Treasure Chest Thursday - Na's Music Box

This music box which plays 'Somewhere My Love...' from the film of "Dr. Zhivago", used to belong to my Na, my maternal grandmother, Amy SCOTT, née IRWIN. My children gave it to Na when they were little - because it has a blond little girl and a brunette little boy, just like them. I know she treasured it and I remember she used to wind it up to play when they were around.

She died when the children were nine and twelve, so they do remember her. This music box now sits on one of my bookshelves. It's a bit faded but otherwise in good condition. I hope someone else will love it 'someday'...

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - 1909 - How Many Ancestors?

It's time again for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun over at Genea-Musings.
This challenge from Randy Seaver gives me a chance to show off a newly acquired 'family treasure'. Tonight's Fun Genealogy task is to say:

1) Which of your ancestors were alive in 1909?

2) Where your ancestral families were living in 1909. Who was in the family at the time? (Randy mentioned using the 1910 USA census. Canada's closest censuses were 1910, and 1906 for the prairie provinces.)

3) Write a blog post about your response. Or write a comment to [his] post.

4) Have fun. Learn something!


1.

Both my parents were born after 1909.
My four grandparents were alive in 1909, but not yet married.
Five of my eight ggrandparents were alive in 1909.
Two of my sixteen gggrandparents were alive in 1909.

2.

Both Joe Rodgers and Sarah Saggers, my dad’s parents, were in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, having come here from Toronto, Ontario Canada and from Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England respectively. They didn't marry till 1915.

The 1909 Vancouver Henderson’s Directory showed Joe’s residence as North Arm Rd near Bedwell Rd. (Today, North Arm Road is Fraser Street.) His occupation was given as gardener. As far as I know that’s what his occupation was all the rest of his life, although he was apparently very handy with tools (as was his son, my dad) and Grandpa did odd jobs and carpentry for others and for family. Grandpa’s parents had died many years before 1909, as had his grandparents.

The Vancouver Directory for 1909 shows Sarah Saggers’s father, David, living at 601 Pacific in what is now a prime area in downtown Vancouver. Great grandmother Sarah Ann Staines would have been living there too with him, but she died late in 1909 after only two years residence in Canada. Their son Charles is listed in the Directory at the same address, as are five of the six daughters. Great grandpa’s occupation is given as ‘farmer’ which is what he had been in England. (I’m sure he wasn’t a farmer in Vancouver.) Sarah’s brother Charles is listed as a Stanley Park gardener, sister Constance is shown as a maid, Dora and Elsie are listed as dressmakers at Gordon Drysdale Ltd., Florence is a “comp” – compositor – at A.H. Timms and Ethel a nurse at Vancouver General Hospital. (In the 1908 Directory she was shown as living at the Nurses’ Home, although her name was listed with her family at 601 Pacific.) Ethel married William Vere Brandram Webb in Vancouver in December of 1909 so she would have left home then for good. My grandmother Sarah isn’t listed in the 1909 Directory. I think it likely she was living with her family then, but not working outside the home. In the 1911 census though she was shown as ‘living-in’ as a maid, so it is possible she was living elsewhere in 1909, as I believe her brother Bert must have been, as he isn’t listed with his parents either.

On my mother’s side, I know her parents, James Walter Scott and Amy Estella Irwin, were living in the town of Newdale, Manitoba, Canada.

My maternal grandparents didn’t marry till 1910. Grandpa Walter was working as a store clerk in Newdale in 1909 still, I think, and was most likely boarding with a family then. I do not know for sure.

His mother, Mary Janet Wood, widowed in 1892, was living in Nottawa, Ontario on the farm which had been her father’s, with, I believe, her other children, Harriott, Anne and Sam. Their grandfather, Samuel Wood, had died in 1908, just the year before. Mary Menzies who had lived with the family had married in 1908 so she would have been living with her husband in 1909, but she was still in Nottawa.

Both Amy’s parents, William Irwin and Janet Carmichael, were living in Newdale - on Church Street. William had a machine shop and a lumber business, as well as a farm, but I believe he sold the lumber yard in or around 1908.

