Colleen Murray

Moonshine Still, public domain, courtesy of Flikr Creative Commons, posted by UNC Library Commons. I'm sharing this story so that it is preserved for relatives to see, but it may also be an interesting example to others, showing how old family stories can often hold a kernel of truth. In about 1988 when I was a new student at St. Rose junior high school in Edmonton, a boy with the surname Donnelly approached me with a surprising family story. He said, “You’re a Conroy? Your r

I will admit that I had no knowledge of The Catholic Register newspaper prior to learning that they were offering free access to their publication to mark their 125th birthday. As it turns out, this is an excellent resource for Catholic-Canadian Genealogy. I was uncertain as to whether The Catholic Register would offer only news of the church, and therefore whether it would be useful in finding genealogical information on my family. Although there are plenty of details on chu

Recently, a friend introduced me to the Blue Book, a society Who’s Who guide. Several editions from the early 1900’s for the Toronto area have been digitized and can be consulted by anyone via the Toronto Public Library Digital Archive. The Toronto area books were first published by Wm. Tyrell & Co., and later taken over by the Dau Publishing company. The digitized books on the library site span between 1902 and 1921, with gaps. Some refer to the Toronto area, others also cov

Photo courtesy of Avacados via Flickr Creative Commons https://flic.kr/p/3ZX5aE Ontario Church records A few years ago, when I was researching some ancestors in Sullivan, Grey County, Ontario, I tried to piece together where to find their church records from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I did manage to find a few of them, but the challenges involved made me put the project on the back burner until recently. One of the biggest challenges with my Protestant ancestor