Documentary Biographies
Multi-Generational Family Stories Told Episode by Episode
These documentary biography series transform rigorous genealogical research into compelling family narratives. Each episode combines primary source documentation with storytelling, bringing ancestors to life through the evidence they left behind. Five immigrant families. Four centuries of records. Dozens of episodes tracing the journeys from the Old World to the New.
Scattered Stones
The Robertson Family of Blairgowrie
A weaver still at his loom at 81. A father dead five days after arrival. A son who vanished into the swamps. An orphan who became matriarch to 19. Six generations scattered across two continents.
Episodes:
Prologue: The Land They Left
1. Roots in Perthshire
2. The Mason's Household
3. The Great Emigration
4. The Brooklyn Robertsons
5. Scattered Fates
6. The Stone Cutter's Journey
7. The Son Who Searched
8. The Orphan's Journey
Bonus: Perthshire Paperweights
Hidden Bonds
The O'Brien Family of Jamaica, Queens
Four orphans scattered across three states. $11,000 hidden in a kitchen wall. A U.S. Congressman who never forgot his half-brother. From the 1874 tragedy through DNA reunion 150 years later.
Episodes:
Prologue: The Blood of Kings
1. The Irish Boy Who Built an Empire
2. A Colorful Life and a Secret Untold
3. Four Orphans and a Hidden Fortune
4. Orphan, Engineer, Congressman
5. The Sisters Who Stayed (coming soon)
6. Orphan, Scale Maker, Father of Ten
7. The Carpenter Who Built with Double Vision
8. The Kentucky Brother
Epilogue: The DNA Reunion
Companion Piece: County Clare in the Famine Years
Two Families, One Story
The Kenny-Connors Line
Three weddings. Two families. One extraordinary story. In 1832, two Irish families baptized children pages apart in a Newfoundland parish register. Thirty-four years later, their descendants married three times over on Prince Edward Island.
Episodes:
1. Two Baptisms in Newfoundland
2. The Wexford Question
3. From Tailor to Farmer
4. Covehead
5. Three Weddings
6. The Estate of James Kenny
7. Hugh Connors, Patriarch
8. To Chicago
9. Captain Kenny
10. The Kenny Women of Chicago (coming soon)
11. Margaret Katherine Kenny (coming soon)
12. The Researcher (coming soon)
Companion: The 1850 Hickey Map
Companion: The 1863 Lake Map
Companion: Covehead and Avonlea
Companion: Researching Prince Edward Island
Companion: Two Churches, One Family Story
Companion: Old St Stephen's Church
Companion: St Sylvester's Church
The Hamall Line
From County Monaghan to Riverside, Illinois
A young Irish father who died four years after reaching safety. Four children lost in eighteen months. A cottage protected through the Illinois Supreme Court. Five generations traced through famine, emigration, tragedy, and resilience.
Episodes:
1. Henry Hamall — The Father Who Crossed the Ocean
2. Owen Hamall — The Iron Molder of Chicago
3. Thomas Henry Hamall — The Sole Surviving Son
4. Thomas Eugene Hamall — The Father Who Tried
5. Thomas Kenny Hamall — Young Life
Companion: One Parish, Five Destinations
Companion: Holy Name Cathedral
Companion: Church of the Holy Family
Companion: St Charles Borromeo Church
Companion: St Pius V Church
Tranchemontagne
The Soulière Line
A mason who married three times and fathered nineteen children. A voyageur's widow who lived to ninety-one. A woman divorced and remarried in five days. Seven generations from New France to Chicago.
Episodes:
Prologue: Nicolas Suliere Tranchemontagne — From Brittany to New France
1. Jean Suliere dit Tranchemontagne — The Pioneer
2. Jean Bernardin Sulière — Tragedy and Resilience
3. Jean Bernardin Sulière fils — The Baby Who Survived
4. Jacques Sulière — The Voyageur's Son
5. Janvier Souliere Sr — Three Wives, Nineteen Children
6. Marie Louise Souliere — The Woman Who Was Remembered
7. Elisabeth Emma Guilbault — The Working Woman
Founding Mothers:
Marie Lorgueil — Fille à Marier • 6-Episode Series
Marie Chapelier — Fille du Roi • Case Study
Anne Ledet — Fille à Marier
Marie Riton — Fille à Marier
Françoise Baiselat — Fille à Marier
Élisabeth (Le Roy) — Fille du Roi
more coming soon
Founding Fathers:
Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Jean Bernardin Lesage dit Lepiedmontois — Troupes de la Marine
Pierre Marsan dit Lapierre — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Antoine Leblanc dit Jolicoeur — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Companions:
Quimper Pottery: A Genealogist's Discovery
Guilbault-Souliere Family Photo Mystery
The Guilbault Line
From La Rochelle to the Pays d'en Haut
A Fille du Roi's marriage that sparked a family war. A master mason building in stone. A voyageur who married an Ojibwe woman. A grandson who inherited an identity but not a trade. Seven generations from 17th-century France to 19th-century Quebec.