Janet’s parents were long dead, but William’s parents were retired and had been living in Neepawa, Manitoba not too far from Newdale. Mary Jane Moffatt, William's mother, died in April of 1909 and William and Janet along with all William’s brothers and sisters gathered at Neepawa when Mary Jane died. (James Irwin, William's father died in 1910.)

My grandmother did tell me she worked away as a teacher before her marriage; I believe in 1908-1909. (I hope to confirm the dates someday soon.) If she was in Newdale in 1909, though, I’m sure she’d have been living with her parents and her sisters Maggie and Minnie. Brother Charles married in 1908 and I'm sure he was running the Irwin family homestead by 1909. How do I know that?

Well, last Sunday I spent much of the day at the Vancouver Postcard Show. This is BC's biggest postcard show and there are boxes and boxes of postcards to see, as well as collections of other ephemera and displays too. I was looking for British Columbia cards to add to my collection and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Before I left though, I thought I'd have a look through some other Canadian cards from an out of town dealer.

To my surprise, there were several postcards from Newdale, Manitoba, two of them written by my grandmother's sister in law. The card below is one of those. It's postmarked 1908 and in the message, Etta (Campbell) Irwin (Charles Irwin's wife) writes about how busy they've been with the threshers in for 4 1/2 days. She mentions she's marked the front of the card to show "Charles fathers house" next door to the manse and the Presbyterian Church - this is William Irwin and Janet Carmichael's house. My grandparents and mum later lived next door to it.

I do have another good photograph of the house, but this postcard is now extra special. If there is a moral to this little story, it's to check every box! and to keep all your surnames and place names in mind, no matter where you are.

Thanks, Randy!

Presbyterian Church and Manse, Church Street, Newdale Manitoba. X marks William and Janet Irwin's house. Postmarked 1908. No photographer or publisher name, but likely A. R. Henson.

Irish Names! Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture - HARRISON, IRWIN, LIVINGSTON, MOFFET, County Cavan

Esther Delina IRWIN and her husband, Albert RICHES, with their children James Russel and Ethel Lilian.

Identified by Amy Estella (IRWIN) SCOTT.

J. E. Miers, Photo Artist, Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada.

Private collection.

Most of my family’s given names - and surnames – are all too common ones. I spend a great deal of my time working out who each person is (or could be) and who among them is ‘mine’ (or might be). As frustrating as this can be, it does mean I am unlikely to ever run out of genealogical challenges!

My Irish families are no exception. My maternal grandmother, my ‘Na’, was descended from Scottish and Irish families. The Scottish were from Islay in Scotland (CARMICHAEL, GILCHRIST); the Irish from around Cootehill in County Cavan, Ireland.

The gggrandparents who emigrated to Canada in 1850 from Ireland were Mary Jane (or Jean) MOFFET and James IRWIN. Mary Jane was the daughter of Eleanor HARRISON and William MOFFET and James was the son of Margaret LIVINSTON and John IRWIN.

Their children were: John, William (my ggrandfather), John (the first John is believed to have died young), Margaret Jane, Mary Ellen, Elizabeth Ann, James Henry, Samuel Robert; Esther Delina and David.

It seems to be generally accepted that both the IRWIN and MOFFET surnames could have come from Scotland (or possibly England) and that IRWIN may be a variant of IRVING in Scotland.

Edward MacLysaght, for example, in The Surnames of Ireland, says that MOFFATs were numerous in the Ulster area of Ireland from the 17th century. He notes 6 variants: “MAFFETT, MEFFAT etc.” p. 218

Of IRWIN and ERWIN, he says “nearly all Irwins are of planter stock in Ulster and in Co. Roscommon...” the name derived from Old English, but, “much confused with ”IRVINE and ERVINE, also Scottish and seldom found outside Ulster...." p. 167

I looked up the variants identified by the Irish Times - Ancestors website for the surnames IRWIN and MOFFET. (This search shows the # of each name found in the Primary Valuation property surveys of 1848-64.)

