The Storyline
"Real families.Real discoveries.Real stories."
Covehead and Avonlea
If you've followed the Kenny-Connors documentary biography series, you've walked the red-clay roads of Covehead—the same landscape that inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery's beloved Anne of Green Gables. But how did real life for Irish tenant farmers compare to the fictional world of Avonlea? This companion piece explores the similarities, the differences, and what descendants can still see today on Prince Edward Island.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies From Research to Story
Spools of Thread: On Holding Things Together, Imperfectly
Nine for dinner at my parents' rock maple table—both leaves extended, held in place with spools of thread. My mother's "company's coming" dishes. Her silverware. Her artificial flowers. The mechanism has been broken for years, but we make do. We hold things together imperfectly.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: From Research to Story
The Silver That Came Before Us: Inherited Silver Tea Sets
Two silver tea sets sit in my home—one from my mother's house, one a gift from her when I set up my first home. As a genealogist, I examine maker's marks, research company histories, and narrow the timeline to discover which ancestors might have owned these pieces.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: From Research to Story.
Ojibwe Baskets, Beads, and Art
When I discovered my Ojibwe 4th great-grandmother, Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe, I wasn't prepared for how profoundly that discovery would change the way I understood my family's history. For generations, she had existed only as a shadow in the records—"Sauvagesse," a generic French term meaning "Indigenous woman." No name. No story. No identity.
Then, in a marriage record from 1801, a priest had written her full Ojibwe name: Abitakijikokwe. After 200 years of silence, she emerged from the records with her Indigenous identity intact.
And so began my journey into the world of Ojibwe art—searching for tangible connections to the woman who founded my Métis family line.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies — From Research to Story
Uranium Glass: The Heirloom That Glowed
For decades it sat on her table, then on mine. A beautiful clear green bowl and candlesticks—gifts from my father's side of the family. I always liked it. There was something about it, something that drew me to it. After my mother passed in 2022, a coworker suggested I try shining a black light on that green glass. What I discovered changed everything: Cambridge Glass from 1930, possibly a wedding gift for my grandparents, glowing with a secret four generations of women never knew. Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies — From Research to Story
Quimper Pottery: A Genealogist's Discovery
I have always been drawn to Quimper pottery. The hand-painted Breton figures, the vibrant blues and yellows, the graceful curves of pitchers and vases—there was something about them that felt familiar, though I couldn't say why. Now I know. While tracing my French-Canadian ancestry, I discovered that Nicolas Sulière Tranchemontagne—the immigrant who carried that bold name to New France—was born in Quimper, Brittany, around 1665. The same town where faïence pottery has been made for over three hundred years.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies — From Research to Story
Perthshire Paperweights: A Genealogists Discovery
A Genealogists Discovery
Genealogical research fills notebooks with names and dates, census entries and vital records. But sometimes, in the midst of all that documentation, you find something unexpected—something you can hold in your hands.
When we pinpointed Bendochy, Perthshire as the Robertson family homeland, I went searching for a tangible connection to that place. What I discovered was extraordinary: Perthshire Paperweights—intricate millefiori designs encased in crystal-clear glass, created just 25 miles from where George Robertson was born in 1809.
I purchased three: one for my mother, one for myself, and one for my daughter. Three generations of women, connected to six generations of ancestors, through a piece of Scottish glass art.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies