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.”

Before I began researching my family’s history, war was something rather academic, just a subject to be studied. It didn’t seem to touch my family. My grandfathers were too young for World War 1 and too old for World War 2. But as I have delved deeper into the my family tree’s roots and branches, I have found too many young men, some only boys, who paid the ultimate sacrifice ‘for King and country.’

I am not only fascinated with the men in my family tree who valiantly went to war but I can’t help but feel for the families they left behind and the terrible shock they received when news came from the ‘front.’ Recently, Alan Cope, a cousin-in-law and family history co-researcher, shared a letter that was received about the death of my great great grandfather’s nephew and my first cousin, three times removed, Alexander Garrow Duncan Gordon (pictured right in a photo Alan also provided).

Alexander was born in May 1891 in Keiss, Caithness, Scotland, the eldest son of William Gordon and Annie Hadden. In 1912, Alexander married Euphemia Thomson Anderson and over the next few years, they welcomed children ‘Willie’ and Margaret. Unfortunately, and likely due to the significant destruction of British World War 1 records during the bombing of London in World War 2, I don’t know exactly when Alexander enlisted but he did join the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. Subsequently, he was sent into action at the front.

Dated August 20, 1917, Army Form B. 104-82 was sent to Alexander’s family from the Infantry Record Office in Perth. With typical Army efficiency, the notice is a ‘fill in the blank’ form (the filled in sections are in italics):

Madam

It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has been received from the War Office notifying the death of :-
(No.) S/ 9654 (Rank) Private
(Name) Alexander Gordon
(Regiment) Argyll & Sutherland Highrs.
which occurred in France
on the 6th August 1917.
The report is to the effect that he was Killed in Action.

By His Majesty’s command I am to forward the enclosed message of sympathy from Their Gracious Majesties the King and Queen. I am at the same time to express the regret of the Army Council at the soldier’s death in his Country’s service.

I am to add that any information that may be received as to the soldier’s burial will be communicated to you in due course. A separate leaflet dealing more fully with this subject is enclosed.

I am,
Madam
Your obedient Servant,
signed
Officer in charge of Records

It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for a young wife and mother or elderly parents when they opened an envelope containing a form letter like the one above, knowing that their loved one was never coming home, not even for burial.

A family Coat of Arms or a family crest are sometimes closely linked to family history. Pictured to the left is the “Hadden Coat of Arms.” A shield with distinctive quadrants and a crescent moon covering the intersection of quadrants. It looks impressive but I can lay no claim to it because coats of arms were not given to families!

Coats of arms became necessary at a time when, predominantly the noble and gentry began wearing suits of armour for protection when going into battle. Without colourful, distinctive markings, it was hard to tell who was on your side as everyone could, well, look the same. I think it would be a bit like watching your favourite sports team playing their arch rivals while both teams wore the same uniform. Or imagine attending a jousting tournament in more peaceful medieval times, how would you know who your favourite knight was and therefore who to cheer on if there were no distinctive markings.

I’m not certain of the meaning of the symbols and diagrams in each of the quadrants but from what I understand the red colour is suppose to symbolize warrior and military strength and the gold symbolizes generosity while black represents constancy and grief. And the red roses? Maybe romantic warrior? I doubt it but there could a great new apocryphal family story to get started.

It’s not that I can’t find any number of vendors who will sell me “my family coat of arms” adorning mugs, T-shirts, framed lithographs and plaques. No, it’s because the coat of arms was given to individuals for their exclusive use. The coat of arms was passed down as an inheritance but only from father to first born son.

Even though I am the first born son of a first born son, my grandfather was a third born son – so I only get back a couple of generations before I run into a problem. My grandfather’s father was a first born son but his father was a fourth born son so again I can’t get through to making a claim on the coat of arms.

All is not lost though, a nicely mounted heraldic plaque with the “family coat of arms” looks great on the living room wall.

I don’t have that many family wills but those that I have read continue to fascinate me with their glimpses into the life of the individuals who completed them. They also at times add to some of the family mysteries that perplex me.

