Happy Mother's Day!

My mother - a beautiful baby

Janet Muriel Scott, born 1914.

Photographer: Aubrey Randolph Henson, Newdale, Manitoba. (One baby photograph someone remembered to label!)

Treasure Chest Thursday - Mum in her pennants - A Mother's Day Post

For Mother's Day!

My mum in Newdale, Manitoba, Canada, her home town. 

This must have been for a local parade or the like. Mum doesn't look very happy but perhaps she's concentrating on keeping the pennants she's been 'draped' with on for the photo. 

I can't read them all - there's Collingwood (Ontario);  Montpelier, Vermont; Toronto; and one for the Toronto Exhibition. 

I know the family had been to Brandon and Winnipeg, and Regina, Saskatoon, Aberdeen and Balcarres in Saskatchewan, and to Toronto and Nottawa in Ontario, to Vancouver, Victoria and Sardis in BC and many places between.

These were mostly places where family lived: the Bates in Montpelier, the Scotts in Nottawa, the Grahams in Aberdeen, the Drummonds in Balcarres, the Irwins and other assorted relations in Vancouver and Sardis. 

Now I wonder if Newdale, Manitoba had a pennant? 

Billie Who? The Annual Swimsuit Edition - Carnival of Genealogy

This edition of Creative Gene's Carnival of Genealogy is: The Annual Swimsuit Edition! Here are three 1910s photographs from my collections.

These two photographs show my mother (in the middle) and an unknown friend at the shore, probably at Clear Lake, Manitoba, Canada. As you can see, as a child my mother had a very bad habit of writing on photographs in crayon. "ME" she says... (I think the "J. ?" is meant to be her initials, JM.)

From the same album, though is this photograph of a young boy in his bathing costume. Likely he too was from Newdale, Manitoba, where my mother lived. "Billie", I think, it says,

but - oh, dear, Mother dear - Billie Who?

Wordless Wednesday - Dress-up, Newdale Manitoba Canada

I believe this was taken in front of Scott's store in Newdale, Manitoba, Canada. Occasion unknown! but the littlest girl - the one who isn't 'dressed up' - is my mother. There is a Kodak ad in the window and some kind of posters on the windows. (So far unreadable.) Photographer, my grandpa, Walter SCOTT. Posted for (Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Treasure Chest Thursday - Schoolbook, 1928

Since school's just in again, I've picked an old school book from my collections for this Treasure Chest Thursday. This is one genealogists will appreciate.

Neighbours Unknown, with short stories, by Charles G.D. Roberts. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1927.) Authorized for use in the Province of Manitoba.

Roberts is sometimes called the Father of Canadian Poetry. This book was originally published, I believe, in 1911.

What makes this interesting to me is that my Mum used it. I know that because she has written right though the book - something, I assure you, that she never allowed me to do. To this day I don't doodle, scribble or even highlight in books!

You'll see the book is damaged and, especially inside, discoloured. That's mainly because it still has its plain brown paper cover, likely made by my mother, glued to the corners of the book, and certainly written and doodled on by her.

On one of the front blank pages she's written a date, Jan. 17, 1928, and her own name, her birth date, her parents' names and when they married, and then their parents' names as well. Elsewhere she has 'doodled' the names of other family members. Not in sketches, that's all in writing.

Found in the book were some pieces of paper - a spelling 'mistake' practise list and a double-sided sketch of a house plan.

On a back of a book blank page is also a sketch of a 'bungalow'. Now that one looks like something she's copied from another book (especially since it has a title) but the little sketch looks suspiciously like what she told me about the family house in Newdale, Manitoba, Canada, particularly the 'shelf' on the stairs. Perhaps I will never ever know for sure.

In the meantime, I can enjoy this momento of my mother's misspent youth. There are people who collect 'Forgotten Bookmarks' and 'Found Bookmarks'. I wonder if someone has begun collecting examples of family related bookmarks like these?

Treasure Chest Thursday is a regular Genea-Bloggers activity. Join in!

See Geneabloggers for all the recent Treasure Chest Thursday posts.

Swimsuit Edition - 74th Carnival of Genealogy - Bathing Beauties - Newdale? Manitoba Canada

This next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is:

Swimsuit Edition!

