Over the past few days my email has been clogged with questions about whether or not anyone- everyone was related to royalty.   Well being the geek that I am, I decided to a quick bit of research and here’s what I found out  (these are excerpted for the articles noted at the end of this posting… feel free to read them in their entirety). [A] mathematical study of genealogy indicates that everyone in the world is descended from Nefertiti and Confucius, and everyone of European ancestry is descended from Muhammad and Charlemagne.- Dick Eastman …everyone of European descent has royal ancestry. – Steve Olsen The mathematics of our ancestry is…

PART I JOSEPH YON (JOSEPH DEYO) 1805-1880-PLUS INTRODUCTION Joseph Yon was born around the year 1805. His parents, Ignace Yon (Guyon) and Marie Suzanne Gervais were of the Parish of St. Marc sur Richelieu. It is believed Joseph lived in the area of St. Marc until his marriage at about the age of twenty three. He was a furniture maker of legal age when he married Julienne Denys, daughter of Ignace Denys and Julie Fall. The marriage took place on June 22, 1828 in the parish of St. Cyprien of Napierville, Quebec, Canada. With all the information available it would appear that Joseph and Julienne (Denys) Yon/Deyo had a total…

Merging branches (also known as cutting and pruning) is something you will most certainly need to do; unless you never make mistakes!  I just encountered a situation like that with my Deyo Branch (I seem to enjoy making mistakes in this line…). By way of providing background, a newly discovered relative was kind enough to point out that I might have made an error in selecting Joseph Dion’s parentage.  The good news and bad news is, he was correct.  I had Joseph linked to an incorrect branch of the Guyon family tree.  It was a very nice branch, just not the right one… Well after much panic and research, I…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canadiana Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related research. These documents…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada in the Making Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada in the Making Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related research. These documents provide…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related research. These documents provide…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada in the Making Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related…

In the interest of currency & accuracy, we have removed our previously published and now “out of date content”. If you wish to read Dick Garneau’s History of Canada we recommend you view the original materials written and published by R.D. (Dick) Garneau. We provide a significant body of historical source materials on Canada and Quebec; they are freely accessible via our French Canada page. To obtain more information, we heartily recommend researching the following web sites: Canada in the Making Canada’s History InfoPlease Canada Disclosure: We are very pleased to be one of the few sites offering fully searchable versions of Cyprien Tanguay’s Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes and related…

The [following] was [written] by the author Rita Campbell. We share common ancestors, Moise Dupuis and Ann Christiansen. The story is based on the few facts known about Moise and Ann and general knowledge of the area and times in which they lived. Attempting to tread the paths of a man who passed this way almost 300 years ago is both thrilling and nostalgic; when this man is an ancestor of your family, the task becomes a labor of affection and personal satisfaction. The life of Moise Dupuis is filled with adventure, danger, human frailty and tragedy, but in his own humble way he contributed to the history of his…

I don’t know how many of you, like me, use Ancestry.com as their data collection and ‘easy analysis’ site.  I suspect quite a few. As you may be aware I have been pouring through a significant section of my father’s family- the Deyos.  This research effort has generated a set of over 500 people.  Also because the research is about 90% in Quebec, that means there is a lot of overlap in that portion of my family tree.  People are cross-related numerous times over; in my case there are about 5 junctions.  This brings me to my point… Ancestry.com does not deal with overlapping, repeating family lines very well at…

Norway offers exceptional internet research facilities for genealogy. Although we have not been working in the Sivertsen family line very long we have uncovered some very helpful web-tools. Thus far we have unearthed several excellent, dare I say indispensable,  tools: Norwegian Historical Data Centre (a wonderful repository) – The Norwegian Historical Data Centre (NHDC) is a national institution under the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Tromsø (UiTø). Our main aim is to computerize the Norwegian censuses 1865 onwards together with the parish registers and other sources from the 18th and 19th centuries. National Archives of Norway – Digitalarkivet (Digital Archives) is the Norwegian National Archives’ channel for…

