An Introduction to the cast of characters: gazing at Europe
A year ago in 2023, a simple question from my sister has taken me to places I could not have imagined. Why exactly, did our grandfather Mathew Bell have Pinkerton for a middle name asked my sister Jennifer. Mom had little to say to Jen other than “it was a family name.” When I asked Mom, all could say was that it was important. These conversations all took place in the last weeks of her life, but it became my way to begin to process my grief and loss of connection. My awakening to our family story began in the dining room of mom’s long term care facility as I searched for conversation that would engage her. Current events no longer captured her attention, she drew comfort from the old. So that is where I went. As much for her as me.
The Pinkerton name is indeed a family name within the Bell family. Other names show up as well-mostly made up of names that I did not know; Blake, Cowan, Walker, Wigton and Wiggins all who made the journey from Europe to Canada. Other than the maternal side of the Blake family, who originated in Scotland, the rest of our ancestors all came from what was known as Ulster (or Northern Ireland today). It is funny that on St. Patricks’ Day I never felt “Irish” but indeed on my mother’s side we were. As a group the people who were colonists to Ulster became known as the “Scots Irish” or “Ulster Scots” as they had once lived in Scotland.
Genealogists strive to uncover their family trees as far back as possible. The reality that as one goes back farther and farther one becomes related to more people so much that is loses significance. Each generation doubles the number of grand parents. While we only have four grandparents by the time one is researching great, great, great grandparents (5 generations) one is looking for thirty-two grandparents. Adding in the size of families in the past where 10 to 12 children were the norm, one ends up with an astronomical number of relatives. This is why it seems so many genealogists end up with “famous” relatives. Often people of Scottish descent always seem to end up with Braveheart being in their family tree which is interesting but does not really tell a story.
In the end I am interested in the story. As both a geographer and a historian I am fascinated with how our family moved and used the land and how the currents of history informed their journey, their outlooks, and their destinies. In this part of the Bell journey, we will look at the group of ancestors who made the decision to emigrate to Canada.
Our Ulster roots
In most histories we begin with earliest to understand the most recent. As early as the late 1600’s through the 1700’s members of our family are set up in Ulster. By starting here in the middle, we can start to see how geographic events , historical decisions, religious turmoil help explain why our ancestors were in Ulster rather than in Scotland. These events created a unique culture that they carried to North America, something we see playing out within our family beginning in the early 1800’s as they begin to settle in Canada.
Just as we today we are influenced by the events that are unfolding in our lifetime, so were our ancestors. The simple story is that emigration from Europe to North America was primarily one of opportunity to improve one’s life. And in some cases, it was not opportunity but persecution or forced migration playing a role. I had never really thought much about this at the level of our family even though every year of my teaching geography, I rolled out these explanations to the students. Looking back, I marvel how disconnected I was from our story. So began an attempt to unravel how the events of the 1600’s and 1700’s surely influenced our families and help to explain their migration stories. Connecting these events definitively to our family is impossible but even here our families’ surnames do show up in the historical record.