Doing research with cousin Rene Cuer and aunt Joelle Aponte in Noumea

So, the database on this site will be down for a spell while I (actively) work out some of the problems with moving data from Legacy (the database software on my hard drive) to TNG (the database software on this website). Non-techies can skip to the next paragraph now! Since these databases are made by different vendors, they use a file sharing protocol called GEDCOM (for library and web geeks, it’s kind of a markup language). I export my family data from Legacy to a GEDCOM file, then import the GEDCOM file to TNG. The confounding problem is that GEDCOM is outdated and there is no consistency in the way that software vendors markup newer database fields that need to be shared. There are also some issues with how differently my two databases handle media. I will be working out a system for managing the digital versions of my documents and photos and getting them online.

Add to all of the above that we’ve been moving across the country and, well, the blog has been quiet. In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting about some of the conundrums in managing the collection. And, for those in my family whose eyes glaze over at that practical stuff, I’ll be posting some stories about serendipity, which has factored largely in the TwoCaledonias project over the past couple of years.

Catherine Gallacher Morrison and her son Robert's children.

I love the web. Just yesterday another relative found me on Ancestry.com. I had been looking for a connection on the Scottish side, in Scotland; someone who perhaps could help me identify the subjects of the many unmarked Morrison family photos in our collection. I’m excited to meet Elaine and see where this leads.

I haven’t had as many chance genealogical connections on the Scottish side as I have on the New Caledonian side. Growing up, my Scots were all around stateside, and the French family seemed so distant. Now, it seems just the reverse. We really lost touch with the family in Scotland once my grandmother (Marion Morrison) passed away. Hopefully this is changing.

Not long ago, another Morrison descendant, Diana Gresham Campbell, found me on Ancestry. I haven’t met Diana in person, but it immediately felt like we were family! The common ancestors that Diana and I share are William James Morrison and Catherine Gallacher, the same common ancestors that Elaine and I share. William and Catherine were my 2x great-grandparents (I think for Diana and Elaine, great-grandparents). Diana’s parents left NJ for California in the 1950s, and Diana was born and raised there. She and her husband are now in Idaho. It’s been amazing to find someone with the same amount of enthusiasm for hunting down details and identifying photos as I have.

Putting your family history data out there and pooling research efforts is really the way to make progress. It’s also the way to get really overwhelmed! I am a bit behind on adding information that has been graciously sent my way since starting this online project. Coupled with my job search, the blog has been a bit quiet. The photos and document scans are coming soon, I promise, and next up is a post about all the fabulous people I’ve met who have helped me on the French side.

TwoCaledonias.net has been a little quiet lately, but I haven’t been slacking! I’ve been working for weeks to add the new genealogy database, which replaces the old Family Charts and Surnames pages. You will need to register for an account if you wish to see information about our living family; otherwise, all information about our ancestors is publicly accessible. Click on the Genealogy Database link above, follow the registration and navigation instructions on the database homepage, and start browsing! The database is an exact mirror of my local database and a vast improvement over the old charts. Throughout the database, you will see opportunities to contribute information and photos…please do! The data still needs to be “scrubbed” and there is still much more to be added. The next step is to begin adding images; the first image upload should take place sometime this week. Thanks to the developers of TNG, the database software! Read a bit more about TNG on the Research Tools page.

I also did some more hunting for ship’s manifests and immigration records that document the arrival of my maternal grandmother (Marion Sellars) in the U.S. Nothing was turning up in the Ancestry.com immigration and travel databases, and nothing on the Ellis Island website. I was getting quite frustrated and decided to pick my Mom’s brain a bit for some clues. My Mom recalled having found these records on the Ellis Island website. Assuming she would have sent these to me, I did a search of my email accounts for “Ellis Island” and, sure enough, she had…in 2007!!

A few clicks of links later, and I had the passenger list I was looking for. I couldn’t find them in my searches because, in my haste, I forgot one of the cardinal rules of genealogy. My great-grandmother, Ellen Harper McMeekin, was also known as Helen, and nicknamed Nellie. My grandmother, Marion, was often called “Mari” for short. It was pronounced “Maree” with the emphasis on the first syllable, easily mistaken for “Marie” with the emphasis on the second syllable. So, my great-grandmother appears on the manifest as “Nellie Sellars” (who’d have thought she’d use a nickname?) and my grandmother is listed as “Marie Sellars.” I also didn’t think to search for May Sellars, my great-aunt, who (of course!) would have been traveling with them. They were also traveling with her my grandmother’s younger sister, her mother, and a McMeekin who was the right age to be a brother, but of whom I have no record (could be a cousin). Alas, I had only been looking for Sellars. More about their arrival on the S.S. Columbia, on October 20, 1923, when I write about Nellie in a few weeks.

Here is the manifest, in two images…

S.S. Columbia Passenger List 1

S.S. Columbia Passenger List 2