Beyond the Internet – Paper, People, Pointers
Genealogy research has become much more accessible using the internet. But sometimes it pays to get out from “behind” that screen.
Here’s a story of how a simple conversation can lead to some great breakthroughs – some of them unrelated to the original topic!
As I work on “More Stories From White Head”, a sequel to my history of White Head Harbour N.S., I am always interested in finding very early mentions of the place. Online, I found several historical sources, but the most appropriate was a book by Mark Haynes called “The Forgotten Battle: A History of the Acadians of Canso/Chedabuctou”.
I was actually able to look through a lot of it, on the internet, but not all of it, and at the time it appeared to be out of print and/or unavailable. I noted that it was published in British Columbia, and I assumed (wrongly) that the author must live out west.
Before I could track down Mr. Haynes, my summer visit to White Head intervened. My friend Sandra at Waterline Graphix was working on some interpretive panels for a new historic park near White Head, and mentioned that “Mark Haynes” had been a big help. What? He lives HERE?
With Sandra’s help, I soon found myself in the research room at the Old Court House Museum (run by the Guysborough Historical Society) with Mark and another local history buff Jamie Grant. What an afternoon! We covered so much ground – they had questions for me, I had questions for them – but importantly to me, Mark had some great tidbits about the early White Head area that had not made it into his book, and he told me that he is in the middle of revising his book with new findings. I wouldn’t have discovered that on the internet. The day ended with Jamie providing a personal tour of the museum coupled with great anecdotes about the artifacts.
Back home in Ontario, I was again on the “online lookout” for anything about White Head. On the Guysborough County Genealogy Facebook page (another great resource), I found mention of a new book on Schooling In Guysborough County 1735-2016 by John N. Grant (a common surname in that corner of Nova Scotia). I contacted the author. By coincidence, his wife was planning a trip to Toronto, and she was kind enough to bring the book to me! What service!
I sat right down and read this entertaining and sometimes sobering look at our ancestors’ lifestyles 100 to 300 years ago. Consider, if you will, the issue of outhouses at the one-room school houses. It was definitely “a thing”!
The end-notes in this book are as valuable as the chapters, and I noticed an article cited about the Canso Riots of 1833 – and the article was by John N. Grant himself! I didn’t know about these Riots, but it reminded me of a strange tale I was trying to track down about a murder along that shore some years after 1833. Maybe in his research on the Riots, John had stumbled on something about my story.
I emailed John once again. It wasn’t long before he provided me with some information that he had on my “strange tale” – AND he brought in his brother….You guessed it – His brother happened to be Jamie Grant of that summer meeting! Jamie had some great anecdotal information – stuff I would NEVER have found online, that expanded on the information available in our usual “go-to” sources for Guysborough County.
So step away from that keyboard, and go talk to people. Get together, have a coffee, share notes. Read their hardcopy book! Yes, printed on paper. There’s a lot of stuff online, records and sources and items that will direct you to other sources, but when it comes to putting flesh on the bare bones of our family history, you will find a lot of gems that never make it to the internet.
You ferret everything out, Peggy!! How great that you followed up the History of Whitehead! I love it!
Thanks, Norma!
Is this the book about the Phalen, Rhynold,Grover & Feltmates. I am looking for the book for my mother Mabel Phalen.
Hi Doreen. I have answered your other message on Facebook. I am sorry I missed this message from you. Yes this is the book. It costs $25 plus the cost of mailing it to you. If you are able to send me your mailing address (you can do that on the Facebook message if you prefer), I can tell you what the postage will be. Thank you for your interest!
Best regards
Peggy
Wonderful words! It’s always a joy and informative to read your work.
Thanks, Sandy! You figured, big time, in this one!