Making Connections

Thanks to Google I found a new cousin!  You have to go way way back to our 6th great grandparents Nathan and Hannah Burnham who were from Ipswich Mass at the beginning of the 1700's to find common ancestors... and that makes Stephen my 7th cousin.  I found him because he was good enough to post about some of the descendants of Nathan and Hannah.  See how powerful the Internet is!

So hello Stephen, I hope we have lots of luck Making Connections and Fixing Branches.

Canadian Enough

My grandmother was always under the impression that her family had been in Canada for 8-10 generations.  I never questioned this while growing up.  I assumed we had been in Canada longer than it had even been Canada.  Turns out she was only partly right.

Tonight, while working on her file it occurred to me that 6 out of 8 of her great grandparents were immigrants (4 from Scotland, 2 from England) and the other 2 were 1st generation Canadians.   All 16 great great grandparents were born outside Canada.  The first ancestor born here was her great grandfather Charles Burnham in 1815 in Port Hope when it was still the British colony of Upper Canada.  So "we" really haven't been here that long at all, but it was pre-Confederation... I sure hope she wouldn't be disappointed!!  200 years is pretty respectable!