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"$5000 worth of Scotch girls...."
Have been researching immigration of young Scottish women as domestics around the turn of the 20th century. Found this little newspaper notice from the Crossfield Chronicle, 5 June 1909. Love the turn of phrase "Five Thousand dollars' worth of Scotch girls..."
My father and the Ozark Rambler
I've been browsing through a box of old photos from my father's mother. I've been through them many times before, but these caught my eye and I'm trying to follow up on them.
The first is of my father, Franklin Berkman, who would have been six years old.
The second has some writing on it. It says "Bunny's girl Gloria Jane and the Ozark Rambler of KMBC Radio on the roof of Pickwick Nov 8/30." Bunny was the name that my grandmother called my father all his life. I have no idea who Gloria Jane is.
I did some online searching and determined that KMBC (now KMBZ) joined CBS in 1928 and moved to the 11th floor of Kansas City, Missouri's Pickwick Hotel in 1930 (Reference)
[Image courtesy of CardCow.com.]
All I've been able to find out about the Ozark Rambler is from some photos on the site of the Kansas City Public Library's Missouri Valley Special Collections. I haven't received permission to reproduce images here, but you can go to the links to check them out.
Ozark Rambler (second from left) with touring cast of Happy Hollow Gang outside Pickwick Hotel. The Happy Hollow gang performed a radio show that was a precursor to the Beverly Hillbillies.
Informal group portrait of "Ozark Rambler" (left), Brookings Montgomery, and others.on roof of Pickwick Hotel.
I'm not sure what my father was doing in Kansas City. He was born in Regina Saskatchewan in 1924 and by 1934 he was living in Ottawa. His father David had a fur shop in Regina until 1930 and then owned dress and hat shops in Ottawa where his mother Vera worked. His parents eventually divorced and I never met David, but Vera married Maurice Winer and they were known as Grandma and Grandpa Winer.
[Update Aug 18: A check of my family history records reminded me that one of Vera's younger sisters, Lally, had married a KC man named Conrad Orloff in1929 and so Vera was very likely visiting her.]
Anyway, I'd love to hear from anyone who knows anything about the Ozark Rambler in 1930s Missouri. Or recognizes Gloria Jane.
Breaking through genealogical walls: my great-grandfather Walter Gear.
I've had very little sleep the past couple of nights. Idly searching through ancestry.ca, I came upon some information that may have broken through a genealogical brick wall in an unexpected way, and it's been keepig me at the computer until the wee hours of the morning.
My grandfather, Walter Gear, was a British Home Child. He emigrated to Canada with a group of children under the auspices of Miss Annie McPherson. He left Liverpool on September 7, 1871 at age 14 and sailed on the SS Prussian (Source.) They arrived in Quebec City on the 17th of September and were taken by train to Belleville where there was a distribution home for such children. I knew nothing about his time over the next 16 years but in May 2011, I requested his file from Barnardo's in England and there is a 6-8 month waiting period to receive any records they have about his birth family and the reasons why he was sent to Canada.
Skipping forward in time:
There is also an arrival for a W Gear in 1887. The passenger list for the SS Lake Ontario, leaving Bristol, England on October 6, 1887 and arriving in Quebec on Oct 17th shows a group of nine men, identified as Cattlemen. This leads me to believe that Walter may have returned to England at some point and then come back to Canada, although I have not been able to find his name on a passenger list corresponding to his return trip.
On the 12th of October 1899, Walter marries my grandmother Janet Forbes Morren (Source: Calgary Tribune). He and Janet have three children in Calgary: William (1900, my grandfather), Barbara (1903), and Mary (1905). On William's birth certificate, Walter's occupation is listed as "Drayman", which would seem to accord with the occupation of cattleman on the 1887 passenger list.
In the 1911 Census of Canada, Walter is living in Calgary at a lumber yard, working as a foreman in a stable. He has a roomer, George Dunkby. He is working 70 hours per week and earned $720 the previous year.Janet and the children are not living with him.That is tale for another post.
I had wondered about the years between his first trip over as a Home Child at age 14, and his second as a cattleman at age 30. It is my understanding that the Home Children would have been in service until age 18 or so, which suggests that there was a period of a dozen years when he would have been on his own.
Which brings me to my discovery.
I found a marriage listed for a Walter Gear to an Elizabeth Miller in Sophiasburgh (now Picton, Ontario) on February 28, 1878. The registration lists Walter as 24 and Miss MIller as 18.
