52 Ancestors – Page 37 – A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark II – Week 33: Strength

I am not a member of the Latter Day Saints (“Mormons”), but my maternal grandfather, Leo Burgess, was. In fact, his direct paternal line were Mormons almost since the beginning. The early members of the church were required to draw on their strength as they faced persecution, exile, and hardship.

Most sources state that my Gx4 Grandfather, William Burgess (1794-1880) was baptised into the church in 1832, two years after it had been founded by Joseph Smith. However, the Kirtland Elders’ Certificates from the Joseph Smith Papers state that William joined the church and was ordained a deacon on April 6, 1830. All eight of my grandfather’s great grandparents had joined the church in the 1830s and 1840s.

“This certifies that William Burgess has been received into the church of the Latter-Day Saints, organized on the sixth of April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred hundred & thirty, & has been ordained a Deacon…

Joseph Smith Jr. Chairman.
F[rederick] G. Williams Clerk.
Kirtland, Ohio, April 2, 1836.”

*Kirtland Elders’ Certificates*, p. 84, *The Joseph Smith Papers*

While I am quite skeptical about much of the church’s dogma, I absolutely respect the strength of its early adherents, including many of my direct ancestors who were early members of the church. Many of them experienced and survived unnecessary suffering due to religious persecution. Several others endured an arduous – and for some, deadly – journey from Illinois to Utah over the winter of 1846-1847.

Joseph Smith sought to create a “New Jerusalem”. He and his followers moved to Ohio and soon began building a settlement in Missouri. In 1833, church members were run out of Missouri and a failed banking venture crippled the Ohio settlement. The Mormons attempted a settlement elsewhere in Missouri, but were driven out upon an executive order of the governor, calling for them to be exterminated or expelled from the state. In 1939, the church regrouped in a new community, Nauvoo, Illinois, and began to build their Zion there.

Two years after Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, tensions with non-Mormons increased, such that the Mormons were driven out of their settlement once again. They upped stakes and began the migration to Utah. During the westward migration, over the winter of 1846-1847, about 2,500 church members encamped at Winter Quarters, which was just north of where Omaha, Nebraska came to be. The first settlers arrived in what is now Salt Lake City in July 1847, in what was still Mexican territory.

Many of the trekkers did not survive. There are varying accounts of the death toll at Winter Quarters. This is due, in part, to the lack of sufficiently complete and reliable records. It is also due to what was included in each account: some measure death only due to disease, others include deaths of all causes. The periods of time also vary: from a few months over the winter of 1846-1847, to longer periods of time, e.g.,1846 to 1848. Louisa Thomas, my 4x great grandmother, was one of those who perished at Winter Quarters. She died on November 16, 1846. An entry in the Winter Quarters sexton’s records shows that she died 19 miles up the river from Winters Quarters. Louisa’s daughter Charlotte, my Gx3 grandmother, was only nine at the time.

*The entry for Louisa Thomas in the Winter Quarters sexton’s records, 1846-1848: “Loisa Cook. 36 years, 0 months, 0 days. Wife of Aaron W. Cook [*her third husband]. Died 19 miles up the River from Winter quarters Bur[i]ed at the same place. [Died] Nov 16 1846. [Disease] chills fever. [Born] State of Mareland May 1811.”

To have survived long journeys to settle in new lands, religious persecution, and perilous migration took incredible strength – mental, physical, social, and spiritual. Their conviction and belief carried them through difficult times and experiences. For that I am grateful, because without their strength I would not have been.

52W Mark II – Week 32: Reunion

I’ve only been to one family reunion, when I was 13. It was a gathering of all the descendants of John Alexander Nelson and Ella Elizabeth Thomas, my great great grandparents.

Ella Elizabeth Thomas (1859 – 1941)
John Alexander Nelson (1854 – 1942)

They were amongst the earliest settlers of Cardston, which was founded in 1887 by members of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). John and Ella were both born in Utah a few short years after it became a territory of the United States. John was born in 1854 to Irish immigrant parents. Ella was born in 1859. Her father was originally from North Carolina and her mother was from England. John had worked as a farm labourer in Utah before he married. John and Ella married in Salt Lake City in 1879. Shortly afterwards, John and Ella moved to Smithfield, Utah, where John continued to work in farming.

