James ‘Jimmy’ Gammie was born April 26, 1895 in St. Nicholas, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He was a younger half-brother of my great grandfather, Alexander Shand Hadden. In 1907, Jimmy’s parents, Andrew and Helen (Shand) Gammie moved the family, that included Jimmy, his older brothers Andrew and Peter and younger sisters, Helen and Williamina, to Saskatchewan, Canada where they acquired a homestead and began a new frontier life.

On May 17th, 1916, Jimmy and his brother, Peter, enlisted in the 46th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Pictured above, in 1917 when in France, is the 46th Battalion’s Pipes and Drums Band whose music Jimmy would have no doubt marched to. Peter Gammie was discharged just over a year later in June 1917 for medical reasons but Jimmy remained to fight, and die, in France. His military records, obtained from Library and Archives Canada, offer a glimpse into Jimmy’s brief military career.

When Jimmy Gammie enlisted, he completed and signed his Attestation Paper which listed his mother “Mrs. Helen Gammie” of Quimper, Saskatchewan as his next of kin. Jimmy, standing 5 feet 8 inches in height, was described as having a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He was certified as being medically fit for duty.

According to his military record, Jimmy went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) on October 3, 1916 for just one day. He was docked one day’s pay for this apparent youthful misadventure. On October 30th, 1916 Jimmy was diagnosed with pneumonia and for about 3 weeks was under medical care before being ‘discharged’ for duty. Jimmy first was ‘shipped’ to Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 17, 1917 and twelve days later, on April 29, 1917, he debarked from the S. S. Northland at Liverpool, England and was sent straight into training at Bramshott Military Camp in Surrey, England. On September 12, 1917, Jimmy “proceeded overseas for service” with his 46th Battalion.

Jimmy Gammie saw lots of action once in France and on March 24th, 1918, he suffered gun shot wounds to the left side of his body, arm and ankle. As a result he was moved to different Casualty Clearing Stations, first, #6 station, then a day later, #2 station, and finally on May 1st, to #1 station from which he was discharged for duty on May 2nd and sent back to the front to take up the fight once more. Sadly, on September 27th, 1918 he suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his back and was listed as “Dangerously Ill” at #22 Casualty Clearing Station where he died the next day.

Jimmy was paid $1.10 per day to fight in France for King and country. Like all soldiers, he was paid monthly with his pay credited on a ledger that also recorded the amounts spent each month. In Jimmy’s case, he was frugal and spent only an average of 10% of his wages so that when he died, a credit balance of $398.34 was left to his next of kin, his mother Helen.

On November 3, 1920, the Memorial Plaque and Scroll was issued to Andrew Gammie to commemorate his son’s sacrifice along with the Memorial Cross for Jimmy’s mother, Helen.

The name of Private James Gammie, 46th Battalion, can still be seen today inscribed on page 412 of the World War 1 Book of Remembrance so that his sacrifice is not forgotten.

James “Uncle Jim” Hadden was born in 1935, the second child of my paternal grandparents John and Agnes (Little) Hadden and the younger brother of my father. Jim apparently developed a reputation in his younger days for lighting fires, so as expected, he spent his professional years as a Toronto firefighter. Sadly, Uncle Jim passed away suddenly in 2005. He is pictured above with a very much younger ‘me.’

Why am I searching for McCoys? Well, my youngest daughter’s fiance is a McCoy with a keen interest in tracing his Canadian roots. And, despite much being written about ways and means to encourage younger people to take the art of genealogy, I must admit watching my future son-in-law’s frustrations and struggles has demonstrated to me just how tough it can be for young people to get off to a good start.

Without the ‘luxury’ of yet having a sufficient disposable income, membership in a society may not seem affordable for the benefits provided and attendance at a conference may be completely out of the question. Attending a course is unfortunately not usually free so again some key potential resources can feel like they are out of reach. Subscription sites like Ancestry are expensive if you are a student or just starting out in your ‘professional’ career so these end up falling into the ‘some day’ category of financial plans.

