I must confess to having a certain fascination with my great-great grandaunt Ann Mathieson ‘Annie’ Hadden (pictured to the right in a photo provided by and used with the permission of Hadden family co-researcher Alan Cope).

I suspect the source of my fascination comes from both the name Ann itself (my mother’s married name was Anne Hadden) but predominantly, I think it’s because Annie Hadden represents for me as close a tie to my great great grandfather, and Annie’s brother, John, as I have found to date.

John and Ann’s parents, Alexander Bean Hadden and Jane Mathieson, had ten children between 1857 and 1873. John and Ann were children number 6 and 7, born in 1866 and 1867, respectively. When Ann was 21 years old, she married William Gordon, a dignified looking man, in Botriphnie, Banffshire, Scotland. Between 1890 and 1908, Ann and William welcomed thirteen children into their family.

Two of their children, Mary Jane Mathieson ‘Jeanie’ Gordon and Donald Gordon, would eventually immigrated to the United States. Their eldest son, Alexander Garrow Duncan Gordon, married, fathered two children, but tragically died in World War 1. (For more on Alexander G. D. Gordon, click here). Annie was 68 years old when she passed away in 1936.

When I view her photo and see the strength and character in her features, I wonder how far different would my great great grandfather John look? Perhaps one day, a family member will share a surviving photo of him with me. Until then, Annie is as close as I can come.

So how does a man, born in New York state, educated in Ontario, Canada, who apprenticed as a tanner and leather belt maker and, who was educated as a land surveyor at Northwestern College in Napierville, Illinois, wind up as a minister of the Evangelical Association? This was a question that didn’t seem to have a direct answer until I found a historical sketch about my wife’s great grandfather, Louis Henry Wagner, in Rev. A. J. Fretz’ 1895 book, A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Christian and Hans Meyer and other pioneers: Together with Historical and Biographical Sketches.

As Rev. Fretz recounted:

“Quite early in life impressions of a higher calling, that to which his sainted father sacrificed his energies and life, made themselves felt, but not until the Winter and Spring of 1882 would he consent to give it any attention…. Being fond of business and not desiring the staid realities of an itinerant preacher’s life, he would, for the time being, drown these inner promptings in the interests of his employments and at times even in actual folly. But now the thought would not leave him, and after many prayers and consultations, he decided to apply to his class for recommendation to preach, which was freely given him. At this time he was holding the important offices of Sunday school superintendent and exhorter in the Evangelical church at Berlin. A few weeks later the Canada Conference of the Evangelical Association met at St. Jacobs, Ont., who unanimously granted him his license, received him into the itineracy and appointed him assistant to his former pastor, Rev. J. J. Klipphardt, at Sebringville…. At the conference session of 1886 he passed all the examinations and completed the full course of study creditably, was ordained an elder and admitted into full connection in the conference. In 1887 he was assigned to Blenheim Circuit….”

Rev. Fretz concluded his biographical sketch of Louis with this: “Mr. Wagner has for eight years held the office of conference missionary treasurer. He is in the prime of life, having just passed his 38th birthday. His future is full of prospects, bright and encouraging.”

Rev. Fretz’ words suggest a strong friendship between the two men. His words were also somewhat prophetic as Louis lived for 50 years after Rev. Fretz wrote his book, passing away in January 1945 at the age of 87. He was buried in Kitchener (formerly Berlin), Ontario’s Mount Hope Cemetery, close to the Breithaupt aunt and uncle who had taken a keen interest in him when he was a young man.

I have previously posted information about my wife, Ellen’s great grandfather, the Rev. Louis Henry Wagner. Louis’ father, the Rev. Jacob Wagner died a week after Louis had celebrated his first birthday in 1858. Margaret (nee Hailer) Wagner was left a young widow with two small children – Louis and his older sister Catherine. Census records indicated that Margaret first returned to her parental home in Berlin, Ontario (her parents were the first German born settlers in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario, an area now famous for its German heritage). Four years after her husband’s death, Margaret married again, this time to Daniel Bean, a country school teacher who lived in Blandford, Ontario, some distance from Berlin.

Although Louis Wagner initially went with his mother and his step-father Daniel, he returned to Berlin a few years later to live with his aunt and uncle, Phillip Ludwig ‘Louis’ and Catherine Breithaupt. The book,written in 1895 by the Rev. A. J. Fretz and published in 1896 by News Printing House, entitled A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Christian and Hans Meyer and other pioneers: Together with Historical and Biographical Sketches, referred to in yesterday post, helps fill in the blanks on what happened next in Louis’ life.

