iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Researching my wife’s French-Canadian ancestry is wonderful, not just for using the Drouin Collection to take her lines back to the 1600s, but also because of the little-known story of “The Great Hemorrhage,” the migration of hundreds of thousands from Quebec to the US from 1840 to 1930. #Genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m tired of all the “hints” and “matches” that genealogical research sites repeatedly offer that are just someone else’s tree who may have someone from your tree. More often than not, those trees have less information than yours or are incorrect. It’s damned frustrating and not helpful! #Genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Ugh, if I had a dollar for every time I saw the tired old trope of “my ancestors’ name was changed at Ellis Island” … and yet nothing you say or show people who believe this can counteract this myth, which they continue to spread. #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I find it interesting that MyHeritage flagged an entry on the tree I uploaded because someone’s obituary date is … AFTER … their death date. Just a reminder that artificial intelligence is artificial, but certainly ain’t intelligent.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I find it somewhat ironic as a genealogist that my previously-disinterested wife asked me to “look into” her family background, and the sources are so rich I can trace her lines farther back than almost any of my lines. Mine are a struggle, hers are an embarrassment of riches. #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I’m fascinated by the fact that two of my Irish lines came over to the US and settled in rural counties in Northwest Pennsylvania and farmed. How and why they settled there is unknown to me, and while I may find out more about Irish immigrants to those areas, I may never know the whys for mine!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Jealous as I research my wife’s family … her French-Canadian ancestors all came to one town in Massachusetts, stayed there for generations, and when anyone did move away, it was to another nearby town over the line in Connecticut. Embarrassment of research riches!!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

I love when I turn my genealogy research into narrative history, because then I identify areas where I need to dig more, and get to go down new rabbit holes, learning areas of history I never knew before, and it brings these names alive again.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Always check your sources; Ancestry had a birth record for a male child born on a certain day, and FamilySearch had a later version, where his name was crossed out, a female’s name written in, and a note that it was corrected in 1956!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

So the Menard family research continues, and I found an 1884 article indicating the family had been quarantined in the town “pest house” for having SMALLPOX! according to the article, one unnamed child died, and 5 named children were sick. They lived in a house with ten families in total!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I’m amazed at the Menard/Maynard/Minor family research … I keep finding children and more children, with about 17 (that I can find so far) born in about 20 years, including TWO sets of twins. But it appears most of the children died. So far only 6 appear to have made it into adulthood! Horrific!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Ugh, working on the Menard family and some of the kids switched their names to Maynard … though one chose to use “Minor” as their last name. YOU’RE NOT MAKING THINGS EASY FOR MY RESEARCH!!!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I’m such a sucker for good history … I’m doing some research on my wife’s family tree, and have fallen down the rabbit hole over her maternal great-grandmother’s family, especially her sister who became a social worker and went to France in 1918 with the YMCA to help the AEF. I just can’t stop!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I do love the fact that through the Libby app I can read the latest issues of Family Tree magazine (US and UK issues and Who Do You Think You Are magazine, all for free!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Very cool … another one of my Dad’s cousins read the family history narrative that has been circulating in the family, and she let him know how much she learned from it, and enjoyed it! So glad all this work is being appreciated!!! It just makes me want to do more digging!!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Finally broke down and took a DNA test via Ancestry … and found that it validated a lot of my research, as genetically I’m from the regions my research has traced ancestors to … not much in the way of any surprises, which is good.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

I’ve written a narrative family history, based on my genealogy work. My Dad asked me to send the chapter on his maternal line to a cousin, who then sent it out to a bunch of other cousins … but it resulted in one of them calling me; I’d never chatted with her before and we had a GREAT talk!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

While I’m enjoying this interaction with my newly-discovered cousin (and it’s filling in blanks on his and my trees on Ancestry), I’m really missing my mom and my grandmother now … they would both have really loved this, and I would have loved sharing it with them.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

So it turns out my Polish cousin is actually in the US … he and his parents migrated to the US a few years ago! And the surprising thing is that as he’s begun sharing photos with me is that many of them are of my family, and they’re photos I already have … my g-grandmother sent them 70+ years ago!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Lovely follow up to discovering a potential cousin on Ancestry who just put up his family tree (intersecting with My great-grandmother, his grandfather’s sister) … I reached out to him and he wrote back, very excited to find me. I already told him I have a stack of old photos to share!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Saw on Ancestry today some new hints on my Polish great-grandmother’s line, which I only have sketchy info. So I dug into them and found that it was an entire tree of her family that had just be added by the grandson of her younger brother who stayed in Poland. So now I suddenly have a new cousin!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Decided to splurge and subscribed to NewspaperArchive to see if I could extend my luck at finding news stories about ancestors, and quickly found an article that mentioned my great-grandfather while he was an oil driller in Japan for Standard Oil. Not bad!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

I see MyHeritage has their own transcriptions for Irish birth records … and their transcriptions have three entirely new and unusual versions of my GG-grandmother’s last name, adding to the nine other ones I’ve come across so far. No wonder I can’t find a birth or marriage record for her!!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Still having trouble getting through some major brick walls, so I tackled a very minor one, solving the identity of “Uncle Jablonski,” whose house my great-grandmother moved into … and soon married my great-grandfather, one of the boarders. Turns out “Uncle Jablonski” actually WAS her uncle!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Happy 198th Birthday to my great-great-grandfather, John Dawson, an iron screw maker from Bolton, England. Born Sept. 1, 1827.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