I’ve taken the McCoy research on as a project that combines sharing tips and techniques with my future son-in-law as well as helps me learn a bit more about Canadian jurisdictions, for unlike my ancestors who settled in Ontario, the McCoys were long time residents in the province of New Brunswick, on Canada’s east coast. This meant that I could not happily rely on fully indexed civil registration images through Ancestry.

I focused my research on Thomas McCoy, the 3rd great grandfather of my future son-in-law, Mark. This allowed me to track the family more easily through the decennial Canadian Census records. The starting information that I had allowed me to quickly find the family in 1891 living in Canning Parish, Sunbury and Queens County, New Brunswick. Thomas was a farmer who was born around 1845 in New Brunswick. He married Silena Clark, also a native of New Brunswick, probably around 1867. From about 1868 to 1892, Thomas and Silena had 11 children: 8 boys and 3 girls.

Interestingly, in 1891, Thomas was listed as being of Irish descendant. In 1881, he was of Scottish descent, and just to confuse us, in 1871, he was listed as being of English descent. While I suspect the Irish descent is likely correct, this is an example of how census information can sometimes be unreliable.

Fortunately, the New Brunswick Provincial Archives provides a search engine to more than 800,000 vital records, some with digitized images and all with source and ordering information. While finding family members with common names like John and Thomas isn’t easy, other family names like Seymour and Horace provide an opportunity to obtain valuable information and clues to keep moving deeper into the family history.

Having fully ‘mined’ the vital records database (I think), it’s time to move on to other sources like land records, again many fully indexed and available free on-line. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

The world seems to keep getting a little smaller and the connections between families, no matter how disparate, keep showing themselves.

Last November, I wrote about one of my uncles, the Rev. Ernest Royle or as I knew him, Uncle Ernie. Born in 1935, Ernie Royle graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto at the Spring convocation of 1959 and was subsequently ordained a minister with the United Church of Canada. He was always Uncle Ernie to me and I had a tough time ‘seeing’ him as a church minister preaching each Sunday. But when my wife, Ellen and I decided to get married, it seemed only natural to ask Uncle Ernie if he would be so kind as to do the honours and officiate at our wedding. He immediately, and without any hesitation, agreed and so one of our great memories is of Uncle Ernie ‘hitching’ us.

While researching Ellen’s family history, as I have recounted in earlier posts, I found that her second cousin twice removed, Louis Orville Breithaupt had been the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1952 until 1957. Following his vice regal term, Louis had been appointed as the Chancellor of Victoria College. I also learned through my aunt, Carol (Hadden) Royle, that one of Uncle Ernie’s classmates at university had also been a Breithaupt – a Herb Breithaupt as she recalled. Mere coincidence or could there be a connection?

Well, as it turns out there absolutely is a connection as Herbert C. Breithaupt is third cousin to Ellen, Herb being the son of Louis Orville Breithaupt (as mentioned Ellen’s second cousin). Small world, indeed! But it became even a bit smaller when I found that as Chancellor, Ellen’s cousin Louis conferred the Bachelor of Divinity degree not only on his son, Herbert, but also on Herb’s classmate, Ernest Royle! Above is a photo from Sara (Caskey) Breithaupt’s memoir showing Louis conferring the Bachelor of Divinity degree on his son Herb. The second person seated to the right of Louis is the late Hon. Lester B. Pearson who not long after this photo was taken became the Prime Minister of Canada.

Last night, I watched the first episode of the new, American version of Who Do You Think You Are?, the long awaited weekly television series that traces the family history of celebrities. Episode 1 featured Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City fame (although she certainly has more than that on her resume).

