Tag Archives: Family Tree

A New Branch on the Family Tree

The History of Me, , ,

I’ve been working on something really big with my family tree.

REALLY BIG.

A new branch is being added and it’s not where you think.

Family Tree, Coming soon, Hill, Hyde, Lovejoy, Harris, Watkins
Here is the latest family tree by QuirkyCori

You read that correctly. The new branch is being added to the bottom of the tree.

I’M PREGNANT!

So far in this pregnancy I’ve gone through weeks of exhaustion and lots of naps. My brain has been scattered so my family history research has been few and far between. It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to do the research, it’s more that I can’t remain focused and find myself going back and forth through records I already have and trying to make sense of them.

Even still, I think it’s important to remember that my life is now going to be history for my descendants. It makes me feel more connected to all those that came before in that I’m continuing their blood line with my own. Whether it’s a boy or a girl doesn’t matter as this child will carry the DNA of me and my husband and all those that came before us.

As soon to be parents, we have been discussing how we would like to at least have the middle name of our child have some connection to our ancestors. That was really what sparked the name research on the male line of my family tree in my last post. I wanted to look at where we came from and include them somehow in this next generation.

Life is very different during this pregnancy than it was for my ancestors. Just think – we were able to take a test to confirm we were pregnant. Our ancestors had to guess or have a midwife do a divining and many times they didn’t know they were pregnant until they started “quickening” (feeling the baby’s movements). My ancestors saw their baby for the first time when it was born. Some were told to not move much when in pregnancy and to not exercise. In the last century they were told to start or keep smoking to keep their weight down and to take some very dangerous drugs to help with morning sickness.

In my pregnancy, I’ve had multiple ultrasounds. My pregnancy was confirmed via a simple test and again with blood work. Soon we will have an ultrasound to find out the big question of boy or girl. So many things are different for people who are having babies these days!

Our baby is due August 6, 2015. The baby was truly “made in Cuba” during a vacation we took to celebrate the marriage of our good friends Bridgit and Zoel Dufort. We are both so excited to become parents and know there are a lot of things we need to do around our house to make room for the new addition. A child is a blessing and we have been truly blessed.

Hill Family Descendants

The History of Me, , , , ,

On Sunday August 17, 2014 all of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar met for the 54th Hill Family reunion.

The reunion held at the Rockmosa Community Centre in Rockwood, Ontario brought members of the Hill family together from all across Ontario to share stories, learn about our history and to create some new memories.

At the gentle urging of my father, Howie Hill, I put some of my genealogy work to good use. I put together a descendant chart for Charles Edmonds Hill and Ada Elizabeth Woolgar. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I knew that it was possible.

Utilizing Family Tree Maker, which links to my account with www.ancestry.ca, it was fairly easy to pull together all of the information. By playing with all the settings and getting all the names on the chart I was astounded to see the number of pages needed to lay out the chart. 102 pages! All laid out hit was asking for 102 horizontal 8 1/2 x 11 pages. I played around with the settings, changed the orientation to vertical and I was able to fit it all onto 43 pages.

43 pages of family. My family.

All the names of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar took up a lot of space at the Hill family reunion in 2014
All the names of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar took up a lot of space at the Hill family reunion in 2014

At the top were my great-grandparents Charles and Ada followed by their 13 children:

  1. Kate Gertrude Hill (1901-1972)
  2. Albert William Hill (my grandfather) (1903-1960)
  3. Charles Edmond Hill (1905-1923)
  4. Lillian Gladys Hill (1907-1996)
  5. Minnie Mary Hill (1909-1985)
  6. Frank George Hill (1910-1998)
  7. Jane Maria Hill (1912-1999)
  8. Ada May Hill (1914-2007)
  9. James Stewart Hill (1916-2008)
  10. Amy Elizabeth Hill (1918-2005)
  11. Stanley Roland Hill (1920-2009)
  12. Donald Richard Hill (1925-2004)
  13. Edward Alexander Hill (1927-2006)

Each of those children had children of their own save one, Charles Edmond Hill, who passed away at a young age due to scarlet fever. Those children had children and even those children had children. The Hill family has grown exponentially since arriving in Canada back in 1908 and nothing proved it more than rolling out the pages across the room for everyone to see.

The chart seemed to keep going and going and as members of the Hill family walked along to find their name it made one thing clear: this wasn’t everyone. Pencils and pens were brought out and the new names of the next generation were added. Issues with spelling and further details were added and the tree continue to grow. In all, 47 extra names were added to the tree.

Looking back over the chart, it is astounding to think of all the names and relationships in the Hill family. 604 names. 604 descendants. I knew the Hill family was big, but I had no idea it was that big. I wonder how many more names will be added next year at the 65th Hill Family reunion, 3rd weekend in August, Sunday in the same location and at the same time. Our family hasn’t been in Canada long but we have sure helped to populate it!