Archive for the ‘family history’ Category
remembering place – Grade Four, part one
School-wise, Grade 4 was a fragmented year. I began the year in Medicine Hat at Webster Niblock Elementary. And then my family moved to a new community forty miles away, and I completed Grade 4 in the school there.
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Webster Niblock Elementary School front yard
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I have lots of memories of Webster Niblock. First, there was the walk to school (red path in the aerial photo below). On one side of the road were houses, but on the other side of the road was prairie. Today there is a row of houses on that side of the street, but in 1963 the prairie was undeveloped and raw to its very edge. I was not allowed to wander on the prairie by myself, or to take a shortcut to school. Later my Dad told me he was always afraid of rattle snakes when we lived in the west. But I could see the plants that grew at the roadside.
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my route from home to school
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I still remember the orange-red Prairie Mallow, also known as Scarlett Globemallow (Sphaeralcia coccinea), and the Prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia) with its grape-like berries. At the corner where I turned from Second Avenue to 11th Street (blue star) was an expanse of pineapple weed (Matricaria Discoidea) – I don’t remember picking or smelling them … to me, they looked like a miniature forest of pine where tiny people could walk. I think my interest in plants must have begun during those years, encouraged by my Mom who knew the names of all the flowers.
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I also remember specific conversations with my best friend Laureen as we walked to school, including the disagreements we had. I remember that we talked about my moving away. We decided we would write letters to one another and we laughed that we would probably carry on our childish fights in those letters.
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Another place I remember well is the ‘courtyard’ where we played at morning and afternoon recess (yellow star). Spinning tops were all the rage and my Dad made me a wooden top from an empty spool of thread and a matchstick. We also played marbles and I always lost.
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It was common practice to bring a ‘recess’, a treat to eat at the morning recess break. My Mom usually sent a small square of fudge wrapped in wax paper or part of an apple. When a new little girl joined our class, my Mom, who wanted me to make friends, was determined I would be nice to her. Every day Mom sent a ‘recess’ treat for the little girl. And every day, I would run up to her, shove the treat into her hand and run away. I was generally shy and I don’t ever remember of saying a word to her. I often think about her – today she is a woman of about sixty years who may, from time to time, remember a peculiar child who used to bring her a square of fudge every day and run away.
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Webster Niblock Elementary School rear yard (we played with tops in the area by the red post at the corner of the school)
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
remembering place – Grade Three
Grade Three, for me, is 52 years ago. Therefore, I am not surprised how little I remember of that year. I can only name two other students in the Grade Three class photo!
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I do remember my teacher, Miss Heather Johnson, a kind gentle teacher, always smiling. I also remember her because as a high school student she was taught by my father who was also a teacher.
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Miss Johnson’s Grade Three class, Crescent Heights Elementary School (I am in the back row, seventh from the left)
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My only real memory of Grade Three is of my Dad. I remember him joking with me as he studied my Report Card. I always had good reports, and this time I had a whole row of ‘H’s (H was the best grade possible). I can hear him booming in his deep voice ‘I thought ‘H’ stood for Horrible!’
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Crescent Heights High School – once Crescent Heights Elementary School (the school is barely recognisable, there have been so many additions; when I went there, the school was a long low brick building)
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
remembering place – Grade Two
After a mix-up resulted in my attendance at the wrong school in Grade One (see https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/remembering-place-grade-one/ ), I finally found the right school in Grade Two, Crescent Heights Elementary School. This school was only two blocks from home and easy to walk to. I also was in the same class as my best friend, Laureen.
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Crescent Heights Elementary School (image from Street View)
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Miss McCallum was our teacher, a happy, brisk lady. These were the days of the Baby Boomers and she had almost 40 students in her class. I can remember only two of their names in the photo below.
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Miss McCallum’s Grade Two Class, Crescent Heights Elementary School (I am Row 2, fifth from right)
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I have no specific memories of being in school in Grade Two. My world consisted of my Mom and Dad, my younger brothers and sister. Life was simple and happy, though I’m sure my parents would not have agreed.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
Great Grand Uncle Ed – silver miner
My great-grandmother Ella’s brother was Edwin W. Hawk. He was born in 1864, the sixth of eight children.