Why should Sports Illustrated have all the fun? This is your chance to show off the bathing beauties in your family. Pull out the old photos of Grandma Moses in her seaside bloomers, Auntie Mae in her pin-up girl suit from the 1940s or 50s, cousin Paula in her psychedelic bikini from the 1970s, or even yourself in your Speedo! Let's have some fun here!



When I saw the topic for this Carnival, I couldn't resist posting these two fun photographs. Sadly I must report that both are in my 'unidentified' box, although I've tentatively matched up two of the women with women in other photographs from Newdale, Manitoba, Canada. Of course, I do hope that someday I'll find someone with other copies of these with all the names written out!

These two images weren't developed the same way, however it looks to me as if the five women in the second photograph are also in the first one, and their swimsuits look the same - although that wouldn't mean both photographs were necessarily taken on the same day.

I suspect that my grandpa may have taken these as there are lots of snaps by him, many in his own photograph album, although none of those are of these young women. If they were taken near Newdale, Manitoba where he lived from at least 1906, then the setting could be Clear Lake.

I love this last one - very playful! Must have been warm, I think, that day, for these young women to sit in the water and show off their feet all together on cue.

But, this particular photograph is in shocking condition. It's very faded and was folded in half at one point, and left that way for a while. And someone's little darling (my Mum!) wrote on it - back and front. My Na was a sterner grandmother than a mother, that's obvious. I hope to have this one 'restored'.




This 74th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene so be sure to pop over to her blog soon to see who else attended this Carnival.

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.

Mother's Day - 1914 - Manitoba, Canada

My mum and her mum (my Na) on the farm in Newdale, Manitoba, Canada, 1914.

Mothers' Day in May 1914 in Manitoba seems to have been an occasion for reflection and remembrance.

Mothers' Day

Yesterday was a double decoration day. Soldiers heaped flowers at the graves of comrades who had fought the good fight even to the death, for their country and thousands wore a fragrant little flower over their heart to do honor for soldiers of a far different stamp, soldiers who have struggled or are still struggling not to take life, but to give and guard it. That flower seemed to cast on the crowd, something of the brightness and tenderness it commemorated, and on the wearer a sort of exultation as though in remembering his mother he remembered the best in himself.

The observance of Mothers' Day was not left exclusively to the sons, not by any means. Many daughters of all ages, some now mothers themselves, wore the little emblem as proudly as their brothers.

Lest they forget, these busy grown up sons and daughters, members of the Mothers' association were stationed Saturday at 14 strategic points throughout the city, with 6,000 carnations, which were quickly bought up by the passersby. Passengers getting off their trains at either station, matinee crowds at five of the theatres, afternoon tea drinkers at the Royal Alexandra hotel and Fort Garry hotel were reminded by the flower venders that Sunday was to be dedicated to the little mother heroes as well as the big stalwart military heroes. The receipts from the flowers were something over $700, of which the $300 or so profits will go to the Day Nursery which helps so many of these brave little women to keep their small families together.

The ministers were also asked to observe Mothers' Day at one service at least. This was done at nearly all of the churches by sermons, music and flowers. And the worship was none the less reverent or uplifting for that observance. [ p.9 ]

A special service was held at Grace Church in the morning... Rev. J. E. Hugheson, B.A., spoke on the subject of "Mother," and addressed what he had to say largely to the young men away from home. "Write Home" was his message, and "do not let mother fret because she knows not what you are doing." In the address to the children, Mr Hughson told stories emphasizing the importance of respect and reverence to mother. [p. 22]

Winnipeg Free Press, Monday, 11 May, 1914


Within a short period afterwards, Canada would suffer two disasters - on May 29 the Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and over 1000 lost their lives; in June, an explosion at a coal mine in Hillcrest, Alberta killed 189 men; and then in August, alongside Great Britain, Canada would be at war.

This post was written for Mothers! - the 72nd Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. Watch for the full Carnival lineup to be posted at Creative Gene on May 15th, 2009. You can still participate - the deadline is May 15th. Look for submission guidelines on Facebook at the Genea-Bloggers Group or go to Blog Carnival for information.

My 1916 Happy Dance - The Joy of Genealogy - Carnival of Genealogy Edition 65

The topic for this 65th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: The Happy Dance. The Joy of Genealogy. Almost everyone has experienced it. Tell us about the first time, or the last time, or the best time. What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy?

