Welcome to the Shiels Family History
More than three centuries ago, a young man named Micheal Shiels left County Kildare, Ireland, travelled to Scotland for the harvest and began a family story that none of us could have imagined at the time.
From those early beginnings near Coulter in the Scottish Borders, generations of the Shiels family would cross oceans, clear land, build homes, raise families and eventually spread across Scotland, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
But this is not simply a record of where they went or when they were born.
It is about the people themselves.
Their stories have survived in old photographs and family Bibles, in cemetery stones and historical records, and in memories passed from parents to children. Some are stories of hardship and loss. Others are stories of determination, humour, adventure and ordinary family life. Together, they tell us something about who these people were—and how their lives became part of our own.
Over the years, many relatives have helped preserve those memories. New discoveries have answered old questions, introduced us to family members we never knew existed and, occasionally, changed what we thought we knew about our own history.
This website is an invitation to meet them.
Our Family Story Begins in 1690
The earliest Shiels ancestor we have been able to trace is Micheal Shiels, born about 1690 in County Kildare, Ireland. As a young man, Micheal travelled to Scotland for the harvest, found work and eventually made his home near Coulter in Peeblesshire. There, in 1716, he married Elizabeth “Bessie” Broun and began the family line we can follow today.
For more than a century, successive generations remained in the Scottish Borders. They worked as farmers, stone masons, servants and gamekeepers. Places such as Coulter, Peebles and East Mains became part of the family’s story, and connections with the surrounding countryside would remain for generations.
Then came 1850.
Two brothers, John and George Shiels, left Scotland aboard the Morton to begin new lives in Canada. Their Atlantic crossing did not go as planned. The voyage included shipwreck and illness before they finally reached Quebec and continued into what is now Ontario.
John and George settled on neighbouring farms in Grey Township, where they cleared land, built homes and raised their families. But Canada would not be the final destination for everyone. As the generations grew, descendants moved west across the Prairies and into the United States, while other branches of the family remained in Scotland or eventually reached Australia and New Zealand.
Along the way there were successes and setbacks, remarkable journeys and ordinary lives. There were stories that survived for generations—and others that had to be rediscovered more than a century later.
Those are the stories waiting behind these pages.
The Story Is Bigger Than One Family Line
A family tree never grows in a straight line.
As each generation married and raised children, new branches appeared and the Shiels family spread farther from its beginnings in Scotland. Following every descendant through more than three centuries would make it impossible to tell their stories properly, so this website has been built around one direct family line through ten generations—from Micheal Shiels to Dan Shiels.
That direct line provides the spine of our story, but it is only part of the Shiels family history.
Along the way, we step away from that spine to follow selected brothers, sisters and descendants whose lives add important pieces to the larger story. Some remained in Scotland. Others established families across Canada and the United States, while descendants from other branches eventually made their homes in Australia and New Zealand.
These branches have also introduced us to people who played an important role in preserving the family history. Ruby Shiels, Bill Ford and David French each became a connection to a different branch of the family, sharing memories, photographs and information that helped us understand where those families went and what became of them.
You do not have to follow the story in any particular order. You can begin with Micheal and travel through all ten generations, follow one of the branches that interests you, or simply explore the photographs and stories you discover along the way.
Every branch leads back to a shared family story.
Explore More of the Shiels Story
The generations and family branches tell us where the Shiels family came from and where their descendants went. But there is more to the story. Family gatherings helped reconnect branches separated by generations, while years of research eventually brought the much larger family history together in print.
Shiels Family Reunions
In 1982, 1984 and 1986, descendants from different branches of the Shiels family came together in Winnipeg and Ontario. For some, it was their first opportunity to meet relatives they had previously known only as names on a family chart.
The reunions produced friendships, photographs, family stories—and more than a few memorable moments.
Shiels Family History Book
The Shiels Family History book preserves the broader family record from about 1690 through 2024. Published in April 2025, the 340-page book follows many more descendants and branches than can practically be included on this website.
For those who want to go beyond the selected stories on shiels.ca, the book is the place to explore the family in much greater detail.
Exploring the Generations
Ten generations. More than three centuries. One family story stretching from Ireland and Scotland to Canada.
Follow the direct Shiels family line from Micheal Shiels, born about 1690, through ten generations to the present day. Each generation has its own story—of the places they called home, the families they raised, the choices they made and the events that changed the direction of those who followed.
Along the way, watch for links that lead beyond the direct line into other branches of the Shiels family.
Choose a generation and discover their story.
+G1 — Micheal Shiels — 1690
Our story begins with a young Irishman who travelled to Scotland for the harvest—and never returned home.
Born about 1690 in County Kildare, Ireland, Micheal Shiels found work in Scotland and eventually settled near Coulter. In 1716, he married Elizabeth “Bessie” Broun, beginning the family line we have been able to trace through more than three centuries.
His story takes us to the very beginning of the Shiels family history—and to the earliest records that allowed us to find him.
G2 — Daniel Shiels — 1719
Born in Scotland in 1719, Daniel Shiels trained for seven years as a stone mason and later became an agent for Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch. He married Janet “Jessie” Scott in 1749 and carried the Shiels family into its second recorded generation.
From a seven-year stone mason’s apprenticeship to the service of one of Scotland’s great landowning families.
G3 — James Shiels — 1750
By the third generation, the Shiels family was putting down roots that can still be traced through Scotland’s historical records today.
Born in South Leith in 1750, James Shiels married Janet Younger in Peebles in 1768. Their family continued the Shiels story in the Scottish Borders and produced the next generation through their son Robert.
