’s photo is of the shop at Bainshole, Aberdeenshire, Scotland that was operated by my third great grandfather Alexander Bean Hadden, assisted by his son and my second great grandfather, John Hadden. The photo was taken a few years after the Hadden family had moved out but still offers a great picture of what the shop would have looked like in 1883 when my great grandfather, Alexander Shand Hadden was born. (Photo courtesy of Hadden family co-researcher Alan Cope).

One of the important documents that I have been able to obtain is the homestead file for James Gammie. James, a half brother of my great grandfather, Alexander Shand Hadden, had been killed in action in France in 1918 during the First World War. In his will, completed as part of his Canadian Expeditionary Force induction, James had named his mother, Helen (nee Shand) Gammie as his next of kin.

Born on April 26, 1895 at St. Nicholas, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, James was 12 years old when his parents moved the family from Scotland to Saskatchewan, Canada. A few months past his 16th birthday, James completed a Form No. 1, Application for Entry for a Homestead, a Pre-emption or a Purchased Homestead which was assigned file number 26986. His application was subsequently registered on August 30, 1911 at the Dominion Lands Office in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and James was granted the north-west quarter section of Section number 9 in Township 8, Range 10 of the 3rd Meridian.

The homestead file for this piece of property not only contains the registered application that James submitted but also his army will and Department of Militia and Defence written confirmation of his death in France due to wounds received in action in addition to the Surrogate Court order conveying the land to his mother, Helen, in accordance with his last wishes. Interestingly, the order had the following clause attached to it.

This Grant is made upon the condition that no portion of the assets shall be distributed or paid during the war to any beneficiary or creditor who is a German, Austro-Hungarian, Turkisk or Bulgarian subject wherever resident, or to anyone on his behalf, or to or on behalf of any person resident in Germany, Austria Hungary, Turkey, or Bulgaria, or whatever nationality, without the express sanction of the Crown acting through the Attorney General of the Province, and if any distribution or payment is made contrary to this condition the grant of Letters of Administration with Will annexed will be forthwith revoked.

The court order with the attached clause was signed and issued by the Surrogate Court on April 6, 1920, a little more than nine months after the Treaty of Versailles had officially ended the war. It appears that perhaps, there were still some lingering hard feelings!

The U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? continues to improve in the ratings and has placed consistently high, holding down second place in it’s Friday night time slot. This week’s episode traced the ancestry of Tony Award winning and movie actor Matthew Broderick.

I’ve posted before that the show, in my opinion, is succeeding in raising awareness of family connections, perhaps in a way that no other North American show has been able, with the possible exception of Alex Haley’s Roots in the 1970’s. The Matthew Broderick episode revealed an ancestry with strong military roots – a grandfather who was a decorated World War 1 hero and the somewhat graphically described in records death of a US Civil War great-great grandfather.

This was an episode to which I could easily relate, much more than the previous episodes. As interesting as Sarah Jessica Parker’s connections to the California Gold Rush and the Salem Witch Hunt, Emmitt Smith’s connections to the slave trade, and Lisa Kudrow’s connection to the Holocaust and Eastern Europe were to watch, Matthew Broderick’s military connection and his reactions to this past resonated with me.

I remember a time when I considered Remembrance Day (in Canada) or Veteran’s Day (in the U.S.) to be important but not personal and then, I discovered through family history research that I had ancestors who fought and died in war. I had ancestors whose passion provoked them to enlist even if they never made into battle. Suddenly, the war events moved from the academic to take on new meaning. There were heroes in my family like young Jimmy Gammie, who at the age of only 23, made the ultimate sacrifice, a sacrifice that dramatically shaped the future of my family.

I’ve come to learn through all of the family research that every family and every family member has a story to tell. Who Do You Think You Are? is telling some of those stories, and perhaps fortunately not as a genealogical instruction video but rather in a way that touches the summation that we are of our ancestors.