Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 9th Edition - Fashion Fads

It's time for the 9th Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival.

The theme is: Canadian Fashion Fads.

Here's another of my 'favourite' family photographs. Most people would dress up, if they could, for a family portrait as this family did. The mother's dress is made in a very 'plush' fabric with an apron-like front and ruffled skirt, applied decoration and buttons, and she shows off her lace cuffs and a polka dot collar or tie, and jewellery. I don't believe this style of dress was fashionable that long. The little boy is certainly well outfitted too; his father and the baby look quite plain in comparison.

I hope that this photograph was taken in late fall or winter, as that dress, fancy as it is, looks very warm!

The photographer, W. B. (William Berthour) St. John, was active in Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada, from 1884, when he opened up a portable photographic gallery, to about 1925. I have copies of other family photographs taken by him. I have only tentatively identified this photograph - but I'm sure it's of an IRWIN family. If you recognize this photograph, please get in touch with me.

I read an IRWIN joke a few days ago in an old Manitoba newspaper - the Daily Nor-Wester, March 20, 1897, page 3.

May Irwin, an actress, (originally from Whitby in Ontario, Canada) explained to a reporter that she had "received a bushel of letters from people named Irwin who want to claim me as a relative. They tell me that I am the perfect picture of Cousin Betsy or Aunt Mary. The joke of it is that Irwin is only my stage name." (May Irwin, Georgina May Campbell, Wikipedia.)

This week I spoke with someone who thought we might be related through our Irwin lines. If so, we decided it must be a long way back, but never fear - I am happy to hear from possible (and known) IRWIN relatives.

Canadian Genealogy Carnival - Canadian Vacations

Dad, Dave & Diane, Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada 1956. Private collection.

Most of the vacation trips I remember from when I was little were short ones close to our home in Vancouver. My parents ran a business together and didn't get away much. Sometimes Dad came to meet us on weekends only.

When I was a bit older, except for Victoria, I don't remember us vacationing locally. Instead my mother and I used to take trips to Portland, Oregon to shop (no sales tax) and with my brother, we also went to California and to Hawaii. I also went to camp, first with the Salvation Army Brownies and Girl Guides at Camp Sunrise, Gibsons Landing, and once? twice? to Camp Fircom on Gambier Island for weekend 'work' parties with a United Church youth group.

The more memorable childhood holidays for me were weekend and week long jaunts to Bowen Island, Sechelt and to Alta Lake, or to Victoria on Vancouver Island. All of these involved boat or ferry trips but all were popular local vacation spots for Vancouverites. My Dad always seemed to know someone wherever we stayed.

Once my mum and I went to Calgary on the train to see the Calgary Stampede. That train ride I remember quite well, and seeing Jay Silverheels in the Stampede parade. (Dreamy!) Oddly, there aren't any photograph of that trip, although I do have the tickets still and a bit of a trip diary. I did bring home a white cowboy hat for myself, but that's long ago 'bit the dust'.

These are the only two photographs from one of our Bowen Island summer vacations. I know I always, always took a doll with me on holidays and there are a few photos like this one which show that. I've been thinking lately that Bowen Island would be a good place for a short 'writing' holiday for me now. Lots of interesting places to stay and things to see too. (Is there a used bookstore, I wonder? I do know there's a Library.)

Mum, Diane with doll and Dave, Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada, 1956. Private Collection

We had a boat of our own at one time and often went out in it with our parents and Na. I remember little about these excursions except what the boat looked like, but one emergency run when my brother hit his head on a battery is imprinted permanently on my consciousness.

Other vacation activities were day trips. We took commercial cruises up Indian Arm to the now one hundred year old Wigwam Inn, for example. Last summer I noticed Chuck Davis had written about a trip along a similar route - Vancouver City certainly looks different now, but some things are the same.