Practice your Happy Genealogist tap dance. Click here for some radio instruction (yes, radio) from 8 January, 1941. "Tap dancing on the radio." The CBC Digital Archives Website, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/pastimes/clips/14556

Despite my tap dancing past, I don’t really jump up and begin to soft-shoe in a library or archives reference room when I find something great. I have been known to (loudly) whisper ‘BINGO’ though when I find ‘them’ in a historical document, newspaper or photograph! So far, I’ve never been reprimanded for this; I’ve even seen a few broad smiles in response.

There was the time though, very early in my genealogy life, that I called home to check for messages and heard a phone call from a live, yes, a real live cousin who’d seen my name in a genealogical journal and figured out that I must be ‘my father’s daughter’ and so related to her. I have so few live relatives that my feelings were quite obvious. Boy, were they surprised at work – to see calm, quiet Diane shaking with excitement! Still, they could understand this much better than my cemetery trips.

I’ve had some great finds – the will and estate file for Samuel Wood (1820-1908; b Lockwood, West Yorkshire, England; d Nottawa, Ontario, Canada) in the Ontario Archives in Toronto, for instance, was probably still my most useful genealogically. It listed the names of all his living children, with the daughters' husbands’ names and occupations; most of that information was new to me.

This last week the 1916 Canadian prairie census films were finally available at Cloverdale Library in Surrey, British Columbia, and on Friday I was able to go out and look at these for the first time. No dancing for me, but lots of Ah ha!s.

Some of our Swedish relatives emigrated to Canada after the 1911 census so I was anxious to 'make their acquaintance at last', so to speak, in Canadian records and reading through some of the census pages was very exciting to me as people I had known or met were alive in Manitoba or Saskatchewan or Alberta where this census was taken in 1916. My own mother is shown with her parents in Newdale, Manitoba. I do wish she’d lived long enough to see these pages with me (and to tell me everything she remembered about those names I don’t recognize!)

I think there may be some ‘happy dances’ for those with connections in the Springfield District of Manitoba. Enumerator Conrad Gauthier (bless him) took down the places of birth for many entries, mostly Canadian ones, but still – I noticed WALLACEs from North Dakota, USA and many names from Ile de Chenes in Quebec. These place names were later scratched out and the province or country written in, but the original entries are readable. (1916 Census, Manitoba, Canada, District 12 Springfield, SD 05, Library & Archives Canada film # T-21939)

Many interesting connections seem to be in the 1916 for me. I will be happily checking these out for some time to come. For instance, one of our cousins, John Gilchrist McNabb (b 1881, d 1956; son of Diana Gilchrist and Alexander McNabb of Fenelon Township, Victoria County, Ontario, Canada) came to Newdale, Manitoba in the 1910’s. He married Rose Isabel Younger in Manitoba in 1917.

In the 1916 census, a John McNabb the right age is shown living in the Strathclair area of Manitoba on the farm of George Henry and Annie Pattison. (1916 Census, Manitoba, Canada, District 05 Marquette, SD 10, Page 3, Household # 27 Library & Archives Canada film # T-21927)

Was this the same John McNabb? More clues from this entry - Annie Pattison, the wife of George Henry Pattison, was John Gilchrist McNabb’s sister. Also listed as living on the farm in 1916 was a Rosa Younger who’d emigrated from England in 1914. Is this how John Gilchrist McNabb met his wife?

I will have to see what else I can find. I do have some McNabb/Pattison photographs but they aren’t yet scanned or described. That will likely be my objective for the next Scanfest. More on this later.


For more about the 1916 census, see my previous posts -

1916 Prairie Census, Canada - films available at Cloverdale Library, Surrey, BC:
http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/01/1916-prairie-census-canada-films.html

Canada, 1916 - Taking The Census in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba:
http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2008/08/canada-1916-taking-census-in-alberta.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.

Funny Bone - Smile for the Camera

Here's a family photo that always makes me smile!

My 'oh, so tidy' mum, Muriel from Newdale, Manitoba, Canada. Either it was really windy that day or she completely refused to have her hair brushed. I can only imagine!

Happy Thanksgiving, Ma

Newdale, Manitoba - farm group, 1920s