Episodes:
7. Pierre Guilbault — The Founder
6. Joseph Olivier Guilbault — The Second Generation
5. Charles François Guilbault — The Habitant
4. Charles Gabriel Guilbault — The Quebec Patriarch
3. Gabriel Guilbault — Le Voyageur
2. Gabriel Guilbault fils — The Wilderness-Born
1. Evangeliste Guilbault — The Last Generation
Founding Mothers:
Louise Senécal — Fille du Roi
Catherine Lemesle — Fille du Roi • Case Study
Marie Gaillard — Fille du Roi
Jeanne Petit — Fille du Roi
Jeanne Juin — Fille du Roi
Marie-Michelle Duteau dite Perrin — Filles à Marier
Gillette Banne — Filles à Marier
more coming soon
Founding Fathers:
Jean Perrier dit Lafleur — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Francois Séguin dit Ladéroute — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Jean-Baptiste Séguin dit Ladéroute — Founding Father
Pierre Morin dit Champagne — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Pierre Marsan dit Lapierre — Carignan-Salières Regiment
Philibert Couillaud dit Roquebrune — Carignan-Salières Regiment
more coming soon
Companions:
Abitakijikokwe: The Woman Behind the Name
Baawitigong: The Place of the Rapids
Gabriel's World: Life as a Voyageur
Marriage à la façon du pays
Sacred Places: L'Annonciation d'Oka
The North West Company: A Genealogist's Guide
Following the Canoe Routes
Finding Gabriel in the NWC Records
The Seven Fires: Marie Josephte's Ojibwe Heritage
The Lieutenant and the Voyageurs: Fort Chiewyan, Spring 1820
The Brothers Guilbault: When Two Men Paddle the Same Routes and Only One Leaves a Trace
Paul Guilbault père : The Invisible Voyageur
Two Mothers at Oka : Identifying Catherine Messinabikwe Across Five Colonial Spellings
The War Chief's Wife: Identifying Geneviève Abitakijikokwe Case Study
The Woman at the Edge of the Record: Finding Genevieve Abitakijikokwe at Oka Mission
A Name Written in Cedar and Sky: The Kijik Naming Tradition at Oka Mission
Dans le Bois: Death in the Hunting Grounds and the Spring Return to Oka Mission
Mapped by Their Own Hands: Indigenous Cartography and the World of Marie Josephte
The Morales-Tamayo Line
From Aklan to America
A multi-generational journey from the rice fields of Aklan Province to the hospitals of Ohio. Two families united by marriage, shaped by Spanish colonial rule, American occupation, and World War II. A boy who attended school with a future president before emigrating to build a new life in America.
Episodes:
1. Roots in Aklan — The Earliest Generations
2. The American Era — War and Survival
3. A Doctor's Path — Manila in the 1950s
4. Christmas Day, 1959 — A Bishop's Blessing
5. A La Salle Boy — Elite Education in Manila
6. American Beginnings — Ohio, 1969
Companion: Our Lady of Lourdes Parish
Companion: The Interconnected Families of Numancia
Marie Lorgueil
The Complete Life of a Fille à Marier (1634–1700)
From Bordeaux baptism to Montreal burial—how systematic research assembled 50+ documents tracing one 17th-century woman's complete life. Strategic age deception, 80% child survival rate, and legal agency in widowhood.
Episodes:
1. Bordeaux Origins
2. The Atlantic Crossing
3. Marriage and Motherhood
4. The Years of Loss
5. Widowhood and Agency
6. Legacy and Descendants
The James Hamill & Ann Gartlan Line
From Dian to Three Continents
In rural County Monaghan, a farming couple raised eleven children through decades of hardship and emigration. James and Ann never left their townland of Dian — but their children scattered to Montana, Missouri, and beyond. DNA analysis validates five family lines across three countries.
Episodes:
1. James Hamill & Ann Gartlan: The Parents Who Stayed in Dian
2. James Hamill: The Son Who Went to Montana
3. Patrick J. Hamill: The Brother Who Went to Missouri
4. Anna Hamill Keenan: The Sister Who Stayed in Dian
5. Bridget Hamill Kirley: The Sister Who Stayed in Beagh
6. Henry Hamill: The Police Officer in St. Louis
7. DNA Review: Proving the Connection
Companion: The Hamills of Donaghmoyne: Parish Churches of County Monaghan
Companion: One Parish, Five Destinations
The Owen Hammel & Ann King Line
From Donaghmoyne to Wisconsin
Owen Hammel and Ann King married in 1846 at the dawn of the Great Famine. Within two years they fled to America, settling on the Wisconsin frontier. Owen died in 1858 at age 41, leaving four young children on an isolated farm with no road access. Guardianship court records and DNA evidence connect their descendants to the Chicago Hamall family — revealing a possible brother hypothesis.
Episodes:
1. Owen Hammel & Ann King: The Founders
2. James Hammel: The Eldest Son
3. Mary Elizabeth Hammel Bucklin: The Eldest Daughter
4. Henry Patrick Hammel: The Son Named "Henry"
5. Mary Anna Hammel Engel: The Youngest Daughter
6. DNA Analysis & Conclusions: The Brother Hypothesis
The Susan Hamill & Charles McCanna Line
From Donaghmoyne to Joliet — Sixty Years of Family
Married in Donaghmoyne parish in 1857, Charles and Susan built a life in Joliet, Illinois, raising ten children over six decades. Susan's 1917 death certificate preserved her parents' names — James Hamill and Catherine Dougherty — opening a research pathway back to County Monaghan. DNA testing across 9 descendants confirms their connection to the Donaghmoyne Network.
Episodes:
1. Susan Hamill & Charles McCanna: The Founders
2. Mary Ann McCanna Kelly: The First American-Born Daughter
3. Ellen B. "Nellie" McCanna Sheridan: The Hotel Manager
4. Charles Francis "Frank" McCanna: The Molder on Cora Street
5. DNA Analysis & Conclusions
6. James Hamill of St. Louis: Susan's Brother
New Series in Development
Additional documentary biography series are currently in research and development. Check back for new family lines.
Every Ancestor Deserves to Be Remembered
Documentary biographies like these transform traditional genealogical research into compelling family narratives—designed to be read, shared, and treasured for generations.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Documentary Biographies
From Research to Story