Full-Text Search + Research = A Win!

FamilySearch's Full-Text Search is a real game changer when it comes to finding records that we might not have come across in the past. The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwriting Recognition Technology tools that create the transcriptions used by Full-Text Search just don't index the names of the principal parties mentioned on the processed documents. These transcriptions and subsequent indexes index every word in the documents. It means we can search on not just names but occupations, addresses, and phrases. Of course, there will be interesting transcription errors created by the machines. So, we can't rely on Full-Text Search to find every record.

I will say it again for those in the back:

We can't rely on Full-Text Search to find every record.

Let's take a look at a case where FamilySearch's Full-Text Search helped remove the mortar that loosed a brick to help tear down a brick-wall I've had for some years in my research.

It was a simple question I've been struggling with for some time: Who were the parents of Mary Foley, my 3rd great-grandmother, and wife of Thomas Well, who lived in Blanchard Township, Perth County, Canada West/Ontario?

I had made some assumptions in my research:

• Mary Foley and Thomas Wells lived and met in Blanchard Township.
• Mary Foley was of the Protestant faith. This was based on the 1861 Census of Canada West and the 1871 Census of Canada of their household.

These two starting assumptions were reasonable based on the facts I had but, as we will soon see, wrong.

There were trees online with various possible names for her parents. However, none of them provided any evidence of their assertions. Since I barely trust my own genealogy research, I'm definitely not going to take the word of anyone else without some sort of evidence.

It all started while FamilySearch's Full-Text Search was still in the experiment phase and I was playing around with it.

FamilySearch Full-Text Search search box with the keywords '+"Thomas Wells" +Mary +Foley'.

It was a simple search using keywords. I wanted all documents that had all the following words or phrases: "Thomas Wells", Mary, and Foley found in the resulting transcription generated by the Full-Text Search tools.

I got something like this:

Screen capture of the results page from FamilySearch's Full-Text Search for '+"Thomas Wells" +Mary +Foley' from 11 Jun 2026.

That first result returned was a land record from Pelham Township in Welland County, Ontario, Canada. The associated transcription hint was enticing:

108 No 2418 . Quit Claim Thomas Wells et, al To Mary Scanlan E Registered 25th Feby . 1868 at 3 . O'Clock P.M. …
…of Ontario in the Dominion of Canada, Farmer, and Mary Wells of the same placewife of the said Thomas Wells, of…
…and Satisfaction of the Legacy to the above named Mary Wells, under the Will of the late James Foley deceased, …
…full, 2nd That I was personally present and did see, Thomas Wells, and Mary Wells the grantors named in the …

Looking and reading the document — several times in fact — provided a whole bunch of possible clues

Pelham Township, book F, Instrument 2418, Quit Claim, p. 108-109 [stamped]; imaged, “Land records of Welland County, 1796-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636751 > image 417 of 675.

• It was a land record quit claim where Thomas and Mary Wells were relinquishing any possible claims they might have had to the lot in question
• Thomas Wells was of the Township of Blanshard in the County of Perth, Ontario
• Mary Wells is the wife of Thomas Wells
• The lot was part of the North part of Lot Number 12 in the Tenth Concession of the Township of Pelham
• That lot was owned by the late James Foley, the elder
• John Foley and James Foley, the younger, had paid Mary Wells $10 per the will of the late James Foley

That seemed like a good match to my Thomas and Mary Wells.

Since I now had the location of the lot in Pelham Township, I could semi-quickly locate the abstract register of the lot and maybe even find a copy of the will in the land record copy books.

Time for me to stop searching and to start researching. So I switched from using search boxes to browsing collections, a bit researching, some thinking, and a bit of luck.

I could have used OnLand since they usually gather all the associated pages for a lot into a easily findable group of images, but I stayed with FamilySearch and their digitized copy of what they call their "Abstract index books, 1796-1958" collection created by the Registrar of Deeds for Welland County, Ontario to find this page.

Pelham Township, book A, Abstract register for Lot No. 12 in 10th Concession for the Township of Pelham [extract], p. 203 [stamped]; imaged, “Abstract index books, 1796-1958,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636746 > image 114 of 284.

There is a listing for the "Probate of Will" as instrument 481 dated 20 May 1863 and registered on 18 May 1866 in the Land Registry Office for James Foley which was transferring 20 acres to his sons John Foley and James Foley.

Pelham Township, book E, Instrument 481, Probate of Will, p. 210-211 [stamped]; imaged, “Land records of Welland County, 1796-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636751 > image 138 of 675.

This copy of James Foley's will along with the preamble in the land record copy book provided even more details:

• He died on or about 3 Nov 1865 at Pelham
• The will included in the land record copy book is a true copy of his Last Will and Testament
• John Foley and James Foley received lot 12 in the 10th Concession of Pelham
• He has a daughter named Anna Foley, the wife of John Hicks, and she received $200
• He has a daughter Mary Wells, and she received $10
• He has a wife named Jane

I also looked up his probate file in FamilySearch's "Probate records, 1856-1903 // index, 1856-1969" collection created by the Surrogate Court of Welland County. There in the digitized microfilm titled "Probate papers nos. 254-383 1865-1869", starting at image 127 of 1472, just in case there might be other tidbits of information.