“An uncle after whom he was named, and his grandfather Jacob Hailer, of Berlin, took quite an interest in the lad, and with a view of giving him a better education offered him a home in their families, which he accepted, and when 13 years old left his mother’s home to attend the Central school at Berlin.Three years later he passed the examination and attended the High school, continuing several years. An idea to get into business life possessed him so he entered the employ of his uncle, Louis Breithaupt, as an apprentice tanner, remaining with him two years, also learning the trade of leather belt making during that time. The desire for for still better educational attainments now again made themselves strongly felt, and he received permission to attend Northwestern College, an institution of the Evangelical Association at Napierville, Ill., where he remained three years, after which, in the Summer of 1878, he again entered the employ of his uncle as clerk in the leather and shoe findings department, and later as bookkeeper and traveling salesman.”

Although Rev. Fretz referred to Louis’ college years, he didn’t mention that Louis graduated from Northwestern as a land surveyor. In an upcoming post, I will share Rev. Fretz’ account of Louis’ calling to the ministry.

Somehow between family social events, work, and blogging, I found time this past week to actually do some research on our family history. Whatever the inspiration, I decided to try an extract phrase Google search for my wife’s paternal great grandfather, the Rev. Louis Henry Wagner.

The Google search techniques that I used are simple enough but not ‘advertised’ by Google. For a thorough understanding of how Google can enhance your genealogy research, I would encourage you to check out Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcast. Lisa offers both free podcasts and a premium, ‘members only’ area that contains video instructions on how the maximize the benefit of Google. While there is an annual fee for Premium membership, it is a very small amount for a very large benefit.

Under the Google ‘Books’ tab, I found a snippet view of a book that referenced Louis Wagner. With the book title, I was then able to search through Archive.org and found the complete book, written in 1895 by the Rev. A. J. Fretz and published in 1896 by News Printing House, entitled A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Christian and Hans Meyer and other pioneers: Together with Historical and Biographical Sketches. Apparently, short, catchy book titles were not as fashionable in the late 19th century!

This is no small book – it is over 700 pages long, containing the genealogy of one branch of Ellen’s family and as importantly, sketches of many of the family members written based on information that the subjects of the sketches, or then contemporaries of the subjects, provided. It’s going to take me some time to fully explore and mine all of the information contained in the book. But not only does the book provide a wealth of detailed genealogy information, the historical sketches offer a remarkable glimpse into the lives of ancestors that by today’s standards and conveniences are hard to relate to. The section on Louis Henry Wagner, I will share in parts in upcoming posts.

One sketch about Samuel Meyer (the family used both Meyer and Moyer) in particular caught my attention. Samuel was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on 4 March 1767. Before he was 10 years old, both of Samuel’s parents had died of yellow fever and although the next years of his life are somewhat cloudy,  by the age of 16, Samuel was a school teacher. On 15 November 1789, Samuel married 19-year-old Anna Bechtel and they made their home in Blooming Glen, Pennsylvania. In 1800, Samuel decided to move his family north to what was then Canada West and specifically to the area of present day St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls, where he purchased 200 acres of land.

In the summer of 1820, Samuel, accompanied by two friends, returned to Blooming Glen to conduct business. “His next trip to Pennsylvania, a few years later, he made on foot, getting some chance rides, and completed the journey in nine days.He was a rapid walker and more than once covered 6 miles in an hour.” He walked the almost 650 kilometres or about 400 miles – and without the aid of nicely paved roads and interstate highways. I had really not given a lot of thought to the day-to-day mobility challenges that were faced almost 200 years ago and the fitness levels that ancestors likely maintained.

I guess I won’t be able to complain as much the next time I can’t find a parking spot close to a shopping mall entrance!

Among genealogists, across North America at least, NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? is scoring as a hit. In a recent, admittedly unscientific Facebook poll, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak reported that 82% of the respondents rated the show an “A.” The television ratings numbers seem to be suggesting something similar – week #1’s 6.9 million viewers was surpassed by week #2’s 7.15 million viewers.

In week #1, Sarah Jessica Parker’s family story was featured including the historical highlights of the California Gold Rush and the Salem witch hunt. Week #2 offered an extraordinary glimpse into African American genealogy and the dark times of the slave trade as NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith’s family history was featured. Tonight’s third episode features Lisa Kudrow who is also a producer of the show. Following the airing of each episode, the genealogy blog world and social networking sites like Facebook have been filled with various comments and critiques on the positive genealogical elements of the show and areas where improvement was suggested.

