The Story Behind the Research tells how this material was collected, not as a primer on doing family research, but merely an explanation of how it happened in this case. It also contains links to some family documents including the Diary of Eliza Amelia Bellamy, my 3Xgreat-grandmother, written in 1854-5.

Genesis of the Site Content

This effort began with my reading of a surviving sixteen-month portion of the diary written by my 3xgreat grandmother (Eliza Amelia Giff) who lived from 1797 to 1862. This portion of her diary, which survives, was written in 1854-5. The actual handwritten diary is in the possession of my 1st cousin Laurel M. Haynes of Joyceville, Ont.

The diary is full of references to people of Augusta Twp, Leeds & Grenville County, Ont. of whom I knew nothing. Slowly I learned how to identify these people and began developing an interest in them. This was not an attempt to "find my roots". Instead, it was merely an effort to develop the context of the times in which the diary was written.

But, that changed as the full richness of the material came to light. Gradually, I began identifying ancestors and related family members whose existence was unknown to anyone in our family. In an early effort, I began searching the Net and the Public Library for historical information relating to these people.

I found references to the various people Eliza mentions in her diary and began the process of annotating the full document. There were mysteries, but gradually almost all came to light. You can read the Diary here. The full diary with annotations can be downloaded here as a Word document. It is copyrighted, so reproduction without permission is expressly forbidden. (download 171kb)

My first "windfall" in my research beyond the diary occurred when I came across the website of Norm Lewis in Calgary, Alta. Norm, it turned out, is my 3rd cousin. Our common ancestors are Isaiah Wright and Eliza Keays-Wright. Eliza was the daughter of the author of the diary.

Norm's website contains the full family history of the descendants of Abel Wright (b.1631) down to my maternal grandfather, Leonard Mylks through his mother, Emily Wright, daughter of Eliza Keays-Wright and Isaiah Wright. I had no idea this history had been developed. Elsewhere on this site you will find the Wright genealogy, but I take no credit for it. It was originally done by Rev. Stephen Wright (b. 1813) up to 1889. Then Frederick Wright of Calgary, Alta., brother of Emily Wright, updated it to 1950. This 20-page update of the full Wright genealogy can be downloaded as a Word document. (download 2mb) Norm Lewis maintains the genealogy to keep it current. Thanks, Norm.

Having my maternal great grandmother's (Emily Wright) ancestry already done for me, I decided to try to trace the ancestry of my maternal great grandfather, Manuel Mylks. One thing about searching the internet genealogy sites that I quickly learned is to start with an unusual surname if there is one in the family. Mylks certainly qualified. Searching for "Mylks" produced a very small number of responses and made it very easy to identify my family members.

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