From Germany to Canada, but when??

Andrea asked

I am looking for my fathers family. Our surname is Morische and we are the only ones in Canada. He is from Germany and the story is that we wre kicked out of France around the time of Napoleon. Should I use a german site? I've tried ancesrty.ca but came up short

OLIVE TREE ANSWER: Dear Andrea. Once again I urge my readers to please provide DATES when writing to ask for help. Here's the problem. You say your father is from Germany.

Since I don't know how old YOU are (20s? 30s? 60s?....) I have NO idea of your father's age or when your father was born. You've also not given me a timeframe for his leaving Germany and coming to Canada. So it could be 1900 or 1940 or 1980 or yesterday!

To add to this problem of no dates is the fact that you said "Canada". It would be helpful to know what province or territory, in fact a more precise location would be extremely helpful.

Depending when your father came from Germany to whatever province/territory in Canada, you may be able to find census records online. Or birth or marriage records. This will provide you with clues! Best of all you may find him on a ships passenger list which will give more clues.

From there you should research in the usual way - going backwards, one generation at a time. Once you reach the end of Canadian records, you will have to begin searching in Germany or wherever else your hunt takes you.

Go slow. Do one generation at a time, gathering all the facts you can. Details such as dates, locations and full names are very important, don't overlook them.