George William Rogers, Vancouver, BC - 52 Ancestors

I won't be writing about all my 52 Ancestors in any particular order, but I thought since I've already written about my Mum I'd best be following with my Dad. This is one of my favourite photographs of him, taken by me in my parents' house in the 1980s with the Rogers cats.

Dad, with Purrt and Teddy (Purrt's son), 1990s. Private collection.

When she was cross, my Mum was quick to say he and I were a lot alike ("just like your Dad!") and I think that's true, but we surely didn't always agree. He was a more practical person (and very handy at fixing things). He loved his family, and was interested in big band jazz, stamps, coins and politics, not always in that order and yes, he loved cats.

Here's one of my past articles about him: "Vancouver, 1951 - After the Election - Ready for Work". Born in South Vancouver in 1917, he lived in the Vancouver area all his life except during World War II when he was mostly in Washington, D.C. He had several successful businesses, the last with my Mum, and although he retired a couple of times, he never stopped working, just looked around for something different to do.

One of my few genealogical / historical regrets is that I didn't write down the stories he told me early on about his growing up years, especially about working at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver where he had worked with his dad. He didn't seem to think these were very important, but now that he's gone, of course, they are to me. 

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'...

Carnival of Genealogy - Summer Vacation Lake Louise 1963

Here's a photograph of me at Lake Louise in Canada, taken by my mother, I believe, while we were on a trip together in 1963. Luckily for me, Mum identified the photos from this trip on the back. I believe this was my first visit to Lake Louise, but she had been there several times before.

Note my matching shoes and bag and the fancy glasses. We 'always' matched our accessories, and only used white till Labour Day. This was just before beehive hairdos were popular in our town, so my do is pretty plain, but I did wear high heels from quite early on. Anything to make me taller! (Even later in the 60's, I was in my brother's old jeans, wooden beads and sandals, but that's another story.)

And then, as now, I had my whole life in my purse, including a pen and notebook and a novel to read in any spare moments. Wonder what I was reading that year? I'll bet I took some Canadian history along - perhaps a Thomas Costain novel or two (or maybe one of the Angélique books).

This photograph has surprisingly good colour, I think, at least compared to some of the 1970s colour photographs I have. But, the edges of this photo are all yellowed.

This was written for the Carnival of Genealogy - the 76th Edition. The topic:
How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Watch for the full Carnival to be posted soon at Creative Gene.

For more about other family vacations, including mine, read the latest Canadian Carnival of Genealogy too - over at Looking For Ancestors.

Tuesday's Treasures - Baby Memories

This baby bootee was among my mum's treasures...made, I believe by her, originally for me and look - blue and pink - she did know baby might be 'me'.

'Seeing Toronto' - A Carnival Cutout Photograph - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Here is a fun photograph from my grandmother's album showing a man who appears to be in a car rather clumsily marked "Seeing Toronto". Both his hat and his moustache look borrowed to me.

There is no identification with the image, but it is pasted on the same page as one of the few photographs from my grandfather's family - the photograph below on which his brothers, John Rogers (J) and Frank Rogers (F), and Susan Battice, née Peel (S), his stepsister, are identified with initials. All of them lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Perhaps originally there was a letter or card that told why and when the 'car' photo was taken, perhaps at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition one year, but if so, that is long gone.

I was reminded of this photo last week when one of my favourite Internet people, Michael Quinion, of World Wide Words, answered a query about names for the painted displays used for these kind of photos. I think I've often called them 'carnival cutouts' but the term 'passe-têtes' that Michael mentions sounds very good to me (and of course appropriate for a Canadian to use).

I think this 'car' photo is of my great uncle John. What do you think? If it is John, it was really a joke photo as I know he didn't learn to drive until later in life (and that was likely a lot of fun for the neighbours, although perhaps not for his sister, Susan).

I did have a look on-line and don't see any other 'Seeing Toronto' passe-tête photos. If you have one, please let me know.

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

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

Dinner Guests from the Past - Vancouver Style -41ST CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY

Joseph (Joe) Rogers, camping in British Columbia, 1910's

Frank and John Rogers (marked F & J) with step-sister, Susan Battice, née Peel, (S), camping at Parry Sound, Ontario, 1920's?

The question for the 41st Carnival of Genealogy is “If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why?”

Only four ancestors? My goodness, most days I’d want to hire a hall and invite 64 or 128 – I have so many questions about the past.

Still…I know who I’d invite first – great grandma, Mary Ann White, born about 1840, in England, maybe in London, maybe not.

Would I invite her two husbands? I’d love to meet them both, but that could be a bit too much for her or them, so not this time. But, I’d invite my dad, and his dad, (my grandpa, Mary Ann’s middle son, Joe), and then I’d have to invite my mum. She wouldn’t want to miss anything. That’s four ancestors right off. Maybe I could cheat just a little and invite Susan Peel too? She’s my grandpa Joe’s step sister.

