Tracing North

Towards my Acadian and Québécois roots | Vers mes racines acadiennes et québécoises

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about

Margot is a librarian and researcher based in Western Massachusetts. Her writing explores connections between heritage and place, blending research with personal discovery. She finds inspiration in the local food movement, walks in the woods, books that mix storytelling with facts, and seasonal celebrations that bring a touch of everyday magic.

Category: Genealogy

  • On the Birth of Bertha Margaret Rau

    My paternal great-grandmother, Bertha Margaret Rau, was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on February 11, 1885. I do not have a photograph of Bertha herself, so I am sharing a photograph of her children. When Bertha was born, East 2nd Street was part of a dense immigrant neighborhood known as Kleindeutschland—“Little Germany.”…

  • On the Birth of Margaret Mary Barry

    My maternal great-grandmother, Margaret Mary Barry, was born in Kinsale, Ireland on January 4, 1877. According to the Registrar General of Marriages, Births, and Deaths in Ireland: Fourteenth Annual Report 1877, there were 100 baby girls born in Kinsale between January and March 1877. Two women died in childbirth during the same time period. The…

  • Making Sense of My AncestryDNA Results

    I received my AncestryDNA results last week and I am learning how to interpret what they actually mean. Ancestry.com identifies “Regions” where my DNA most closely matches their genetic reference panels. None of my Regions came as a surprise, but understanding how they arrive at those numbers has been instructive. As Ancestry.com explains: “A reference…