Following a new path
I love that family tree research leads me down so many different paths. My own roots are (pretty much) known, within the limits of archival materials here in Canada. When I decided to “branch out”; in essence, to map my community and neighbours, the grandeur of family ties was revealed.
This evening, after noticing a fundraiser on Facebook involving music, I decided to follow the path, and have now entered into the world of First Nations on the Island. In grade school, I had one teacher who had been raised on a reserve, but she didn’t talk about that part very much. Back then, teachers under religious orders had pseudonyms, so it wasn’t until I was somewhat older that I even heard her family name. And there things stayed, for most of my life.
Now, I’m off chasing the family ties of soneone else, and the path is very interesting. A small document on one of the university’s servers has taken me into the families of a reserve in central Nova Scotia and their ties to the Island; my sense of discovery is renewed. How far can I go with this?
Remember, I grew up in a world that disavowed the parallel community of the reserve. Even when I shared a classroom (in Nova Scotia), I knew less than nothing of who these people were, where they lived. They came by school bus, end of story. Now I’m intrigued. Can I find my old classmates, better than a half-century after the fact? I’m off on a genealogical adventure!