So the timeline looks like this:
1857 - Walter Gear born in England
1871 - Walter arrives in Ontario with group of home children (age 14)
1878 - Walter marries Elizabeth (age 24, per marriage cert)
1880, 1884 - Daughters born. Only second one (Lewella) survives
18?? - Walter returns to England. His sister Alice gets married in 1886. Is it possible that he returned for that?
1887 - Walter returns to Canada as a cattleman, destined for Calgary.
1899 - Walter marrries Janet Morren, my grandmother, and has three children with her in Calgary.
1901 - Eliabeth is living with her mother, brother, and daughter in Picton, Ontario.
1911 - Walter living alone in Calgary, working as a teamster.
There is more. The certicate of Walter's first marriage lists his parenta as Edward and Sarah Gear, in England. I was able to track down his birth record in East Grinstead, Sussex and find out about his birth family. But I'll leave the details for another post. Like many home children, the family appears to have been quite destitute. When Walter left at age 14, he was the oldest of 5 children. His father died in 1867 when Walter was 10, and so choosing to come to Canada might have been the only way out for him. In 1871, the year Walter leaves, the family is living with their uncle Thomas Gear who is a carter. In 1881, his mother is working as a pew opener in a mission church.
Walter travels back and forth between Canada and England a couple more times in the early 20th century and dies in Hamilton, Ontario in 1922.
The information that I've collected is somewhat circumstantial. Could there be two different Walter Gear's with the same approximate birth year who both emigrated to Canada? I have some research trips planned to the public library and Ontario Archives to try to dig up some more.
1860 Death Notice: Thomas Young, Toronto Architect
As part of my volunteer work for the Ontario Genealogical Society's Toronto Branch, I do some look-ups at the Ontario Archives for enquiries that come in to the Branch.
This week, I had three sets of look-ups to do. One involved finding a news item in the Toronto Leader for Thomas Young. Young was born in England in 1805 where he trained as an architect, and emigrated to Canada where he taught drawing and produced some of the earliest images of the growing city. He soon became active as a working architect and was commissioned to design a number of significant municipal and private buildings. HIs career foundered and he died of "apoplexy", a general term used to describe cardiac or cerebrovascular events.
The article about his death appeared in the October 4th edition (1860) of the Toronto Leader:
It reads:
Sudden Death
Yesterday morning a gentleman named Thomas Young, and old resident and well-known architect of this city, was found dead in his bed at the Grand Trunk Hotel, Palace street, where he had been staying for the previous week. On Tuesday night, he retired to rest apparently in good health; but not appearing at an advanced hour in the morning his room was entered and he was found a corpse. An inquest was held in the afternoon by Coroner Scott and a post mortem examination made by Drs. King and Alkin.The result of the medical inquiry showed that death had been caused by apoplexy.The jury returned a verdict accordingly. The deceased, who had no relatives in the city, occupied at one time an eminent position in his profession, but for some cause or other he unfortunately gave way to the seductive but destroying influence of liquor.
(Note: Palace Street is today's Front Street)
Source: Entry for Thomas Young in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
British Home Child Day Act - Today at Queen's Park
This Act is being re-introduced at Queen's Park today. If you are a descendent of a British Home Child and are in the city, drop by the Legislature today (and then to the Duke of York for a reception.)
Good news to all British Home Child descendants and friends!After two attempts to bring a British Home Child Day Act to fruition in the Legislature of Ontario, I am making one last attempt to accomplish this, before my retirement as the Member of Provincial Parliament for the Riding of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry. With 2010 having been the national "Year of the Home Children", I had hoped that my Private Members' Bill would have been passed before the end of last year. Unfortunately, the official opposition would not cause this to happen, so I'm following another route in order to have an official day for recognition of the British Home Children in Ontario, September 28th.On Thursday, May 19th, through the kindness of MPP Monte Kwinter, I will have a chance to re-introduce my British Home Child Day bill, and to have it passed through Second and Third Readings. MPP Kwinter gave up his 15th spot in Private Members' business, so that I could re-introduce my bill.As you may know, my previous bills have either died or stalled in the Justice Committee. This time, I will have the bill co-sponsored, with PC MPP Steve Clark and NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo agreeing to be co-sponsors. I'll be moving Second and Third Reading on that day, and then it will require Royal Assent, a formality from the Lieutenant-Governor's office. The bill will not be referred to the Justice Committee.Having said the above, I would be honoured to have you as my guest in the Ontario Legislature on Thursday, May 19th. Mine will be the third bill debated on that afternoon, with the first debate beginning around 1:20 pm. The debate for each bill last for about 50 minutes. Following the debate, I would like to invite you to the Duke of York, 39 Prince Arthur Avenue, Toronto, for a toast to our Home Child ancestors. I would be honoured to welcome you to the Legislature, and I thank all who have supported me in the past. I look forward to the day that we will have an official day in Ontario to recognize our Home Child ancestors who contributed so much to the development of our province, with little or no recognition. This is our opportunity to honour and celebrate their legacy!Christine Shaver, my Legislative Assistant is taking the lead on this project, and she may be reached at cshaver@liberal.ola.org. In the riding, I have asked my new Constituency Assistant, Alex de Wit to assist with my latest quest. His email is adewit@liberal.ola.org.Kindest regards,Jim Brownell, MPP
Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry
OGS Annual Conference: My Top Ten
- A British Home Child Special Interest Group (SIG) was chartered by the executive. I attended the organizational meeting and am excited about this new group as one of my great-grandfathers was a British Home Child.
