Waking up my Blog

Waking up my Blog

After 8 years of inactivity on my blog, I have decided to give blogging another go. 

I have been in almost lockdown condition since last March, but I see a bit of light ahead. At 78 years I will need to wait a bit longer, many of my older friends have been vaccinated, and I met a nurse who had been vaccinated, but also was shocked when the person who was giving my flu shot said she would not take it. I will avoid her when getting my Covid vaccine.

So what did I do on my lockdown, Utube, Utube, and more Utube, and a bit of Genealogy, no walking, rarely going outside, did my exercise in the house.

As I saw the arrival of vaccines, and the defeat of Trump my optimism returned. In February the blog Armchair Genealogist, has a writing challenge. Each day you receive a blog about writing. I have started many times, but this time needs to be different. 

I had accumulated, what I thought was enough research, had Scrivener as a writing software, practiced writing on Scrivener, what else would I need. 

The object of my story was to be, what was the relationship between Sidney Applebee b 1891 d 1965 and my Grandfather Frank Paige b 1874 d  1951, and my grandmother Edith Hall b 1882 d 1956. Sidney would show up for Christmas, when I was a kid, we called him Uncle Sid.

So I started, just need to update the information I already had in Scrivener, print it out send it to my sister, and cousin for review. I was muted, they were kind.

Will tell you what happened next post

From my bucket list; travel by train across Canada

 Part 1

I do not remember traveling on the train before, but my brother maintains we traveled to St Catharine’s in the distant past. I do travel on the GO train, from time to time.

My best memories of trains, was meeting my Aunt, arriving in Kingston from Montreal. The steam locomotives where huge, and passenger service was at its prime. A few things stand out, one was a freight locomotive on its side near the station, possibly from rounding the curve too fast. The other, the little engine that could. There had been a problem with the locomotive pulling the passenger train from Montreal, and the only engine nearby, was a small switcher engine. This little engine arrived with the passenger train, about an hour or so late. After unloading and loading passengers, many of the passengers stood on the platform to watch the little engine. As the little engine prepared to leave, it had built up enough steam pressure to pop the safely valve, and smoke was streaming out of the smoke stack.

 First he spun his wheels backing up, then he went forward, the train moved a few feet and stopped, So he backed up again, After several attempts with sparks flying off the spinning wheels, and smoke billowing from the smoke stack, he got the train to move slowly away. The crowd gave a cheer and the little engine a toot toot and train slowly left town.

Nowadays things are a bit different, steam has gone, not only is the locomotive, but the train is heated, cooled and otherwise supported by electricity. But the concept is the same. Via Rail has rebuilt the rail cars, most of which were built in the mid fifties. There are still upper, and lower berths, plus cabins of various sizes. The meals follow the tradition of being excellent.  Your bed will be prepared for you if you wish, and the service was very good.

So we start out a 10pm at night, from Union Station. Actually everyone goes to the lounge in the station, and we are informed about the dining car times, and we select our lunch and dinner sitting.

On board I discovered my cubicle was very small, about 7  X 4.5 ft, but it proved to be well laid out,  had a sink, and toilet, good lighting, and a comfortable bed that folded down from the wall. Only problem the bed folded over the toilet, and so you had to lift it up, to use the toilet at night. The cubicle also had a large window, and when the bed was up, you had a comfortable chair to sit in.

A shower was located at the end of the car, it was roomy, and lots of hot water. The shower, and I think the sink emptied out of the train, along the rail bed.

Of course the first thing to do was find the dome car, in fact all 13 sleeper class passengers gathered there.  In the summer up to 300 are accommodated on a much longer train. 

We were treated to champagne, and a magnificent view of Toronto, from the dome, and our hostess explained what to expect on our trip.

See Part 2

Just in case you were interested

A rolling stone gathers no moss, Replies or lack of, from New Zealand.

Travelled down to Florida on the weekend, delivering my Mother in Law to Florida, and will stay for a while. couple of weeks at best.  Must get back, and do my train trip across Canada, while the price is low, and my travel insurance is in effect.

The internet connection is very poor, and I have spent a majority of my time cleaning up files and organizing pictures.

