This is a long weekend in my part of Canada.
A few years back, the government decided that we needed a special occasion to celebrate in order for us to have a long weekend in February.
It’s a long haul from New Year’s to the March break.
Therefore, today, February 20th, we celebrate “Family Day.”
The occasion is self-explanatory.
Last Thursday I heard on the television that www.ancestry.ca was offering free access to all Canadian birth, marriage and death registrations.
I had always had an interest in my ancestors and had gone so far as to accumulate a wealth of written information concerning my paternal grandparents – but done nothing with it.
What a great chance to do some digging! And most timely too!
So, since Saturday I have been taking advantage of this free offer (which expires today) and in doing so, have started not one but four Family Trees! – one for each of my grandparents.
My maternal grandfather, whom I only met once when a child, would be the most troublesome since I only had his first and last name – no middle initial.
However, in my rooting around, I found the marriage certificate of he and my grandmother, learning his second name and where he hailed from.
Well, that opened doors that I thought would be closed to me. Thinking he would be the most difficult to trace, turns out that I have more information on him than all the other grandparents.
You just never know what you’ll find until you start looking.
The commercials on tv are right!
But what a juggling act.
Tracing back four family trees might sound tedious but take it from me – although it can be frustrating, it’s more fun, interesting and exciting!
I’d also like to add, that Registrars and County Clerks back in the day, should have had courses in penmanship. The writing on most of the documents that I’ve found is sometimes illegible and very hard to read.
Also, I’ve found that transcriptions from records to documents have spelling mistakes, which can really throw a monkey wrench into the mix.
Then you have things happen such as; your great, great grandfather marries someone not of the family religion and is disinherited for it so he changes the spelling of his last name to separate himself from the rest of the family! Oh dear.
The free access to all these records expires today and frankly, I’m slightly exhausted from working the past few days on this so avidly.
But the day isn’t over yet and who knows? I just might jump back into it and see what else I can uncover.
I’ve thought about signing up with Ancestry for 3 months and paying but I’m more inclined to make separate file folders for hard copy documents I’ve acquired and organize all the information that I now have then go to our Public Library where they offer free access.
The four Family Trees that I’ve created on the website will be waiting for me.
And the beat goes on . . . .