From 1852, there was a Catholic mission at Fitzroy Harbour (Fitzroy township, Carleton Co., Ontario, Canada). A stone church was built in 1861,1 but the mission did not become the independent parish of St. Michael until 1917. The Fitzroy Harbour Mission…
Continue reading →While it may seem a glaringly obvious point, it’s a point worth keeping in mind when you discover an ancestor’s obituary. That obituary or death notice1 that you discovered for your ancestor didn’t just write itself. Somebody had to write…
Continue reading →John J. Vallely (1861-1935), son of Michael Vallely and Mary Ryan, was born 21 January 1861, in Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada. He emigrated to Grand Forks, North Dakota about 1882. Anna Lillian (“Lila”) Moran (1861-1915), daughter of Alexander (“Sandy”) Michael…
Continue reading →A reader is looking for information on Thomas Dooley. Thomas Dooley was born in Ireland about 1810, possibly in Co. Kilkenny. He emigrated to Canada in the early 1830s (the 1842 census of Upper Canada records that he and his…
Continue reading →Except that, in the eyes of the Catholic Church (and, perhaps just as importantly, in the eyes of the bridegrooms’ Catholic parents), the first marriage ceremonies did not count, because the brides had not been baptized. Yes, that’s brides and…
Continue reading →Newspaper obituaries often supply loads of genealogically useful information, along with interesting forename and surname spellings. Here, for example, is the obituary for my paternal great-grandfather Alexander Michael Moran (1871-1939). A fairly standard obituary, which informs readers of the death…
Continue reading →