There is merit in much of the commentary that has been offered but I think there is something that is missing or has been forgotten. Ultimately, Who Do You Think You Are? is entertainment and in this, it succeeds. Each of our ancestors has a story to tell – the achievements, the failures, the good and not so good decisions made, the joy and the heartbreaks of their lives. Who Do You Think They Are? is capturing that essence and doing it in a one-hour network timeslot.

There are moments in each show when I hope that a particular family line or document search will be explored further but I remind myself that the show is not a genealogy instructional video even though, it has thus far captured the basics quite well. Each of the two episodes has started with the guest celebrity speaking with their older family members and developing the hints and clues that allow them to begin their family history quest.

The discovery of their family history affects each celebrity subject just as the continuing discovery of mine affects me. The show is, and I suspect will continue to be, about raising awareness. The increased traffic on the Ancestry site since the show’s premiere isn’t a coincidence – awareness of genealogy and history in general is quite apparently the result being achieved. I hope that continues for the show’s success can be a driver to making life as a genealogist that much easier (well, except for the slower response times on the Ancestry site following each episode!).

Pictured below are brother and sister, Robert Reid (Bob) and Elizabeth Fraser (Lizzie) Gaull. The portrait was likely taken in Aberdeen, Scotland between 1915 – 1920 although it is undated. I was fortunate to have had them identified by an elderly family member many years ago.

I don’t know when the moment of enlightenment occurred. Perhaps it was a combination of realities converging. Maybe it was meeting my son’s future in-laws. Or, maybe it was emailing a photo of my grandson to my daughter, now Auntie Lisa. Perhaps it’s all of the above but after 30 years of ancestor hunting, I realized that I am an ancestor!

I found it odd not long ago, and as I recall I mentioned this in a blog post, to learn that others, usually distant family relations had me listed in their form of a family history or ‘tree.’ In that case, it was an elderly, now deceased cousin who had passed on to a nephew her ‘family file’ containing notes about various generations and locations of family members, myself included. The nephew tracked me down through the magic of the Internet. After years of being the tracker or hunter, it felt odd to discover I was also being hunted – good, but odd.

Now I realize that their are two generations alive after me  I am an ancestor! And, even if I feel much too young to wear that mantle! The benefit of this discovery is that I now know that there are things I can do to assist my descendants that my, and their, ancestors neglected to do.

1. I can identify the family members, and any others, that appear in family photos. I have far too many old family photo albums containing pictures of people I don’t know because my parents and grandparents didn’t write names and dates on the back of the photos. I can at least do that for the many photos for which I have that information.

2. I can organize all of the hundreds of family documents that I have acquired over the years so that they make sense to some one other than me. I have no trouble with ‘my’ filing system finding a document that I need to refer to but I’m not certain it would be easy for anyone else and, if I’m really honest with myself, as I continue to find more documents through my ever deepening research, it’s becoming tough for me too!

3. I can, and this one is perhaps the most important, finish citing all of the sources for the facts in my genealogy database. These are the citations that I didn’t complete at the time of entering the database information but promised myself that I would get to someday. I think its time for someday to become today – before I’m too old to remember the source myself!

There are other things that I’m sure I could also do but I think if I make the list too long, I won’t get started. I need to begin and complete the most important tasks first before their is another generation added to the two already following me!

Lizzie was born in June 1899 at Cairnley, Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She was a younger sister to my great grandmother, Jessie McKenzie Gaull – in fact, she was 17 years younger. Their father, John Gaull and his wife Harriet McKenzie, had their first child in 1879 and their last, number thirteen,  in 1904, a span of 25 years. My great grandmother Jessie was number two and Lizzie was number eleven.

After Jessie, her husband Alexander Shand Hadden and their children, including my grandfather John Gaull Hadden, left Scotland in 1923 for Canada, the only real opportunity for sharing family events and occasions was through letters and photos. Although I know of no letters that survived, fortunately many of the photos did find their way into albums that are still in the family today. In February 1928, Lizzie married Edward ‘Eddie’ Christie and when later that same year, Lizzie gave birth to the her and Eddie’s first child, a son named Edward Alexander Christie, the event of the baby’s christening was shared with the family in Canada. The photo above is one of the photos from that occasion, showing Eddie and Lizzie Christie with their son.

Oddly, there was another photo that I later realized was from the same happy occasion showing an infant ‘laid out’ on the seat of a chair. For many years when I was young, I thought it was the picture of a child’s funeral. It was a bit of a relief when I realized it was cousin Edward Alexander Christie as an infant sleeping during his christening party!

Just a quick post to highlight the new blog design. I hope that you find this design a bit easier to read. I’d invite your comments and feedback. Thanks!