Here are impressions of the show:

• Sarah Jessica Parker genuinely seemed to be engaged and earnest in her desire to seek out the connections that her ancestors had to history like the California Gold Rush and the Salem Witch Hunt.
• Some elements of research were glossed over without any real explanation like a great grandfather reported in a newspaper to have died in 1849 appearing in the census of 1850 without something verifying that they were in fact dealing with the ‘right’ individual. If only my family research was that simple.
• The use of historical documents, some like an original Salem Witch Hunt warrant, showed the tremendous variety of records that might be available to assist in research efforts. It’s not just vital records for births, marriages, and deaths along with census records that fill in all the blanks.
• It’s hard to believe that anyone would be touching a 1690’s document without wearing gloves. I almost shuddered thinking of the risk that the document faced as bare fingers, admittedly gently, flipped it over and I’m sure I let out an audible gasp as I watched it happen.
• The hour long format gave sufficient time to tell the story well and I guess all the ‘coming up’ and ‘recap’ sections before and after commercial breaks are necessary – I just don’t enjoy them. I’d prefer that the time be used in a more instructive manner but maybe that just means I wouldn’t do well as a television show producer.
• I liked seeing the interaction with a number of genealogists and historians rather than having a single ‘staff’ genealogist portrayed as the researcher. This makes the research element real . I’ve certainly been helped by many people with a variety of expertise over the years.
• Following the show, I noticed a delay in getting on to the Ancestry site. I’m going to assume this is directly related to the show’s airing and higher than usual traffic on the site. If I’m correct, that’s okay as it means the show is having the effect of raising interest and awareness in genealogy and there’s nothing wrong with ‘going mainstream.’

Episode 2 is a week away but my PVR is already set!

George Irvine Gaull was the brother of my paternal great grandmother, Jessie McKenzie (Gaull) Hadden. He, like his older sister Jessie, was one of 13 children born to John Gaull and his wife, Harriett McKenzie. George was born at the Gaull family farm on July 8, 1892 in Cairnley, Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and was rather interestingly named by his father, John, after John’s twin brother George who had gone by the surname of Irvine almost from birth (George had been raised by an Inverurie family named Houey from infancy whereas John was raised by his mother Mary Jane Gaull – see “An Unsolved Mystery” from August 31, 2009).

When George was 18 years old, likely as with most young men of that age feeling invincible, he left Scotland for Canada. Carrying ticket number 121150 and $25.00, George boarded the Empress of Ireland (pictured above) at Liverpool and sailed into Quebec City, Quebec on June 9, 1910. George then made his way west to Toronto by train where, according to the ship’s passenger list, he planned to carry on the work he knew from home – he was going to be a farm labourer. Maybe it was because he found that there weren’t a lot of farms in the city of Toronto in 1910 that lead George into another field of employment, that of being a grocer. George changed careers and found a room living in the former Village of East Toronto with the Coulson family. Three years later, on July 1, 1913 George married his landlord’s daughter, Mary Elizabeth Coulson.

On May 25, 1917, George, then 25 years of age and standing at just over 5 feet and 4 inches in height, left his house at 67 Pickering Street and enlisted with the Royal Canadian Dragoons in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. George returned to Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 31, 1920, again sailing from Liverpool, England to Quebec City, this time aboard the ship ‘Melita’ and took up his occupation as a grocer. In 1926, George and Mary were living at 98 Lyall Avenue, a city block or two away from his former Pickering Street home. At the time he was working for Lawlor’s Bread Company but by 1929, George had opened his own grocery store at 87 Pickering Street and according to the Toronto City Directory for that year, he could be reached by telephone at HOward 0280.

The little grocery store started by ‘Georgie’ Gaull, as he was known in the family, continued to operate well into my early childhood days. I passed by the store daily on my way to school knowing that it was part of my family history.

Well, this is the week that has been all the buzz for quite some time. When would NBC finally include Who Do You Think You Are? in their broadcast schedule? After numerous false alarms and ‘any day now’ promises, the American version based on the British hit takes to the airwaves (I guess that depends on whether you use cable or satellite dish) on Friday, March 5th at 8:00 PM EST. In hour long episodes, the show will follow the journey of seven celebrities as they discover their family roots.

This show, not really new to North America but certainly to mainstream USA, is following quickly on the heels of the popular Faces of America series that concludes tomorrow evening, March 3rd, on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Hosted by Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the show explores the immigrant impact and experience in America through the roots of twelve well-known American (including one transplanted Canadian) celebrities. Extremely well-produced, the hour long episodes truly show the historical impacts of events on families. The first three episodes are available for viewing on-line so you don’t need to ‘receive’ a PBS station in order to see this terrific program.

