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| Thomas Raddall Research Center - Photo taken from the Internet |
As most of you can probably tell, I didn't miss much when I was growing up. I remember buildings, people and events that happened around Liverpool that most kids my age didn't even take notice of. I've always had a huge interest in the goings on around Liverpool-Milton area. Another interest I had since almost birth, was my family. People often ask me how I got into all of this history stuff and here's how it happened. My late grandmother, Doris was a great one to talk about her younger days and her family, most I never knew personally. When I was 19, the old lady who lived across the street from us, passed away and was buried in the United West Cemetery on Payzant Street in Liverpool and it was my first real experience with losing someone. Many days I'd jump on my bike, drive to White Point Road to visit my nan and I'd stop at the cemetery to visit my friend who had died. While roaming through the cemetery I noticed the gravestones for many of my own family that I remembered nan talking about. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of something that would always be a huge part of my life. It was around 1987 that I was convinced to go to the Queens County museum to do research on my family. My idea of going there was sitting at a table with books piled high to the ceiling and me having to root through them hoping to locate something on my family. What a surprise I got. Instead of books there was microfilm and lots of it. Even though my family were never mayors of town, business owners or elected officials of any kind, my poor old family of hard working, everyday people were mentioned on the microfilm. I was thrilled and I was hooked. The research area was in a small little room upstairs at Queens County Museum and over the years we out grew that little space. The Raddall family donated money to build a new research center, attached to the Queens County Museum. Today we have a top notch research center, better than almost any small town museum in Nova Scotia. Over the years I have used that research center hundreds of times. I have learned so much on the local families and I have given back lots of my own research for others to benefit from. This love of family history has led me to cemeteries in the US and Ontario. I have tracked down long lost family in Ontario, Western Canada, Massachusetts, California, and many other states and provinces. I have helped people find their biological families and long lost family photos. I've helped online researchers in the US, Canada, Australia, and Scotland. I even had the priviledge of doing research for and appearing on an episode of Ancestors in the Attic on the History Channel a few years ago.If you have connections to Queens County Families, be sure to visit the research center, trust me you won't be disappointed. Nowadays there are also many amazing online sites to help in your family history search... www.novascotiagenealogy.com is a great one. Also Census records are available and the Queens County Gen Web site just to name a few. There are many other people out there searching too and maybe they are researching the same family you are looking for. The amount of time that I have personally put into this hobby was worth every minute and I know it would be for any of you who are interested.
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