For IRWIN, the main associated variants were: IRWIN (1357) and IRVINE (385); also Erwin, Ervin, Irvin, Irving, Irwan, Irwine.

For MOFFET, the Irish Times has 11 examples, but no variants, although for MOFFETT and MOFFATT there are these variants: MOFFETT (140) MOFFITT (133) and MOFFATT (120), also MAFFETT, MOFFAT, MOFFIT.

I have encountered most of these variants myself in different records, but also in indexes and transcriptions. My cousin, Ross W. Irwin, who has done years of research on this family, shows these variants on his website: Irwin, Irwine, Urwin, Irvin, Irvine, Erwin, Erwine, Irvan.

I think most of my MOFFET/IRWIN family’s children’s given names were quite common both for that area of Ireland and for Canada West/Ontario where all but the first John were born.

In his book, Robert Irwin From County Cavan Ireland to Fenelon Township Ontario, Ross W. Irwin noted that the female names in the parish records of the family’s church in County Cavan, Ireland, Coroneary Presbyterian Church, in order of frequency were: Mary, Jane, Elizabeth and Margaret, then Agnes, Sarah, Isabella, Martha, Elinor and Rosanna. For males, it was: John, James, William, Robert, then Thomas, George, Samuel, David, Joseph and Alexander. (p. 17)

The child with the least common given names in my IRWIN/MOFFET family is Esther Delina IRWIN, baptised 8 August 1865 at Cambray, Ontario, Canada. Her nickname, I believe, was always Esse or Essie. (I’ve never been sure that her baptimal name looked like Esther – I’ve only seen a photocopy - but the ‘Delina’ is very clear. She did give her name as Esther Delina in 1890 when she married Albert RICHES at Cambray.) It’s possible that my grandmother, Amy Estella IRWIN, was named for her as Estella can be a variant of Esther. (SeeWeidenhan, p.268)

For women born in Ireland, Ancestry.com’s 1851 Canadian census index (Pay website) shows 152 named Esther and only 7 named Delina.

Esther at one time was quite a common name and is still used, but Delina seems to be almost forgotten.

ThinkBabyNames says that the name Delina comes from Adeline and that variants could be Dellina, Deline, Dalina, Delena and Delana. I had thought 'Delina' might be associated with the name Magdalen, but perhaps not.

In the 1851 Ancestry Canadian census index there are 3 women named Dollina listed too – all look like they come from Scottish families, so I wondered if Delina could also be a variant for Dollina or vice-versa.

The 1881 Canadian census index at FamilySearch (FS) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) shows these results for Delina and some variations in Ontario -exact spelling search - Delina (FS 134/LAC 145), Dolina/Dollina (13 FS/14 LAC) and also Delima (251 FS/LAC 263) – it also looks as if Delima and its variations were very popular given names in Quebec.

Was Delina a popular name in Ireland in the 19th century? I wonder if Esther Delina could have been named for someone. This is something for me to investigate further later. Once more of the 1901/1911 Irish census is available on-line, I will be looking to see how many women named Delina show up.

I haven't found much information about this given name so far, but I did see that apparently there was a (really bad, but likely popular) novel written about a poor Irish girl Delina Delaney by Amanda McKittrick Ros and published in 1898. I wonder if Essie ever heard of it? Or read it?

If anyone out there knows more about the name ‘Delina’, especially as related to Ireland, I’d like to hear from you.

This post was written for the 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture featuring: Irish names!

Notes

The Surnames of Ireland by Edward MacLysaght ( Dublin Ireland and Portland Oregon, USA: Irish Academic Press, 1999)

Robert Irwin From County Cavan Ireland to Fenelon Township Ontario by Ross W. Irwin (2001) available from the Irwin Family History website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/rwirwin

Baptismal Names by Rev. Joseph L. Weidenhan, STL, (Fourth Edition, Baltimore, Maryland USA: Kenmore Productions, reprinted by Gale Research Company, Detroit, Michigan USA, 1968) p. 268

A previous post of mine at CanadaGenealogy has photographs of Mary Jane MOFFET/MOFFAT and James IRWIN and a post at the Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia has a photograph of Mary Jane MOFFET/MOFFAT and James IRWIN's grave in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada.