In the United Kingdom, the show Who Do You Think You Are? has become such a ‘hit’ that a whole secondary industry associated with the show and genealogy has bloomed. More than 50 episodes over the past six years have regularly drawn more than six million viewers.

So then, what if Producer Lisa Kudrow’s American version of the show becomes as popular? Is the genealogy community ready for the onslaught? I suspect that many think they are and, in fact, hope that they get to test their state of preparedness. I have heard and read in some blogs and articles that a few local genealogy societies have readied themselves by having their ‘beginner’ level classes dusted off and ready to be delivered.

As an individual, here are a few tips that I think might help you make a difference within your community or sphere of influence:

1. Be ready to answer lots of questions! Remember back to all the questions you had starting out, and maybe you still have in many areas.

2. Be ready with printed charts – pedigree charts and family group sheets can really help someone understand how family information can be easily organized.

3. Be ready with some software recommendations – unlike even a few years ago, there are some great free downloadable versions of the more popular genealogy software products (like RootsMagic Essentials and Legacy) that can help new genealogists get a running start.

4. Be ready to suggest a membership in your local genealogy society and don’t forget to point out the classes that are offered.

5. Be ready to share recommendations for favourite Internet sites including message boards and subscriptions sites, like Ancestry.com, that you use and are familiar with.

6. Be ready to share your favourite podcasts by directing new genealogists to sites like the Genealogy Gems podcast and the Genealogy Guys podcast.

My experience has been that many friends and family are interested in knowing something about those from whom they are descended but aren’t certain about where or how to start the exploration. As Meryl Streep points out in the Faces of America series, “We are the sum of all the people who lived before us.” Many are likely going to want to know who they are the ‘sum of so, be ready to help – maybe by adding to my list!

My last blog post concluded with a reference to the Canada versus USA gold medal hockey game at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. I cannot deny that as a Canadian ‘kid’ who breathed ‘hockey, hockey, hockey’ growing up, I was cheering on the home side to their dramatic overtime win – a win that resulted in a explosion of patriotic joy across the country. But I also have an American connection that lies just below the surface as my mother was born in Detroit, Michigan.

Like many family events, my maternal grandparents, J. Graham and Gertrude (Foley) O’Neill moved to Detroit in 1929 as there was a job waiting for Graham at the Kelvin Cooling Company, manufacturers of the Kelvinator refrigerator. The Great Depression was gripping their world and work was not something you turned down. The 1930 US Census records show the family on April 3rd, 1930 living in a home at 5205 Linsdale Street in Detroit. In addition to Graham and Gertrude was their son, Edwin, who was born in Toronto, Ontario, the year before the family move.

In October 1930, a daughter, Anne Margaret O’Neill, my mother, joined the family. Another son, William Emmett would join them in 1935. Life for my mother and her parental family in Detroit ended however in 1937 when Graham’s mother, Margaret (Graham) O’Neill passed away in Toronto, Ontario. Graham, as his parent’s only son, returned to Toronto immediately to take care of the arrangements for his mother’s funeral and estate. Graham inherited the family home at 189 Pickering Street and moved his family from Detroit to their ‘new’ home in Toronto’s east end.

With the strong Irish Catholic influences of a Foley maternal line and O’Neill paternal line, my mother attended the local Catholic elementary school and eventually, the neighbouring all-girls Notre Dame Catholic High School. Following high school graduation, Anne enrolled in the nursing program at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto, graduating as a registered nurse in 1952. The following year, Anne married my father, Lewis, who was one of the neighbourhood boys before they started dating when they were 16 years old.

Following the births of her children, Anne returned to the practise of nursing at St. Michael’s Hospital. Later, she would ‘transfer’ to a hospital closer to home where she would conclude her professional career as a nursing manager. As kids, my brother, sister, and I would marvel at our mother’s ability and expertise in treating and caring for others, especially when our injuries were typically somehow minimized and treated with the ‘magic’ tensor bandage (later in life, I discovered I had broken bones that had been treated with the ‘magic’ tensor bandage – though apparently, not that successfully).

