Turning hobby into home business
Inverness County woman taps into demand for genealogical research
Rose MacDonald has had an interest in her family tree since she was a little girl. Encouraged by her grandparents, she spent months researching her family’s deep Scottish roots.
Uncovering details about family members and finding misplaced photographs grew into a hobby for MacDonald over the years.
Now that she’s undertaken research for several local families in Inverness County, MacDonald is taking her work one step further by formalizing it as a registered business.
Rose’s Heritage Roots/Connections officially opened for business 10 days ago and will offer people a variety of options in seeking out information on their family’s past.
MacDonald has researched her family’s history back to the 18th century when her ancestors immigrated to Cape Breton from Scotland.
To come across that information, it requires much patience to gain access and comb through birth records, marriage and death certificates, she said.
“You have to be dedicated,” said MacDonald, who has been a studious genealogical researcher for the past two decades.
“Looking at an entire person’s family tree, you’re talking at least three months to put it together because you have to go into the history, you have to make sure you have the correct dates … and that could mean visiting pioneer graveyards to try to find the names and match it with their birthdate.”
There has been an upswing in recent years of people wanting to discover their family’s past stories and what happened to very distant relatives.
MacDonald, a former manager of the Sears outlet in Inverness, said there is a little bit of curiosity in all of us wanting to know where we all came from, and maybe, in the process, uncover a surprise or two.
“I just love doing what I do,” she said.
The most popular and widely advertised mainstream genealogical website is www.ancestry.ca. Other popular websites that claim to help people connect with long lost relatives and seek out ancestors are www.myheritage.com and www.familysearch.org.
MacDonald said she used ancestry.ca to connect with relatives she didn’t even know existed.
“I met cousins down in the States I didn’t know I had.”
MacDonald can be reached by phone at 902-258-3241 or email rosefamilytrees@gmail.com. Her Facebook page can be found by searching for “Rose’s Heritage Roots/Connections.”
“I just love doing what I do.”
Rose MacDonald