We have only one response from New Zealand, on the search for relatives of Agnes Paige. The lady responding, was named Biggs, but was not related, at least not closely.  Her Biggs came on one of the first three ships to arrive in New Zealand.  Ours came in the late 1940’s. I assume that the other Biggs I wrote to, are not related.

From the response, I would assume the person is dead, or, he doesn’t live in the Auckland area.  So in spite of a bad internet connection, I searched the whole telephone book of New Zealand for a GL Biggs, there is one. This time instead of sending a letter, I will phone. Just need to find a good internet connection late at night.

D.N.A. is the latest thing in Genealogy, and I have had a Y Chromosome test, but have not been successful in finding relatives. But I do not give up easily, and have purchased a new test, for my wife and I, which may discover relatives, as far as fifth cousin.

 Just in case you were interested

More on the search for relatives in New Zealand

Search for Agnes Louise Paige (Newton) b 10 Jun 1876, m 1912, d 10 Feb 1916. 

Cousin Sarah has returned to Sidney, after visiting relatives in Auckland New Zealand, and looking for the grave of Agnes.

Here is her E Mail, and the pictures she sent:

Happy New Year to all! Hope 2012 turns out to a Great Year.


Reporting back from New Zealand, after over an hour search, together with two council workers at the cemetery we found Agnes Louise's resting place. As you see by the photos, no head stone or any kind of markings. Thankfully I went to see the manager and he gave me a plan and also gave me the grave sites of her neighbours. It was with this information that we managed to find her. Hats off to the coucil workers as one of them found two neighbouring graves, well marked, for us to agree that in deed that area was grave 85.

It was a very damp and windy day - but I thought I'd come this far I wasn't going to give up.

When I have more time I will update her ancestry page. If you want to include this in your blog Don, go for it.


15: Agnes Louise's resting place

16: Her neighbour, Cartwright

17: Further neighbour, Wilde.

Cheers All
Love
Sarah

And hats of to Sarah for a job well done.

Now if someone would respond to our letters.

Just in case you were interested.

Dorothy E Warwick and the Rogers Batteryless Radio

I have been spending some time at the North York Library searching the Toronto City Directories. On this visit I was looking for a Willie Warwick, who apparently came to Canada with his family in 1921. I had a contact with a Mel Warwick in England, who was looking for a family bible that Willie may have had with him. I didn’t find any trace of Willie; but I downloaded information on all the Warwick’s for 1937. I found Dorothy Warwick, who was the Daughter of John Warwick, my grandfather’s brother. She is a first cousin once removed.  She worked for The Rogers Batteryless Co.

Radio receivers were originally operated by battery. The term batteryless radio was initially used for the radio receivers which could be used directly by AC supply

These were invented on April 8, 1925 in Canada by Edward S Rogers, Sr. who made world history, when he and his two chief engineers built the world's first AC mains-powered radio. The unit operated with 5 Rogers AC vacum tubes and the Rogers Battery-Eliminator Power Unit (power supply). This unit was later marketed for $120 as "Type 120". He established the Toronto station CFRB (an abbreviation of Canada's First Rogers Batteryless) to promote sales of the product. Batteryless Radios were not introduced into the United States until May,1926 and then into Europe in 1927.

Information from Wikipedia “Batteryless radio”

I wonder if I could get a discount on my Rogers bill? Not likely.

Just in case you were interested

Visiting the archives of Ontario

I finally got to go to the archives of Ontario, which I might have been avoiding, as I was unsure of my preparation. Like all new things you have to learn the system. It is a brand-new building, less than a year old, and seems to be well-organized with lots of space. I took the bus, as being a senior,it only cost me $1.50. The archives are located at York University, and the bus dropped me off, within 6 m of the front doors.

My goal that day, was to look up the probate and wills of four of our relatives, namely, my grandfather David Warwick, his father William David Warwick, my grandfather Frank Paige, and my grandmother Edith page, and if I had time, look up my great grandfather William Allan’s Patent (the original title from the Crown).

