I’ve moved my blog entries to my website – Come visit me there – http://christopherrivait.com/genealogy.html
Thanks,
Chris
My New Cousin Monday, Jul 19 2010
Researching and Uncategorized French Canadian, Genealogy, Rivet 1:21 pm
It’s been a while since I wrote anything. I will try to change that from now on and write as much as I can. When I started researching my family history and my wife’s family history, the only thing that she told me was “Don’t get us related!” Since we both come from large French Canadian families from the Essex County area of Ontario, I was kind of surprised that I hadn’t yet. There were a couple of marriages that connected the families, but that’s it.
Last week I was researching my 4 times great-grandparents – Alexis Rivet & Marguerite Turcot. I decided to start following the Turcot line. Marguerite’s parents were Jean Baptiste Turcot and Marie Dorothe Gagnon. Then I found Jean Baptiste’s parents, Louis Gabriel Turcot and Angelique Pigeon. I then went to enter Angelique’s parents (Louis Pigeon & Agnes Caron) into my software and realized that I already had them. Before I connected them I check how they were related to me. It came back to say that they were my wife’s 7 times great-grandparents.
Whoops!
When I connected Louis Pigeon & Agnes Caron to Angelique Pigeon I found out that they are my 7 times great-grandparents as well! So now I’ve discovered that I’m 8th cousins to my wife. 
Sorry, honey! Love you!
Where did Rivait come from? Saturday, Jan 23 2010
Researching French Canadian, Genealogy, Guilbeault, Rivait, Rivet 11:28 pm
As I have mentioned, before I started looking, I knew nothing about the Rivait’s. I did not know how large of a family it was or how long we had been in Canada for. My dad gave me a name of another Rivait that he said we were related to. I contacted him and found out that we were second cousins. With his father’s help I was able to piece together my grandfather’s brothers and sisters. I now knew who my great-grandparents were, William Rivait & Alexina Guilbeault. After further research, I found out that my great-grandfather was born Guillaume Rivet. When I searched for Rivait, there was never very much. My line of Rivait’s was only 3 generations old. When I started investigating the Rivet name, I found a lot more historic documents. After e-mailing another Rivait, she shared her research that took the Rivet’s back to Maurice Rivet (b. 1642 in La Rochelle, France). Maurice is my 7 times great-grandfather. He came to Canada around 1664 and settle in Cap-de-la-Madeleine. Maurice married Marie Cusson, who was born around 1657 in Cap-de-la-Madeleine. They had 12 children and being good French Catholics, they all had large families. Now the fun begins finding all the connections.
My German (Swiss?) Heritage Thursday, Dec 17 2009
Researching Donauschwaben, Genealogy, German, Klingler, Morgethaler 1:07 pm
The next step I took was to sign up on the mailing list for DDVH.com. I wrote out what I knew of my grandmother’s family and asked if anyone had any connections to this same family. I received a few e-mails about the history of Backi Jarek. It was great to get a better understanding about how my grandmother’s life would have been like been coming to Canada. I also received an e-mail with a link to someone’s Morgenthaler family tree that had my great-grandmother (Katarina Morgenthaler b. 1895) and great-grandfather (Georg Klingler b. 1885) on it. The birth dates and locations were the same. My grandmother had written that her mother had two sisters named Barbara Morgenthaler (b. 1889) and Sofia Morgenthaler (b. 1894) with the years they were born. Looking at the tree, I was in shock. I had just discovered that my grandmother’s family was part of a very interesting migration of Germans into the Balkans known as the Donauschwaben. Now this family tree goes all the way back to Bendicht Morgenthaler (b. c1565) from Ursenbach, Bern, Switzerland. Bendicht is 12 generations above me, so he is my 10 times great-grandfather. I now have two branches of my family tree already researched back to the 1500 or 1600s.
Discovering My Father’s Side Monday, Dec 7 2009
Researching Donauschwaben, French Canadian, Genealogy, German, Klingler, Rivait 8:37 pm
My father’s side was a little more mysterious. I’ve only ever known my grandmother, and my aunts and uncles. That’s it. My grandparents got divorced when my father was young. The family moved away from the Leamington, Ontario area and ended up in Toronto. They never had any contact with their father’s family since.
Before I started looking, I didn’t know very much about my grandmother, Katharine Mary Klingler. I knew that she was German and born somewhere in Europe. Her and her family came to Canada while she was young. I remember one Christmas around 1993, my grandmother brought a magazine article about the war in the Balkan states. She showed us the map from the article. She pointed at an area north of Belgrade in Serbia and told us that was where she was born. I thought that was weird, because I thought she was German and Serbia was not part of Germany.
My father and his siblings were born in the Leamington area of Essex county and that was where their father, Harold Rivait’s family was. While I was growing up, the only Rivait’s in the Toronto area phone books were my uncles and us. However, I heard there would be at least a full page of Rivait’s in the phone book in Essex County. Rivait is a French name, but that’s all I know about our family. (more…)
Gathering More Information – My Mom’s Side Wednesday, Dec 2 2009
Researching England, Farmer, Genealogy, Scotland, Turner, Wood 9:47 pm
I feel like I need to dedicate the first few posts on my blog to the history of how I got to where I am. Even if it has been only months, not years. This how I started my research…
I had information on a whole branch of my tree that I didn’t know anything about. Well, I never really knew about any of the branches, so like starting any family tree research I asked my parents what they could remember about their families. Unfortunately, my parents were in Arizona for the winter and had to rely on their memory. The second problem was that my grandparents had all past away around 5 years ago, so I could not ask them.
How I Accidentally End up with Ancestors… Friday, Nov 20 2009
Researching Coull, Farmer, Genealogy, Scotland, Wood 3:26 am
My obsession with genealogy started 9 months ago. It was a quiet day at work and for some reason I decided to Google my family. I came across a result on Rootsweb. The family tree that popped up had my great-grandfather, John Douglas Wood, on it. I was pretty surprised. It showed my great-grandmother, Doris Carvel Farmer along with their children. I clicked through to my grandfather, John Alan Wood. My mother and uncle were posted as Living. I clicked on my mom’s link and it showed ME! I swear my heart skipped a beat. I had no idea who the owner of the tree was. Who was this guy and why the heck did he have me on his family tree? (more…)
