Copper & Kin Genealogy

Digging into a direct ancestor on my paternal side who fought in the Battle of The Great Swamp Massacre during King Philip’s War. Thomas Mumford.
The battle location actually took place on his land.

In my journey’s of discovery, I have found some researchers like to use the term “fight”. Historians use massacre. It was just that. A massacre. There are many nuances to King Phillips War and very fluid situations. I can recommend “God, War & Providence” by James Warren if you’d like to read more on it.
One of the main questions is whether the Narragansett were truly preparing for war or were being attacked preemptively because the United Colonies feared they would soon join Philip. Historians still debate this.
Either way, the English no longer trusted them and they attacked the Naganasett tribe ruthlessly in December 1675.

The Mumford’s lived through it and were directly involved in one of the most pivotal conflicts in early colonial New England. It’s a reckoning to my mind. It’s history.

And the deeper I dig, the more I can appreciate just how complicated the history of colonization really is. People came seeking religious freedom, opportunity, land, survival, and power. It was a tangled and often tragic chapter in history. Not everyone coming had ill-will. Most people just wanted a better life. Freedoms they hadn’t had before. But it’s clear to most of us that survival and fear took hold in New England for some time.

It’s also truly amazing to see James’ ancestry and mine intertwined during such a turbulent time in American history.
Not only is James Métis on his paternal side, but I’ve also recently discovered he has both Abenaki and Mi’kmaq ancestors in his family history.
There are Acadians, Planters, Immigrants, Settlers, Colonizers, French, Scottish, Irish, Indigenous and everything in between, that built us both.

My research is growing into places and events rather than just individual data. familiarizing myself with everything and everyone going on at any given time in a certain place. I truly yearn for the threads of connection between us all. It’s strange but I see humanity and history as one long movie in my head.

Another neat discovery… As i built out my Mumford branch and his 2nd wife’s, Esther Tefft, I realized that Joshua Tefft, who is the first person in the American colonies executed for treason after fighting alongside the Narragansett during King Philip’s War, is her uncle. Her father’s brother.

Esther Tefft, married into the Thomas Mumford family.
The deeper you dig, the smaller history seems to become!! “It’s a small World.”

Genealogy has a way of reminding me that history isn’t simply divided into “us” and “them.” Many families today carry the stories of settlers, Indigenous peoples, soldiers, refugees, and pioneers all within the same family tree. Ours certainly does!

Everyone who came before us is a trove of discoveries.

Thomas’ life is full of wild stories and historic events. I will one day write a longer and better biography surrounding his family.

❤️Happy Canada Day. 🇨🇦

One of my favourite parts of genealogy is realizing that history isn’t just something you read, it’s your family.

Some of my ancestors were already living in what became Canada when Confederation took place in 1867. They helped settle Nova Scotia, later moved west to places like Medicine Hat, in 1888. Raised families, built businesses, farmed, and helped shape the communities we know today.

Today I’m remembering my 3rd great-grandfather, Lewis Bentick Cochran (1846–1916).

Born in Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Lewis was the eldest son of Hon. Arthur McNutt Cochran (1811–1883) and Susan Sangster Weir (1819–1897).

Arthur was a merchant, ship owner, farmer, Justice of the Peace, school commissioner, militia officer, and later served in both the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia. According to The Canadian Biographical Dictionary, he was known as “a man of cheerful disposition, very cordial and friendly.”

Arthur was born in Newport, Nova Scotia, on 16 October 1811, the son of Terrance Cochran, a prominent Hants County citizen and High Sheriff, and Elizabeth Weir, whose father John Weir was a United Empire Loyalist from Rhode Island.

Lewis his son, pictured below, grew up in this remarkable family before heading west.

In 1888, he moved from Nova Scotia to the young prairie city of Medicine Hat, Alberta, where he opened L. B. Cochran Groceries, Dry Goods & Gents Furnishings.
He also served as an Immigration Agent, helping newcomers establish themselves in Western Canada during its earliest years of settlement.

It amazes me that only a few generations separate my family from the people who witnessed Confederation and helped build communities from Nova Scotia to Alberta.

Researching their lives reminds me that history is made not only by famous names, but by ordinary families who worked hard, raised children, built businesses, served their communities, and helped shape this country.
🇨🇦❤️

'Threads'
People often ask why I spend so much time
searching for names long forgotten,
turning brittle pages,
following fading ink across centuries.
The answer is simple.
I am not looking for strangers.
I am looking for the threads
that were handed to me.

When I look at my father's great-grandmother,
I don't just see a woman.
I see someone who stood as Canada took its first breath. Then I step back one more generation.
Her great-grandfather watched a new America emerge from wilderness and uncertainty.

