It feels like we’re in a Golden Age for genealogy. From the advances of DNA to now Artificial Intelligence, discoveries are possible now that were virtually impossible just decades ago.

With the help of DNA, I developed a theory about my 5th great-grandfather William MOORE about 5 years ago. While he lived most of his adult life in the outskirts of Kingston (today part of Ontario, Canada), autosomal DNA results pointed strongly to him having a brother named Thomas MOORE who lived just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia(!) – about 1,000 kilometers away, and that’s if you draw a straight line. Many of William’s descendants DNA match many of Thomas’ descendants on multiple segments of good size, phasing to the MOORE side – the relationship is clear.

That theory: He joined the military and that brought him from Nova Scotia to Kingston. He was born about 1795, there was the War of 1812, and Kingston was a major military hub. I posed the question to an expert at Queen’s University, and they agreed it was logical. But I had no proof of his military service.

At some point, I focused my attention on the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles. I learned that it was a group of soldiers that fought in the War of 1812 and it had Kingston ties. Its recruitment efforts stretched as far as Nova Scotia. Then I learned that a William MOORE was recruited to join the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles in Halifax(!) in June 1812. Thomas MOORE was from Preston (and later Lawrencetown), just outside of Halifax. Then there was the discovery a 1794 baptism record for William MOORE, an older brother of Thomas – confirmed sons of Frederick MOORE and Catherine CALLAHAN.

Everything was cascading into place. But I still didn’t have proof of his military service. Just this theory. Enter the era of AI and OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

FamilySearch Labs “Full Text Search” Lands The Proof About William Moore

If you haven’t heard about “Full Text Search” on FamilySearch.org (available in their Labs), it’s a game-changer. Basically it’s AI based and it allows you to search images that are NOT indexed for names and places of interest. Not just that, you can search the full text of those images. So for wills, deeds, land records, etc. it’s enormous. If someone was a witness, or just named in a document in passing, it’s now possible to find them. This is leading to new discoveries.

Here’s my big discovery with Full Text Search. One word in the keyword section, a first name, and a last name: loughborough, “william moore”. Loughborough Township is where he lived before it broke up and formed Storrington Township, so some of the oldest references about him could be listed under Loughborough.

Paging through these, I found something I had never seen before. And it’s obvious why. When I used to check possible records for William MOORE of Storrington or Loughborough, I would have ignored references to a William MOORE of Hungerford. And yet…

A document dated 1839 that I had never seen before. “William Moore of the township of Loughborough” was granted a plot of land, the south half of Lot #31, 9th Concession of Hungerford Township, Hastings County (a county I’ve never checked for my William).

A page two: A Nathan DUNN under oath states that he knows this William MOORE, and he states that he has made improvements (cleared land and farmed) on “Lot 17 in the 2nd concession of Loughborough on which he resides .. (for) many years .”

Lot 17 in the 2nd Concession of Loughborough (later Storrington Township) is exactly where my William MOORE lived!

A page three: The land in Hungerford was formally granted to William MOORE, “a discharged soldier from the late Regiment of Glengarry Light Infantry”(!), 7 March 1839.

Then I tried Hungerford with “William Moore” in Full Text search, and I got the rest of the story. A year later, in 1840, J.B. SPRAGGE of Toronto makes a formal claim on the land that was assigned to William MOORE. Apparently he never moved there and stayed in Loughborough.

With this new information, and proof that my William was a soldier from the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles, as I suspected, I was led to one more series of documents with Full Text Search. His original land petitions in 1830.

On 14 September 1830, a William A. MERCER states that he knew William MOORE of the Fitzgibbons Company of the Glengarry Regiment. He says he was an “elderly man about my own size” (elderly at that time may just mean older or more experienced, different context than today), “American born” (either referring to British North America, which would have included Nova Scotia, or it was an error), and that he belonged to the Seventh Company of the above regiment.

Then a document, on 10 August 1830, John CAMPBELL, Esquire, states that he certifies William MOORE personally stood before him and swore that he never received land from the Crown (which he would have been entitled to as a former soldier) and that he had served in the late war (War of 1812) as a private in the Glengarry Fencibles.

Next, a document dated 2 September 1830, “William Moore of Loughborough, Midland District, Yeoman” formally petitions for land from the British Crown, stating that he served as a Private in the Glengarry Regiment of Light Infantry Fencibles and was discharged.

If you’re wondering why the 8-and-a-half year delay from petitioning for land and finally being granted it, that wasn’t uncommon. It often took a while. By then, he was settled and stayed where he was.

He served in the military. And now I have the proof I needed. The theory now has the evidence to back it up.

William Moore’s War of 1812 Service

If you’ve made it this far, a few more things you may find interesting:

• William MOORE enlisted in Halifax on 20 June 1812. He was recruited by Captain Foster WEEKS [Source: Johnson, Winston. The Glengarry Light Infantry, 1812-1816. Pg277, Men of the Glengarry Light Infantry.]
• A second William MOORE also enlisted – he was from Kingston and had a brother Samuel MOORE. I’d known about them for a while and knew he wasn’t my William.
• My William was based in Three Rivers (Quebec), Kingston, and Montreal at various points between 1812 and 1815, based on regiment records [Source: Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum]
• A William MOORE was captured at Fort George on 27 May 1813, but I believe this is the other one, because he is recorded next to Samuel MOORE in a list (they were brothers). [Source: Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum]
• My William was discharged on 24 March 1815 [Source: Johnson, Winston. The Glengarry Light Infantry, 1812-1816. Pg277, Men of the Glengarry Light Infantry.]
• He married Susannah FRIEL, my 5th great-grandmother, in Kingston on 19 October 1819 [Source: Kingston Chronicle newspaper]
• Susannah’s father Peter FRIEL also served in the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles – he died while in service in January 1813 in Prescott, Upper Canada
• Military families were tight knit and it’s reasonable to assume these ties led to William meeting Susannah
• William and Susannah’s eldest child Mary MOORE, born in 1820, is my direct ancestor – she converted to Catholicism and married Arthur HART in Kingston in 1836, when she was just 16

Thanks for reading!

Line of descent: William MOORE b. c1792 🇨🇦 —> Mary MOORE b. 1820 🇨🇦 —> Margaret HART b. 1842 🇨🇦 —> Agnes SHORT b. 1876 🇨🇦 —> Mildred McQUAID b. 1912 🇨🇦 —> Kenneth KANALLEY b. 1932 🇺🇸 —> Patrick KANALLEY 🇺🇸 —> Craig KANALLEY