What stood out to me in the will was that Mary only got $10 while Anna got $200. Also, Anna's husband was mentioned but Mary's husband wasn't. 

"Died: Foley," The Ingersoll Chronicle [Ingersoll, Ontario], 1 Dec 1865, page 3, column 2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 22 Aug 2025).

Using Newspapers.com, I even found a mention in the 1 Dec 1865 edition of the Ingersoll Chronicle a death notice for James Foley and his wife Jane. I thinking her age in this notice is a bit exaggerated.

I next looked for the family in the 1861 Census of Canada West to see if there might be another clue.

Census of 1861, Canada West, Welland County, Pelham Township, population schedule, page 31 [stamped]; imaged in "Census of 1861 (Canada East, Canada West, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)," Library and Archives Canada (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=census&id=45180961&lang=eng&ecopy=4108422_00504 : accessed 11 Jun 2026).

On that page I found what appears to be the household of James Foley with the following basic details abstracted:

• James Foley, farmer, born in Ireland, Catholic, age 53 years, male, married, living in a shanty
• Jane Foley, born in Ireland, Catholic, age 70 years [see, the death notice was lying!], female, married 
• James Foley, born in Canada West, Catholic, age 19 years, male, single
• Ann Foley, born in Canada West, Catholic, age 15 years, female, single 

Just a second...Catholic?

That changes my religion assumption big time.

It also might explain why Mary only got $10 in the will of James Foley and Mary's husband, Thomas, wasn't mentioned. Might she have been "punished" for marrying out of her faith?

Yet I couldn't find the family in the Census of 1851 (which was taken in 1852) for Canada West in Pelham Township. After doing a few hours of research into the land records using FamilySearch's Full-Text Search and reviewing abstract registers, I learned that between 13 Mar 1847 and 23 Sep 1853, James Foley was residing in Grantham Township, Lincoln County, Canada West.

Guess what? The Census of 1851 for that township didn't survive. Of all the rotten luck!

Now that I learned the family followed the Catholic Church, and from prior research that Mary was born about 1836 in Canada West, I took a look at what records for Catholic Churches in the Niagara area can be found on FamilySearch for the 1830s. One collection immediately stood out — "Parish registers, 1827-1910" for Saint Vincent de Paul (Niagara, Ontario) Catholic Church. Of course, it wasn't name indexed or even added to Full-Text Search. But that's never stopped me in the past.

It only took a few minutes of leafing though the images before I found her entry of baptism in the parish register:

St. Vincent de Paul [Niagara-on-the-Lake], Baptisms, marriages, burials 1827-1849, Register for the year 1835, B. 40, Mary Foley; imaged, “Parish registers, 1827-1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 5107199 > image 53 of 351.

There I learned that Mary was baptized on 4 May 1835, aged 1 week, the daughter of James Foley and Margaret McKenna, residing in St. Catharines. 

I finally had the names of Mary's parents! 

But the journey doesn't end there.

If Mary was baptized at St. Vincent de Paul, might her parents have been married there too?

St. Vincent de Paul [Niagara-on-the-Lake], Baptisms, marriages, burials 1827-1849, Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Interments in 1834, M. 1, marriage for James Foley and Margaret McKenny; imaged, “Parish registers, 1827-1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 5107199 > image 41 of 351.

Recorded as the first marriage for 1834 we find an entry for James Foley and Margaret McKenny. And it is a treasure trove of information for someone who came from Ireland:

June 29th Were married, by me, the undersigned Priest, James Foley Son of John Foley and Mary Power, late of the Parish of Shanagolden Co Limerick Ireland; and Margaret McKenny, Daughter of John McKenny and Sarah Kelly, Co Tyrone Ireland. After one publication of their Banns.

I really struck gold in that record!

It all started with Full-Text Search which turned up that initial land record. Yet it took actual research to get to the parish register with the baptism of Mary and the marriage of her parents. Of course, it was a bit of luck too in that the register had been digitized and made available online.

I can only hope that you have similar success in using FamilySearch's Full-Text Search to start a breakthrough in your genealogical brick-wall. 

February 30? - Always Find the Source of the Source!

With this being a leap year I thought I'd share one of the more interesting calendar related errors I've come across in my travels. It is for the burial of Michael Stafford, who according to the transcription of the record was buried on 30 Feb 1900.

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 from Ancestry for the "Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923" register page with the entry for Michael Stafford buried 30 Feb 1900 in St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada.

As we all know, we can't trust transcriptions so our first thought is that the transcriber of the register made a mistake and no one caught it.

St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada), Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923, "Baptism, Marriage, Burial, Confirmation; Goderich, St Augustine; 1861-1910," Michael Stafford, buried 30 Feb 1900, Interment p 2; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024).

I thought that too. But when I looked at the column formatted register page, on the second to last line in the register the date is clearly written "1900 Feb 30".

Yet this is a column formatted register and it isn't in the usual format we often see in Roman Catholic church registers.Might there be an entry in the parish register itself?

Fortunately for us, that set of books have been digitized and also made available to us on both Ancestry and FamilySearch.

St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada), "Baptisms 1895-1917, Deaths 1895-199, Marriages 1895-1911, Confirmations 1895-1927," p 14, burial of Michael Stafford, 3 Feb 1900; DGS 5,107,225, item 3, image 148 of 684.