IRWIN - MOFFAT - County Cavan, Ireland: 12th Edition, Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture

From your right: James IRWIN, 1821-1910, born County Cavan, Ireland, his grandson Charles Ellery Irwin, his son William Irwin (my great grandpa) with baby great grandson Clarence Campbell Irwin. Photograph: W.B. St. John, Neepawa and Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada (William Berthour St. John. He operated photographic studios in Minnedosa and Neepawa from about 1887-1925.)

This photograph, showing four generations of IRWIN men, is the same image as the first old family photograph I ever owned, other than photos of my parents. My own copy is not this nice - the mat had been 'chewed' by some little creature - and so my Na was happy to give it to me one summer when she & I went through her photos and I labelled as she identified the people in them.

There is a similar photograph showing four generations of IRWIN women, also all related to me. It seems likely to me that it was take at about the same time but the women's photograph has no information identifying a date or photographer.

From your right: Mary Jane (MOFFAT) IRWIN ( 1824-1909) born County Cavan, Ireland, with her granddaughter Ella (Murchison) Mcguire, her daughter Mary Ellen (Irwin) Murchison, and baby great grand daughter, Grace Mcguire.

Mary Ellen (Irwin) Murchison and my great grandfather, William Irwin, were brother and sister.

Note:

William Irwin's wife was Janet Carmichael.

Charles Ellery Irwin's wife was Henrietta Scott Campbell.

Mary Ellen Irwin's husband was Malcolm 'Mac' Murchison.

Sarah Ellen 'Ella' Murchison's husband was Frederick 'Fred' Adam Mcguire.

Posted for Small-leaved Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day parade - the 12th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture. I'm not too sure what my Irish ancestors would really think of our modern St Patrick's day, but I hope they'd appreciate my thinking of them.

A previous post at the Cemetery Rabbit of British Columbia shows photographs of James and Mary Jane's grave at Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada.

If you are interested in the history of St Patrick's Day, I recommend The wearing of the green: a history of St. Patrick's Day by Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair (Abingdon, Oxford, England & New York, USA: Routledge, 2006)

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

Grandpa Scott and Sandy - 'Walking In A Winter Wonderland' - Carnival of Genealogy - 64th Edition

It's time for the Carnival of Genealogy's 64th Edition - 'Walking In A Winter Wonderland'.


Not All Misery During Canadian Winter

....Canada as a matter of fact has one of the healthiest climates in the world – our winters and all.... A good many Canadians do not realize this. They have got into the bad habit of blaming the climate unduly and thus disparaging the country. If they lived more in the out-of-doors and enjoyed and made use of the bracing winter weather, they might get over the illusion that this is a terrible country to live in. The greater part of our winter should be a joy to every normally healthy inhabitant of the country.

Manitoba Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 31 January 1927, p. 1


My mother grew up in Manitoba, Canada and always thought we wet coasters in south western British Columbia didn't even know what winter was. I never heard her or my Na complain about winter, except maybe about the slush and wet we kids tracked in on their clean floors.

This photo, signed 'Love Dad', shows my maternal grandfather, James Walter Scott (1885-1947) on the farm in winter at Newdale, Manitoba, Canada with the family's dog, Sandy.

I don't know what date this is, but it was probably in the 1930's as my mum was working in Winnipeg by then, and I imagine the photo was taken to send to her in the city. (She was an only child.) Likely my Na - my maternal grandmother, Amy Estella (Irwin) Scott (1884-1983) - took the picture.

I'd guess it's early in the winter as there's snow on the ground but Grandpa's not 'bundled up' yet. My mum told me once he always wore a hat. This one sure wouldn't keep his ears warm.