My great-grandmother must’ve had a good sense of humor; on my grandfather’s birth certificate, where it asks how many children are still living, she wrote in 5, but then afterwards in bold and underlined, “ALL BOYS!” They must’ve been a handful! #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

As much as breaking through a brick wall is satisfying, it is such a great feeling (maybe even better!) to actually prove an old family story with actual documentation! #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Finally the weather is nice enough to venture out in shorts and t-shirt … and the resulting blindingly paleness of my skin is yet another reminder of my English-Irish heritage

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

I wish Findagrave would let you directly link siblings to each other without doing it via parents, because sometimes the parents aren’t on Findagrave! #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Saw a hint on Ancestry today for someone who is the “wife of sibling of husband of sister-in-law of grand uncle of wife” … I know some people like to have their trees as full as possible, but that’s really far out there. I think I can ignore that one. #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Happy 158th birthday to my great-grandfather, Benjamin Dawson … born in 1867 in Bolton, England and died in Cleveland, OH in 1922

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I dunno why, but I just want to spend all my free time researching and going down ancestral rabbit holes. I actually get frustrated when the researching slows, though there’s always more background context I can dig up! #genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Ugh, the repetition in Irish first names in the past … I pull up a birth registry from 1867 and the names are all Thomas, Bridget, John, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary for page after page … And the parents have the same names thanks to naming tradition. This is a great frustration in researching!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Ah, Ancestry and MyHeritage, suggesting as “hints” other peoples’ trees, too many of which are wildly inaccurate with false-positive mistakes I’ve already identified and avoided … thanks, but no thanks!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

It’s always interesting to get birth, marriage, and death certificates from the GRO in England, though also sad to find that my great-great-grandmother died at age 46 of a stroke, leaving behind a husband and six kids. But it’s another mystery story on the family tree I can solve. #geneaology

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Ah, the joy of ever-changing names … so my gg-grandfather’s wife passes away, and he remarried. According to the marriage certificate, his new wife’s name was Elizabeth Byrne. However, she shows up in census documents as “Elizabeth Burns” and in baptismal documents as “Elizabeth Byrnes.” UGH!!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

A genealogical confession to make: I’m not a terribly well-organized researcher. I keep seeing blogs and articles about how to be hyper-organized with spreadsheets and plans … and that just doesn’t work for my ADHD mind. It never has, in all my years as a museum professional, either. Sorry!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

MyHeritage keeps sending me matches for people on my tree, but it’s all from other trees, rather from actual biographical sources … and mostly it’s things I’ve already found to be incorrect. But I suppose Ancestry does the same thing in many of their hints. It’s a bit annoying!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

My English GG-grandfather is buried in a gravesite with three other people. They appear to be all related to each other … but none are related to him. I know that’s not unusual in England, but I do find it a bit odd. Who paid for the grave? Why weren’t any other of my family buried in that plot?

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

While trying to find a death date for my great-great-grandmother, Betsy Topp Dawson, I just found that she actually died DECADES earlier than I thought … but my gg-grandfather remarried to a widow who had the same first name! Just goes to show that double-checking everything is key! #geneaology

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Apparently it’s my great-grandfather’s birthday today … so happy birthday John William Grace, born this day in 1879 in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. Came over to the US in 1881, and built himself a career as an oil driller, until he dropped dead of a heart attack on an oil rig in 1923!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

The trouble with researching family history in old newspapers is that I frequently fall down wonderful rabbit holes that have no association with my family! #geneaology

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

For some reason, of all my family lines, it’s the Irish line that I keep coming back to research … but yet it’s the toughest one to research, because of the common names and the paucity of records. Maybe the challenge and frustration drives me to keep digging, even when I seem to make no progress!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

I dunno if it counts as quality family history research time, but lately I’ve been digging up my ancestors’ records on Findagrave, linking the family members, and updating their entries with correct DOB/DOD, bios, photos, etc. it’s a nice way to pass the time as I try to whittle away brick walls

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Saw something online saying start writing your family history once you’ve done your research; I disagree, I started writing it as I started the research, because as I write, I see holes that the research can fill, and the writing inspires the research further.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

On one hand, as a researcher I appreciate old newspapers reporting who all the town visitors are, and what hotels they’re staying at. On the other hand, it’s also a little creepy! Anyone else think that? #Genealogy

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

It’s interesting seeing how an event that involved a distant relative in 1893 played out in three different Cleveland newspapers of the era; their depth of coverage of the events wildly differ, and even some of the basic details are surprisingly different.

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

One of the fun things about delving into family history is getting to find out really interesting stories, such as my Irish-born great-grandfather’s experience drilling oil in Japan for Standard Oil in the early 1900s. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, J.W.!

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

A puzzling find is that some of my Irish ancestors went by other names at times in their lives … my GG has a brother baptized as Michael, immigrated as Michael, referred to as Mike in his stepmother’s obit and father’s will … but apparently went by Bertram away from the family, or Bertram Michael .

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Chris Dawson @whimsicalcynic.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

It’s frustrating to be able to trace some ancestors and relatives through their lives, but then others only make brief but tantalizing cameos in the research, only to disappear without a trace, no matter how hard I try to track them down. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever discover their full stories!

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