We’d have dinner here, I think, in my time, or better yet, at my kids’ house – we could eat outside if it’s nice. I eat in restaurants a lot, but Mary Ann might not approve and anyway, a home would be more comfortable for a time traveler than a public place. I’d have my few Rogers photographs and my files handy.

I might like to time travel myself, but one thing I can count on – if my family hears people are coming from the past, they’ll all show up for the event, even though they aren’t very interested in genealogy – because they’ll be worried about me.

We’d have a ‘real’ coastal British Columbia meal – salmon, potatoes, salad, lots of vegetables – maybe even some of B.C.’s Rogers’ chocolates for dessert. (No relation that I can see – sad to say.) Easy dinner to do – more time to talk. Maybe afterwards we could go for a drive to see the sights in Vancouver. Grandpa would notice lots of changes since 1954, that’s certain, and both Mary Ann and Susan might enjoy seeing where Joe lived, since neither ever came here.

I’ve invested a lot of time into looking for Mary Ann’s family – I am very proud of having ‘found’ her a brother, for one thing, since I knew nothing of her to start. But although I’ve proved that some families couldn’t be hers, I have no evidence that links her to a birth family…yet. So, of course, I’d want to get some details from her during the visit – Where born? What about her parents? Brothers and sisters? Aunts and uncles? How many of the family came to Canada? And what ever happened to that Alfred, his wife Emma, and their children? Best if I had my computer all hooked up and ready to go. Son James would take photographs of the visit himself or make a video – I always cut people’s heads off, he says.

I do wonder if Mary Ann might be a bit upset that this information wasn’t passed down to me? Or would she just laugh and say “Those boys! I knew they never paid my stories any mind, you know.” (What kind of accent did she have?)

She’s a silhouette on my family tree. I have no photographs of her, and not even a signature as she signed with an x. I do have a couple of photographs of her oldest and youngest sons, Frank and John, (and a few stories about them!) and I have photos of their brother, my grandpa, Joe, and one photo showing Susan Peel, their step sister. Who did the boys look like – their mother’s or their father, William’s, family? And what about Susan? Who would she say she took after – and did she have an Irish lilt in her voice from her parents?

My great grandma, Mary Ann, came to Toronto, Canada about 1871 from England and married William Rodgers in Toronto in 1873. (Did she know him before? How did they meet?) William died in 1887, leaving her a widow with three sons, and within 6 months, she married Armour Peel, Susan’s father. (Armour had at least 3 children of his own.)

I’ve always wondered about that – was she a ‘good catch’ – a great cook and household manager? She had boarders as well as children to look after. (Another reason for my not cooking an elaborate meal. Couldn’t compete!) Or was she a sunny, easy to be with person? Quick witted; funny? Were both she and Armour smitten or was this a more practical arrangement? I hope both he and William were as good to her as they could be– she must have worked very hard most of her life.

Ten years later, in 1897, Mary Ann died. The story I heard, as told to my mother by Susan, was that before dying, Mary Ann asked Susan to look after the youngest boy, John, then 14. Apparently, Susan was by that time herself a widow. She had married James Battice and they had one child I know of, Lydia Louise, (or Lydia Elizabeth) who was born in March 1887 and died a few months later.(I hope it would not make Susan or Mary Ann sad to ask more about James, and, was Lydia both Louise and Elizabeth, and where is she buried? )

As she promised, Susan did indeed take care of John, and Frank too. The three of them lived together till their deaths. Only my grandpa left home and married. From the little I’ve heard and from the letters I’ve read, the three had happy, busy lives with lots of friends – mostly centred, I think, round Susan, her church activities and her Peel kin.

Given my often reinforced belief that it’s women in the family that generally know the family details and the stories, between them Mary Ann and Susan will likely be able to answer my questions not only about the WHITEs and the PEELs, but about the other connections I want to make on that side of the family.

But genealogy for me isn’t only about the facts or those all important documents that provide us with the evidence. (That reminds me, I need to thank Mary Ann for that clue left in William Rogers’ death registration. I’m sure she left that for me.)

Above all, I’d really like Mary Ann to know that her boys, and Susan too, made out fine. I’d like her to meet my dad, her grandson, my own children, and her great great great grandson, who may be a bit of a surprise to her.

And, although William Rogers won’t be there this time, maybe my grandpa Joe could let my dad know if he was really named for William, his grandfather. If dad ever heard that, he had forgotten.

I've always been a bit sorry that I didn't start the ROGERS-WHITE research while Dad was alive. He said he knew 'nothing' - just that we were once pirates and named for the 'Jolly Roger'. My brother firmly believes this. I will surely find him a family pirate soon. Now that would make for the next exciting ancestor dinner - on board a fighting sloop in the Caribbean.

For myself, the really interesting thing about this dinner might be how we all get on - will we get into a hot political discussion as my son and I often do, will we find some of each others' ideas distasteful (or perhaps time travellers take a preparedness course and are wary of some topics), or will our biological bonds and our ideas about the lasting importance of family let us enjoy the time together?