- Numerous references to what was referred to by one speaker as "environmental genealogy", that is, what society was like around our ancestors. I plan to try to enhance my research with more of this kind of information.
- Dave Obee pointed to the Federation of Eastern European History Societies (FEEFHS) maps collection. These will be a great help in researching the history and geography around my paternal ancestors in Russia/Ukraine.
- The records in parish chests (in England) are being digitized in great numbers and more and more are coming online. The parish chest was typically a heavy wooden lockable chest that contained all the documents central to the running of a Church of England parish. These would include records of baptisms, marriages, deaths; the manorial survey; records of the poor law administration, other ecclesiatical records. These can be very helpful in adding to the information included in your family history.
- While Attestation Papers for those who served in WWI are available online at Library and Archives Canada, they will also provide complete WWI military files for a fee. I have a great-uncle who served and hope to arrange to get a copy of his file next time I'm in Ottawa.
- I attended a very interesting talk on emigration of Scots given by Ruth Blair and I am searching for leads on my maternal great-grandmother who came as a single woman in 1899 and married my great-grandfather shortly thereafter. I have not been able to find a passenger listing for her trip to Canada and I got some new resources for that search.
- At the end of the conference, a big announcement regarding the partnership between the Ontario Genealogical Society and The National Institute for Genealogical Studies was announced. Details regarding the new benefits accruing to memebers and the two organizations will be announced over the next few months, but free registration in the course Social Media for the Wise Genealogist was offered to all OGS members! Also, OGS branches will be able to make use of the NIGS Live Meeting technology for branch meetings and other activities.
- Dave Obee's talk More Than Just Names and Dates provided some solid rationale for "environmental genealogy" as mentioned in 2 above. His background as a journalist demonstrated the power of enhancing our genealogical research with context, stories, and an enhanced understanding of the forces that influenced our ancestors lives. He suggested some excellent resources for this kind of research and this has prompted me to seroiusly consider setting up a wiki or some other kind of online presence to capture and communicate my family history.
- The Market Place at the conference is an excellent source of new information, books, maps, software and other things. I picked up an autographed copy of Brenda Dougall Merriman's Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records (Fourth Edition) and a used copy of The Little Immigrants: The Orphans Who Came to Canada by Kenneth Bagnall, one of the earlier books (1980) about Home Children.
- Life Gems Personal Histories was also at the Market Place. Christine Cowley has put together a book and workbook to help capture stories and memories to pass on to the people you love, to ensure that these aren't lost. From her website:
“I am intrigued to think how little most of us talk about ourselves with the people closest to us,” says Cowley. “I finally realized that what people need is a really simple and fun way to do that.”
With busy lives it’s hard to find time to chat or write down family stories, and revelations or deeply felt emotions are often never shared. Some things are just too hard to say. The result is that great stories and sentiments are lost.
"As individuals we are the only ones who can talk about who we are, what we think and why we do or did things a particular way,” says Cowley. “I was always told that my grandmother Eva, who died when my father was a child, had a similar personality to mine. Maybe that was another way for my parents to say, ‘She doesn’t get it from me!’ but given the unconventional life my grandmother chose, I feel proud to have her genes. What I wouldn’t give to have just a few lines she might have written about herself.”
I picked up a copy of the book/workbook set and look forward to using it myself and possibly with some family members.
