Our history
in the making.
Five centuries of family accounts, colonial records, migrations, and the people who carried their stories forward.
Delaware · Pennsylvania
Illinois · England
History lives in
the details.
Explore places, ancestors, and documents together. Each exhibition distinguishes historical records from family tradition and questions still being researched.
John Cann of Delaware
A New Castle merchant and public official, seen through court records, land transactions and an unfinished family history.
Explore exhibit ↗England, a surname, and several possible beginnings
Cann parish, Bristol and Gloucestershire offer research paths. A place name or shared surname is not proof of descent.
Explore exhibit ↗From Delaware into the nineteenth century
Following reported households through Maryland and Pennsylvania, while keeping gaps in the lineage visible.
Explore exhibit ↗Reading the family through the land
Deeds and estate divisions name relationships, but similar parcels and repeated names require care.
Explore exhibit ↗Revolutionary service: a record is not yet a lineage
Distinguishing the Delaware soldier, a Kentucky pension applicant, and the families still under investigation.
Explore exhibit ↗The Bristol Canns, Compton Green, and heraldry
A historical armigerous family deserves careful attribution, without assigning its arms to everyone named Cann.
Explore exhibit ↗Every person is
part of the story.
Move from an individual life to parents, children, relatives, and the events that connect them. The family tree is a living index to the collection.
Explore the family tree ↗Look closer.
Find people and sources; see where the evidence is strong and where questions remain.