We can clearly read (at least those who have learned to read cursive) that:

"On the third of February nineteen hundred, I the undersigned parish priest buried in the Catholic cemetery of St. Augustine, the body of Michael Stafford aged sixty seven years."

At least the original entry in the church books makes sense. I just wonder what the poor clerk was thinking when they created the entry in that column formatted register. Their brain might just have been tired from copying the information.

Since his death was in the time when civil registrations of deaths in Ontario should have been filed with the authorities we can check the date of his death.

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1949," database on-line, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jan 2019), entry for Michael Stafford, died 1 Feb 1900; citing Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 97.

And we can see that on line 4 of the death register that it is recorded that he passed away on "Feby 1 1900" with the date of registration on "Feby 2 1900".

So remember, when things just don't seem to add up, start digging deeper!

This is just another lesson of why we always need to try to follow the records back to the original source document. Sometimes, such as in this case, we can make use of the digitized image. Other times we may need to consult a microfilm or original paper document.

A Gotcha When Searching the LAFRANCE Collection

Every second Tuesday afternoon the Ottawa Public Library and the Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors hosts a one hour in-person Genealogy Drop-In session where we have folks popping by looking for help in their family history and genealogy research. Most of the times the questions are answered right then and there. However, in a few cases it can take a bit of time to actually figure out the right answer or solution to a genealogical mystery. Such was the case from a few weeks ago.

One benefit for genealogy and family history researchers who have an Ottawa Public Library card is that we have access to Généalogie Québec via the library site from the comfort of one's home. One of our patrons had been exploring the Généalogie Québec site but they were having problems locating records they thought should be there. They had already discovered the images they were seeking in the "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968" collection on Ancestry. However, they wanted to replicate finding those same records on Généalogie Québec as a test of that site.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of "The LAFRANCE (Baptisms, burials and marriages)" search page from Généalogie Québec.

Going through the Ottawa Public Library portal and agreeing to the terms and condition of the Généalogie Québec site we are presented with "The LAFRANCE (Baptisms, burials and marriages)" search screen. There we can search by individual, couple, or parish. That is what the patron had been doing when trying to locate the baptism record for Nelson Deschamps from 1918. Yet no baptisms were appearing.

I knew we were missing something but there wasn't enough time to figure it out at that time.

Fast forward two weeks and it happens that both the patron and I were there early for the drop-in. So I asked for the details again. This time, without the pressure of doing real-time searching, I was taking my time and actually paying attention and reading to what is on the screen.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of "About the LAFRANCE" section from "The LAFRANCE (Baptisms, burials and marriages)" search page from Généalogie Québec.

That is when I noticed this very important line from the "About the LAFRANCE" section:

Every Catholic baptism and burial from Quebec between 1621 and 1861

Of course we couldn't find a baptism from 1918 since the collection for Catholic baptisms only goes to 1861 in LAFRANCE.

I had forgotten to do what I constantly remind others to do: learn what a collection actually covers. I felt so silly!

I knew I could browse the Drouin Collection records but that can be very time consuming, especially if you don't have an exact year or know the parish where the baptism took place. Also, even though many parish registers have a name index either at the front or back of the year's register, quite a few don't.

So I went to the "NBMDS (BMD Index)" page on Généalogie Québec. Of course, this time I checked the "About the NBMDS tool" section first. There we find that it is an index of about 1.2 million records of  Catholic and Protestant baptism, marriage and burial records, most of which are from the province of Quebec. It even states the years and regions covered.

In this specific research case, the record found on Ancestry stated the baptism place was "Thurso, Québec (Quebec), Canada". Thurso is in the Outaouais region of Quebec and is one of the regions that the NBMDS index covers. So in theory we should be good.

Screen capture from 3 Feb 2024 of item 2 returned of a search using the NBMDS tool on Généalogie Québec looking for Nelson Deschamps.

There he was, just like I had hoped. Even better, the transcribed information actually made sense.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the transcription for the baptism record for Joseph Alfred Nelson Deschamps from the "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968" on Ancestry.ca.

As you can see above, the transcriber of the entry for Nelson's baptism record on Ancestry has Nelson being baptized before he was born. That's not going to happen in the Catholic church.

Yet the NBMDS index entry for Nelson's baptism on Généalogie Québec doesn't link to the image. So we have to do a little bit more work.

We need to go to the Drouin Collection records on Généalogie Québec and browse the parish registers.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the Drouin Collection records landing page on Généalogie Québec.

In this specific case I drilled down the folders via Quebec > Fonds Drouin > T > Thurso > 1910 > 1918

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the Drouin Collection records browsing the folders to "Québec/Fonds Drouin/T/Thurso/1910/1918/" on Généalogie Québec.

Now all we have to do is look at the various images from 1918 to locate the baptism of Nelson Deschamps that, according the Généalogie Québec index entry, took place on 25 Apr 1918. Very quickly I came across the same image found in the Ancestry collection.

Genealogy Quebec, https://www-genealogiequebec-com.ezproxy.biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/tools/drouin-collection, Drouin Genealogical Institute, 2024, Drouin Collection - Québec/Fonds Drouin/T/Thurso/1910/1918/, d1p_00170648.jpg; image of page with baptism of Joseph Alfred Nelson Deschamps, B. 15.

