Born in Canada, England or the US???

My Grandmother and her sister, Aunt Edie, always had an argument when it came to the birthplace of their father. Grandma believing England, Aunti Edie believing Canada. Both of them being stubborn people, they never could prove to each other their point so they just argued it forever... well leave it to the genealogist grandchild that has to know everything! Yeah! another puzzle to solve! I can find my Great-Grandfather's family in England in 1891 and then in Providence Rhode Island in 1900, the very large gap in time included the supposed birth date of my Great Grandfather - Joseph Leeming. There was no record of the family arriving on any ships in the US, and the 1900 US Census states that Joseph was born in Canada, - yes, a lead but not rock solid. So, rather than have the argument with Grandma myself, for by this time after all my research, she knew as well as I did that the census records weren't always 100% accurate... I continued my search.

Then, Ancestry released the Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection) and seeing the location, I decided to give the database a try. Well, what do you know? He WAS born in Canada! Not only that, but he also had another brother and a sister born, baptised and buried there as well. The really neat thing about the collection, (don't we all love to see the images of original documents?) is that they're hand written by the record keeper and signed by my ancestors!

Now I had records of Joseph's birth and baptism, his sister Sarah & brother Walter's births, and deaths/burials.

I then had the pleasure of informing my Grandmother that her father was indeed born in Canada and I had found "proof".

These records gave a seemingly tiny tidbit that had driven my grandmother and her sister to arguments all those years. I wonder if Aunt Edie is watching us talk about it now and saying "See! I told you he was born in Canada!" ? Just goes to show you - sometimes those little family bits turn out to be true - no matter how much the point is argued or may seem incorrect. It also pays to go looking for a record again on your subscription sites - they're updated constantly and you never know when a new gem will appear!