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‘Uncle Ed’ was an adventurer and went west when he was only 16, to live in southern Wyoming. The US Census of 1880 lists Ed as a laborer at Crow Creek, Wyoming (not far from Laramie, Wyoming). By 1886, my great-grandmother Ella was living in Laramie. No doubt she had come west to live near her younger brother.
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By 1910, Ed was living in Humbolt, Nevada. In 1920, he is listed as a lodger at Broadway Ave. in Lovelock, Nevada. He is 56 years old, single, and a miner in a quartz mine. Nevada is known as the ‘Silver State’ because of its silver mines.
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Ed continued to work as a miner. At the time of his death in Lovelock in 1940, probate documents show he had a cabin in Vernon, Nevada and six mining claims in the Seven Troughs Mining District. He had an estate of $3200, a watch and chain, and $80 in cash.
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Vernon was established in 1905 as a base for those working in the Seven Troughs Mining District. The landscape around Vernon is hilly, dominated by yellow sand, dotted with sagebrush. The town dwindled in population as the silver depleted and was abandoned by 1918. Today, it is a ghost town.
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Ed Hawk, Ella’s brother
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I notice that the same photographer (J. Collier in Denver) took both Ed’s photo and a photo of my grandfather Leo as a baby (Ella’s son). Ella lived in Denver until 1910 and perhaps Ed visited her there, and had his picture taken on a visit to see her baby. For more information on Leo, see https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/chicory-cichorium-intybus-l/
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Leo Norman as a baby (son of Ella and Frank Norman), my grandfather and Ed’s nephew
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
family history – changes in 10 years
As I look into my family history, I am often amazed by the changes that occur in families in short periods of time. An example is found in the early life of my great-grandmother Ella – Mary Ellen (Hawk) Norman. In the ten years from 1860 to 1870, she experienced dramatic changes in her family.
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The 1860 US Census shows Ella’s family living in Chestnut Hills Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The family included Josiah Hawk (Ella’s father, a shoemaker), Sallyann (Sarah Ann) (Ella’s mother), Owen and Ella (Ellen). Mariah Hawk, Ella’s paternal grandmother was also living with them.
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In the next decade, the family underwent remarkable change. First, five children were born – Flora, Sarah, twins Edwin and Otto, and Emma. Of these, Otto and Emma did not live (Josiah and Sallie had already lost a child in 1957). Then Josiah died on June 28, 1865, a month and a half after Emma. Also, sometime during the ten-year period, Maria Hawk, who lived until 1880, went to live elsewhere.
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John Franklin born Sept. 15, 1855 (died Dec. 26, 1857, two years old)
Owen born April 21, 1857 (death date unknown)
Ellen born January 4, 1859 (Ella, my great-grandmother, died 1933)
Flora Alice born June 25, 1860 (death date unknown)
Sarah Ann born Dec. 11, 1863 (Sadie, my great grand-aunt, died 1921)
Edwin W. born 1864 (Ed, my great grand-uncle, died 1940)
Otto born 1864 (death date unknown, before 1870)
Emma Lydia born Jan. 7, 1865 (died May 9, 1865, 4 months old)
From: Atwood James Shupp, 1990, Genealogy of Conrad and Elizabeth (Borger) Hawk: 1744 – 1990, Gateway Press, Baltimore).
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In 1870, Ella’s mother, Sallie, married again to Joshua Popplewell.
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The 1870 US Census shows the results of all this change. In 1870, the family is living in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The family now includes Joshua Popplewell (step-father), Salie (Sara Ann) (mother), Owen, Mary (Ella), Flora, Edwin and Sarah (Sadie).
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The person most affected by these changes must have been my great-great-grandmother, Sara Ann (Sallie). During the decade she gives birth to five children (including a set of twins), her husband dies, she remarries, and she changes the location of her home at least once. In the only photo I have of her, she seems a formidable woman, steeled to withstand all manner of disruption in her life. I also see great sadness in her eyes.