John and Ella came to Canada in September 1890. John and Ella had five children at the time. The family travelled to Canada by covered wagon. Their eldest daughter, Maria, said that she often drove the wagon team while her father managed the cattle. The family first settled in a sod dugout at “Lee’s Creek”, west of Cardston. They arrived with 13 horses, 7 cows, 7 “other horned cattle”, and a pig.

^{This was where John and Ella first settled in Canada, just west of Cardston, where the prairies meet the foothills of the Rockies.}

The book, Alberta Past and Present, states that upon moving to Canada, John homesteaded on 160 acres of raw land. The homestead was located on Lee Creek, which ran through the property and into the centre of Cardston. The farmhouse was about four kilometers southwest of the town centre and is located on what is now Alberta highway 501.

In addition to farming, John also worked in carpentry. As well, John and a partner, John Turner, constructed and operated the first lime kiln in this part of the country. In 1906, John and Ella moved to nearby Woolford, Alberta, where John continued farming. John and Ella briefly returned to Utah in the early 1920s, where John operated an orchard or fruit farm, but they returned to Woolford in 1924. John continued farming the rest of his working life.

Ella did not simply bide her time in the background as a farm wife and mother. According to a Lethbridge Herald article published after her death, in 1892 Charles Ora Card, Cardston’s founder and stake president, called to on Ella to study nursing and obstetrics. After six months’ training, Ella returned to Cardston and started her service. The Herald article says that Ella “answered every call from 1892 to the time when the district was supplied with medical men, and after that time when there was more work than one doctor could do”. Ella continued as a midwife until 1932, when she was 73.

John and Ella had twelve children, two of whom died in infancy. This included my great grandmother, Hazel Nelson, and her twin sister, Irene, who died at one month old. Ella died in October 1941. John died almost a year later, in September 1942.

The reunion was quite an interesting experience for me. The reunion was held in Bigfork, Montana, with attendees from the United States and Canada. At the time, I knew I had American ancestors, but did not realize how large an extended family I had that lived there. A memorable highlight for me was some of my mother’s American cousins hiring me to babysit for them one night – and paying me in American dollars.

Another interesting part of the experience was that our immediate family, and my maternal grandmother, were pretty much the only attendees who were not members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) church. While my maternal grandfather Leo Burgess was Mormon, he was no longer an active participant in the church during my childhood, so at the time I knew little about their church, customs, and traditions. In my late teens my grandfather began participating more in the church, which is when I learned much more about them.

The only photo I have scanned of the Nelson family reunion. This is Cleveland Nelson (1893-1982) with four of my maternal grandfather’s aunts (Cleve’s nieces). From left to right: Fon, Cleve, Julia, Ella, Molly, and Irene. In the background on the right you can see my mother.

The star of the reunion was my great great uncle Cleveland Nelson. Cleve was John and Ella’s eighth-born and last surviving child. He was 87 years old at the time. Everyone wanted to talk to and get a photo with him!

52W Mark II – Week 31: Flew The Coop

This week’s theme for the week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Flew The Coop”. I’m making a real stretch of the phrase to write about my recent visit to Pier 21, where my father and his family arrived in Canada after emigrating from the Netherlands. They arrived on board the Sibajak in early 1954. My father’s aunt and uncle had arrived at Pier 21 four months earlier, in January 1954 on the Groote Beer, while another aunt and uncle followed in late May 1954, on board the Castel Felice.

This was not my first visit to Pier 21 (analogous to Ellis Island in the United States), but it had been many years since my last visit. The displays are significantly different; moreover, the museum has strictly implemented privacy rules that means they don’t display ship passenger lists like they used to. I find their policy a little illogical, because the researchers on site will happily use other sources for the same information that aren’t subject to the same rules.

We began with watching in Canada/au Canada. It’s an excellent and moving short film weaving together the stories of many immigrants from countries all around the world and who have settled in all sorts of places, big and small, across Canada. We then participated in a guided tour. The tour was available in English and French. I felt bad for the fellow offering the tour in French – he had no takers at that time. I told him that my wife and kids would have gone with him if it weren’t for my lack of proficiency in French.

Our tour guide began by asking if anyone had family or friends who had come through Pier 21. Most of us on the tour raised our hands. One woman in our group had come through herself, at 18 months old, with her mother who was a war bride. The tour guide immediately welcomed her back and gave her a gold “Alumni” sticker to wear.