I step back again.

Another grandfather lived through famine,
another through civil war,
another beneath the shadow of kings,
another in the age of the Tudors,
each believing their world
was the world that would always be.

Every generation inherited stories
from those who came before.
Around fires.
Across kitchen tables.
In letters folded into pockets.
On long walks home.
Parents telling children,
"This happened before you were born..."
Until one day,

they became the story.

That is what genealogy has taught me.
History is not behind us.
It is within us.
Not as a rope,
strong and unbroken,
but as thousands upon thousands of delicate threads,
woven together across time.
Each generation adds a few more,
while others slowly fade.
No single thread reaches forever.
But together,
they span millennia.

Maybe that is why I feel a kinship
with people I could never have known.
Whether it was William the Conqueror, Charlemagne,
Cleopatra,
or the countless ordinary souls
whose names have disappeared from every record,
their world shaped someone!

Who shaped someone,
who shaped someone...
until, eventually,
they shaped me!
The distance between us is not measured in years,
but in generations.

One parent.
Then another.
Then another.
A chain of lives,
of love,
of loss,
of survival.
An unbroken succession of people
who each carried the memories of those before them,
until it was their turn
to become a memory themselves.

Perhaps that is why I find such comfort
among old photographs and forgotten records.
They remind me that none of us
arrives here alone.
We are each the latest keeper
of stories far older than ourselves.
For a little while,
the threads are ours to hold.
Then, gently,
we pass them on.
🥰

🇨🇦 New Pathways to Canadian Citizenship by Descent for Americans with Canadian Ancestry!! Exciting!!..Did you know? For decades, Americans with Canadian parents, grandparents, or even deeper ancestral roots were excluded from Canadian citizenship because of outdated “Lost Canadian” laws?
That is now starting to change.

Recent developments in Canadian citizenship policy and court decisions are expanding opportunities for descendants of Canadians born abroad. Specially those previously blocked by the “first-generation limit.” This has created renewed interest among genealogists, family historians, and Americans researching Canadian roots.

Millions of Americans have:
French-Canadian ancestry
Métis heritage
Loyalist roots
Maritime or Newfoundland connections
Parents or grandparents born in Canada
Many are now discovering they might qualify or for Canadian citizenship through descent under the new legislation.

If you are exploring eligibility, the documentation is critical. Helpful records include:

Canadian birth registrations
Baptismal and parish records
Border crossing records
Census records
Naturalization documents
Marriage certificates
Métis scrip records
Hudson’s Bay Company employment records

Building a BMD documented lineage from a Canadian ancestor to the present day is the most imporatnt step. If you would like any assistance on that, feel free to reach out.

Let's talk Census Records!

"But the Census is Intrusive!"

We genealogists think not!

Below is the Canada Census Evolution for those that feel our census might be asking for too much.
Each year, the columns grew to add another fact about a family.

1851: Names, gender, age, birthplace/year, religion, family relationships, locations, original record images
1861: Added marital status
1871: Added origins and family numbers
1881: Added other household members
1891: Same details as 1881
1901: Added birthdates, race/tribe, immigration year, naturalization year
1911: Same details as 1901
1931: Most detailed public census — added languages spoken and whether the household owned a radio.

And that's more mild than England's questions.

England Census Evolution
1841: Names, ages (rounded for adults), gender, occupation, birthplace (county or not), addresses
1851: Added exact relationships, marital status, precise birthplaces and disabilities!
1861: Similar to 1851 with improved accuracy and household details. windows/fireplace etc.
1871: Added clearer employment and disability information.
1881: More detailed family relationships and occupations.
1891: Added number of rooms occupied (for smaller homes) and employer/worker status
1901: Expanded workplace/employment details and household conditions.
1911: The most detailed pre-WWI census. Which included years married, children born/alive/deceased, industry details, infirmities. --This is my favourite census to look at.
1921: Added workplace address, employer name, school status, orphanhood information.

And then sadly, The 1931 England & Wales census was destroyed in a fire, and no 1941 census was taken because of World War II.

So get on that website and fill out your details without fear! I promise it won't bite! And you won't hurt anyone but your descendants and your wallet if you refuse.

Do you know if you have a relative who passed in the sinking of the Titanic? You can search them by name, class or profession on this website.

My great Uncle Thomas Henry Blake perished on the ship. He was a fireman working down in the furnace rooms. His body like so many others, never recovered.
I have yet to find a photo of him in my family collection or discover one elsewhere.
May they all be resting in peace. ❤️

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/thomas-blake.html