I never met Grandpa Scott, but I feel from what my mum and grandma told me of him that we'd have liked each other. My mother used to talk a lot about Sandy, the dog, a lot too. I remember she told me he was afraid of thunder storms and used to hide under the bed. Probably he liked winter as less chance of thunder then, I think.

Here's something interesting I found in my 'Treasure Chest'.

Mailed from Regina, Saskatchewan to Winnipeg, Manitoba;
postmarked Regina Mar 3 1930 VIA AIR MAIL.
5 cent Air stamp; cover stamp Regina to Winnipeg, First Regular Official Flight


2327 McIntyre St
March 1st, 1930


Dear Sister

Here is to be my first “Air Mail” letter, why live in this modern age and not take advantage of all Modern Methods. It looks as if planes were going to be more popular than they have been. What will be the next thrill to amuse mankind.

Well we are having a bit more winter and it’s surely better now than next June. The days are getting so much longer and the sun warmer and the cold does not seem so severe as before, but I do like the mild weather.

I thought of going over to see Alice Dennison yesterday but did not make it. I haven’t seen them since before Xmas. Alex saw Lionel the other day and he asked why we never went around. I dropped in to Mrs. Ware’s and stayed too long there. Col. had been in hospital for over two weeks and is still in the house but hopes to go to his office next week again.

Dad has got started in his office again. Can’t say yet how they will get along. Chipman has lots of pep and the people he worked with before said he was a good Salesman but business seems pretty dull in every branch, and so many places have laid of a lot of help - however if the wheat price comes back again it will help some. McPhail sounds rather a hopefull note since he came back and forecasts a raise in prices.

What is Walter doing? Did the job he hoped to get develop yet?

Well our bunch are much happier working. Don is like a different fellow you would scarcely know him, he is as cheerful and happy and likes his work so much. Did not get home untill mid night last night. That happens ends of months. Laurie says “You would think Don was Manager of the Imperial Bank” instead of Junior – he walks & talks with such importance.

Was glad to get your letter yesterday had thought you had forgotten us here. Hope your knees are better again. The streets here are in same condition.

Hasn’t Annie Pattison got the big heart in her? She is always nursing some sick one or other. I hope the little girl is soon quite well. How is Tom McIntosh doing now?

Did I tell you I had a letter from Aunt Mary Jane a while ago. She told me, they expect Muriel will be married this next summer, her intended is a teacher too.

You said you were dreaming of us lately. I often dream of you too. Laurie is fairly well. he is thinner than usual, and had a touch of pleursy a couple of weeks ago. Dr Richie put a Bella dona plaster on him and told him to get an XRay of that lung just for to be satisfied as he never seemed to be real well since that bad cold at Xmas however it revealed nothing and puts his mind at ease. He has taken a six weeks Officer’s course and was going three nights a week to Armouries. I think it was too much as well as work.

I am going down town now for the Sundays supplies. We just seem to get away with loads of eats here. Don Mantle comes to dinner here every Sat. and we are always eight at any time.

Love to All - Maggie

This was sent by Maggie (Irwin) Drummond in Regina to her sister, Amy (Irwin) Scott, (my grandmother) in Winnipeg. Both sisters were born and married in Newdale, Manitoba. Alex was Maggie's husband; Walter was Amy's. Don and Laurie are Maggie's sons. Annie Pattison and Tom McInTosh were cousins. Most of the others mentioned, I believe, were 'family friends'.

In Winnipeg, the new Prairie Air Mail service was heralded as "An Epoch in Western Communication" by the Manitoba Free Press. Hundreds turned out to see the first Winnipeg mail flight - so many with motorcars that there was a traffic jam. (WFP, Tuesday, 4 March 1930, p. 1,4 - NewspaperARCHIVE at Godfrey Memorial Library - godfrey.org) Pilot W. J. Buchanan flew into Winnipeg from Regina with the first air mail solo on March 3rd, ten minutes ahead of time, and carried 8 bags of mail - about 500 pounds worth.

