Hi, I’m Mike.
I have a passion for family history and the historic places connected to it.
I enjoy following ancestors into archives, old newspapers, military records, churchyards, coastlines, and communities. The records establish what happened; the places help me imagine what those lives may have felt like.
This website is where I share the stories, discoveries, and unanswered questions that continue to hold my attention.
It began with a family binder
When I was nine, a large family-history binder arrived from my great-aunt. It contained photographs, stories, family trees, and generations of accumulated information.
What fascinated me most were the uncertainties. Some dates did not agree. Some relationships were unclear. Behind every name seemed to be a life shaped by family, work, migration, war, opportunity, loss, and place.
Growing up in rural Bruce County, Ontario, I was far from major archives and many members of my extended family. The internet opened a way into both. That childhood curiosity has stayed with me ever since.
What I’m following
My family connections reach into Cornish mining communities, Customs service in the Isles of Scilly and London, migration between Britain and Canada, maritime loss, military service, colonial New York, and many other parts of history.
Sometimes a story begins with an ancestor. Sometimes it begins with a shipwreck, an occupation, a diary entry, a gravestone, or a place I have visited. I follow the connection wherever it leads and share the parts that may interest someone else.
Does something here connect with you?
If you recognize a person, place, record, or historical connection, I’d be glad to hear what brought you here and compare what we know.