Tag: Burgess

52W Mark II – Week 23: So Many Descendants

The theme for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “So Many Descendants”. The approach I’ve chosen to take is to look at immediate descendants – children only – rather than foray into who in my tree might have the most grandchildren and beyond.

That said, I will take a moment to note my great x10 grandfather, Dirck Jansz. Dirck is the furthest back I’ve traced my direct paternal line, “van der Fluit”. One of my projects has been to find all known descendants of Dirck, a project which of course is nigh impossible and will never finish. That said, I’ve found about 864 direct descendants of Dirck.

Onward and upward, Dirck.

Of course, the person with the most children in my tree is a father. My great great grandfather, