Copper & Kin Genealogy

02/05/2026

“My name is Maximus Aurelius!”
In the sixteenth-century in Scottish parish registers, months were often recorded using Latin or Latinised headings. August commonly appears as “AGVST” or “AGVSTI,” reflecting classical Latin spelling conventions in which V was used in place of U. This practice was widespread in Old Parish Registers (OPRs) during the 1500s.
By the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century, parish registers increasingly shifted to English month names with modern spelling, as record formats became more uniform and Latin fell out of everyday administrative use. My own birthday month!

01/24/2026

This is sad news. I hope to contribute to this for the Province of Alberta.
ParksCanada is shutting down the website historicplaces.ca which is such a great source. I think it’s vital to Canadian history to preserve this website and the data base. Have a look before it’s gone.
There are a lot of heritage advocates that are upset about this development. Me included.

The Canadian Register of Historic Places, better known as the historicplaces.ca website, is coming down. Parks Canada announced in late 2025 that the searchable database – a cornerstone for understanding heritage places in Canada – will be permanently unplugged in spring 2026. Heritage advocates are scrambling to save the data and find a replacement.

https://nationaltrustcanada.ca/online-stories/alarm-as-canadian-register-of-historic-places-to-shut-down

01/08/2026

Let talk Ancestry Hints. 🌳📔
At Copper & Kin we use an offline software for our client research and final reports but we also use many online sources. I like to go direct to the repository first when possible.
Try to find the document without ancestry. Sometimes, you will find they are only viewable through ancestry as deals are made with repositories for what records are shared on what platforms.

So many people today start with Ancestry and that’s great! It is the best one to start with for novice genealogists.
When I log into Ancestry I can usually spot some bad hints tied to various people.

So just a reminder to be mindful that Ancestry Hints can be helpful… but they can also quietly derail your tree if you treat them like facts.
Hints are suggestions generated by algorithms and other people’s trees. They are not proof. Nor are they 100% accurate.
If you’re an avid researcher (or building a tree you plan to share with family or clients), especially on Ancestry, here’s your gentle reminder to slow down and verify before you attach.

Hints are best used as
-A lead (a clue to follow)
-A record finder (especially for census, civil reg, immigration, military.
-A prompt to widen your search (alternate spellings, nearby parishes, different counties etc)

Ancestry hints are not your enemy though, uncritical attaching is. Use them, but carefully. Check the main repository when you can.

A family tree built slowly with verified evidence is worth more than a huge tree built on shaky links. Treat ancestry hints like sticky notes. Use them to help advance your research, not define it. 😉

Copper & Kin Genealogy

“Conducting connections across generations”

01/01/2026

Happy New Year!
🍾🥂cheers to happy researching
and new discoveries in 2026. 🥰🎇

12/24/2025

Hope your Christmas is as nostalgic as the 1980’s. ☺️
Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy your families. ❤️

12/06/2025

Can you deciper this?😵‍💫
It’s known as cross-hatching, cross-lettering or cross-writing.

It’ll make your head spin!
Before mass production of paper in the mid 1800’s, it was expensive to come by and in the Victorian era, long written letters were an expected thing.
Written once and then once again over top. First horizontally then vertically.
Some even did triple lettering!!

I am studying palaeography at Strathclyde. It is fascinating and mind boggling but a treasure to lay your eyes on! ☺️
These are valuable antiques from our past. Keep them safe if you have them in your family treasures.

(Photos shared from British Genealogy)



🌳

12/04/2025

The Milton Bakery on Ashford Road, Tenterden, Kent. This was run by my maternal grandmother’s family from 1853-1912.
The lady on the front step is one of the ‘Milton’ daughters.
She is either a great aunt or my great great grandmother. I think aunt due to the date of the photograph being taken when her sister, my 2x great grandmother, was already married.

William Milton (1851-1929) my 3x great grandfather, was listed as baker on the 1901, 1911 & 1921 censuses at Ashford Road, St Michaels. Prior to that he had been a baker in High Halden, Kent. His father George was also a Butcher there.

William married Phoebe Johnson in 1868 when he was 17 (Phoebe was 21) and they went on to have 13 children.

The bakery was very much a hub of family life. In 1901 their grandson Charles Edward Milton, later killed in WWI, was living with them in the shop. Along with many of the other children.

The Bakery also worked as a convienimec store. Not just breads were sold but other commodities like sugar, tea, tinned goods.
It might not seem like a grand profession, but back in those early days, indeed it was. You knew the whole community. You were the hub. You would be aware of who was ill, who was down on their luck and all the community gossip.

🥖🌳

11/29/2025

This is a quick snapshot of the core surnames carried by the Acadian families who lived in what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Québec during the 1700s.

These names belonged to the early settler families whose descendants endured the Grand Dérangement (Acadian Deportation of 1755) and later helped shape communities across Canada and even Louisiana (the Cajuns).

Many of these surnames are still found throughout the Maritimes today!
Do you have Acadian ancestry? Perhaps there is a name you recognize. Share your story!

(Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Acadiennes)

11/28/2025

Proper Genealogy matters. There are people who believe they may be Metis. Whether it’s due to family oral stories or where they were raised. No one is doubting that a culture influenced you. That you may have been raised surrounded by a certain culture, but that doesn’t mean your DNA or family history will reflect that.
Being raised in a culture makes it part of you are. It is a huge part in who you are. Even if it’s not your ancestry.
Think of international adopted children. They come from different cultures and get raised in totally new cultures.

When you look at the nuts and bolts of genealogy, you can find some exciting or disappointing news. Not always good news.

It’s important to be thorough in the research. There are a lot of indigenous “pretendians” out there.
Some people just won’t know until they do a proper ancestry discovery. That culture where they were raised, might be all they know…
Until they know otherwise.

To gain indigenous Status in Canada, you must be able to prove your indigenous ancestry connection. To the land or the people.
So I’m not sure how some of these people have gone this long without doing that. That question would be for the higher up in Indigenous Affairs.

BREAKING NEWS — Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian, confirms he is not Indigenous after new genealogical findings.

In a new exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail, the 82-year-old bestselling author says he recently met with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds and a genealogist who reviewed his family history. The findings showed no Cherokee ancestry on either side of his family — contradicting what he believed his entire life.

“I’m still in shock... All my life, I believed I was Indigenous.”

King says he never knowingly misrepresented himself, explaining that family stories led him to believe his paternal grandfather was Cherokee.

For decades, King was widely known, taught, and celebrated as an Indigenous writer. He acknowledges receiving grants and opportunities intended for Indigenous creators.

“I have received financial grants and other benefits from being seen as Indigenous.”

He describes the discovery as a devastating moment in his life: “This pretty much means the end of me. It’s a brutal end, and I expect the worst.”

Read the full article “A most inconvenient Indian" on The Globe and Mail.

11/23/2025

Photos are a window into the past. A snapshot of your history.

11/23/2025

Do you know what this antique is used for? 😏