John Gaull was my 4th great grandfather. He was born on June 8th, 1806 at Conglass, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and married Mary Christie on May 13, 1843 at Kintore, Aberdeenshire. On January 8, 1887, John Gaull employed Thomas Wilsone as his solicitor and set out the provisions of his last will and testament. He named three trustees to oversee the disposition of his estate and provided that they each receive 5 pounds Sterling for doing so – Robert Grant of Pitfichie, Monymusk; Rev. Alexander Yule, Minister of the Free Church of Blairdaff, Monymusk (later, due to Rev. Yule’s death, he appointed Adam Gordon, Farmer at Haddock, Monymusk in his place); and, his nephew, William Fowler of Millbowie, Skene.

After the standard direction that his debts and funeral expenses be paid, John Gaull directed his executors “pay to my illegitimate Grandson George Gaull, sometimes named George Howie, sometimes George Irvine” a sum of one hundred pounds.

He left 500 pounds “for the liferent use of my illegitimate Grandson John Gaull, residing at Cairnley aforesaid during all the days of his life and on his death I direct the said sum to be paid over and transferred to the lawful children of the said John Gaull.” Liferent, under Scots law, was the right to receive for life the benefits of an asset, in this case money but land could also be left as a liferent, but without the right to transfer or otherwise dispose of the asset.

John Gaull left the rest of his estate “for the liferent use of my daughter Mrs. Mary Gaull or Glennie during all the days of her life,” further stipulating that upon her death the balance was to be split between her children, including George Gaull (sometimes Howie, sometimes Irvine) but excluding grandson John Gaull, George’s twin brother.

It seems John had not forgotten that he spent money helping his daughter Mary on the death of her husband, Alexander Glennie, in 1879 for he advised his executors that “there is a balance of upwards of Two hundred and fifty pounds due to me by my daughter in connection with the Executry of her late husband or the management of the farm of Tillyfro occupied by her.” It should be noted that John allowed his executors to decide how to deal with this issue and they subsequently accepted Mary’s assertion that the debt had already been paid back to her father.

John Gaull finally directed that “the whole stocking and other effects on the farm of Cairnley occupied by my said Grandson John Gaull belong to him.”

The will was changed or amended on three subsequent occasions by John. First on June 16, 1888, then on November 21, 1888, and finally in July 1892, about a month before his death when his was “now residing at Millbowie, Skene.” In the last changes that he made, John Gaull removed the liferent provision for the 500 pounds he was leaving to his grandson and namesake, John Gaull so that the money would simply be given by the estate. He also directed that 100 pounds be set aside to be paid to John Gaull’s children, following his daughter Mary Gaull or Glennie’s death, on “their respectively attaining majority.”

And, finally, he “recalled” the 100 pounds that he was leaving to his grandson, George Gaull instead leaving 50 pounds to George’s twin brother John after their mother’s death. No reason was given for the exclusion of his grandson George from receiving any proceeds from his estate that was valued on his death at more than 1,500 pounds. Their is no life event that I can find associated with George that would cause his exclusion but clearly, John Gaull had some reason and for now, it remains a mystery.

Sara Caskey was married to my wife Ellen’s second cousin, Louis Orville Breithaupt (Louis and Sara are pictured left on their wedding day) who was among other things was the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canada, the Queen’s representative in the province. As a result, Sara and Louis were invited to Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. The day after the coronation, Sara and Louis were invited to dinner at Buckingham Palace for an intimate dinner with the new Queen – and about 300 other invited guests. Here’s how Sara described the event in her 1977 reminiscences:

“As we drove through the huge iron gates and saw all the Beefeaters swarming around, I wondered if I were in a dream. The Beefeaters in their crimson and gold outfits and large black hats are the special guards of the Queen and they were everywhere.

After removing our wraps and rejoining our husbands, we ascended a large wide stairway and found ourselves in an enormous beautifully paneled Reception Room.

A number of Aides-de-camp were trying to make us feel at home.We were fortunate as two of the Aides had been Lord Alexander’s while he was Governor General in Canada and we knew them.

The Queen, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother received us. Then we went directly to the dining room and I have never seen such beauty. All the rooms were gorgeous with the carved paneling and huge oil paintings but the dining room took one’s breath.

The small round tables each set for ten were all around the room. The Head Table set for thirty was in the center.