 

So why would one want to use Généalogie Québec since it can take a bit more effort to see this sort of image when compared to the Drouin collections on Ancestry? 

The first reason is that the Drouin Institute keeps adding more records to their collections on Généalogie Québec. These new record may not make it on to Ancestry or any other genealogy site for quite some time. 

Additionally I've found the transcriptions of the records on Généalogie Québec are of higher quality than what I've come across on Ancestry. If I can't find a record I know should be in the various Drouin collections on Ancestry I will always come to Généalogie Québec to search through their collections. Quite often I will find that "missing" record there. Then when I look at the images on Ancestry for that specific parish and year I will find the name has been horribly transcribed in the Ancestry index.

Finally, although it didn't apply in this specific case, for those with deep roots in Quebec, the LAFRANCE collection is an amazing resource that can save you considerable time in your research.

Lessons Learned

The first lesson is always, always read the about section for any collection. That way you will know what should be covered in any collection. More importantly, you will also learn what isn't in the collection you are using.

The second lesson is to take the time to explore the various tools and collections on a site. If one collection doesn't have what you are seeking, quite possibly another collection will provide you will the answers.

Elizabeth Florence Moodie...who's child is she?

Most of the time I write about different research techniques I use to solve a genealogy puzzle which comes my way either via a post in a group on Facebook or from the discussions in the Ottawa OGS/OPL genealogy drop-in. This time it is actually an issue I stumbled upon while reviewing a branch of my own tree. 

It all started with the following tree hint for Thomas Moodie who was born 25 Dec 1839 in Upper Canada and died 8 Dec 1913 in Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada.

Screen capture from Ancestry for a family tree hint for Thomas Moodie (1839-1913), retrieved 2 Mar 2022.

Since I barely trust my own tree I'm definitely not going to trust what someone has recorded in their tree. So I, and hopefully you also, only use the hints from other trees as leads to follow up on. The majority of the time I can quickly discard the extra child or spouse. Yet in this case it sort of fit.

The extra child in this family was Elizabeth Florence Moodie (1868-1870). The reason I didn't immediately ignore this child was that she fit nicely in the gap between Annie Marie Moodie (1866-?) and Robert Thomas Moodie (1870-1929). The big stumbling block in just accepting this as correct is that the own of the tree didn't cite any sources. So it was off to do my own research.

The first step was just typing in Elizabeth Florence Moodie into Google (or your favourite search engine) to see what popped up. The second result was for a profile on WikiTree for an Elizabeth Florence Moodie born in 1868.

Screen capture of the WikiTree profile for Elizabeth Florence Moodie (1868), ID Moodie-204, retrieved 2 Mar 2022.

There (at least as on 2 Mar 2022) she is recorded as the daughter of Alexander Moodie and Rebecca Ferrier. Right away I know that something is not quite right with this profile information since it is unlikely that Elizabeth was actually born in "St Andrews Presby Church, Perth, Larark, Ont.". But it did give me a clue as to where to look...the church registers of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. I've used those registers before and a digitized copy of the microfilm of the original records held at Library and Archives Canada are available on FamilySearch under "Church records, 1830-1887" for the Presbyterian Church in Canada. St. Andrew (Perth, Ontario).

St. Andrew's Church Presbyterian Church (Perth, Ontario, Canada), "Register of Baptisms St. Andrews Church Perth U.C.," baptism of Elizabeth Florence Moodie, born 21 Jul 1868, baptized 13 Mar 1869; FHL microfilm 8,632,136, image 60.

That baptism entry records that she was born 21 Jul 1868 and baptized 13 Mar 1869, the child of Alexander Moodie and Ferrier of the township of North Burgess. What is interesting is that her mother's first name is not recorded.

What about finding her death in the same book or books? It wasn't too difficult to find the start of the burials on that same digitized microfilm beginning at image 72.

St. Andrew's Church Presbyterian Church (Perth, Ontario, Canada), "Burials.," burial of Elizabeth Florence Moodie, died 13 Oct 1870; FHL microfilm 8,632,136, image 78.

There it records that Elizabeth Florence Moodie residing in N. Elmsley [North Elmsley], born in Canada, died  Oct 13 [1870] (July 21) [written above], age 2y 2m. The age and the "July 21" written above the Oct 13 matches the date of her birth found in the baptism register. Even the age matches closely to Elizabeth's age. Yet no parents are recorded.

Fortunately she died in 1870 and the 1871 Census of Canada has "Schedule No. 2 - Nominal Return of the Deaths within last twelve months." and that schedule, like all nine other schedules for the 1871 Census of Canada, has survived and has even been digitized.

“Census of Canada, 1871,” images, Library and Archives Canada (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1871&op=img&id=4396356_00287 : accessed 2 Mar 2022), Schedule No. 2, line for Elizabeth Florence Moodie (age 2 years); citing Ontario Province, Lanark South (79) District, Elmsley North (C) Sub-District, p. 1.

There it has been recorded that Elizabeth Florence Moodie, female, age 2 years, C Pres [Canadian Presbyterian Church as the religion], died Sept from a bowel complaint and she was sick for 2 weeks.

We are even lucky enough to find her Ontario civil registration of death:

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 Mar 2022), Elizbth F Moodie, died Sep 1870; citing Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel 2, no. 013442.

