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