I have read that family history research has grown to be the most popular personal hobby in North America today.  I have no trouble believing this assertion.  It is an addictive pass time, and in my case combines my loves for research, history and geography.  I am a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society and have devoted many hours to researching my family, that of my wife and also smaller projects for friends and associates.  Having been born in Scotland, most of my personal family research has been concentrated in England and Scotland, though two branches put down roots in British Columbia around 1900.  My four grand parents’ surnames were Segger / McEwan / Adams / Smith and I have taken each of these families back at a minimum to my 32  5x great grandparents in Scotland and England.  Some branches go back considerably further.  I have tried hard throughout this research to apply sound genealogical standards of evidence and documentation.

Researching my wife Diane’s family has given me the great pleasure of exploring the records of Canada, the United States and Holland.  Her bloodline is 1/2  Dutch, 3/8 French Canadian and 1/8 Swiss/German.  I’ve traced most of her Vanderhorst and Pullens Dutch ancestors who came to Canada in 1915-20 back to the 1700s through records in the Netherlands.  The French Canadian Lecuyer and Galipeau families have both been traced back to the original immigrants from France in the 17th century, greatly aided by the records of the Drouin collection.  Interestingly, these Lecuyer and Galipeau ancestors all migrated from Quebec to the US in the nineteenth century and then back to western Canada before the beginning of the twentieth century. The Swiss-German ancestors were mostly members of the so called Pennsylvannia Dutch migration to Waterloo County, Upper Canada in 1800.

Several other research projects have provided recent opportunities to explore in much more detail the records of Ontario and Australia.