But we have another mystery for both Schedule 2 of the 1871 Census and the Ontario civil death registration states that she died in Sep 1870 and not in October. What's going on here? The first thing that leaps out is that Thomas Moodie registered the death six months after Elizabeth died so he might not have had the correct date. Also in looking at the pages of "Schedule No. 1 - Nominal Return of the Living" from the 1871 Census it would seem that the household of Thomas Moodie was visited on 13 Apr 1871. With the law in effect as of 1 Jul 1869 for the civil registration of births, marriages, and death Thomas Moodie may have been advised that he had best register the death of Elizabeth before the enumerator came knocking on the door.

Something is curious on this death registration form though. If Alexander Moodie is supposed to be the father, a least according to that baptism register, why is Thomas Moodie of North Elmsley the informant?

Let's rewind just a little bit and go back to the WikiTree profile of the household of Alexander Moodie and Rebecca Ferrier. One of the siblings of the Elizabeth Florence Moodie is James A. Moodie. It so happens that he has a birth date recorded as 2 Oct 1868 on WikiTree. When I went to edit and save his profile to include a date and place of death, with a citation of course, WikiTree even brought it to my attention that another sibling had a birth date too close to his.

If Elizabeth Florence Moodie was born 21 Jul 1868 and James A. Moodie was born 2 Oct 1868 then they can't have the same mother. So I looked into James A. Moodie a little bit. On his 1944 Ontario civil death registration it states that the informant, his wife Sarah Jane, believed that James was born on 2 Oct 1868 and his parents were Alexander Moodie and Rebecca Ferrier. Even on the registration record for his marriage to Sarah J. Armstrong it states his parents are Alexander Moodie and Rebecca Ferrier. A quick check of the baptism register for St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Perth, Lanark County, Ontario finds on the page before Elizabeth's baptism the record of James' baptism in 11 Dec 1868 with a birth date recorded as 2 Oct 1868 and the father listed as Alexander Moodie and his mother Ferrier. Again, the mother's first name is not recorded.

Someone's record isn't telling the truth and my gut feeling is the baptism of Elizabeth is out of sorts.

But where to look next since "gut feelings" don't make for good citations?

A check of Find a Grave has a memorial page for Elizabeth Florence Moodie without an image. This always raises red flags for me since if the information in the memorial profile isn't recorded on the stone then where did the information come from?

In this case the biography provides some information concerning the source:

Name: Elizabeth Flora Moodie; Residence: N. Elmsley; Birthplace: Canada; Died: 13 Octr. (1870); Age: 2yr 2 mo. (July 21)
[St. Andrew's Burial Register]

Name: Moodie, Elizabeth Florence; Sex: F(emale); Age: 2; Religion: C. Pres.; Birthplace: O(ntario); Died: Sept.; Disease: Bowel Complaint
[1871 Census; N. Elmsley Twp., Lanark Co.]

I've already looked at those sources. Sigh.

Maybe there might be a newspaper clipping but I don't have a subscription to Paper of Record which has digitized the Perth Courier and, for right now, a visit to Library and Archives Canada is out of the question for me. But the Ontario GenWeb Project has a page for Lanark County which has a whole section with newspaper transcriptions from the Perth Courier which were supplied by Christine M. Spencer of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. These transcriptions are even searchable via Google. The search I used was:

site:sites.rootsweb.com/~onlanark moodie

That "site:" thing tells Google to only search URLs starting with the address of "sites.rootsweb.com/~onlanark". Note that there is not a space after the colon (:).

Yet I don't find anything from around that time for the death of a child of a Moodie.

What about Alexander Moodie and his family? If the death in 1870 of Elizabeth Moodie was recorded in Schedule 2 in the Elmsley North sub-district then Alexander would have to be also living there. I already know that Thomas Moodie and his family were in that sub-district since they were found on page 34. 

I could take the easy way out and just rely on searching Ancetsry or any of the other genealogy sites for Alexander Moodie in Lanark county but this is one case I want to double check the indexes in the off chance that family was not transcribed. So first it was a check on Ancestry for any Alex Moodie in Lanark. Two results came back but only one had the right age. That was Alexander Moodie, age 40 years, residing in Burgess North sub-district, with wife "Rebcca" and children including a James who was 2 years old. That is highly likely the James we've already seen in the baptism register and tracked through his marriage and death. But no Alexander Moodie in Elmsley North. Even manually walking through the records for Elmsley North results in no Alexander Moodie.

So based on all these little but very important clues and records I can state with confidence that the baptism registration is incorrect when it comes to listing the parents of Elizabeth Florence Moodie.

Elizabeth Florence Moodie who was born 21 Jul 1868 and died 13 Oct 1870 is the daughter of Thomas Moodie and very likely her mother is Jessie McLaren. She is not the daughter of Alexander Moodie and Rebecca Ferrier.

I'm going to let this sit for a little while before I update WikiTree with my findings and also the one-world tree on FamilySearch (unless someone beats me to it). So I ask you, gentle reader, have I missed something? Is my analysis of the available records totally off base? Let me know what you think.

