The Roadways of Life

We all have unique paths along which we have travelled during our lives. Some involved sojourns to regions far from where we were born, expanding our life experiences. Others of us found careers in one spot with different occupations or positions within an organization and other opportunities to challenge us.

All of our children were born in Calgary, Alberta, where we still live, but they have scattered now, two to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, where two grandchildren were born, and one now in China. Our youngest son took a road with his career that has seen him move from Calgary to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, back to Calgary, then to Windsor, Ontario, to Oakville, Ontario, to Jacksonville, Florida, to Saddle River, New Jersey, and a few years ago to Beijing, China. Their children, not even teenagers yet, are world-travellers who, as he says, don’t really know where “home” is. But they are totally comfortable wherever they are.

My ancestors also took many routes although there were times when, for a few generations, they put down roots in just one area. Those many family lines finally came together here in Alberta where I was born and still reside. While my wife and I have been very stationary compared to generations before and after, we are probably not any more so than was the case for many of my direct ancestors. As a collection of families ours has been very mobile.

Many members from different branches of my family came to Canada and the United States from Europe and the British Isles, eventually uniting to finally result in me. I am still looking for details about many of the moves and certainly wonder what the specific reasons various families migrated. That is where the real stories are – what prompted individuals and/or families to just pack up and move thousands of miles and continents away from their homes.

Once in North America, as I have discussed in a number of previous blog posts, family members continued to move about, from one state or province to another and from one country to another. In this segment I’ll outline the origins of my direct line family members, at least those that I am aware of.

I have constructed a “tree” that shows just birth places of birth for my direct ancestors but it is too big to reproduce here. A summary is in table form below and illustrates the many geographic locations that family members called home.

Family Hierarchy	Place(s) of Birth
	Paternal Side	Maternal Side
Grandchildren	·   British Columbia, Canada ·   Florida, USA ·   Ontario, Canada
Children	·   Alberta, Canada
Me	·   Alberta, Canada
Parents	·   Alberta, Canada	·   Washington, USA
Grandparents	·   Devon, England ·   North Dakota, USA	·   Kansas, USA ·   Virginia, USA
Great-Grandparents	·   Devon, England ·   Ontario, Canada ·   Ontario, Canada ·   Warwickshire, England	·   Indiana, USA ·   Ohio, USA ·   Virginia, USA
2nd Great-Grandparents	·   Devon, England (2) ·   Leicestershire, England ·   London, England ·   New York, USA ·   Stirlingshire, Scotland ·   Warwickshire, England (2)	·   Germany ·   Indiana, USA ·   Kentucky, USA ·   Maryland, USA (3) ·   Virginia, USA (2)
3rd Great-Grandparents	·   Devon, England (4) ·   Dumbarton, Scotland ·   England (6) ·   Kentucky, USA ·   Leicestershire, England (2) ·   Maryland, USA ·   Stirlingshire, Scotland ·   Warwickshire, England (3)	·   USA* ·   Germany ·   Maryland, USA (2) ·   Virginia, USA
4th Great-Grandparents	·   Devon, England (7) ·   England (3) ·   Lanarkshire, Scotland ·   Leicestershire, England (4) ·   Scotland (3) ·   Warwickshire, England (4)	·   England (2) ·   France ·   Germany (2) ·   Maryland, USA (4) ·   Virginia, USA (2)
5th Great-Grandparents	·   Devon, England (7) ·   England (13) ·   Warwickshire (2) ·   Leicestershire, England ·   Stirlingshire, Scotland ·   Lanarkshire, Scotland	Maryland, USA (2) Ireland Argyll, Scotland Virginia, USA (2) Bayern, Germany (2)

* USA includes American Colonies prior to 1776 (starting at 3^rd Great-Grandparents)

My wife’s picture is much clearer. She is a first-born Canadian and all of her ancestors were from Scotland.

Overall, my heritage presents a very complex research puzzle. I am fortunate to have found documentation as far back as I have. But there is still a long way to go before I will have uncovered all my roots.

Next project will be to put together a comprehensive map and timeline of migration of my direct lines. That will come from combining all the previous family summaries done here over the past couple of years.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several family history society journals. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated