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Old Photo Identification: Ove Tintypes Update

Nearly two years ago I posted about a set of tintype photos that were passed down in the Ove family. Unfortunately, the photos had no names, dates, labels or other forms of identification. I have shared them with many distant cousins in hopes that the individuals in the photos could be identified, with no luck. Identifying Individuals in Old Photos There are ways of identifying the folks in those old nameless photos with a little sleuthing. Here are some simple...

Marguerite Lamain: Our pioneer ancestor on TV

To watch the full episode of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS click here More than a year ago I wrote a story about the Filles du Roi, Our French Canadian Matriarchs. Recently one of the Filles du Roi in the Gregoire/Granpre family tree, Marguerite Lamain, was featured in an episode of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS. During the show, actress, fashionista, and model, Chloë Sevigny, discovered that her French Canadian roots run deep in Quebec. Chloë’s 8th great grandmother, Marguerite...

Finding Jacob Ove: Researching Norwegian Ancestors

Jacob Ove (left) with an unidentified person (right) My memories of visiting Great-grandma and Grandpa Conlin while growing up are primarily connected to sweets — namely butterscotch candies and fig newtons. Grandma needed those candies to keep Grandpa sweet…or so she said. When I grew older and began genealogy research there were plenty of stories and information passed down about Grandpa Conlin’s Irish Family and Grandma Conlin’s mother’s Norwegian family, but when it came to her father, I only knew two things:...

Gregoire Deblois: Our First Gregoire in the New World

View of Chateau-Richer and the Île d’ Orléans, Québec (1787) by Thomas Davies french roots Gregoire Deblois was born in the small village of Champagne-Mouton, France to Francois Deblois and Marguerite Papelong. The year of his birth, 1632, brought welcome peace after decades of tension between the Huguenots (French Protestants) and Catholic King Louis XIII, which culminated in the Siege of La Rochelle, a nearby shipping port. french Dit Names As the progenitor of our Gregoire family in North America,...

Eliza (Sherlock) Duffy: A Young Mothers Determination

“In Heaven a noble work was done when God gave man a Mother”. -old Irish proverb Stories of the valor of frontier men during America’s colonization are fairly common. However, the achievements of frontier women are seldom heard. As a businesswoman and mother, Eliza Duffy’s accomplishments, during a time when a woman’s identity was derived entirely through their spouse, were extraordinary. coming to America Elizabeth “Eliza” Sherlock, was born April 27, 1821, to Thomas and Hannorah (White) Sherlock of Kings...

Mary (Haselhaugen/Larson) Ove: A Compendium of Cookery

Food and family heritage One of the most precious objects I inherited from my mom’s side of the family is a well-worn recipe book from 1890, “The Compendium of Cookery and Reliable Recipes” which originally belonged to my second great-grandmother, Mary (Haselhaugen/Larson) Ove. Anyone who has visited my house knows how much I love to cook for family and friends, so this cookbook is truly a treasure to me. Mary was the daughter of Lars, “The Husmann”, who I recently wrote...

Lars Gulbrandson Haselhaugen: The Husmann

“Come let’s go to America”. The way she said it sounded like America was just behind the barn. With two of his daughters married and already living in America it split up his family. Your children should all live around you so you wouldn’t be alone in your old age but the way it looks now, he was sadly thinking, they would all leave some day. To be with them, would he have to leave Norway where his roots were...

Filles du Roi (Daughters of the King): Our French Canadian Matriarchs

“Rester, c’est exister; mais voyager, cest vivre.” “To stay is to exist; to travel is to live.” -Gustave Nadaud Between 1663 and 1673, some 770 young women arrived in the colony of New France with a mandate to marry and populate the land for France. These women, who came to be called the Filles du Roi (Daughters of the King), originated primarily from respectable poor families or orphanages. When offered the chance at a better life, they embraced the opportunity and became the mothers...