family history

  • Dante and My Wife’s Family

    I’ve been slowly working through Dante’s Divine Comedy. This 14th-century Italian poem has been on my reading list for a long time. Little did I realize that, in its 725-year-old pages, I would encounter some of my wife’s ancestors…

  • Sailor, Barber, Insurance Salesman

    One of the less bleak oral histories that has been told many times in my family is that of the truly unique New Brunswicker, Henry Havelock Bissett (1865-1941). His daughter, Rhea, was my great-grandmother, whom I met as a baby and toddler — one of the few people I have met who was born in…

  • Murdered Under Trust

    I have a new research quest that I am pursuing. There is an old family story that my Papa Henderson, my mom’s dad, had Spanish roots. I have yet to find proof of this. Still, the pursuit of one objective, however difficult, can give rise to unexpected discoveries.

  • Loyalists in the Family

    One of the aspects of my family history that is not as familiar for me is my New Brunswick heritage. We have a handful of stories in our family about it. My great-grandfather David Thomson was, of course, the man who made New Brunswick sing. My grandmother, David’s daughter Ruth, babysat that famous New Brunswicker, the…