Tag: 52 Ancestors

52W Mark II – Week 45: War and Peace

With Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the United States), this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme is “War and Peace”. Rather than write about my own ancestors’ experiences with war and peace, I’d like to call attention to an exciting undertaking by the British Columbia Genealogical Society (“BCGS”).

Every month the BCGS publishes The BCGS News. For the last few years, it has been only published in electronic format. Every issue since January 2020 is available on the BCGS website. You don’t have to be a member of the society to access this part of the website (although there’s lots of benefits to be one – they just launched their 2024 membership drive!).

In November 2021, the BCGS published a “Veterans Special Edition” of The BCGS News. Members were invited to submit stories about their veteran ancestors, regardless of what conflict in which they had served. Submissions included veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Lower Canada Rebellion, the North-West (Riel) Rebellion, the Fenian Raids, the South African War (often referred to as the Second Boer War), World War I, World War II, and the Korean Conflict.

This year, The BCGS News team (spearheaded by its Editor/Designer Sue Sullivan) is going even bigger and better – they’re doing a book! Throughout most of 2023, BCGS members have been encouraged to submit stories and photos of their veteran ancestors – any time in history, any conflict, any place. Moreover, it’s not limited to those who actually fought, it includes those who served in peacetime or on any peacekeeping mission.

The book will be available to BCGS members as a digital download. The editorial team is also considering publishing it in print form, but that has yet to be determined.

Remarkably, I have very few ancestors who served in wartime. They were usually too young or too old to have served in the conflicts of their time and place. However, I provided two submissions for the veterans book, both of which involve individuals I’ve written about in this blog: my maternal grandfather Leo Burgess; and Lee Anton, my maternal grandmother’s second cousin (also her first cousin once removed through a different ancestor). The editor invited me to submit a larger piece on Lee, as she hopes to have a few “featured” veterans.

Lee Anton commemorated on page 491 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
My maternal grandfather Leo Burgess during basic training in Peterborough Ontario.

Hopefully the book will be ready by Remembrance Day. I know that it has been a huge undertaking by a small band of volunteers, so it would be understandable if it comes out sometime later this month. Either way, I am really looking forward to it!

52W Mark II – Week 44: Spirits

Egad, I almost ghosted this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, themed “Spirits”. I thought I had done this a week ago, but it turns out I only did so in my mind.

Initially I had hoped to take the theme in a more libatious direction and share an anecdote involving jenever, a Dutch liquor that is the forefather of gin. Unfortunately, once I began to write it, it became apparent that it was a rather boo-ring story.

John A. Nelson

Thus I have turned to this well-worn oft-repeated anecdote about my great great grandfather, John A. Nelson (1854-1942), that I’ve seen innumerable times over the last thirty years. It’s attributed to his son Seth Henry Nelson (my mother’s great uncle, who I wrote about on Week 8 in 2022). While I’ve seen countless copies of it, I’ve never seen anything its provenance or that could be described as the original.

The tale relates to John’s encounter with two malevolent spirts and a third that may have been his protector. I’ll share it as written:

Needless to say, I don’t believe a word of it. Its greatest value may be that it tells me something I otherwise wouldn’t have known about John: he spent a year in Oregon working on the railroad. The only question is when.

The anecdote indicates that John was in Oregon for over a year shortly after his marriage to my great great grandmother, Ella Elizabeth Thomas, which occurred on January 9, 1879. Their first child, Maria (“Mimie”), was born in March 1880, so John did not leave for Oregon any earlier than June or July 1879. John and Ella’s second child, Ella, was born more than two years after Mimie, in June 1882. If John was away from home for more than a year shortly after marrying Ella, it could have occurred anywhere between late summer 1979 and the summer of 1881. However, without further evidence, I don’t have a ghost of a chance of figuring it out.

Ella Elizabeth Thomas and John Alexander Nelson

52W Mark II – Week 43: Dig A Little Deeper

Most of my ancestors have been labourers. Many of them did a lot of digging as part of their work, especially since a lot of them were agricultural workers. Some may have only deep enough to plant crops, while others may have dug a little deeper.

I’ve already speculated about  my 4x Great Grandfather, Petrus Pieterszoon “Pieter” van der Fluit and the possibility that the reason he relocated from Zuid Holland to Noord Holland was to work digging canals and other work related to polder construction and waterworks. Unfortunately, the timing does not seem quite right. Furthermore, and of greater importance, I’ve yet to discover any real evidence to support the theory.

Turning to my mother’s side of the family, my great grandfather Milton Leo Burgess was a man of many occupations over his working life: farmer; plumber; and woolen mill worker (where he lost a finger of his left hand due to a work injury). Unique amongst the labouring jobs held by my ancestors, apparently Milton spent a short period of time sometime around 1950 working as a gravedigger. The only source I have for this is my mother. While she knew her grandfather well, if he was a gravedigger in the early 1950s she would have been too young to have had any memories of the time he held that job. It is something he likely told her when she was older.

Milton Leo Burgess in an undated photo.

52W Mark II – Week 42: Friends

I’ve really struggled with this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme of “Friends”. I have not had a scintilla of inspiration. I tried to tackle the topic from a new perspective. No Dutch ancestors with the surname “Vriend”. No Quaker ancestors. No one that I could think of who were members of a fraternal organization. Finally, I settled on a bit of a thought experiment: people who might have been friends, or at least who might have known each other.

My wife and I have very little in common genealogically. My lineage is largely Dutch, Germans from Russia, and adherents of the Mormon church from its earliest days. My wife has incredibly deep roots in the Maritimes, mostly of Irish descent. She also has a branch of her family that originated in Ontario, likely of English background. There is very little overlap.

One thing we each have in common is a Mayflower ancestor. Mine is Francis Eaton, hers is Richard Warren. Outside our Mayflower ancestors, we both have other branches that reach well back into 17th century colonial New England, including not only Massachusetts but also Connecticut. I have come across names in both our trees of people who lived in the same place at the same time many times. Needless to say, I would not be surprised if some of my ancestors knew my wife’s ancestors. Who knows (absent further research!) if any of them might have been friends?

However, not only I have never found a common ancestor between the two of us, I have yet to find any connection between our trees, such as distant cousins. Of course, somewhere out there a connection exists. As our eight-year-old repeatedly says, “after all, everyone’s related!”