Discovering Unexpected UEL Ancestor Research Tools
(by Brian Garrah)

May 2022

My path to finding my UEL ancestor, Mathias Rose Jr was a bit circuitous, but that just made it so much more interesting. I am sure many readers have had similar experiences when finding clues in the most unexpected places.

A few years ago, when Ancestry first launched their ThruLines tool to show how you may be related to your DNA matches, I repeatedly received hints that I was a descendant of Mathias Rose Jr from Ernestown. This community and township were in what is now the vicinity north of Bath Rd and County Rd 4 in Kingston and is included in the current larger Loyalist Township. I was curious but did not delve into this hint too deeply at first. It seemed each time I logged in, it nagged me to explore this hint, so finally I relented and started digging deeper. The location of Ernestown made sense because most of my ancestors in the 1800’s were established in the Kingston and Gananoque area. I soon realized I had a little-known female ancestor, Charlotte Rose, and eventually discovered that she was the connection.

I used the lineage suggestions on the ThruLines hints to connect my female ancestor to the male Rose line that led to Mathias. As I began to dig into the search to find the paper trail, the connection remained tenuous given the lack of documentation for my female ancestor. Early last year, while I mused about next steps, I coincidentally attended a zoom presentation by Linda Corupe on the topic of tips for researching your female ancestors in the 1800’s. It turned out to be very fortuitous. Linda is a skilled genealogy researcher, author and presenter and has a wealth of knowledge about United Empire Loyalist history. To make a long story short, I hired Linda to research this female ancestor and she was able to locate the documentation connecting Charlotte Rose to her father, Robert Rose. The sources that she discovered were simply not available to me as an amateur genealogy buff, so I was extremely thrilled. That is a story for another time.

The results of these two different research tools led me to realize that Mathias Rose Jr was a documented UE Loyalist and a member of Jessup’s Loyal Rangers. I was then able to work with Anne Redish of the Kingston and District Branch to help me put together my UEL application. In this instance, it felt like these ancestors were helping to guide me down the right path to unveil their history. And I am so glad they did.

Many thanks to Linda for her thorough research and to Anne for her kind assistance and patience in helping me connect with my UEL ancestor. I was so thrilled to receive the certificate and explain the whole story to my family.

EDITOR: Watch for Brian’s for expanded insight about this research adventure in the future, in ‘Loyalist Trails’ or ‘The Loyalist Gazette’ or both.