September 2017 – Ottawa Valley Irish

Gillespie family history

Local History, Migration16 September 2017by M.C. Moran

Norma Gillespie is researching her Gillespie ancestors, who originally came from Screeby, Co. Tyrone (but very near the border with Co. Fermanagh; and in the McCabe List, William Gillespie gave his townland and county of origin as Screeby, Fermanagh). William…

Continue reading →

“Did an operation precede death”? (Ontario civil death records)

Civil Records, Death and Burial, Medical Records, Wills14 September 2017by M.C. Moran

Death records often supply interesting (and occasionally rather gruesome) details about an ancestor’s cause of death. And while the information found in early Ontario civil death records is often a bit scanty, once we get into the twentieth century, the…

Continue reading →