The Unfortunate Mr. Pipon
Charles Ashworth Pipon was not a politician or a celebrity, but the circumstances of his death and funeral were major news events in his hometown of Toronto in the summer of 1906. Right, the modest...
View ArticleThe Legacy of Magnus Shewan or “The Will in the Way”
Sometimes it is what is left out of a will—intentionally or not—that provides the intriguing story. Magnus Shewan was a Toronto bookseller who operated a shop in the arcade of St. Lawrence Market from...
View ArticleHot off the press: Inheritance in Ontario
Very pleased to find a box from Dundurn Press at my door last week—the first copies of my new book Inheritance in Ontario: Wills and Other Records for Family Historians. The book covers wills and...
View ArticleToronto City Directories: A few more thoughts
Last fall, I wrote an article about the importance of city directories for Toronto family history research—really for all Toronto historical research. They are a way to see the development of the city...
View ArticleThe life and times of Maude Scales Darby
Sometimes you meet the most interesting people completely by accident. I met Maude Scales Darby in the April 1, 1914, edition of the Toronto World. Of course, I was looking for something entirely...
View ArticleBig indexes to consider for every Ontario ancestor
Tried and true genealogy research techniques tell us to start with what we know—and to make previously done research and indexed records a priority. But more records are being indexed almost daily, and...
View ArticleNumbering Toronto’s Thirteen Club… part 2: Sources
In this post, I’ll give you some details of the sources I used in my search for members of the Thirteen Club. Many of the sources were new to me, and some were old standards but viewed through a...
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