There were six large gold bowls of flowers down the length of it interspersed with gold candelabra.

The room was enormous and banked here and there along the four walls from the floor eight feet high at least were bouquets of pale pink hydrangeas at the bottom. Then dozens of pale pink peonies and white stock.”

“The Queen finally came in and because my table companions could not talk [Sara explained that the men to either side of her did not speak English], I could gaze at the Head Table to my heart’s content as it was very close. All the Crowned Heads of Europe were seated at it.

All the cutlery, salts and peppers and all the serving dishes were of solid gold. The plates for each course were gold until we came to the dessert served on delicate china.

The Sultan to my right had difficulty serving himself and when the asparagus vinaigrette came, he just took one piece. The steward came to me next and whispered: – “Take all you want – we’ve got lots.” It was so unexpected, I almost drop the serving utensils.

We adjourned finally to the huge Reception Rooms for coffee and visiting. I had just joined Dad [Louis Breithaupt] when the Lord Chamberlain came up and said the Queen Mother wished to speak to us. He took us over and presented us. She chatted away so naturally.

The Royal Family withdrew at 11:30. Then we were allowed to leave, not before of course. We arrived at our hotel after midnight – tired, but happy.”

On a lighter note, Sara couldn’t resist also recounting an encounter at the coronation dinner with a fellow invitee: “One of the other guests at the Coronation was the Queen of Tonga, a small island in the South Pacific.

The queen was at least six feet two or three inches tall, quite stout and very black. She carried herself beautifully, very erect, and every inch a queen.

I had a minute or two with her, she spoke perfect English. Someone else came up and I moved away.

The other woman asked if it were her first visit to England. The queen said it was and she liked it, and added: “Of course, I have English blood in my veins, you see my grandfather ate an English missionary.”

Quite some months ago, I wrote about my wife Ellen’s second cousin who in 1952 became the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, Canada (see A Ghost of a Chance from August 2009). Louis Orville Breithaupt was a prominent leader in the city of Kitchener, Ontario, serving first as an alderman, then as the youngest mayor of the city, and eventually as a Member of Parliament for about a dozen years. Louis’ wife, Sara Caskey was herself prominent in the roles that she took on in life and one of the most interesting documents I have is a 31-page ‘autobiography’, entitled “Bits and Pieces of My Life,” that she wrote in December of 1977 at the age of 83.

Not only did Sara want to capture her family’s history but she clearly wanted to share the memorable moments from her life. One of these ‘moments’ was attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 that Louis and Sara were invited to as a result of Louis’ viceregal status as the monarch’s representative in Ontario.

Louis and Sara sailed to England for the coronation aboard the ‘Queen Mary’ along with Canadian Prime Minister, Louis St. Laurent and his wife and Ontario Premier, Leslie Frost and his wife. On Coronation Day, June 2, 1953, they were required to be at Westminster Abbey by 8 a.m. Their invitation to the coronation included their Abbey seat numbers. Sara recounted that due to Louis’ status their seats were in a good spot to take in the historic event.

“By ten the special guests and Royalty began arriving.

When the Queen came in looking so young and so beautiful, my eyes filled with tears.

At the Abbey door the Archbishops of York and Canterbury took charge.

Unfortunately we could not see the actual crowning. King Edward’s chair was just out of our line of vision but as the crown was placed on her head, all the Peeresses raised their coronets and simultaneously put them on their own heads. They sat just across from us, it was quite a sight.

The Queen then walked very slowly to the Throne in her gold robes, carrying the scepter and wearing her heavy crown. She was helped by the Archbishops.

First, the Archbishop of Canterbury, representing the church throughout the commonwealth did homage. Then her uncles, then Prince Philip knelt before her promising to be her loyal liege man but instead of kissing her hand he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.I doubt if there was a dry eye in the abbey.

After the Royal party had left we waited as we had been told to do until directed by the gentleman with the gold stick. Finally we were told we could go. We welcomed the word joyfully.” They left the Abbey just after 3:00 p.m. looking for food for they had eaten nothing but a chocolate bar and had spent more than seven hours in the Abbey.

In my next blog entry, I’ll share the memories of Sara attending dinner at Buckingham Palace.