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.