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my great-great-grandmother Sallie – Sarah Anne (Kresge) Hawk Popplewell (1835 – 1910)
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Our lives are dynamic, full of change. New people enter our lives, others leave. The place we call home shifts to a new location. We go to school and graduate, we take a new job, we retire. Our focus changes, along with our point of view. Some change is dramatic, some subtle. Some change makes us laugh, some makes us cry.
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What changes do you see in the decades of your life?
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
Great Grand Aunt Sadie – dressmaker
As I learn about my family history, I am drawn to the stories of the individuals I encounter. One of the people important in my great-grandmother Ella’s life was her sister Sadie. Sadie was born on December 11, 1863 in Pennsylvania, the fifth child of eight children. She was called after her mother, Sarah Ann (Kresge). Sadie’s father was Josiah Hawk, a shoemaker who died when Sadie was a little over a year old and Ella was six. For a little more about Josiah, see https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/occupation-shoemaker/
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As far as I know, Sadie remained unmarried throughout her life. This meant that she had to support herself. Few opportunities were available to women in the late 1800s, but Sadie stayed connected to her family and earned her way as a seamstress. The 1910 US Census shows Sadie as a dressmaker living with her mother, a landlady.
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By looking at the US Census for 1870, 1900, 1910, and 1920, as well as the City Directories for Scranton, I can account for Sadie most years.
In the 1870 census, when she was six and a half, she lived with her mother in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. That year, her mother married Joshua Popplewell, a machinist living in Scranton.
I have not located Sadie in the 1880 Census due to the commonness of her name.
From 1888 until her death in 1921, Sadie lived in Scranton. Her addresses included 330 Lackawanna Avenue (1896 – 1900), 16-18 Williams Building (1905 and 1906), 101 Spruce Street (1907 to 1916), and 116 Mulberry Street (1917 to 1921). I have looked at these addresses on Street View (Google Earth) and the houses where Sadie lived are all gone, replaced by parking lots and modern businesses.
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Sadie made her home with her mother Sallie Popplewell from 1907 until Sallie’s death in 1910 or 1911, and with sister Ella, my great-grandmother, from 1910 to 1921.
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Sadie died at 2 PM on March 26, 1921. In her will, Sadie described Ella (my great-grandmother) as her “beloved sister”.
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When I was a teenager, my Aunt Jane told me about Sadie and gave me Sadie’s locket.
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Aunt Sadie’s locket (front)
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Her initials are beautifully engraved on the back – S A H – Sarah Ann Hawk … the sweet-faced woman in the photos above.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
remembering place – Grade One
On a ‘mind map’ of my life, what places are clearly marked as important, with bright yellow stickpins of internal memory?
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home (map from Google Earth)
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Since I spent most of my younger days in school, it isn’t very surprising that many of those stickpins mark the schools I attended. One of these is Vincent Massey Elementary School in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
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Vincent Massey Elementary School in 2012 – looks just the same as in the early 1960s (image from Street View)
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In the early 1960s there were three elementary schools within a reasonable distance of our house. The story of how I came to attend Vincent Massey was probably one of the first dramatic events in my life to that date.
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The school I was assigned to attend was determined by the School Board. The summer just before I was to attend school for the first time, a delegate of the School Board came around the neighborhood to let the parents know which school their children would attend. Mom and Dad were not at home when the representative came to call. My Mom got the information second-hand, from the mother of my best friend, just across the street.
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from home to school in Grade One (map from Google Earth)
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Mom and Dad were quite alarmed to discover I was to go to Vincent Massey Elementary School, seven blocks away. This may not seem far today – my son attended Grade One in a community 13 kilometers away. But in those days, there was no school bus and my Mom had my eighteen-month-old brother to care for. I would have to get to school on my own two feet.
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My brother and I in 1960 – I had been in Grade One for three months when the picture was taken – I look like I could easily make those seven blocks to school!