Etienne Campeau and his Confirmation in 1664

A week or so ago, I came across this question on the Genealogy à la carte Facebook group hosted by Gail Dever:

"I have found references to my 7th g-grandfather Etienne Campeau being confirmed in Montreal on 11 May, 1664 and July 11th of that year. I can't find it in the regular parish book for Basilique Notre-Dame.  The trick fellow group members taught me of looking under Not Stated didn't work as in the Quebec City records on Ancestry.  Any ideas?"

It got my attention since it is what I call a "good question". A name, several dates, and a place is specified along with where the person looked and even how they searched for possible leads. So I figured I'd take a look at what could be found since I'm always wanting to expand my research horizons when it comes to Quebéc records. This is always a challenge for me since my comprehension of the French language is not exactly great.

The first step was to see if I could find any references to the confirmation of Etienne Campeau in Montreal in 1664. So I plunked the terms "etienne campeau montreal confirmation 1664" (without the quotes) into my favourite search engine. The result which initially looked most promising was one on Geni, a site which operates on the "single world family tree model". On the profile page for "Étienne Campeau dit Limousin" managed by Gisèle J.M. Fiola there it is written in a history prepared by Hélène-Andrée Bizier:

"Nothing significant happens in 1664, safe the confirmation of Étienne Campeau whose name appears on two lists of confirmations, one in May and the other dated July 11th"

along with the following noted event found in a bullet list in the same profile:

"Confirmation: 11 Jul 1664, Montréal, Île-de-Montréal, Québec, Canada."

So I continued my searching since the profile page didn't have any sources for those statements.

The next search result which got my attention was "116 – Confirmations à Québec, Trois-Rivières et Montréal en 1664" posted on 28 Feb 2016 in Le blogue de Guy Perron. That post has transcriptions of the various confirmations in Quebéc in a list format. Indeed, there is the name of Étienne Campeau recorded as being confirmed on May 1644 in Montréal. Even better, at the bottom of the list is the source: "Fonds Drouin en ligne. Registre des confirmations. Archives de l’Archidiocèse de Québec. 1659-1725. p. 29-30)."

Next it was off to the online presence of the Archives de l’Archidiocèse de Québec. It took a little bit of browsing on that site to find references to the possible confirmation records. I found a mention at the bottom of their Généalogie : ressources internes page where it stated "Registres de confirmations, 1659-" I also came across the digitization project page where it would appear that the "Registre des confirmations, vol. I, 1659-" was digitized in 2014. However, it seems like they are only available at the archives in person and not online.

I figured I'd also check the PRDH-IGD site for any other clues. In Ottawa, ever since the pandemic, we are fortunate that PRDH-IGD has been made available to us to free via the Ottawa Public Library and our library card. There I found the two entries for a confirmation of Etienne Campeau at Montréal (Notre-Dame-de-Montréal). The first had the date of 1664-05 and the second entry included the day: 1664-05-11. 

The source for the 1664-05 entry is recorded as "LE QUANTIEME DE LA DATE DE LA LISTE DE CONFIRMES A ETE OMIS, ELLE EST SITUEE ENTRE LA LISTE DE CONFIRMES DE TROIS-RIVIERES DU 01-05-1664 ET CELLE DE TROIS-RIVIERES DU 22-05-1664" and Etienne's name is written as "Etinne Campot". However, there is no source specified for the second entry. Both entries also didn't have links to the original documents on GénéalogieQuébec.com so I needed to keep looking.

I revised my search to use the information I'd found and I used the search term "notre dame montreal confirmation 1600..1700 registre" (without the quotes). For those unfamiliar with number searches on Google, the double dots, "..", instruct Google to search a range of numbers. In this case, I'm looking for web pages and documents with the year 1600 to 1700 specified. Of course, Google doesn't know they are years, but a number is still a number.

With that search term I came across the PDF "Register of Abjurations Drouin-Pépin Collection - From 1662" on the Genealogy Ensemble site. The PDF is from their "Register of Abjurations" post from 3 Feb 2015 and within the PDF it mentions "Microfilm #3140 - Diocèse de Québec - Registre des abjurations - From 1662 to 1757". But I'm looking for confirmations so why did Google highlight this PDF? It was this paragraph which helped explain what else might be found on the microfilm:

"Please note, the above microfilms does contain both acts of abjuration and acts of confirmation, for under the leadership of Monsignor François de Montmorency de Laval, Bishop of Nouvelle France from 1659 to 1708, acts of confirmation and abjuration were recorded together within the same parish registers. It does create confusion in trying to decipher if an adult who was confirmed was previously a protestant or simply a non-believer. Some of the acts of confirmations contained within this microfilm also list young people, or it appears to be so - Finally, do not expect an index of people, it does not exist - One must review each document one by one."

I now had a new search term to possibly follow: "Registre des abjurations". So, back to Google for yet another search and I put those words into the search box (without the quotes) and the third result was for a page in the FamilySearch catalogue. FamilySearch catalogue entries are often good since the material may be available online and for free.

That brought me to "Registres paroissiaux, 1662-1848". In reading the notes for the catalogue page two points got my attention:

• Microfilm des originaux dans l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec.
• Confirmations de l'eglise de Notre-Dame de Québec et autres de la diocèse, 1659-1771 et abjurations, 1662-1757
  

I was just at the  l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec web site and the confirmations and abjurations line described what I was wanting to find and in the time period I was searching.