I don't have any photographs that I can identify as ones from these day trips. I do remember once my mother and I arguing about what I'd wear on an Indian Arm trip. I wanted to wear a green seersucker dress with a darker stripe. My mother wanted me to wear some summery frock, no doubt with a few frills or ribbons. I won! and later she said I was right to wear it as it didn't show the dirt. Her summer whites were much the worse for wear during that voyage! Fancy my remembering that all these years. (Sorry, Ma.)

This was written for the 5th Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival - it's all about favourite Canadian vacations. Where did your ancestors like to spend their summer holidays? Did your family enjoy a favourite beach or cottage? Or did your family travel from sea to shining sea?

The Carnival will be posted on July 15, 2009 at Looking For Ancestors.

16th Edition - Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

The 16th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy is now posted at Jessica's Genejournal. This edition was a carnival so there's a really interesting variety of articles this time. Thanks Jessica!

The next edition will be hosted right here at 'CanadaGenealogy, or, Jane's Your Aunt' by myself, M. Diane Rogers.

The topic?

International Women's Day is in March each year, so our theme this time is

'Women in Central and Eastern European Genealogy'

Have you a female ancestor from Eastern or Central Europe you'd like to highlight, or do you have tips specifically for researching women there, or have you found a good article, book or website that assists in historical research about women from Central and Eastern Europe?

You don't have to have ancestors from Eastern or Central Europe to participate in this Carnival.

The deadline for the submissions will be March 29th, 2009 and the 17th edition will be published on the 31st. You can submit your article here at BlogCarnival.

Some Canadian research sources - Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

“Marriage of Elisabeth Schäffer and Benjamin Dick, 1907. Showing Russian-German dress” - See note 1

Credit: Schaffer, Jacob / Library and Archives Canada / C-014489

Location unknown. Private source. No restrictions on use. Copyright expired.

I am still learning about research on Central and Eastern European genealogy for my Canadian family connections and since this edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy is a 'carnival', I thought I'd blog about a couple of sources I've been looking at.

Both are available through Statistics Canada's website, which is not a government department that most might think to look to first for genealogy information. Statistics Canada is responsible for Canada's national censuses - a central source for 1850-1911 Canadian genealogical research - but the historical censuses have to be transferred to Library and Archives Canada before they are made available to researchers.

Canada Year Book Collection

Censuses were never meant primarily for genealogy, however much we might wish it had been so. Information gathered from each census is intended usually for government, or nowadays, perhaps for certain commercial uses. From each census, statistics are compiled on various topics. Much of this data is now very useful to historical and genealogical researchers. Recently, Statistics Canada put on-line free its Canada Year Book Collection, covering 100 years from Canada's confederation in 1867 to 1967.

I have been 'collecting' some information from these on immigration to the province of Manitoba, Canada where my mother was born. Just as an example, this is from the 1907 Canada Year Book.

Population – Manitoba

1881 62,260
1891 152, 506
1901 255,211

Population By birthplace (my selections)

Austria-Hungary
1881 -
1891 -
1901 11,570

Germany
1881 208
1891 857
1901 2,285

Russia
1881 5,335
1891 6,251
1901 8,854

At Sea
1881 7
1891 7
1901 23

Statistics by province are also given by race or origin and by religion. Always check the notes - under religion in 1891, for instance, Manitoba Mennonites are 'lumped in' with Baptists.

1907 Canada Yearbook, p. 5, Table 1
Canada Year Book Collection, Statistics Canada (1867 to 1967):
http://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb_r000-eng.htm


1940 National Registration, Canada

The Canadian 1940 National Registration process included anyone in Canada from 1940-1946 who was 16 years of age or older, unless in the armed forces, religious orders, or confined to an institution. These records are still in the care of Statistics Canada; some of the records for those who died during that period were destroyed.

These records may include the place and country of birth of individual and his or her parents,the individual's nationality, their year of entry into Canada, if an immigrant, their racial origin, and their languages. All very important information for genealogists.