I have begun in earnest working on Becky’s side of the family.  This means research in both Norway and Sweden has started for me.  As one might expect the available references and information are a ‘tad’ difficult for non-native language speakers; and my German is not really very close to either Norwegian or Swedish! Having said that I must say that the available resources are quite exceptional. I find those from Norway to be a bit more advanced and easier to use (not to mention free!).  Sweden’s are less complete, more awkward technologically and they cost money; unless you go to your local LDS Family History Center for free access.…

source: courtesy Fred Rump In 1783, Moses Simon paid 40,000 Thaler to the city to earn protection and the rights to compete with his Christian counterparts in Elbing for himself and his descendants. (Schutz = protection and Juden= Jews) By 1812, 33 such families had settled in Elbing. Most had paid a fee to the Prussian state and were permitted to settle anywhere. Some chose the city of Elbing. Hardenberg’s edict of 1812 gave full citizenship rights to all people of the Jewish faith in Prussia. Up to this time Jews were known by their biblical names and they now were required to chose a proper German name so as…

Yesterday was a wonderful research day for me. I began seriously researching materials and information to support the work my father-in-law (Robert Henss) had done on the Johansson family line (Becky’, my wife’s, matrilineal line).  With a photocopy of his work in hand, I bravely proceeded into uncharted territory (for me). To assign quanta to my success, I found 17 original source documents.  I’ll post images of them on ManyRoads for me to admire quite soon. In all honesty, I must admit that the bulk of the 17 source documents were actually from the Norwegian side of the family (Sivertsens); there were but a handful from the Swedish (Johansson) side. …

Tell your friends!  It’s now official. I will be speaking at two separate meetings of the Parker (Colorado) Genealogical Society. Meeting Location: Stroh Ranch Fire Station (New Location) 19310 Stroh Ranch Road Parker, Colorado 2nd Saturday of each month (except December will be the 1st Saturday) Business Meeting: 1:30pm – 2pm Speaker: 2pm – 3:30pm My sessions will take place on 12 June 2010 and 9 October 2010.  As might guess from the above, if you can make it,  plan on being there at 1330 or 1:30pm.  The subjects I will speak on are: What’s in a Name? (tracking your genealogy through a long history of mis-spelled names).  I will…

As hard as it was for me to believe, our Deyo family name is not from the Netherlands and/or Huguenot communities as I had earlier thought but rather it comes down a more circuitous, and I might say “interesting” route. Let me explain what I have thus far unearthed: Leona Deyo, my grandmother (father’s mother) was born to George Deyo and Exina Minor in upstate New York in 1906. Her father, George Deyo, was born in 1868 of Mary Ann Burnah (Marie-Anne Bonin) and John Deyo (alternately known as: John Deo, John Dion and Jean Baptiste Dion). Jean Baptiste Dion was born in 1838 in Rouses Point, New York of…

Today we added a dozen+ new texts in our Quebec library. I hope you find them helpful.  Please feel free to let me know if there are other texts you’d like to see online, or if you encounter difficulties with ours.

As you work on your genealogy be sure to work on branches and items in logical groups.  Do not scatter your efforts too much or you risk becoming confused, muddled and inaccurate. I find that my best and most productive work comes when I work in a single or focused area of my family either by picking a ‘branch’ or following a group or family history theme. Working in this manner I find I develop much better control by being attuned to the following: Local history, more precisely history of the time and place, is much easier to keep in mind. History can greatly affect the movements and choices your…

Yesterday while working on my genealogy, I accidently got carried away.  Hard to believe but true.  Here is what I found myself doing, then questioning and finally fixing. I was conducting initial research on Ancestry, seeking the basics about who was born of whom and where.  As is typically the case, I was using the Ancestry hints as pointers on where to look and attempting to ascertain what was real versus imaginary, in terms of facts, individuals and data. You may or may not be aware, but when you research this way on Ancestry, Family Tree hints indicate whether or not a “user family tree” contains sources, stories, images, etc. …