Remembering Ken

My colleague and genealogy friend Ken Aitken died yesterday .. the Queen's birthday .. not unexpectedly. He was 59. It was less than a year ago he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) although not all the doctors agreed, nor how far it might have progressed even then. Ken leaves a legacy in the genealogy world as an active, dedicated librarian and an educator who continually encouraged and challenged genealogists and family historians to "sharpen your saw." He had a powerful mind and passionate ideas. We didn't always see eye to eye, but we always had much to talk about. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies certainly benefited from his great interest in creating discussion groups to study articles from scholarly journals in our field. Most of us last saw him at the OGS Seminar in May 2006. While his health was failing then, he was up to form in lectures and conversation, bubbling with his love of family history. Ken will be missed in many circles, not just in Regina where he worked and his home of Penticton, but also among the international genealogy community he enjoyed so much.

It's a sad thing when familiar personalities are no more. Somehow we expect the leaders to be ageless. Some day I will write about another colleague who was a dear, treasured friend, Ryan Taylor.

Ca-li-fra-gil-ist-ic

Today was one of those supercalifragilistic days a genealogist gets every so often. Contact was established with one of my missing "Minneapolis cousins." Of course she wasn't missing at all, just minding her own business in Denver and having a life. It's hard to say which of us was more thrilled. I found her by googling and then hours of checking forum messages. Being distracted by the forum's interesting content did not speed things up. It's 18 years since I saw her; 1989 was the last time I visited Minneapolis (time flies even when you stand still).

The preliminary catching up had its sad moments, speaking of time. Both her father and her uncle, the sons of my dear "Uncle" Peter, have died in the past few years. Her brother has taken over their family business. Kaylynn has the red hair and family similarity to me and my brothers in our youth. She also reminds me of my cousin Heather Dougall Miller, now sadly gone too. The colouring is also popping up among our grandchildren. I was told the red hair has been inherited from our Campbell ancestors ... but more on that another time.

DOUGALL

This is a trial to give an introduction to a family history and see how it would work. Unfortunately, the footnote numbers and notes don't transfer easily into this medium. So far, I'll be content to show bits and pieces. Footnote numbers appear in the text in (brackets) and the footnotes should show at the end of the post. More news about the main families and research stories will appear later on the blog.
Title:
Ancestors and Descendants of John DOUGALL and Marion HASTIE from West Lothian, Scotland, to Argentueil County, Lower Canada (Quebec).

This photograph was taken some time before John Dougall died in July 1867 (see below). He lived just past Canada's birth as an independent nation. The photo has hung above my desk for the thirty years I have worked as a professional genealogist for thousands of clients worldwide. The look on John's face suggests disapproval that I was not paying attention to my own family history. I sincerely hope he will cheer up now. As I've already said, this is a work in progress and I have quite a way to go still. More information needs to be hunted, collected and sorted for several lines yet. As of this date I am also cleaning up footnotes ... the source citations which are all-important to a credible genealogical compilation.

The work itself includes data and stories (when possible) on:
* The emigrating Couple and their Ancestry
* The Second Generation
Names of spouses: Cameron, Fenton, Moffat, Lloynachen, Laing, FRASER, McCunn
* The Third Generation
mainly from Peter Dougall (1824-1914); names of spouses: Ormiston, McFADYEN, Hemenway, French, McAdam, Kenning
* The Fourth Generation
from John Fraser Dougall (1852-****)
from William Charles Dougall (1854-1934)
from Margaret Jane French (1867-****)
from Peter Robinson Dougall (1872-1962)
from Mabel Kate Kenning (1881-****)
The Fifth Generation:
Hector Fraser Dougall (1896-1960)
Peter McAdam Dougall (1900-1993)

To the last two above, I dedicated my work: my father, whose interest and preliminary findings unknowingly set me on this lifelong path, and my "uncle" who unfailingly provided support and good humour.

John Dougall (Thomas, John) was baptized 20 July 1781 in the parish of West Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, the son of Thomas Dougall and Marion Pollens;(1) he died 20 July 1867 at Beech Ridge, Argenteuil County, Quebec.(2) John married on 13 May 1810 in Livingstone parish Marion Hastie, daughter of John and Margaret (Brown) Hastie.(3)

(1) West Calder Old Parochial Register (OPR), baptisms 1645-1854; Family History Library microfilm 1067792.
(2) Suzanne Rossignol and Pennie Redmile, St. Andrews East Protestant Cemetery, St. Andrews East, Quebec (Quebec Family History Society 1991).
(3) Livingstone OPR, marriages 1718-1820; FHL microfilm 106636. John Dougall's family bible, published in 1811, has disappeared; it was transcribed by Miss Helen Locke as a girl and her notes say the wedding took place 13 July 1810.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

...MORTUI VIVOS DOCENT
... the dead teach the living

Why a blog? Well, 'everyone' seems to be doing it in the 21st century. Some of the family history I've been working on, i.e. trying to get back to, can be posted here. Uh oh ... better ask CDM if footnotes can be pasted into a blog. My tech knowledge is severely limited! Like all good genealogists, I have plenty of footnotes sprinkled through my work. We decided to try this medium, rather than a website, to see how it will work. My main purpose is to share some of the various family histories as they evolve, and some of the associated stories.