Searching For Strays

Most of us, in our search for family roots, have run across a reference to a person for whom we simply cannot find any connections. We're positive this 'stray' belongs in our tree, yet can't find anything beyond her/his immediate family group sheet, if that. If you're fortunate, you'll find a fellow family researcher who knows the answer or, through genealogical serendipity, you'll accidentally find documentation that will lead to connecting this 'dead end' to a branch on your tree. Be grateful you don't have my husband's paternal line.....the entire tree seems to consist of individual twigs with occasional links to another twig yet absolutely no main branches let alone connection to an actual tree!

I only have a few of these challenges within the McIlmoyl(e) tree, three of which I outlined in an earlier post (Mary Dysart McIlmoyl, Samuel McIlmoyl & John McIlmoyl Jr.). It occurred to me that we could use this blog to try and connect these strays by helping each other. So, I'm going start a specific section called 'DO YOU KNOW....' where I'll post my 'strays' and any of yours with the hope that someone else will know a connection for them. I'll launch the first one today and post it each weekend, repeating past unsolved ones if I don't have any new ones.

DO YOU KNOW.....who the parents are of Walter Victor McIlmoyle, born 21 July 1897 in Lakefield Ontario; died 29 September 1918 in France; member 38^th Battalion; parents listed as Father – William, Mother – Mary, Charlotte St. Peterborough, Ontario? He may be a great uncle of Carl Graham. Walter received the British War Medal & Victory Medal and is buried in Bourlon Wood Cemetery, France. This info comes from his attestation paper and the Commonwealth War Graves web site. If any of you can help connect Walter, I'd really appreciate it.

JoanMC