Every
ancestor I have looked for lived somewhere else than where I grew up!
This
is, of course, a problem almost all genealogists face – certainly for those of us who live
in North America. Most members of past families we are interested in finding
more about almost all came from another part of the world. Our countries were
built and populated by immigrants, primarily in just the last two hundred years.
And after they arrived here, they got all mixed together.
Within
just a few generations I have direct ancestors that were born in England,
Scotland and parts of Europe. They arrived in the New World between the 1600s
and 1900s. Some of them started in one place in the eastern parts of Canada and
the US and then they and/or their descendants, moved across the continent,
stopping in various localities to put down temporary roots and have a few
children.
The places just in North America where members of our extended families lived are spread from Maryland to California in the US and from Newfoundland to British Columbia in Canada.
Many
ancestors also moved around the British Isles as well, of course, long before
one individual or family decided to brave a voyage across the ocean.
Between
my wife and I we have direct ancestors who were born, married or died in
Canada, the United States, England, Scotland and other countries in Europe – in
what are now the provinces, states, counties or major urban centres shown in
the table below:
Canada
|
United States
|
England
|
Scotland
|
Europe
|
Alberta
|
Indiana
|
Cornwall
|
Argyllshire
|
Germany
|
British
Columbia
|
Kansas
|
Cumberland
|
Banffshire
|
Ireland
|
Ontario
|
Kentucky
|
Devon
|
Dunbartonshire
|
|
Maryland
|
Leicestershire
|
Glasgow
|
||
Missouri
|
London
|
Lanarkshire
|
||
New
York
|
Middlesex
|
Morayshire
|
||
North
Carolina
|
Warwickshire
|
Shetland
|
||
North
Dakota
|
Stirlingshire
|
|||
Ohio
|
||||
Oklahoma
|
||||
Oregon
|
||||
Pennsylvania
|
||||
Virginia
|
Among
all the myriad brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins – both direct and
related by marriage (now over 9,700 individuals in our family tree) – we have
connections in: all of the other seven Canadian provinces plus one northern territory;
32 other states in the USA; 32 other counties in England; 15 other counties in
Scotland; 11 other countries in Europe; and 11 more countries in the rest of
the world. Not to mention the hundreds of localities within all these
provinces, states, counties or countries! There are probably many others which
we have not yet identified.
That’s
a lot of places to look for information! Learning a little about the history
and customs of even the most important places in our family story can be
interesting but challenging. From my personal perspective, researching the
natural histories of those regions is equally important and exciting – which,
of course, adds to the research.
 |
Universale
Descrittione Di Tutta la Terra Conosciuta Fin Oui (A Universal
description of the Whole Known Earth), by Paolo Forlani, 1565
If
I lived in Southwest Devon, England, where my Shepheard ancestors originated, I
would be able to nip over to the archives in Plymouth in a matter of minutes,
or travel to Stirlingshire, Scotland, where one of my paternal grandmother’s
line is from, in an morning by car, or take the train into London to look at
records in The National Archives. I could take in regular monthly meetings and
conferences in many parts of the country where ancestral families lived with
only short drives. My wife and I could travel to northern Scotland and spend a
few days exploring the villages where her parents and their parents and their
parents were born and grew up. Sounds great doesn’t it?
I
doubt if our family is unique in having such a long list of places where family
members originated or lived. I suspect it is not that unusual among researchers
from our part of the world, though, who, like us, descended from immigrants to
a new land.
Is
it any wonder we have gravitated to online sources of information so readily?