Although there is a “soundex-format index”, to request a record you must supply the full name, place of residence in 1940, and some identifying details, such as country of birth, date of birth, approximate age and occupation - as well as proof of death at least 20 years ago, in most cases. Requesting a 1950 National Registration record is not free for genealogical/historical requests, the charge is $47.25 Canadian for each search. This is refunded for unsuccessful searches.

1940 Canadian National Registration: Details, mailing address: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911.007-e.html

Statistics Canada, Request form: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=93C0006&lang=eng

Genealogists and historians are asking to have these 1940 National Registration records transferred to Library and Archives Canada. I will keep you posted on this.

Genealogical Societies and Conferences

During Scanfest today, genealogical conferences were one of the topics discussed. I always look forward to going to a 'big' conference and know there are at least two coming up in North America this year. I thought I'd post the links here too. I'll be attending the AHSGR conference in Medicine Hat, as that's the closest to me this year.

American Historical Society of Germans From Russia: http://www.ahsgr.org/

Conference in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada 15-21 June 2009


Joint Conference - the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe and the Federation of East European Family History Societies: http://www.sggee.org/conventions/ConventionNews.html

Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, July 24-25th, 2009



***********
Note 1 - This photograph is not related to my family (as far as I know). For a thoughful comment on the LAC caption for this photograph, see Framing Canada: A Photographic Memory, The Canadian Mosaic: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/framingcanada/026020-3527-e.html

Canadian Genealogy Carnival - 'Around the Kitchen Table'.

This post is for the 3rd Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival, 'Around the Kitchen Table'. Does your family have a favourite Canadian recipe? Or perhaps you have the recipe to your Canadian ancestor's favourite dish. Maybe you just like Canadian Maple syrup. Share with us your favourite Canadian recipe and/or food.

I do have copies of a few recipes from both my grandmothers. My English grandma, Sarah Frances (SAGGERS) ROGERS, had a recipe for Dandelion Wine, for instance, which she could make in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as easily as in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in England.

The most familiar of my family’s recipes, learned from my Na, my maternal grandmother, were, I suspect, highly influenced, first by the practicalities of living on the Canadian prairies and later by wartime shortages in the 1940s and later still, convenience, as my Na always had a busy social life and my parents both worked in our business. My mother relied quite a bit on commercially packed tins – soups, corn, even tinned beef and local salmon. Most meals at home were pretty plain - ‘English’ cooking. We didn’t have meat and potatoes every night, but close to it. Good local vegetables were available (but boiled to death) and we ate or cooked whatever fruit was in season and reasonably priced. In our own yard was a cherry tree, a (not so good) apple tree and we had rhubarb which I always liked stewed or baked in a brown betty. We ate lots of jam tarts which were easy (and cheap) but never any maple syrup. (That's an Eastern thing!)

I remember my Na’s bread, buns, cakes and cookies best. If friends were expected or if there was a bake sale coming up, she’d be ready. One special family thing about her baking was her use of butter. On the farm or in Newdale, Manitoba where she and my mum grew up, I don’t think eggs, butter or milk were ever in short supply. Butter wasn’t always available in other areas though and of course it was sometimes expensive to buy. I noticed a Vancouver woman’s recipe for ‘Wartime Butter’ in one of my World War II era cookbooks.

WARTIME BUTTER

1 lb. butter (quite soft)

1/2 to 1 tsp salt

2 cups lukewarm milk (top milk)

Take ½ cup of the milk and soak 1 tbsp. Knox gelatine for 5 minutes

Mix all together and beat with egg beater until it thickens. Add butter coloring.

Makes 2 pounds of butter.

- Mrs J. A. McDonald,Vancouver p.15, Navy League Chapter I.O.D.E. (International Order of Daughters of the Empire) Victory Cook Book, October 1941, Victoria, BC, Canada.

In Canada, despite a temporary lifting of legislation in the early 1920s, margarine wasn’t legal till 1949 in order to protect the dairy industry’s markets, but even after 1949 each province could regulate its sale. (See Note 1.) Earlier, even the thought of allowing butter imports from abroad had been contentious. Newfoundlanders bootlegged margarine to Canadians from the 1920s, but the 1948/1949 pro-margarine rulings meant Newfoundland’s margarine was legal when that former British Dominion joined Canada in 1949. Don’t you love Canadian politics?