This hangs on the wall in front of the seating area where immigrants waited to be interviewed by immigration officials.

The tour began with at this model of Pier 21 as it was at the time it was in operation. The building on the left no longer exists. The guide showed the path of the immigrants as they disembarked from the ship and the steps they went through before being able to leave. We were told that if everything went without a hitch, people could be off the ship and on the train in four to six hours. However, most people were usually in and out within a day.

There were many displays recreating the immigrant experience. One was of the interior of typical tourist class accommodations and amenities. On the opposite wall were photos of many of the immigrant ships that landed at Pier 21.

The *SS Sibajak*, the ship that brought my father, his parents, and his siblings to Canada.

My son and I sitting on the benches in the waiting room where my father would have sat with his family upon arriving in Canada almost 70 years ago.

The museum has something for visitors of all ages, with lots of interactive and immersive displays. I think our youngest must have watched every video that accompanied the exhibits. There were also lots of crafting and other hands-on activities for the kids.

One of the activities was to decorate a baggage tag showing the name of your immigrant family member and stringing it from their point of origin to their destination. Our youngest made one honouring his grandfather.

A temporary exhibit we were lucky to see was “Destination: Canada”:

In 2022, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands published a graphic novel called “Destination: Canada”, telling the story of ten Dutch immigrants, illustrated by ten comic book artists. The Museum has adapted two of these stories for a special exhibit, presenting the story of George Zwaagstra, a Pier 21 immigrant and volunteer, and Tayebeh Farooqi-Wahedi, a refugee from Afghanistan and immigrant from the Netherlands.
From the Pier 21 page, Destination: Canada

One of the panels of *Destination: Canada* on display on the wall at Pier 21.

Needless to say, being the son of a Dutch immigrant I had to buy my own copy!

52W Mark II – Week 30: In The News

One of the great things about conducting Dutch genealogy is the amazing array of resources that are available. While the adage “not everything is online” still applies, there are an incredible number of sources that are digitized and online – largely for free! For this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme, I want to focus on two sources I have relied upon the most for newspaper articles.

One great thing about old Dutch newspapers is that they usually published summaries of all the birth, marriage, and death registrations for the local village or town civil registers (“burgerlijke stand”).

The first is Delphler.nl, a partnership between numerous Dutch libraries and archives – over 200 institutions, according to the website. It is a central access point for Dutch historical texts from the digital collections of numerous scientific institutions, libraries, and heritage institutions.

Delpher is somewhat like the Internet Archive. It is a repository for scanned images of newspapers, magazines, and books published in the Netherlands. It even includes some publications from its former colonies, such as Suriname. It boasts over two million newspapers, 400,000 magazines, and 200,000 historical books.

Delpher has a rather good search engine; I’ve rarely had difficulty finding what I am looking for. The results provide you a link to the full page of the document with your search term. The search result also allows you to go through every page of the paper or magazine containing the page you were looking for.

What might be a downside for most North American users is that the site is only available in Dutch. The translate function of your browser can help, although the records you’ll find will be in Dutch. Luckily, my Dutch is good enough that I can navigate and search without much difficulty. For what it’s worth, “kranten” is “newspapers” and “tijdschriften” is “magazines”. It’s probably not much of a guess to figure out “boeken” is “books”.

I use Chrome, which has a translation function.

Another excellent source of newspaper images are the many local and regional archives throughout the Netherlands. I make use of several, particularly those situated in Leiden, Haarlem, and Alkmaar. Unlike Delpher, many Dutch archives have an English interface. However, some of them only provide English versions of part – but not all – of their website. Fortunately, the English interface is usually available for things like genealogy.

Alkmaar is very close to many of the towns and villages where my family has lived, so I have gathered a lot of newspaper images from the Alkmaar Archief. It has an online database exclusively devoted to newspaper images, Kranten Regionaal Archief Alkmaar (Alkmaar Regional Archives Newspapers).

Like Delpher, I find the Alkmaar Archief search engine works well. Like Delpher, the search result provides you with the full page of where your search term appears, with the ability to look at the entire newspaper that contains the page. However, unlike the main Alkmaar Archief, this database does not have an English interface.

I have had a great deal of success with the Kranten Regionaal Archief Alkmaar. Here are the clippings from the papers with the summaries of the birth registrations of my paternal grandparents:

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