Tripping Over My Roots
A journal of my search for my ancestors and their stories. I started as a name collector and now I am a family historian and preservationist. Join me as I share what I learn.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Hobbs-Merritt Do-Over
Friday, February 16, 2024
52 Ancestors - Heirloom - My great-grandmother's Bible
Elm
November 1867
E.M.H.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
52 Ancestors - Earning A Living
If you've never seen this series and are in the US, you can still watch the five episodes with a membership to PBS Passport, it looks like they will be available until May and each one is just under an hour.
When I first started researching my family it was enough for me to know that my 2nd great-grandfather, Joseph Elijah Hobbs of Somerset, England, was an edge tool maker and that my 3rd great-grandmother on another branch, Elizabeth Louden, was a straw bonnet maker. I've been able to find a pretty detailed description of how Elizabeth would have made her straw bonnets and a less detailed description of edge tool making, but now I want more detail.
How many days a week did they work? How many hours per day? Did Joseph work for himself, a local smith, a larger factory? Was it noisy, hot and smelly? What kind of income did he earn? What kind of home could the family afford? Did Elizabeth make the bonnets at home? Was it enough to support herself and her three children after emigrating to Canada from Scotland? Did she work around the clock? Did she sell her bonnets directly to her customers, or was she doing piece-work for a local milliner, or was there some other arrangement? Who were her customers?
This type of research is new to me and Google hasn't given me much. Since Joseph Hobbs is in one of the lines that I've already committed to researching this year, I'm starting with a locality guide for Somerset and hoping that this will give me some leads. Once I get into that, I plan to make inquiries at local libraries and archives to see if anyone there can point me in the right direction. I think there are trade directories that I can look for?
Image from: The New York Public Library. "New England bonnet makers" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1866. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-20ce-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Friday, January 19, 2024
52 Ancestors - Witness to History
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
52 Ancestors - Family Lore
Saturday, December 30, 2023
52 Ancestors 2024 - Bringing this blog back to life?
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Dipping My Toe into Italian Research
Thank goodness for the recent release of the 1931 Census of Canada. The search for my ancestors in this census couldn't have come at a better time for me personally and has really reignited my passion for research, something that, like my blogging, had been sporadic at best for some time.
Donald, my partner, is still in the midst of what is likely to be a long recovery from his last surgery. Moving my focus from my Canadian ancestors to his Italian ancestors has given us both something to look forward to, something positive to focus on when things aren't going his way or just feeling like a slow grind.
Pictured above are Donald's father (the baby) and his parents, Charles Salvatore-Nicholas Calma and Marie Teresa (Tessie) Scalise. The Calmas are from Bisacquino, Sicily (also the birthplace of the director Frank Capra) and his Scalise ancestors come from Serrastretta in Calabria.
Over the last weeks I have found many records online for his Calma ancestors; census entries, passenger lists, naturalization forms and even church records from Bisacquino on FamilySearch.
In a case of perfect timing, Legacy Family Tree Webinars had webinar last week on Italian research given by Margaret R. Fortier for the Board for Certification of Genealogists. It was excellent and I am now reading Melanie Holtz's The Family Tree Italian Genealogy Guide and I have a list of other books to check out as well. Just deciphering and translating the church records (from Latin) is going to keep me occupied for quite a while, but it is so much fun.
I cannot wait until Donald is well enough for trips to Ellis Island and the Tenement Museum and some more searching at Calvary Cemetery. In the meantime, I'll be gathering as much documentation as I can thanks to the spark which is finally back and the lifeline genealogy has given me.
Hobbs-Merritt Do-Over
I didn't really rely on someone else's tree to give me the names of my great-grandmother's parents, did I? Did I??? Ugh, I thi...
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Linea Vulgaris, better known as Butter and Eggs. Prince Edward Island, Canada I was giving my blog a little makeover last week and realized ...
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This is the farmhouse at the Deanholme Farm in North Hatley, Quebec. Six generations of our family have lived here. I believe that...
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As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo 's Honor Roll Project , I have transcribed these Rolls of Honor in Glen Cove, NY to make the names v...