February 2018 – Begats and Bequeathals

Dinsmore, David, Signature to Loyalist Affidavit — David Dunsmore’s signature to his affidavit as he filed his Loyalist land clam in Halifax, Nova Scota, 19 April 1786 — see Alexander Fraser, *Second Report of the Bureau of Archives* (Toronto, 1904), pp. 171-2 (#100). The claim was filed again on 19 July the same year.

Psychologist Erving Polster thinks every person’s life is worth a novel.[1] For those of us curious to learn about our family history, Polster’s insight accounts at least in part for what compels us to keep learning. Beyond the bare facts we accumulate in the pursuit of information about our ancestors lie stories that can in some cases be downright fascinating, with their alternate hues of joy and tragedy, ill fate and astonishing good fortune. It’s often the stories themselves, in fact, that keep us going when the trails of facts begin to taper off. Continue reading “David Dinsmore, Ulster-Scots Loyalist in South Carolina and Nova Scotia Exile: Every Life Worth a Novel (1)” →