Chipping away at our brick walls.

Not much progress since last fall, but there have been a few little glimmers here and there. We have had a couple of low-level matches on the DNA samples we have posted, and time will tell if those result in anything helpful down the road. Also, an Ancestry posting has led us to John Waite and family's emigration record from England to New York. Not certain this is our family, but it's provided some hope, and is worth further investigation.

The Uncles' Journey

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but we're into the month of September, and dad and I are making some progress with our plans for our trip to Ontario. We've got our flights booked, and now we need to sort out where to stay and what our itinerary will be. We will fly into Toronto on October 13th and will fly home from Ottawa on the following Sunday.

In the meantime, Uncle Lynne and Uncle Bob came to Calgary for a quick visit, and we had a fabulous BBQ at mom and dad's place last night, with everyone there except Dylan (he was soaking up the sun in the Shuswap on a houseboat). This morning they packed the car and with dad at the wheel, left for Saskatchewan. They plan to spend about a week traveling through the province, and checking out some old haunts along the way. I am sure they will have a wonderful journey, and will tell stories the whole way! They will miss their brother Glen, certainly, but I have a sense he will be with them in spirit.

I'm at home with the significant task of listing all of the research and documents we have found for the Wait/Waite family. We have decided to hire a professional genealogist, and she has requested this information in order to avoid repeating any of the work we have already tackled. I hold out hope that she will have some strategies that will conquer our challenge, and will either link the two generations we think should be tied together, or will disprove that theory and will link us to another group of Waits.

I also plan to visit the Alberta Family Histories Society library again this week, as there are a couple of key volunteers who may be able to help us before we leave in October. There are many people here who have done a great deal of research in Ontario, and the resources in our local library are rich, indeed. I was particularly happy to receive an email this morning regarding our monthly SIG (special interest group) meeting, which will focus on Wills & Probate Records -- these will be important for us on this trip.

So, I hope the Smith brothers enjoy their time touring Saskatchewan, and I may just find a little new information before they return next weekend. Either way, it's always great to visit with family, and we had a wonderful family gathering last night. Memories in the making, and I treasure them.

DNA - our best hope for breaking down brick walls!

This has been a big month for me. After many years of research, Dad and I agreed there were very few stones left unturned when it came to our research on the Waite and Smith families. We have done most of the work ourselves, but we have also hired professional genealogists to help us to tackle these brick walls.

In the fall, we visited Philadelphia, and hoped to make some progress with the Smith family, but there was simply nothing to add to the John Smith story, and just a few tidbits about his children. We plan to visit Ontario again later this year, and hold out some hope we will find something about the Waite family. There is some work to do at home before we get there -- I am thankful Dad is a very organized and methodical person, as I am much more random in my approach to our research.

We have gone back to the DNA data that we have for the Smith family, and have posted it in the Ancestry database. Next, I will add it to the Family Tree Maker database, as that seems to be a larger pool of DNA data.

On the Waite side, we are thankful that one of the direct Waite descendants has agreed to take a DNA test, and we have ordered and sent the test to him. We will add the results to the existing Waite study, which has been in place for many years. I spoke to Sue Waite-Langley on the phone this week, and I am very excited about the potential, as she seems very organized and was quite encouraging. This is not an inexpensive process, but it will be worth it, as we will have proof -- there are a few Waite families we could be descended from, and we will finally hope to tie ourselves to one specific line.

All there is to do now is to wait for the results of the test. It will take about 2 weeks for the test to make its way from Family Tree Maker to our willing test-taker in Canada, then time for him to do the test and return it. At best, we will be looking at about the middle of April, and from then, I would guess it will take FTM a week or two to process the sample and provide the results. We have linked to the Waite group project when we ordered the test, so Sue Waite-Langley will have the results and will be able to connect us with any potential connections right away.

So now we wait patiently, and hope for good news this spring!

A New Tree - Schmidt

Recently we created a new tree on Ancestry, as searching by "Smith" was not giving us many good results. We have reason to believe the Smith family may have been Schmidt, so the new tree is very small, but narrows down the family a little, and the different surname has given us a few new leads.

In addition, we have posted Dad's DNA data in Ancestry's DNA database, and we're now waiting to see if we'll see any solid matches in the future. At this time, there are a few matches, but nothing clear enough to pursue as close family members.

Somehow in all of this, we hope to make some headway with the Smith/Schmidt family. The new church records from Pennsylvania have given us some hope, and with a little persistence, perhaps we'll get some proof of the family's arrival in North America, and clues as to where in Switzerland they came from.