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I remember the discussions well – about the best route for me to take, about what we would do about dinner time, about the dangers of taking to strangers. We did a couple of dry runs. I can still remember my Mom showing me how to cross the busy four-lane Division Avenue. Up to this point, I had not been allowed to go beyond our own block by myself.
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Division Avenue in 2012 (image from Street View) – I remember standing on the curb looking at the traffic whizzing back and forth … no crosswalk!!!!
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The first day at school, the drama expanded. Mom had told me to be very careful to listen for my first name – Alexandra. I was usually called by my second name – Jane – so this was a major worry for me. On that first morning, all the students were assembled in the gymn. We sat on the floor and our names were called, one by one. I listened for that long, strange first name as each name was called. And, at the very end, I was all alone in the gymn … no one had called the name Alexandra.
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The teachers were very nice, of course. I was told not to worry, and Mrs. MacDonald, a teacher of one of the Grade One classes, came to get me.
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As it turned out, the neighbor had given my Mom the wrong information. Today, knowing urban planning as I do, I think ‘Division Avenue’ might have provided the first clue!!!!
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I had a great year. I walked to school with friends. We stuck to the planned route for a while, but ended up taking shortcuts through various yards. By the end of the year, I was taking the city bus, dropping my quarter into the slot like a pro. I stayed with Mrs. MacDonald for my first year of school and emerged from the grade convinced that rabbit was spelled ‘raddit’ (no fault of the teacher’s).
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Mrs. McDonald’s Grade One class (I am first left in bottom row; Mrs. McDonald is at upper left)
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The next year, properly directed by the School Board, I was sent to Crescent Heights Elementary School, two blocks away, and another stickpin on my ‘mind map’ …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
Juno beach, 70 years later
On June 6, 1944, seventy years ago, my Dad was one of the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy.
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Dad was a member of the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment of the Third Canadian Division, Company ‘D’. He entered active service in 1940 and joined the New Brunswick Regiment in 1943.
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Will R. Bird wrote a comprehensive history of the North Shore Regiment (Brunswick Press, 1963). In the book is a photo taken in February of 1945. My Dad believed the soldier in the foreground was him. The soldier certainly has my father’s stance, but the shovel on his back was what convinced my Dad. Most of the shovels issued had a ‘T’-shaped handle. My Dad’s shovel had an unusual triangular handle, like the one in the photo. Dad certainly considered the shovel his friend since digging trenches was their main protection under fire.
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Canadian troops in 1945 (photo from Will R. Bird, North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, 1963, page 322)
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I have never been to France. But with Street View, in Google Earth, I can see the place where Dad came ashore. Will R. Bird’s book, North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, includes a copy of an aerial map showing the beach where the North Shore Regiment landed – the NAN 7 Beach at St-Aubin-sur-Mer in northern France. ‘D’ Company landed on the part of the beach indicated by the arrow to the left.
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aerial map showing the beach where the North Shore Regiment landed on June 6, 1944 (Will R. Bird, South Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment, 1963, page 316)
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The Google map shows the same area in July, 2013 …
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aerial view of beach at St-Aubin-Sur-Mer (map from Google Earth)
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A view looking out to sea …
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looking out to sea (image from Street View)
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And a sign commemorating the landing of the Canadian troops …
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view of the sign at NAN 7 Beach (image from Street View)
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We know the casualties of the Normandy invasion were staggering. In the first hour after the landing, the Canadians suffered casualties of over 50%. When the war was over, my Dad was one of only nine ‘D’ Company men who had landed at D-Day and made it through to the liberation of Holland.
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Canadian troops landing at NAN Beach (photo from Wikipedia, public domain)
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
Where they came from …
With a little more research, I have some more information on where some of my ancestors came from before they arrived in the United States and Canada.