IRWIN and MOFFAT, County Cavan, Ireland - 8th Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture

Mary Jane MOFFAT and James IRWIN, from County Cavan, Ireland to Canada West, 1850.
Mary Janes's parents: Eleanor Harrison and William Moffat
James' parents: Margaret Livingston and John Irwin

Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture, 8th Edition

Since this is the first time I’ve participated in this carnival, I thought I’d like to ‘share’ my Canadian Irish ancestors in case there is a new connection out there.

This photograph is of Mary Jane Moffatt and her husband, James Irwin. Both were from County Cavan, Ireland. They were married at the Coroneary (Corraneary) Meeting House (Presbyterian) in Knockbride Parish, District of Cootehill, County Cavan in August of 1846. In 1850, they emigrated to Canada West (Ontario) with James’ brother, Robert, and his wife, Sarah King. They all settled eventually around Cambray in Victoria County, Ontario, but in the 1890s, after most of James and Mary Janes’s children had moved west to Manitoba, James' and Mary Ann also migrated, settling in Neepawa, Manitoba where they died in 1909 and 1910 respectively.

My project for the rest of this year is to scan and better organize the photographs I have of them, their children and their families.

For more about the family, see Robert Irwin’s Brothers and Sisters and their Families from County Cavan, Ireland to Fenelon Township, Ontario by Ross W. Irwin (Guelph, Ontario, Canada: 2003) - also John Irwin’s family..., 2003 and Robert Irwin..., 2001

2013 UPDATE

Sadly, my cousin Ross Weston Irwin passed away in 2013 in Guelph, Ontario. See the University of Guelph's remembrance of him and follow the link to his obituary. Besides his local history books, he wrote a number of articles published by the Ontario Genealogical Society. See Historically Guelph for more about his Guelph area history interests.

CAVAN LINKS

A description of Cootehill from Lewis’ “Topographical Dictionary of Ireland”, 1837, 'From Ireland' website, Dr. Jane Lyons: http://www.from-ireland.net/lewis/cav/coothill.htm

Description and list of residents, 1910, Cootehill, County Cavan, “Belfast and Ulster Towns Directory”, Library Ireland: http://www.libraryireland.com/UlsterDirectory1910/Cootehill.php

Cootehill Town, “Trades Directory”, 1931, 'From Ireland' website, Dr. Jane Lyons: http://www.from-ireland.net/cav/direct/cootehill1931.htm#4

A good place to start, I always think, is GENUKI. For County Cavan, Ireland: http://www.sierratel.com/colinf/genuki/CAV

See also Al Beagan's "Genealogy Notes", Parish of Drumgoon, Co Cavan: http://members.tripod.com/~Al_Beagan/drumgoon.htm

Cootehill Tourism, lots of fishing in County Cavan apparently, so I’m sure I can persuade my daughter to go there with me, after our trip to Sweden though: http://www.cootehilltourism.com/

Na's Hat - another look

Well, I did think that if I looked long and hard, I might find another photo of my Na with a suspiciously similar hat to the one just posted in "Na's Hat". I'm home sick right now but I did delve into another box of treasures today and here it is ...

This photograph just says "Feb 1946 Hamilton" in my Na's handwriting. I think by spring she must have added a flower or two to do away with any wintertime blues.

Na's Hat - Smile for the Camera

Here's my Na, Amy Estella (Irwin) Scott with her friend, Kate Hodges,

on the street in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1946.

The theme for this 'Smile for the Camera' is 'Crowning Glory'. Whatever did happen to women's hats?

No, neither Na nor Kate smiled for the sidewalk photographer, but one of them presumably chose to commemorate the day by purchasing this 'snap'. Na did have a lot on her mind then, I'm sure. Grandpa wasn't well and my mum was far away, still Na's dressed as I always remember her , with a special hat to go with her perky outfit, her hair well curled, and gloves, of course.

When I knew her she was always taking hats apart and making them 'new' again, with different ribbon or feathers, for instance. I wonder if that's what she'd done with this one?