Needless to say, when you first start to do research in a new area, there are many delays, and unfortunately I didn't pay strict attention to the reference numbers. And I had a microfilm for Lennox and Addington County. I decided to look at some of the wills for that area. But I didn't find anybody that knew.

Eventually I came across references to our grandmother Mary Agnes Allan Warwick , and I did write down the reference number that would've sent me to the microfilm, except that you have to order it specially. Next I did find David Warwick, and went back to the reference book and found the number of the microfilm. I loaded the microfilm and quickly scanned through the information, there were 29 pages, and so the next thing you had to learn was how to get it printed. So back to the nice lady at the desk, who came and told me I had to go buy credits on a card, as each copy will cost 25 cents. Although this will not break the bank, I usually expect to pay between 8 and 15 cents. And then of course, I didn't pay attention to the size of the printing and ended up with eight copies that you could hardly read as they were so small. There went another two dollars. Naturally I did get all the copies, the right size, but my time had run out, it was time to go home.

Now what to these documents tell me, he was well off to say the least, and if he'd lived I'm sure he was a very rich man. He still owned quite a few houses, and lots, some along Danforth Avenue, and he also worked on two other streets where he had houses.

In future blogs, I will report on his properties and other investments.

Just in case you're interested

Follow up on Arthur Warwick

I waited in vain for a reply to my E-mail from the owner of the family tree, referring to Arthur. I had E-mailed through Ancestry.ca, and I assumed they would forward  it to her home address. I had noticed, that she had not logged in over 6 months. Ancestry is quite expensive to have access to, and to reply she would have to be a subscriber. So I logged onto Ancestry, sent her a new E-mail and included one of my Junk (If you want to send me garbage send it here) addresses. Just to tweet her interest, I include some information she didn’t have, about her Aunts.

Vola, back came a response. She had let her subscription lapse, and had received my first message but without a subscription, she couldn’t reply.

So I have established a contact between two first cousins, but I can’t connect our Warwick name. She told me her Warwick’s came from Ireland, ours from Scotland. Unless one of our distant relatives jumped in a boat, and rowed across to Ireland. I wonder if there are records of that?

Just in case you’re interested.

P.S. I am off to Mexico to visit my daughter-in-laws parents

Merrily off, in another direction

Arthur Warwick Family

As many of you know, my wife is very active in the dog community. Last week she was approached by a fellow dog enthusiast, with a question. Are we related? His mother's maiden name was Mildred Warwick. Of course my wife said, her husband was into genealogy, and maybe he could find out. So they found a envelope, and wrote on the back the information he had.

Mother, Mildred Warwick, Born 1924, Hamilton.

Her father, Arthur Warwick, born Canada, had three brothers.

His wife’s maiden name, Commicts, German.

Searching Ancestry, I found an Arthur Warwick in the 1901 census, born 3 Aug 1896, his mother's name is Emily, but no father was listed, he was five. There were three brothers living at home. The 1911 census, still living with his mother, no father listed.

Then I find a marriage, 20th of August 1919. His wife's name is Amelia Kohlmetz. Her father's name was Charles, and the mother Sofia Pasel. I find  a Charles Kohlmetz, in the 1901 census. One of his daughters is a Millie Kohlmetz, I assume this is Amelia, as the birth dates match. I cannot find this family in the 1911 census, possibly they changed their name. The father was of German extraction.

From the marriage records I discovered, Arthur’s father, his name is, William Warwick, actually William Frederick Warwick. So I look him up in the 1891 census, at that time there were nine children in the household, and Arthur wasn't born yet. I would assume, something happened to the father after Arthur was born. I was unable to locate any further information about him, death Etc. It looks like Arthur was raised by his mother.

Next, was the birth registration for Arthur. It shows the father is William Frederick, and the mother Emily Gore Booth. His profession was listed as huckster. Wikipedia defines it as: A seller of small articles, usually of cheap or shoddy quality, or one engaged haggling or making petty bargains, that is a certain type of peddler or Hawker. A huckster may have had different connotation at that time.

One other thing I found was, Arthur had been in the First World War. A check of Archives Canada showed no Metals or awards of bravery, but he survived.

