Category Archives: Genealogy
Kay’s 48 in gay Paris
On this day in 1945 my Aunty Kay got away from the drudgery of her administrative posting with Canadian Army Headquarters in Aalst, Belgium, and took 48-hour leave in Paris. She had an awesome time and a few days later … Continue reading
Happy Great-Grandmother’s Day
In celebration of Mother’s Day, I wanted sum up what I know about each of my great-grandmothers, none of whom I think I ever met in the flesh, although I have gotten to know them a little bit through my … Continue reading
Love, Yorkshire Style
Aunty Mary, who died over 30 years ago, is the primary source for much of my earliest Coulson family history. She was born in Wyoming but she must have spent a lot of time listening to her folks, because she … Continue reading
Nat Griffin’s Draft Card
When I was driving through Havre, Montana a while back I decided to stop at the public library to see if they had any books on local history. I wanted to investigate a story I had heard that my grandfather’s … Continue reading
Finding Grandma
I never knew my grandmother. As far as I know she never knew me, or even knew I existed. I knew her name, but that was all. After she and my grandfather got divorced it’s as if she fell off … Continue reading
The Irish Connection, Part 2
In The Irish Connection, Part 1 we learned that my presumably Scottish family had its origins in Ireland. There’s more to the story, though. To help keep things straight, here’s the family tree so far. A is “young” John, the … Continue reading
The Irish Connection
My grandfather John was a big fan of all things Scottish. He continued to speak with a brogue (or tried to) despite living in Canada for 64 years, played the bagpipes (until he chopped two fingers off, that’s another story), … Continue reading
Private Frank Elliott, 1897-1917
Today is the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of my great-uncle Frank (Francis Milligan) Elliott, 1/6 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, who died in a field hospital in France on May 21, 1917. In commemoration, here is a page I wrote … Continue reading
The Family That Almost Was
I’ve decided to resurrect this old blog of mine with musings about what I’m learning from genealogy. My grandfather, who died over a quarter-century ago, got bit by the genealogy bug a few years before he died, and he left … Continue reading