Displaying your Genealogy

With all this work we put into researching our family history, we should be showing it off!
I'm just not sure how exactly I want to do it yet.  Everytime I see that Ancestry commercial I think about it.

I know I don't want to print off a "chart" because it is forever changing.  I was thinking of printing off some old records I have found, along with some black and white photos and putting them in frames. 

Do any of you out there have pictures of how you have displayed your genealogy?  I'd love to see them! Post a link if you'd like.

Book of Pictures

I wanted to pass along the name of another book about the Hamilton area, since I have to return it to the library today.  I can't summarize it because there is just too much in it!  It is full of old pictures of the area.  If you have family from that are you should check it out. Although it didn't have my family in there, maybe it has yours?



Hamilton - Panorama of our past 
A pictorial History of the Hamilton-Wentworth Region
The head-of the-lake Historical Society

Tombstone Tuesday

I just discovered this grave from this site.
It is from the Clunyhill Cemetery in Forres Scotland

It has my GG grandmother (Lexie McLean), her husband (Robert Dean) and their son (Alexander Dean).  What a great find!

Lexie was also the name of my G Grandmother.  My daughters name is Alexis...nickname Lexie. 

A light bulb moment!

I've decided on my next big task of orginization/spring cleaning.

I had been wondering how I could get the tons of records I have found on ancestry, onto my Rootsmagic family tree.  I didn't think it was possible.  My plan was to eventually print everything off.  But that would have been a LOT of ink, and paper!

Well with one simple question by me on Twitter...
Question? when U find records on Ancestry, do U print them all off? The background is always black so uses up lots of ink..any alternatives?

And the one simple answer from ACoffin...
@FunFamHistory Save Ancestry records as images.


I was like duh!  I didn't realize that I could do that.  I thought my only option was save on ancestry or print.  But with one quick look, I realized there was a button to click, and I can save it too my computer!

So now, I will need to do this methodically or I will get very overwhelmed.  I have a lot of records, some are for multiple people.  I will need to give this some thought before jumping in.  But knowing me, I'll end up jumping in with both feet!

A Town Called Hamilton 1814-1840

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.

First Chapter:  The Head of the Lake Beginnings to 1814

Second Chapter - 

A Town Called Hamilton 

1814-1840

• 1816 - March 22 - Hamilton became a community - named after George Hamilton (Modern day streets are named after his relatives - John, James, Hunter, Catharine)
• Courthouse and Jail brought people from all over (From the District of Gore - which includedWentworth, Halton, Brant, Haldimand counties and Puslinch Township) - This is how Hamilton initially began to grown
• Education was very important to the settlers.  1817 - there were 5 schools in Barton Township for 800 students
• 1832-1835 - Dundurn Castle built by Sir Alland MacNab and Robert Charles Wetherall

 See image at FlickR here

• 1832 - Cholera epidemic.  There was panic in the community, especially because of the immigrants coming on ships into the ports.  Even prisioners were released to avoid the epidemic.  There were lots of dead.
• 1830's - political conflict between Dundas and Hamilton, along with all of Upper Canada.
• Population then started to increase due to British immigration, and by 1835 the population of just Hamilton was 2,600.

The Head of the Lake - From Beginnings -1814

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.


First Chapter:

The Head of The Lake

From beginnings - 1814

• The first inhabitants of the "head of the lake", which is the western end of Lake Ontario was the native people about 6000 years ago.  
• 1638 - 1640 - The population decreases because of the small pox epidemic which was brought over by the Europeans
• 1650 - war that severely affected the native poupulation
• 1700 - The French had control of the area
• 1759 - British dominated after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham
• 1775-1783 - American war of Independence; 60,000 loyalists came to modern day Canada. About 10,000 of these went to upper Canada, and 2000 of those to the Niagara Peninsula (which included the Head of the Lake)
• 1787-1788 - "Hungry Years" because of a drought.  Most didn't use money but a barter system.
• 1791 - Barton and Saltfleet Townships were surveyed by Augustus Jones
• Most in this area were farmers.  Mos were given 200 acres and given clothes for 3 years, and basic tools.
• Most were members of the Church of England (Anglican), but Methodist became more popular in the rural areas.
• 1812 - Population of Upper Canada was about 77,000, 20,00 of these were loyalists, the rest were American settlers who were looking for cheap land (** This may be why my ancestors moved from the states to the area?**)
• 1812-1814 - War of 1812 (Battle of Stoney Creek - June 1813)

See image on FlickR here

Ontario - Local photos

Here are some pictures I took while we drove the country side this Easter on the way to my in laws in Niagara Falls.  During this trip, we were passing through lots of little townships where various relatives are known to have lived. I don't know if they lived along this road, but I thought I'd take some "drive by" pictures of some of the areas since it had me wondering where exactly they would have lived.

Some of the areas we drove through were Stoneycreek, Smithville, Gainsborough, Caistorville, Welland, Lincoln

It was such a beautiful spring day!

This last one is from a different weekend, but it is of the CN Tower in Toronto as we drove by on our way home. I don't believe I have any direct relatives from here, but I have seen York county on some marriage records, so who knows what some more digging will reveal.