Seems funny that I'm in Detroit, researching one of her relatives by marriage - an older James Walter Scott (grandpa was James Walter too). It turns out that this 'James Walter' was - you guessed it - a salesman for a millinery company while he lived in Detroit - Macauley & Company. Na would have appreciated the co-incidence. She had a good sense of fun.

ROGERS- mother and daughter trip, California, Summer 1961

Diane on Olvera Street, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., Summer, 1961 - Sophisticated or what! Diane at the hotel in her new outfit, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., Summer, 1961 (bought with her own hard saved money).
Diane at Forest Lawn Cemetery, California, U.S.A., Summer, 1961

Today I'll be participating in the Scanfest for the first time (well, I hope so anyway - if Windows Live Messenger continues to recognize my various identities).

I've pulled out some more of my mum's photos to scan - had to have a good look again last night and mull over some of the family connections, of course. (I think I just found an address for one 'lost' relative by searching with Google this morning!)

Here are a couple of my mum's photos from our trip to California in summer 1961. These three are of me. Funny, I still remember all these outfits; one I still have in my trunk - guess which one.

There are a few photos from Forest Lawn Cemetery which was one of the 'highlights'. My mum wasn't so interested in the burials though, as the art replicas and buildings, including the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church, "a faithful rendition of the village church at Glencairn, Scotland, where Annie Laurie of Scottish lore worshipped". I do remember seeing through this church, but oddly, I don't remember my mum ever mentioning that her cousin, Margaret Agnes DRUMMOND was married there in 1949 (to Andrew Joseph SMITH), although I do have the wedding announcement card here in the 'IRWIN' file. Margaret's mother was my 'Aunty Grandma' (great aunt Maggie IRWIN).

No baby bother along on this trip. Lucky really, as when leaving the cemetery, mum and I were hit by a car and ended up going to hospital in an ambulance. We weren't badly hurt, but we were shaken and bruised. I remember Mum didn't want to call Dad and tell him about it as he'd be sure to tell her to get us right home. She waited a day, and we continued to limp along on almost all our planned excursions.

Why waste our time fussing!

LINKS

Bienvenido to Olvera Street - El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, Los Angeles, California: http://www.olvera-street.com

Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery, Glendale, California: http://www.forestlawn.com/About-Forest-Lawn/Locations-and-Directions-Glendale.asp

And,

For more about Scanfest, see 'AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors': http://ancestories1.blogspot.com

Newdale, Manitoba - farm group, 1920s

Carnival of Genealogy – “Swimsuit Edition”: Newdale, Manitoba, Canada 1908

As I read the topic for this Carnival of Genealogy – “Swimsuit Edition”— this family photograph came to mind right away. It’s a clear favourite of mine – the bathing costumes alone are worth a good look. That’s my Na, Amy Estella Irwin, wearing the darker bathing dress and standing in the water. (She’s my mum’s mum.)

I’ve tentatively identified a few other people in the photograph, but not the place it was taken. Written on it is “Merry Widow Camp Aug ’08 Wolfe Lake” and apparently painted on the boat is “The Merry Widow 1908”.

I’d always thought the ‘Merry Widow’ reference meant that this was a local summer excursion or holiday, perhaps during the week when husbands weren’t able to stay. (The Merry Widow operetta came to Broadway in New York in 1907 and the music very quickly became well known. I loved the ‘Merry Widow waltz’ as a girl, but that’s another story.)

There is a Wolfe Lake in Manitoba, Canada, but it’s far, far north of Newdale where Na and her family lived. Could this have been a local name for one of the lakes nearby?

Although there’s no photographer’s name or information given, I do think it’s a Newdale area photograph as there is at least one other professional looking photograph identified in what seems to be the same handwriting. That shows the ‘Newdale Gun Club 1908’. My grandpa-to-be, James Walter Scott, is in that picture, but not in the ’Merry Widow one. He would have been clerking in a store in town in 1908.

Na looks a bit saucy here – she was a bit of a flirt, even in later years. I do wonder if she and the other two younger woman weren’t along to watch the children, so I hope they did have a good time at the ‘Merry Widow’ camp – all good, clean fun, of course.