For years in British Columbia, margarine was allowed for sale only if it didn’t ‘look like butter’. (A package of dye was sold with it for mixing at home.) My dad was mad at the dairy industry lobbyists about all this till the day he died. We never had butter at home, only margarine.

Na didn’t live with us, but she was close by and sometimes looked after my brother and me after school. She often brought a little something with her.

Below is her Coffee Cake recipe from a very tattered and broken 'Memoranda' of hand written recipes. On the cover writing can be seen, “Home Economics”, and inside is written “Amy Scott” so it dates from after 1910 when she married and began using SCOTT instead of IRWIN as her surname. This recipe seems to have been re-written. Perhaps she noticed the pencil fading and wrote it again some time later.

COFFEE CAKE

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 cup cold coffee

2/3 cup butter

1 tea spoon soda

5 cups flour

½ tea spoon cinnamon & cloves

1 lb raisins

1 lb currants

X Better to stand several days after baking

I don’t remember Na consulting a recipe very often, so I suspect she kept this little book through all the moves only because of the ‘colouring’ Mum did on some pages. Is this a drawing of Na, I wonder? Is that a big skirt apron she has on with waist ties? Not too flattering a picture (my Na was petite) but quite a keepsake.

(My mum apparently coloured on a lot of things; I was NEVER, EVER allowed to do that. And, neither were my children.)

LINKS

The Navy League Chapter of the I.O.D.E. was organized at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1912, according to the information in my cookbook.
IODE in BC – BC Women Helping BC: http://iodeinbc.ca/

Note 1. The Canadian Butter/Margarine Thing

“Emergency Move Approved: Dairymen Find Butter Importing Acceptable” Winnipeg Free Press, Wednesday, 8 January, 1947, p. 9.

“Newfoundland Granted Autonomy on Fish Exports and Margarine” Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, 10 December, 1948, p.10. (Newfoundland would have been able to produce and sell margarine, but not to export it to the rest of Canada.)

“Housewives Save With Margarine” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio broadcast, 14 December, 1948. Host: Bill Reid; Interviewer: Bill Beatty; Reporters: Dave Price, Warren Baldwin. Interviewed – Erle Kitchen, National Secretary of the Dairy Farmers of Canada: http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/12/14

" ‘If It’s Yellow, It Must Be Butter’: Margarine Regulation In Quebec Since 1886” Abstract, Ruth Dupré, 3 January, 1992. Allied Social Science Associations Conference: http://eh.net/Clio/Conferences/ASSA/Jan_92/Dupre%20Abstract

"If It's Yellow, It Must be Butter": Margarine Regulation in North America Since 1886” by Ruth Dupré, The Journal of Economic History, Economic History Association, Vol. 59, No. 2 (June, 1999), pp. 353-371.

“Resolving Canada's conflicted relationship with margarine” CBC.ca. Last Updated: Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 4:35 PM ET: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/07/09/f-margarine.html

Isabelle McTavish - Canadian Missionary Doctor - 1881-1953: Canadian Genealogy Carnival, Edition 2

Isabelle MCTAVISH,

b. 19 December, 1881 Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada;

d. 26 January, 1953, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

This post is for the Second Edition of the Canadian Genealogy Carnival - "My Famous Canadian Ancestor".

Was your ancestor a famous Canadian hockey player, actor or politician? Tell us about famous Canadians in your family. Don't have a famous Canadian ancestor in your family tree? Not to worry; choose a famous Canadian you admire and share why you would like to have this person as your ancestor.

I have NO famous ancestors at all, and no famous connections either (unless we count the old story about being related to Mary, Queen of Scots, and I don't!), but there are a number of family connections to Canadians who should at least be better known, in my opinion.

