November 7, 2024 7:00 pm ET

I got into this by trying to identify the people named on the cenotaph in my town (Georgetown). An introduction to the frustration of variant spellings, and of who’s included or not. I liked the challenge of finding out about the fleeting lives of some of these men-often boys-like the one who had to use the head of the family with whom he boarded as his next-of-kin, who went off to war and is buried across the ocean, who would otherwise be forgotten, but for that name on the cenotaph. Sometimes I failed: there was a John MacDonald there who died during the first world war, one of 49 Canadian John MacDonalds who perished – none with any obvious connection to the town. As you who are searching your family history know, we aren’t always successful. But there’s a lot of fascinating things to discover along the way. Can be challenging to know what’s there, what’s not there, what it means. 

Audience: All levels