Anne doted on her eight grandchildren and believed, I think firmly, that it was her “God given right” to spoil them any way she saw fit. Eventually, Anne became a Canadian citizen though she never felt there was a need for such a process in her case. Although diagnosed with cancer around 1984 and undergoing chemotherapy, she still enjoyed life through travel and shopping – lots of shopping. Her battle with cancer concluded in January 1994, leaving us with many memories of her eventual love of hockey, especially her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs whose games she watched in the comfort of her ‘nest’ as her TV room was appropriately dubbed.

While the world has been watching the Canadian gold rush at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, I have participating, quietly, in Winter 2010 Geneabloggers Games. These ‘games’ are one of several clever ways to improve your genealogy skills through a number of ‘events’ with the added benefit of providing a practical aspect of motivating us to get to some of those genealogy chores where procrastination has been the winning influence.

I didn’t participate in all of the ‘events.’ I would have earned a gold medal in data back-up but disqualified myself as I had already completed all of the required elements. Having lost my genealogy data (as well as all other personal data) to a computer virus some years ago, I have several systems in place to back-up my data including two USB keys and a secure, external ‘cloud’ data back-up service provider.

I did participate in the source citation event, important to me as I had resolved at the beginning of the year to tackle my earlier research times of laziness when I moved on in my research with the intention of returning to cite my sources – only to recognize that the number of citations was enormous, in fact, overwhelming. My result – a platinum medal. To qualify, I needed to make 50 source citations, a level that I easily surpassed.

I achieved a diamond medal level in organizing my files with more than 20 digital files, hard copy photos, digital photos and new data entries (with sources cited) all completed. I also achieved a gold medal in the writing category as I was able to pre-publish a number of blog posts including a new summary page and ancestral stories.

The area I find most rewarding though is the platinum medal level for genealogical acts of kindness. I have heard of and never really understood individuals who will not share their genealogical information or expertise without receiving something in return. I believe that the secret to success is allowing others to benefit from whatever information and expertise I might be able to offer. In achieving this medal, I commented on another genealogical blog and began ‘following’ several other very interesting blogs. I’ve assisted a new ‘cousin’ connection as well as some new to genealogy friends and family. I’ve even used Facebook to invite my ‘friends’ to my blog to find information about a new (to me, at least) free software application.

All in all, a very successful winter games. Now, if the Canadian men could just win the hockey gold, all will be well!

I’m not certain as to Daniel Fitzgerald’s motivation for moving his family in 1843 from New York State to Toronto, Ontario but move he did. Daniel was born in Waterford, Ireland around 1804 and as a young, single man, he struck out on his own in 1825 seeking a bright future in the New World, settling in St. Vincent, New York. There he married Rebecca Noble and brought four children into the world: Lewis, Henry, Joseph, and a daughter Annette.

When he moved to Toronto, he purchased 100 acres of land at Lot 5, Concession 2 according to 1885’s History of Toronto and County of York, Ontario, Vol. 2. According to his 1885 biographical sketch, the family ‘homestead’ was eventually purchased by Daniel’s youngest son, Joseph and his oldest son, Lewis purchased 15 acres at Lot 8, Concession 2 to which he later added 10 acres.

Fortunately, McGill University’s County Atlas Digital Project provides a great search tool for finding maps and for me, this meant finding the location of these ancestral lands (you can also view Randy Seaver’s more detailed review of the county atlas project in his November 24th and 25th, 2009 posting on the Genea-Musings blog). For Daniel Fitzgerald is my third great grandfather (see also Daniel Fitzgerald Died?) and his eldest son, Lewis, my second great grandfather. The atlas maps are searchable by both county and name so finding these properties, with the names of each ancestor printed on the section of land that they owned in an 1878 map was both easy and exciting. Below is section of the map showing Lewis’ property, the large original Fitzgerald property that in 1878 was owned by Joseph Fitzgerald and in the bottom left corner of Joseph’s lands, the home of Daniel Fitzgerald – “DF” on the map.

If only they had held on to the land. It would be worth millions today! It’s great to see that my ancestors appear to have prospered but again, that family wealth seems to have vanished before it could pass to my generation!