There was a family tree in Ancestry, which listed Arthur. The family tree shows he had 4 children, only one, not listed as living. (note: the person posting the family tree would show his children as living, if she had no death information, she has to assume they are alive}.  The one listed was Lillian, and she died in 1999.

I sent an e-mail message, to the owner of the family tree, asking if she knew the names of Arthur's children. We wait for a reply,

It doesn't seem that this family is related to our family, as the parents emigrated from England, our family lived and emigrated from Scotland. But you never know, I will enter him in my genealogy program as an Orphan.

I did send this information, to my wife's, fellow dog enthusiast, to see if he could confirm any of the names listed.

Just in case you were interested.

Was the ghost of Christmas past at my desk

This is a bit late in posting for Christmas, however the busy Christmas season kept me away from my desk

Now, about that ghost. About three or four weeks ago a program for a passion play showed up on my desk, I have no idea where it came from, and I was not working on the Warwick side of the family. Where I think this came from.

I glanced at it, realized it was from Christmas, 1932/33. I didn't quite know what to do with it, just file it the garbage, or file it away somewhere, but where. So I guess I must have laid it down on my desk again. Now my desk is quite crowded, I have a bad habit of collecting documents, books, and other things on my desk. So to say the least, I was a bit surprised when the day before Christmas this program reappeared on the top of my pile. So I picked it up again, still wondering where to file it, I just happened to look at the top corner of the third page, somebody had written, do you know this lady behind us I've seen her lately somewhere. I will never find out who that lady was, but the question is who wrote the note.

My father had just started Queens University, where he met my mother, but it’s extremely unlikely she accompanied him to Toronto. My Great Grandmother and Father had passed away. So who wrote the note? I think it was Mary Agnes, my grandmother. Marie, who lived on the family farm at lakelet, during this time, told me Mary Agnes never visited in the wintertime. Who could blame her, the farm had no Hydro, and the roads would likely be impassable at times. So where would she go? She had a sister Anne in Toronto, and I would assume she remained friends with her husband’s brothers and sisters. She had lived for a period of time with them in 1910. William (Uncle Bill) was born during her stay in Toronto.

When I first started doing genealogy, I him realized my grandmother Mary Agnes, had been a strong woman, she raised five boys by herself, one had drowned when he was only six, and another was paralyzed in a gymnastics accident. So for a period of time, I called my search, a search for Mary Agnes. And when I found her grave, in St. Catherine's, I got the feeling, she appreciated my search, and visit.

So I'm going to file this program under a Mary Agnes Allan (Warwick) and hope I have it in the right spot.

Next year Christmas, I’ll open the file, take the program out, and think about Mary Agnes, and if I find more information about her I’ll post another blog.

Now, if by chance, I find this program on the top of the documents on my desk before opening the file. I'll have quite a ghost story.

Just in case you were interested

The Christmas Past

I thought I would show a couple of pictures from a Christmas past. These photos are from 1959 we are living in Conway Ontario.
The first two photos show all the family members, the only person missing would be Uncle Sid and I'm sure he is there somewhere,

The next photo shows a centerpiece. For many years Molly Purchase would send us a centerpiece for our Christmas table. They usually had a theme, and packed inside was a present for everyone. Leading out from this box were ribbons with name tags. After the meal we would pull on the ribbon and our present would be tied to the other end. I do not know how this started, or why she did it. And I'm not sure if my mother reciprocated in any way.  

From my research I learned their where several connections of the Warwick family to the Purchases. Mary Emily (Molly) married Chuck Purchase. His mother was Isabel Warwick (Purchase). Isabella was known in the family has aunt Bella, and aunt Bella was my father's aunt. Likely from this connection led to the other connection. Both families lived in Toronto, and surely they connections with common ancestor, and eventually lived in the same neighborhood.  

 

The following picture, is from the same year 1959.It is one of the very few photograph I have found showing the Warwick family posed altogether.

So this is a Christmas past, and we are enjoying or about to enjoy Christmas present, the unknown will the Christmas future.