- John Winslow (b. 1597) Droitwich, Worcestershire, England (Fortune 1620, probably 1821)
- Mary Chilton (b. 1607) St. Peter, Sandwich, Kent, England (Mayflower 1620)
- Patrick McMullen (b. 1704) Scotland
- Peter LeValley (b. 1675) France
- William Spavold (b. 1810) England (Trafalgar 1817)
- Eliza Greenfield (b. 1790) England (Trafalgar 1817)
- Stephen Hopkins (b. 1581) Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England (Mayflower 1620)
- Elizabeth Fisher (b. unknown) England (Mayflower 1620)
- Francis Cook (b. 1583) Gides Hall, Essex, England (Mayflower 1620)
- Hester Mahieu (b. 1585) Canterbury, Kent, England (Anne 1623)
- William Latham (b. 1608) Chorley, Lancashire, England (Mayflower 1620)
- Conrad Hawk (Sr.) (b. 1744) Germany
- Conrad Kresge (b. 1730) Amberg-Sulzbach, Bayern, Germany
- Johan Ulrick Kohl (b. 1702) Pallatine, Germany
- Solmey Cooll (b. 1702) Germany
- Johann Nicholas Borger (b. 1720) Wertheim, Main-Tauber-Kreis, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (1753)
- Ottila Shafer (b. 1725) Nassig, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- Michael Fisher (b. 1720) Germany
- Maria Elizabeth Storm (b 1725) Germany
- John Clark (b. 1793) Straiton, Ayrshire, Scotland
- Jane Cooper (b. 1799) Greenock, Scotland
- Margaret Miller (b. 1798) Hoddam, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
- William Aitcheson (b. 1794) Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland (1832)
- — Wayborne (b. 1836) Rockbeare, Devon, England
- John Johnson (b. 1780) England
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I plotted these on a map of the world. Each red line represents the voyage of one or more of my ancestors across the Atlantic from the place of their birth in England, Scotland, Germany or France.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
remembering place: high school
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In Grade 10, 11 and 12, I went to Sidney Stephen High in Bedford Nova Scotia .
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Sidney Stephen High (now a Middle School)
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I had good friends. I loved all my teachers. I took swimming and golf lessons. I went to school dances and played piano at our various talent nights. I was on our school’s Reach for the Top team and answered only one question during the television program … name Santa’s eight reindeer! We lost to Halifax West, the school where my Dad was Vice-Principal.
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I walked the sidewalk above so many times. Once I carried Myles Goodwyn’s guitar down that hill. The guitar was borrowed for a weekend, something to do with a talent night. Myles Goodwyn is producer, singer, guitarist and composer in one of Canada’s greatest rock groups, April Wine.
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Just outside the end door in the wing of the school visible in the image above, sitting on the grass, I helped my friends prepare for a test on William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Among my friends, I alone actually read the book, and I made the lowest test score of the four people I coached that day!!!
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English and History were my favorite subjects. My English teachers were Mr. Burke and Mrs. Bussey. I learned about Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and travel writing. I remember Mr. Burke’s class so clearly: ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ (Ozymandias, Shelley). In Mrs. Bussey’s English class we went to live theatre and I fell in love with set design. I remember the two-storey backdrop of the set for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at Neptune Theatre. The house I live in today, which my husband and I built with the help of my Dad, has a loft inspired by that set.
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Our History teacher, Mr. Harvey, was a great inspiration, taking us to all the historical nooks and crannies in the area. Our History Club researched the first length of the old stagecoach route between Lower Sackville and Truro (surveyed in 1817-1818 by Woolford; for an old map of this road, see http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/woolford/archives.asp?ID=11). For the project we actually walked the old road, even then almost obscured by the growth of the forest. We could still see the path of the road by looking for the younger trees in the landscape, and we could find the old culverts. Later, we made a 3-D model of the road and its path between lakes and hills. Today, the old road begins at the Fultz Museum in Sackville (once Fultz’s Twelve-mile House, an inn along the way) and follows various local roads, including part of the Old Cobequid Road. I once lived (my first apartment) just across the lake from the old road (the long lake in the upper part of the map below).
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If we ever had one, I did not go to my class reunion for Sidney Stephen. I gradually lost touch with my friends, although I know where they live (not a threat!) and a little about their lives since High School. And I still talk to Mr. Burke, my English teacher, occasionally. Some friends I will never see again and that makes me very sad.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
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