Ties That Bind

T for TONUS TONUS is the surname of my paternal grandmother Maria TONUS. She was born in 1912 and died in 2007. She came from a very large family with 12 children. Longevity runs in the family as she was … Continue reading →

Q! Not many have a surname starting with Q. We are one of them! So I will talk about our ancestor John QUARTZ Moore. What a cool middle name! It has to be a surname because I’ve never, ever heard … Continue reading →

P for PAGOTTO My maiden name is PAGOTTO…. My father was Luigi PAGOTTO born August 23, 1933 in Azzano Decimo, Pordenone, Italy. I spent the better part of my childhood wishing I had a different last name. Growing up as a … Continue reading →

NORMAND As a surname of English, Irish (in Ulster), Scottish and Dutch origin the name was used to denote someone of Scandinavian ancestry or someone from Normandy (northern France). During the Dark Ages Scandinavian Vikings called themselves norðmenn (“men from … Continue reading →

MACDONALD OF BOISDALE Where do I start? In the early 90s, I received a birth certificate of an ancestor that would change my life. John Henry Cornelius BOISDALE HENDER MOFFATT was my husband’s great grandfather. He was born in 1875 … Continue reading →

“J” for JUGALI ! How’s that for a weird surname?! Since I only have two J surnames and one of them is JONES from a woman who married a brother in our line, I chose the other surname for two … Continue reading →

I- IRELAND This is the one and ONLY “I” surname in my whole family tree. Helen IRELAND married John Normand in Strathmiglo, Fife on June 20, 1791. She was sometimes referred to as Helen NORMAND which threw me for … Continue reading →

GON Yup, that’s a surname! My mother’s maiden name. In China, that’s like the surname Smith but we are Italian….go figure. I always got a kick out of receiving Chinese junk mail when I was growing up. I even did … Continue reading →

This will be short and sweet. I only have 2 E surnames in my whole database of over 1000 people in our family tree! One I mentioned yesterday (Elizabeth Dunn (nee Elliott) and today I will mention Thomas ELLERSHAW. Mr. … Continue reading →

Letter D- DUNN The interesting DUNN FAMILY OF VERYAN, CORNWALL The DUNN family in our tree is fascinating. In a previous post I spoke at length about Martha Dunn who also went by Mary Chapman and Ethel McEwen. She lived … Continue reading →

Genealogy A-Z Challenge- Surnames Letter B – BISSET John Bisset John BISSET was presumed to be born in the parish of Clunie (per marriage record). He married Margaret Cook on the 16th February 1781 in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. Sometime … Continue reading →

A- Janet ANDERSON Janet ANDERSON(E) was born on 2 January, 1698 in Ceres, Fife, Scotland She was married to Robert FORRET on the 26 February, 1719. Together they had 8 children. On their son Thomas’s baptismal … Continue reading →

I have been married for 32 years. I have a wonderful life. I have been obsessed with genealogy since I was 24 years old. It was all of a sudden very important for me to find out who my … Continue reading →

Betty Moffatt with Andy, Carol and Bruce circa 1967 Boyd Conservation Area, Ontario AND THEN THERE WERE TWO…. Here is the final installment of my Family History in 5 photos series. The above photo was taken around 1967 while … Continue reading →

My husband’s grandparents were John (Jack) Henry Moffatt (1900-1975) and Olive Hilda Dunn (1904-1986). They were married in Toronto in 1925. The above photo was taken a few years prior to their marriage. Behind them are Jack’s sister Emily and … Continue reading →

Today is freezing. It’s officially spring but here, in Ontario, it has decided to give us another dose of winter. Oh how I hate the cold! I’m only first generation Canadian and I swear my DNA is not cut out … Continue reading →

So on to my next set of ancestors. They had the surname SPEED and they came from Fife. Sometimes the surname was spelled Speid, Speyd, Speede, Spede etc. You have to remember there was a high illiteracy rate in Scotland … Continue reading →

Newspapers and newspaper archives are a fantastic source of information when researching your family tree. I’ve joined several websites and libraries who hold newspapers from the past and found amazing information and stories about even the poorest relatives in our … Continue reading →

I am listing here some of the links to websites I use a lot. Some are pay per view, like Ancestry, and Scotland’s People but a lot are free. For Scotland: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/welcome.aspx (pay per view) http://www.myainfolk.com/Resources.html (free) http://www.tayvalleyfhs.org.uk/ (free) http://www.nas.gov.uk/ … Continue reading →

So here we go. Hugh Macdonald IV of Boisdale was born on South Uist, in Scotland on February 2nd, 1785. His father was Alexander Macdonald III of Boisdale and his mother was Marion Maclean of Coll. His parents had … Continue reading →