Merry Christmas

Just in case you were interested

Photographs. A little poem, and a little advice,

by Pamela Harazim

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people;
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The pictures in the box

I found the poem here

http://forgottenoldphotos.blogspot.com/2010/12/photo-number-396.html

Sitting at my desk I am haunted by the relatives silently waiting for me to pull out their photo and identify them. Many will become unidentified, and as time passes the chance of identification will disappear, and so will the photo.

I am, amazed, in awe of, and depressed by, the volume of photos in this room. There are 2500 slides from the Bresser side and I have about the same. There are boxes and boxes of actual photos, unsorted, no information printed on the back. Then there are all the digital photos in my computer, currently 7096. Many are scans of existing photos.

My next project will be to scan some of the old Bresser, DeBlaauw photos and negatives, and try to identify who is staring out at me.

In the past photos were expensive, and they were usually taken at special occasions. The person would wear their best clothes, making dating by clothing styles, or events in their lives possible. As photography

became less expensive, photos were taken at random, making dating next to impossible. The digital images have cured that problem, but at the risk of a fragile existence, with computer or disk failures.

My parting advice is, be very aggressive deleting digital photos when you download from your camera to your computer, and caption everyone. Captioning them, will help you delete.

And BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP.

Just in case your interested

A bit of history, the Canadian flag

Genealogy leads to a study of history. Why did my grandfathers and mothers come to Canada. An earlier post tells of Stanley Paige going to the Boer War. What was the Boer war?

The other day I was invited to attend a one hour lecture, and then lunch, by my employer and his wife. Who can turn down a free lunch. The lecture was the Canadian flag, who cares. The lecture was about how Canada adopted the current Canadian flag. It happened only 46 years ago, and it was a very bitterly fought battle, in and outside Parliament.

The flag debate was started my Prime Minister, Lester B. (Mike) Pearson. During Pearson's time as Prime Minister. His minority government, introduced Universal Health Care, Student Loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the current Canadian Flag.

He had won the Noble Peace prize, while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs under a previous Prime Minister. He won the Peace prize, for his work, in resolving the Suez crisis, and it involved peace keeping troops. One problem was Canadian forces looked similar to British, and Britain was part of the crisis. Canada didn't have a flag which was truly Canadian, we used the red ensign so Pearson decided to get a distinctive Canadian flag using the maple leaf, when the opportunity arose.

There was a huge howl of protest, when Pearson announced it, lead by the opposition leader John Diefenbaker. Both Pearson  and Diefenbaker had served in the first world war. Pearson made a decision to open the debate by going to a Canadian Legion Conference in Winnipeg. He was greeted with boos so loud he almost couldn't complete his speech. But he persevered  and pointed out , the coat of arms has many maple leaves, all military badges had the maple leaf as their background, and other examples. 

Canadian Coat of Arms



The selection of the new flag was sent to a parliamentary committee, where they selected three possible flags from the thousands that were submitted.  When it came to vote on the flag to be recommended to Parliament , the Conservatives thought the liberals would vote for the flag with three maple leaves, but the Liberal Committee Chairman, had gone to Pearson, and asked if he would accept a single maple leaf flag, Pearson's response was, yes. In attempt to split the vote, the Conservatives voted for the single leaf flag, assuming the liberals would vote for the three maple leaf flag. The final vote was 100% for the current single maple leaf flag. In the House of Commons, the debate raged, and was one of the longest debates in Canadian history. It ended, when the deputy prime minister of the conservative party, stood up and asked for closure. This ended Diefenbaker's political career, and is the only time an opposition has asked for closure of a debate. Parliament passed legislation on December 15, 1964, and the inauguration of the flag occurred on Parliament Hill February 15, 1965.

John Diefenbaker had fought tooth and nail to keep the red ensign. When he was buried, the red ensign covered his coffin.



St George's flag



I was 22 years of age at the time of the debate. I do remember people having very strong feelings about replacing the ensign. I don't remember having  feelings one way or the other, my father had recently died, so other things occupied my mind. The only attachment I might have to the red ensign, was the Union Jack in the corner. My mother told me, my middle name, George, was picked as I was born on St. George's Day. The Union Jack is made up of many flags, one of which is the St. George's flag.

