One of my sisters found this notebook page inserted in a book, Ireland’s Best Loved Songs and Ballads for Easy Piano, that our mother had given her: Well, that’s pretty much the Ottawa Valley for you: a French-Canadian ballad inserted into the pages of an Irish songbook. The Gallic-Gaelic connection, if you will. This song is all about the rebellions of 1837 and 1838 (as my mother noted in her beautifully clear script, which my father always called “the nun’s handwriting”). Un Canadien Errant, as sung by Alan Mills. That “O mon cher Canada!” always chokes me up. I’m sentimental that way. Wikipedia has a rough translation of the original…
Scrapbook
231 Armstrong Street
by M.C. Moran •
Local History, Music
“A unique musical culture:” the Ottawa Valley
by M.C. Moran •
I’m a jolly good fellow, Patt Gregg is my name, I came from the Chapeau, that village of fame. For singing and dancing and all kinds of fun, the boys from the Chapeau cannot be outdone. – Chapeau Boys From the logging shanties and the dance halls of the Ottawa Valley: “a unique musical culture.”…
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Catholic Records, Civil Registration, Death and Burial
Death of George Vallely
by M.C. Moran •
Sometimes the records just don’t add up. Oh, I don’t mean numerically or arithmetically: genealogical research is not double-entry bookkeeping, after all. What I mean is that sometimes the information found in one record will directly contradict the information that is found in another record. A case in point:
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Irish History, Irish Records, New Jersey
From Ireland to New Jersey (and Back Again): Free Talk
by M.C. Moran •
I doubt I have many (if any?) readers in New Jersey. The majority of the readers of this weblog appear to be located in (in this order): Canada; United States (but more Michigan and Minnesota than New Jersey, I’m pretty sure); United Kingdom; and Ireland. But if you’re in northeast New Jersey on 15 March,…
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Census Records
One Household: 2 Adults, 10 Children …
by M.C. Moran •
… and those 10 children the offspring of 3 separate (but related!) marital pairs. I’ve written about this before (see, for example, “Blended Families”): the blended family is nothing new. When a widower married a widow, and one or both parties to the marriage had children from a previous marriage, the resulting new household might…
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Census Records
1842 Census of Canada East (Quebec)
by M.C. Moran •
The 1842 Census of Canada East (Quebec) is available at ancestry.ca (subscription-only), but also at FamilySearch (free of charge). At FamilySearch, the database is titled Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1842. At both sites (and it appears that FamilySearch is the source of ancestry’s census database), the census is searchable by name, and the search engine seems…