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.

Afternoon tea - BATES, SCOTT, ZURCHER - USA

Afternoon tea?

Looks to be my 'Na' perched on the lounge. Sadly, I must confess that as a child, I didn't pay enough attention to her comings and goings - unless they involved me.

Yes, I'm sorry now, Na...you were right, again!

Photograph believed to be from BATES, SCOTT, ZURCHER family - of Montpelier in Vermont, Hacketstown in New Jersey, Hazel Crest in Illinois and Hingham in Massachusetts. USA. Photograph from Christmas Card, signed from Jean. [Jean née BATES?] Date on photo is Oct 58.

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.

Oh, Baby! 7th Edition - Smile For The Camera Carnival

7th Edition - Smile For The Camera

So many baby photos, which to choose? Some are truly orphaned now,

and unlikely to be identified, but here's a favourite though.

Mum with her Drummond twin cousins, born 1917, Balcarres, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo believed taken in 1918.

Sure hope Mum was holding on tightly.

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.

Cabinet of Curiosities – 10th Edition

This post is part of the Cabinet of Curiosities Blog Carnival – 10th Edition


Time for another look into my own Cabinet of Curiosities.

There are so many bits and pieces in the Cabinet, which is itself a curiosity, but today I’m looking at this block of ‘laminated glass’ which has served as a paperweight for years, first in my Na’s apartment, then at mum and dad’s, now in my place.

I was always told this piece was a damaged ‘souvenir’ from Dominion Glass in Hamilton, Ontario – intended for a World War II plane – in a gun sight. No idea if this could be correct, but grandpa Scott did work at the Dominion Glass plant there during World War II till 1947 when he died. Na brought a couple all the way with her when she moved to British Columbia after his death – she seemed to me to think of this as a treasure, so I do too. It’s quite interesting looking when the sun shines through it; I think I’ll leave it out on the window sill for a change.

I have never been to Hamilton, although I hope to visit some day. I do have some information about Na and grandpa’s life in Hamilton, including Na's well used, well loved cookbook from the Zion United Church in Hamilton. I intend to write up an index of the contributors’ names – the Ladies of the J.O.Y. Bible Class –but that’s for another day. I don’t know why grandpa and Na decided to move to Hamilton from Winnipeg, Manitoba, but it seems likely to me that they knew at least one or two people in Hamilton already and heard there were jobs there. Perhaps I’ll find a connection there.

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

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.

Samuel Baxter Scott - 1891 - 1959.

Mamie and Sam Scott in Florida, U.S.A., 1946

Scott - Wood family, c 1905, Nottawa, Ontario.

From Walter Scott's album. I believe he took the photograph.

For my brief biography, I decided to write about my great uncle, Samuel Baxter Scott, ‘Uncle Sam’. He is one of the relatives I’ve always intended to research further on a trip east, but somehow I’ve not got around to him yet. Perhaps this is because he seems such a familiar person to me, although I don’t think we ever met. My mother knew him and his wife well and was clearly fond of them. They lived in Ontario, Quebec and in Florida, while we lived in British Columbia. If they ever did come to B.C., I don’t remember them, but I do remember seeing and receiving cards and letters from them, and after he died from his wife, ‘Aunt Mamie’. I still have some of these and even the telegram Mamie sent to advise us of his death.

Samuel Baxter Scott was born in Nottawa, Simcoe County, in Ontario, Canada, 12 January 1891. His mother was Mary Janet (Jennet) Wood, born at Bean Hill, Connecticut, U.S.A. in 1858; his father was Walter Scott, born in Scotland, likely at Dalmeny, about 1827. (I have not yet found his baptism, nor do I know where the ‘Baxter’ in Samuel’s name came from.) Mary Janet and Walter were married in Nottawa in 1883 and already had children: James Walter, born 1885 (my grandfather), Harriott Alice Louise, born 1887, and Ann Pollock, born 1888, also John, born about 1887. (I have found neither a birth not death record for him. He is listed only in the 1891 census. I expect there may be church records that will help here.)

Walter, Sam’s father, is described variously as a merchant, a bookkeeper and a farmer. He likely was all three, of course. Sadly, just a year after Sam was born, his father died. Mary Janet’s father, a widower, lived in the area, and she and the children soon went to live with him. There must have been many difficulties for her – I heard Walter had made some ‘bad’ investments, for instance – but as far as I can tell they had a comfortable enough life with grandfather Wood.

Grandfather Samuel Wood had his own property, had been a weaver in Yorkshire, New England and then Canada, but in his later years he kept bees. All the family helped with that. They also seemed to have had boarders. In the 1901 census, Grandpa Wood, his daughter, and her children are shown living together. An addition to the family by that time was Mary Menzies, a ‘home child’ from Glasgow who’d come to Canada in 1892.

Grandfather went to school in Collingwood, Ontario, the bigger town nearby, and I expect I will find that Sam did too. In 1908, Samuel Wood, the grandfather, died, leaving his property to his five children, but with a provision that his daughter, Mary Janet, could live there for life. (When she died her share was to go to her two sons, Walter and Sam.)

Walter had already left home for Manitoba. In 1910 he was married. Ann was a teacher, and she never married. Mary married soon after Grandfather Wood’s death in 1908, but Harriott (Hattie) was still at home, as was Sam, for a few more years. Hattie married in 1912 and then moved to the United States.

Sam may have been adventurous like his brother, or perhaps he just learned of a good job in Montreal, because as a young man he moved to that big city, and began work as a clerk, perhaps in the same business he spent most of his working years at – the United States Fidelity Guaranty Company. In 1920, he returned to Ontario to marry. His wife was Mamie Stella Harper, born in Owen Sound, Ontario. Her parents were William Harper and Mary Cole.

At the time Sam and Mamie married, both had been living and working in Montreal, as had both the witnesses, Mamie’s sister, Ina, and Ernest Armstrong Archibald, who Ina later married in 1924. Since the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec added Montreal directories to the web, I’ve been able to research where Mamie and Sam lived in Montreal. They never had children and seemed to have always lived in apartments.

Sam became the chief accountant for Fidelity, and I had always heard he and Mamie travelled quite a bit – including to Ontario and to New England to visit family. Sam’s mother, Janet, lived till 1944 and my mother and her parents used to drive back and forth to Nottawa from Ontario to see her. Then in the 1940’s, my grandparents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, from Newdale, Manitoba. I know that they had visits from Mamie and Sam.

Sam and Mamie also travelled back and forth to Florida where they lived in the 1940’s. While my mother was stationed in Washington, D.C., during World War II, she took a trip to Florida to see them. Sam also came to see her in Washington.

After the war ended, Sam and Mamie moved to St. Catherines in Ontario. Sam had apparently been unwell for some time in the late 1950s, and he died 20 October, 1959 at age 68. According to his obituary, he had then lived in St. Catherines for twelve years.

He was a member of St. Paul’s Church and, interestingly to me, he was described as “being interested in all branches of sport”. I’ll bet he would have liked sports TV! But since Sam was lame – he always wore a built up shoe – I wonder if he was much involved with sports as a player. His brother, Walter, my grandfather, was ‘sporty’ – tennis, curling, driving, shooting. Sam may very well found a sport that suited him.

Sam was buried in Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catherines. Mamie lived till 1970 and was buried with him.




My SCOTT family: Muiravonside, Dalmeny, Tushielaw, Galashiels, Grangemouth, in Scotland: http://mdianerogers.tribalpages.com/?userid=mdianerogers

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.