 

So who cares. I care

 

Just in case you where interested

P.S. I hope I don't go to jail for using the flag images. They are covered under copy write. However in this case, they would fall under fair use, I hope.  











Stanley Arnout Paige

Stanley is my grandfather's youngest brother. He was born 1891, and I know little about his early life, except that his mother died when he was only seven. I find him in 1911 at the age of 20, living with his brother and sister-in-law. His job at the time is listed as shop assistant, again I have no idea what shop assistant meant.
In 1914 he is returning from Bombay India, I can only assume they went to visit his brother Reginald, who was in the Indian Army, or possibly his sister Gertrude Annie, whose husband worked in the oil fields . Shortly thereafter, in early 1915 he marries Doris Emma Firth.
The first record I have found on his travels to Tobago are 1925, the last 1932and is listed as a merchant. It appears he may have avoided the English winter by going to Tobago in October or November returning back to England in the spring. Some of the records show they may have had a permanent residence on Tobago. On many of those trips, his wife, and daughter accompany him.
His daughter was born in 1919 her name is, Pamela Constance Paige.The next record I have of him,he is traveling Mombasa Kenya, in 1947, and then in 1951 returning from Kenya, his listed occupation is engineer.Other than finding that he died in 1969, I had no other records of his life, until today.
Today I found out that at the age of 71, he married 47 year old Catherine Tipping.
My search will continue

just in case you are interested

Follow up on Frank Paige

No luck in searching for other directories. I found that the 1914-15 and the 1915-16 directories are missing. So we will have to see if they might be somewhere else, possibly Queen's University archives. If you would like to look around some of the other directories go to:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=kingston%2C%20directory&page=1
You might look at J.B. Bunt hardware, Frank worked there for 30 years and took over form J.B.Bunt, I assume with my fathers help in 1948/9. Other hardware stores I remember were Chowns and Dalton.
Scanning and digitalizing old records saves them from the ravages of time. When I visited the Kingston Library and looked at the actual directories they where showing the signs of age and wear. Even when I was very very careful, there where small pieces of paper on the desk after I had finished.
On Nov 11 Jack Robin passed away, he was 92. In my high school days, I hung out with Herb Roblin, Jack's son. Jack, and his wife Mildred, who passed away last year at 100, where like a second family at times.

Was Frank Paige (133) a painter

Sometimes pays to be a member of a genealogy Society. As a member of the Kingston Genealogy Society, a recent newsletter contained a notice that the Kingston Public Library had digitalized the city directories from 1873 to 1920.

Last year  I had spent a pleasant afternoon in Kingston Library on Johnson Street, going through the directories, looking for Frank Paige and Sidney Applebee, among others. I missed, the fact there was an area for Portsmouth. However when a printed records are digitalized, they become searchable, and this makes it much easier to find what you are looking for.

The directory doesn't give an address for Frank, but Portsmouth was a very small town.
So the next thing I must do, is go back as far as 1913, when Frank immigrated to Canada, and see when he shows up in the directory. Using the directories, I have been able to trace the residences, and emplyment, of Frank Paige and family since their arrival in Canada.

If you want to search, here is the link
http://www.archive.org/details/kingstoncitydir191617gui%20himl

.

Reginald Herbert Paige

This week I downloaded from "Find my Past" a record pertaining to Reginald (225). He was my Grandfather, Frank Paige's younger brother. He joined the Royal Medical Corps of the British army, 9th of February 1900, he was 22 years old. After several months at a training school, he is sent to South Africa, and the Boer War. He was in South Africa for one year and 62 days, then he returned to England.
He remained in England for a period of time and then was dismissed from the service as unfit. He received 5 pounds as required by the government. This was in 1902.
What is interesting is that he must have gone to India shortly after this, as he marries Jean Campbell Martin (513), in Calcutta in 1906. (OOPS I have 1906 in my records, but they have a son, Reginald (558), born about 1905 or so it says in a ships passenger list. "O NO" I forgot to enter the scource of the marriage information.  better put that on my to do list) 
By 1922 I find him returning from India on the ship with his wife and one child, and is listed as retired Army officer. maybe there are more records of his service in the British Army, which have yet to be transcribed.

Just in case you're interested