One of those is Isabelle McTavish, a Canadian medical missionary to China. I heard about her when I was young, since she lived in Newdale, Manitoba, where my grandmother and mum were both born. I was always interested in her since I was told she became a doctor in the 1910's, which was certainly uncommon at the time, spent much of her life in China, and never married.

Isabelle MCTAVISH, b. 19 December, 1881, Minnedosa area, Manitoba, Canada; d. 26 January, 1953, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Parents: John MCTAVISH (1847-1891) and Catherine Jane WADDELL (1856-1936), married at Perth, Ontario, Canada, 29 May, 1878.

Isabelle McTavish's siblings: John Fraser, James Andrew, Annie (married Thomas Andrew WADDELL).

Although Isabelle McTavish was born near Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada in 1881, sometime before 1891, her family moved to Newdale, Manitoba. Her father, a farmer and entrepreneur, taught school at Newdale, but died at work in 1891.

Life must have been difficult for the family. But in 1915, Isabelle Mctavish was graduated as a doctor from the Manitoba Medical College in Winnipeg. Canada. She and Frances Gertrude McGill, also from Minnedosa area, that year were the third and fourth women to be so graduated, following Dr. Edith Ross in 1913 and Dr. Lavinia McPhee Green, the very first to be graduated. Dr. Green hosted a dinner at Winnipeg's Royal Alexandra Hotel for the four female doctors the evening after the graduation. (Manitoba Free Press, 15 May, 1915, p. 9)

That fall, Isabelle McTavish left for China to work as a medical missionary with the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Until 1942, with brief periods away, she continued to work as a doctor in China – in North Honan, at Wuan, Wheihwei, and at Changte (at first with Doctor Jean Gow). According to McTavish's obituary, the Chinese government honoured her for this. (Winnipeg Free Press, 26 January, 1953, p.9.) The Newdale 1870-1970 history mentions that this honour was the ‘Order of Mercy Decoration Medal, 2nd Degree’. (Printed at Brandon: Newdale Historical Society, 1970, pp. 146-7)

McTavish apparently returned home in 1927 during the period of civil war. My mother remembered her speaking in Newdale to raise money for missionary work. (I'm sure this is how my mother first realized how wide the world was outside Newdale. My mum was fascinated with China all her life. I'm glad she did get to travel there at last.)

McTavish didn’t practice locally as a doctor as far as I know, but my mother said she did attend my great grandmother when she was dying at home, as the Newdale doctor was out of town.

McTavish returned to China in 1931. During World War II, she and others were taken prisoner and interned; she was freed and returned home in 1942 with other missionaries. The Lethbridge Herald of 25 June, 1942, p.9, reported her among those who had left Shanghai on a repatriation ship for Portuguese West Africa.

From 1942 to 1946, she served at the Bonnyville General Hospital in Alberta, Canada (Katherine K. Prettie Hospital), long a project of the Women’s Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Canada and later of the United Church of Canada. In 1946, she returned to China to help re-open the hospital at Changte. She left China for the last time in 1949 and returned to Newdale, Manitoba, but very soon moved to Winnipeg. She continued to speak, usually to women’s groups, on missionary and medical work in China, and attended conferences, for instance, a Methodist Missionary conference in New York in 1943.

On the 26th of January, 1953, she died in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was buried in Newdale in the McTavish family plot. (North side, Newdale’s ‘Oldale’ Cemetery.) Both her brothers and her sister survived her.

Recently there has been more interest in the work of Canadian women and others in medical missions in China, see for example, Healing Henan: Canadian Nurses at the North China Mission, 1888-1947 by Sonya Grypma (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008) and In War and Famine: Missionaries in China's Honan Province in the 1940s by Erleen Christensen (Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).

So far, there are only brief mentions of Doctor Isabelle McTavish though. I hope in 2009-2010 to write a research piece about her myself.

I'd be interested in learning more about the other women connected with Isabelle McTavish's life, particularly Dr. Lavinia McPhee Green, who I believe has a British Columbian connection.

Here I've used the contemporary newspaper renditions of Chinese place names.