Old parish records allow us to follow James and Janet through a world very different from our own—and provide another important link in a family chain stretching back more than three centuries.
G4 — Robert Shiels — 1769
With Robert Shiels, one family line begins to grow into a much larger family tree.
Born in Skirling in 1769, Robert married Annie Dickson in 1790 and spent his life in the countryside around Coulter. Together they raised seven children, establishing family lines that would continue well beyond the direct ancestry followed on this website.
Our story continues through their son Thomas—but another son, George Shiels, begins a branch of his own that we can also follow.
G5 — Thomas Shiels — 1795-1839
A gamekeeper, a family home at East Mains and a tragedy that became part of the Shiels family story.
Born in 1795, Thomas Shiels spent much of his working life in the service of the Duke of Buccleuch, eventually becoming a gamekeeper. He and Barbara Jean Cranston married in 1817 and raised eight children, with East Mains near Coulter becoming an important home in the family’s history.
Thomas’s life ended far too early following an encounter with a poacher, but the family he and Barbara Jean raised would carry the Shiels story far beyond Scotland.
From this generation, follow our direct line through John Shiels, or step into the branches of his brothers Thomas, George and William—families whose descendants eventually spread across several countries.
G6 — John Shiels — 1826-1908
In 1850, two young brothers left Scotland for Canada. Before they could begin their new lives, they first had to survive the journey.
At the age of 24, John Shiels boarded the Morton with his brother George and crossed the Atlantic. Their voyage included shipwreck, illness and weeks at sea before they finally reached Quebec.
John eventually settled in Grey Township, Ontario, where he married Janet McNair and carved a farm from the bush at Lot 19, Concession 14. George settled next door, and the two brothers raised their families on neighbouring farms.
More than a century later, memories recorded by John’s son Jack would provide important clues that helped another generation begin rediscovering their family history.
G7 — Thomas Shiels — 1857-1928
For Thomas Shiels, the family farm in Ontario would not be the end of the journey. The West was calling.
Born near Cranbrook, Ontario in 1857, Thomas married Rachel Ann Brigham in 1883. Together they began a life that would take their growing family from Ontario to Manitoba and eventually farther west to Saskatchewan.
Their journey included stops at Trout Creek, Killarney and finally Corning, where another chapter of the Shiels family story took root on the Canadian Prairies.
Thomas and Rachel belonged to a generation willing to leave established homes behind and start again—carrying the family story steadily westward across Canada.
G8 — John George Shiels — 1885-1975
Sometimes the stories that survive are not the great events of history, but the little moments a family never forgets.
Born in 1885, John George Shiels grew up as the family moved west from Ontario. He married Pearl Gerry, raised a large family and eventually made his home in Manitoba.
Life was not always easy. After Pearl’s death, John was left with a young family and another chapter of change began. But alongside the hardships came the stories his children carried with them—the bread dough that became a pig, a memorable supper involving far too much rice, and an old Model “A” Ford that John kept running with determination and, when necessary, a roll of wire.
These are the kinds of stories that rarely appear in official records—but they are often the ones that tell us the most about the people who came before us.
G9 — George Edwin Shiels — 1922-1979
He worked hard, could build or repair almost anything, and had a way of teaching that his children would remember for the rest of their lives.
Born near Stoughton, Saskatchewan in 1922, George Edwin Shiels married Betty Jones and raised his family during years when making a living often meant doing whatever work was available.
He worked on the railroad by day and on a nearby farm during evenings and weekends before eventually becoming a carpenter. Practical, resourceful and remarkably quick with numbers, George passed many of those skills on to his sons—usually by expecting them to learn while helping.
And if the flashlight wasn’t pointing exactly where George needed it, there was always the familiar question:
“Who are you holding that light for?”
G10 — Daniel Philip Shiels — 1951
Ten generations after Micheal Shiels began our known family story, one of his descendants set out to discover where that story had begun.
Born near Bernice, Manitoba in 1951, Daniel Philip “Dan” Shiels grew up on the Prairies, built a career with Manitoba Hydro and, with his wife Judy, enjoyed a life filled with family, community involvement and travel.
But another journey began after the death of Dan’s father in 1979.
Questions about the generations that came before him led to an Ontario cemetery in 1980, unexpected relatives, family reunions, journeys to Scotland, old photographs and documents, countless conversations—and more than four decades of family-history research.
What began as a desire to learn more about his own family eventually became the Shiels Family History book and this website, created so that the stories recovered along the way would remain available to the generations still to come.
Preserving the Story for Future Generations
Family history is never really finished.
Every photograph that is identified, every story that is remembered and every new family connection adds another piece to what we know about the people who came before us. Some discoveries answer questions that have been waiting for generations. Others lead to entirely new ones.
Much of the Shiels family history preserved here survived because someone took the time to remember it, write it down, save an old photograph or share what they knew. Without them, many of these stories would simply have disappeared.
This website continues that tradition.
It brings together more than three centuries of family history while providing a place where new photographs, stories and discoveries can be added as they are found. The Shiels Family History book preserves the broader family record through 2024, while this website allows the story to continue growing.
Most of the people whose lives fill these pages could never have imagined that generations later someone would still be interested in where they lived, the journeys they made or the stories they left behind.
But those lives mattered.
They became part of the families that followed—and ultimately part of us.
This history has been preserved for the generations who are here today, and for those still to come.
The story continues.
We Would Like to Hear From You
Did you find a connection to your own family in these pages? Perhaps you have a story, photograph or piece of Shiels family history to share—or maybe you would simply like to let us know you were here.
We would be pleased to hear from you. Your message may even help us discover another piece of the Shiels family story.