So after signing in with my free FamilySearch account I could look at the digitized microfilm DGS 5471926. With 668 images to review I was not looking forward to looking at each page. However, this is where the microfilm information cards come in handing. These cards indicate where one item or volume placed on a microfilm starts and ends and they generally stand out when looking at the page of digitized microfilm images.

Fairly quickly I got to image 524. This is the start of  item 14,"Confirmations" for the Eglise du Canada, Quebec, Canada which was microfilmed on 10 Sep 1981 by the Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah at the Archeveche de Quebec.

"Canada, Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L99W-6DG9 : 16 July 2014), Localités multiples > Localités multiples > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1662-1848 > image 1545 of 1689; microfilm title card for Confirmations, Eglise du Canada; Archives Nationales du Quebec (National Archives of Quebec), Montreal.

I slowly worked my way through the images taking the time to read, and in some cases transcribe into Google Translate to help me with my very rusty French, the various introductory pages.

There on page 29, just like the "116 – Confirmations à Québec, Trois-Rivières et Montréal en 1664" post stated, I found the name Etienne Campot confirmed in Montréal on May 1664.

"Canada, Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G99W-66KZ : 16 July 2014), Localités multiples > Localités multiples > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1662-1848 > image 1563 of 1689; Etienne Compot, Confirmer à Montréal le May 1664; Archives Nationales du Quebec (National Archives of Quebec), Montreal.

Another digitized microfilm copy of the same page can be found in the "Registres paroissiaux, 1662-1848" on DGS 5468668. Yes, I know that this is the same name as the other catalogue on FamilySearch but it appears to be a different filming of the same documents. But it never hurts to always double check since different filmings may include other information or the images might be clearer.

That second confirmation date of 11 Jul 1664 took a bit more work. However, since I was already on FamilySearch I looked for church records for "Canada, Québec, Île-de-Montréal, Montréal". In the catalogue entry for "Registres paroissiaux, 1642-1680", which is for the Catholic church of Notre-Dame, I saw that the description of DGS 8633229 is "Baptêmes, 1642-1680 (comprend des confirmations, 1664, 1676 et 1678); Mariages, 1643, 1647-1650"

"Registres paroissiaux, 1642-1680," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3HC-Y3DM-6 : 13 July 2021), image 194 of 524; Etienne Compot, confirmation 11 Jul May 1664; Library and Archives Canada, Registre de la pariosse Notre-Dame, Montréal, 1642-1669, MG-8, G-19, volume 1.

This is the same list of names found in l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec but now found in the registers for Notre-Dame in Montréal but with a different date.

You never know what you will find as you work through the records and follow the clues found within.

Same Name, Different Person?

In my post, Not Trusting Trees -or- Make Sure You Read the Records!, I focused on the parents of Louisa Coulston/Colston Golding and the challenge with figuring out the maiden surname of her mother, Susanna. In this post I will look at the husband of Louisa, one Reuben Charles Short of England later of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.

According to the chart found in the family bible Reuben Charles Short was born 31 Mar 1807 and died 17 Mar 1880. As I had mentioned in the research concerning the mother of Louisa, charts found in family bibles always need to be taken with a grain of salt and backed up with other documents such as ecclesiastical and government created records. So far the information recorded in this specific family chart actually matches with the other records I've uncovered. So I trust it...as much as I trust any other record.

In the parish register for St. Michael Bassishaw in London, England we find a marriage recorded in Ancestry's "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932" collection between Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding taking place on 24 Mar 1829. 

"London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Sep 2020), Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding, married 24 Mar 1829; citing London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P69/MIC1/A/01/Ms 6990/1; Marriage register for St Michael Bassishaw, 1813-1835, p 63.

To add a little bit to the confusion to Louisa's middle name she writes it as "Coston". Why do I think it is her handwriting and not that of the priest or clerk? This is where we have to look at the page as a whole. If she didn't know how to write her name the signature would have been like that of the witness to the following recorded marriage, "Ann Pyatt her Mark X". Also the letters, especially the 'd' in Golding, look different when compared to the rest of the record and page.

Unfortunately, unlike in the civil marriage registrations that started 1 Jul 1837 in England and Wales, the names of any parents are generally not recorded in parish marriage registers. This leaves us with a challenge, who are Reuben Charles Short's parents and where in England was Reuben born?

Once again I turned to the family trees on Ancestry that have been created by users of that site for potential clues. And much like the challenges with figuring out the maiden surname of Louisa's mother, Susanna, we face some in interesting challenges. Here an example of one profile hint from Ancestry:

Screen capture of an Ancestry profile hint for Reuben Edward Short Sr.

A few things I need to address or point out.

• For the profile picture they are using the image of the family tree from the Short bible. That is the same family tree chart that I've also been using as a relatively trusted source. That document has recorded within the names of the children along with dates of significant events for that family.
• Reuben's full name, according to that family chart is recorded not just once but twice as "Reuben Charles Short". The use of the "Sr" (senior) may have been used to distinguish him from his son, Reuben Edward Short especially if only the first name is used in business or in the family. Even his grave marker, as you will read a little further on, records his name as Reubⁿ C Short.
• Reuben was born in London, Middlesex, England. However, some have him also baptized on 5 Apr 1807 in Swanage, Dorset, England.
  
