The Families
A working map of where my kids come from
Family is its own kind of map. Mine has eight lines pulling it in different directions — the Cheesmans, Dochertys, Lakemans, Rycrofts, and Haistes, plus the three maternal lines that married into them: the McIvers, Verbooms, and Steinkes. Some I know inside and out. Others are still mostly names on paper and a few photographs I'm trying to put faces to. Each line has its own page; tap a card to follow it down.
If you have a story, a photo, or a correction, send it my way. These pages are working drafts for as long as I can keep typing.
The Cheesmans
The Cheesiest Clan
My stepfather Brian's family. We became Cheesmans on July 20, 1991, in a double wedding with Brian's brother. Now my kids carry the name — and so do my brother Christopher's two boys.
Turner Valley · the oil patch · the Peace Country farms · c. 1947 – today
The Dochertys
Few and far between, deep roots
Mom's side. A Golden Gloves boxer for a grandfather, Hebridean Scots through Saskatchewan on Granny's McIver line, and a slice of bare-knuckle boxing folklore tied to John L. Sullivan.
Eight generations · Donegal to Alberta · c. 1750 – today
The McIvers
A maternal line of the Dochertys
Granny Docherty's people — McIver of Lewis, Campbell of South Uist, Cameron of Moray. Three Hebridean streams cleared off the islands that met on the Saskatchewan prairie in the 1880s, and the deepest-documented branch of the whole family.
Lewis · South Uist · Moray · the Clearances · Saltcoats · c. 1832 – today
The Lakemans
Indonesia, Holland, Calgary, and most places in between
My biological father's side. Dutch East Indies colonial roots, a great-grandfather who patrolled his district on horseback, a grandmother who lived to 100, and a story that rides Royal Dutch Shell across five continents.
Eleven generations · the Netherlands to Calgary · c. 1660 – today
The Verbooms
A maternal line of the Lakemans
Suzanna Verboom's people — a tailor-barber of Ter Aar and the river-village and island families behind him, traced deep into the polders and waterways of Zuid-Holland.
Ter Aar to Calgary · the riverside, the polders, and the islands · c. 1760 – today
The Rycrofts
Pioneers of the Region
Melanie's mother's side. The Alberta hamlet of Rycroft is named after her great-great-grandfather — settled in 1920 by four pioneers writing names on slips of paper and pulling one out of a hat.
Leeds · the Civil War · Hawai‘i · the Peace Country · 1843 – today
The Steinkes
A maternal line of the Rycrofts
Origins unknown no more — one evening of records work dropped the floor three generations: an 1858 parish akte in central Poland, fifteen children, and Nana Bette.
Ossowka, central Poland · Winnipeg 1892 · the Sexsmith prairie · c. 1858 – today
The Haistes
Yorkshire to the Peace Country
Melanie's father's side. Yorkshire textile-and-coal stock that emigrated to a Saskatchewan homestead around 1900 and, three generations later, settled across Alberta from Edmonton to Grande Prairie.
Thirteen generations · Yorkshire to the Peace Country · c. 1610 – today
A note on names
If you're keeping score, my surname history runs Lakeman → Cheesman, my mom's runs Docherty → Lakeman → Cheesman, my wife's runs Rycroft → Haiste → Cheesman. Eight family lines, one household, three kids who carry pieces of all of it. That's the map I'm trying to draw.