• Reuben's father's name is Thomas Short and mother's name is Sarah Martin.
• Six children are listed: Matilda Susannah (1829-1885), Louisa Susannah (1832-1903), Reuben Edward (1935-1928), Sarah Ann (1838-1913), Eliza Jane (1938-1902), and Fanny Charlotte (1842-1918). However, in the family chart found in the bible there is one other daughter, Elizabeth (1841-?). She is listed under the deaths on the chart but without a date recorded. Possibly the creator of the family chart didn't know when she died.
  

Knowing the dates of when the children were born is another little tidbit that may help us out in locating or even dismissing records in England: Reuben Charles' son Reuben Edward was born in England on 18 Mar 1835 and the next child, Sarah Ann, was born in Canada in 14 Oct 1837 with the remaining children also born in Canada. Reuben is also found in the 1871 census of Canada in the Township of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada with wife Louisa and daughter Eliza Jane. His entry in that census is sandwiched between the family of his daughter Matilda, now married to William McKnight, and the household of his son Reuben. I've not yet found him in the earlier decennial censuses of Canada West.

So why do some have Reuben Charles Short born in London, Middlesex, England while also having him baptized some distance away in Swanage, Dorset, England. It comes down to two different sets of records. The first is a baptism record for a Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short in 1807.

"Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Sep 2020), Reuben, of Thomas and Sarah Short, baptized 5 Apr 1807; citing Dorset History Centre; Dorchester, England; Dorset Parish Registers; Reference: PE/SW:RE6; Parish of Swanage.

The other is the entry for Find A Grave for Reuben Edward Short Sr. in Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium in London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada¹ where someone has written:

REUBEN EDWARD SHORT was born and lived near St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. He, his wife, two daughters and his son-age one left England in 1836 in a sailing vessel that took 7 weeks to reach America. He settled in Toronto, Canada for four years then went to London, Ontario, where he lived the balance of his life. He was in the shoe making business with his brother and built a log cabin. [Source unknown]

What would have been really nice to read in that Find A Grave memorial page was the source of that information. Also, the memorial page for Reuben on Find A Grave is without an image so how do we know that it is Reuben Edward Short written on the marker? Well, it isn't. The CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project has taken photographs of many of the markers on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium and Reuben's is one of them. The name engraved on the marker appears to my eyes to be "Reubⁿ C Short"²

If that wasn't confusing enough, some people have linked a 1841 census of England to Reuben in their trees. Yet based on the places of birth for his children, he was residing in Canada by that time. That 1841 census of the Parish of Wimborne Minster, Dorset records a Reuben Short, age 35 years, born in Dorset County. Keeping in mind that in the 1841 census of England the ages were rounded down to the nearest multiple of five for those over 15 years of age, could that entry actually be referring to the the Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short?

Curiously, on FamilySearch there is an indexed entry from the "England, Dorset, Parish Registers, 1538-2001" collection for a baptism of an Ellen Short, daughter of Reuben and Catherine Short taking place on 12 Jul 1840 in Wimborne Minster. In the "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005" collection on FamilySearch we find a Reuben Short listed in the index along with a Catherine Mary Ann Primmer with their marriage registered in the 4th quarter of 1839 in the Southampton registration district.

The tricky part in using church records is that not all the parish registers have survived and not all have been digitized or even indexed. So where else can we turn to in these COVID-19 times when archives and libraries are effectively out of bounds for us? How about online newspaper collections. For this I looked to the British newspapers collection on Findmypast.

In the 19 Nov 1840 edition of the Dorset County Chronicle there is a servant, Reuben Short, recorded as a hedger³ with a master named Mr. Harry Small. He performed his hedging task in 2 hours 33 minutes. This was an actual event offered by the Blandford Agricultural Society in a Ploughing and Hedging competition on 11 Nov 1840. There are also mentions of Reuben Short in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire having to do with various criminal activities...all after when Reuben Charles Short was supposedly in Canada.

Could there be at least two Reuben Shorts born around the same time period in England? One that left England for Upper Canada and others that remained behind? The more I look at the records and explore other resources the more I have come to the option that there are indeed at least two people named Reuben Short.

What have we learned from this little exercise?

1. Family trees may not always be correct. It doesn't matter if they are online trees or books compiled a century ago. The information found within need to be looked at with a critical eye and, where ever possible, verified against surviving records.
   
2. Find A Grave entries or those found on any other grave marker site, unless accompanied by the image of the marker, should be treated as suspect.
3. Newspapers can help when looking for a person. Of course, they may just highlight the issue of "same name, different person" like in this case.
4. Family bibles and family charts can be invaluable but, like online family trees, the events recorded need to be corroborated.
   

So, at least for now, the names of the parents of Reuben Charles Short will have to remain a mystery.

---

1.  Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 September 2020), memorial page for Reuben Edward Short Sr. (1807–17 Mar 1880), Find a Grave Memorial no. 33292270, citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium, London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find a Grave (contributor 8). 

2. CanadaGenWeb, CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project, digital images (http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org/  : accessed 4 Sep 2020), memorial page for Reuben C Short (1807-1880), citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada; photographed by Margaret Yasui.

3. Hedger? What's a hedger? Someone who makes and trims hedges of course! It was considered a skilled art.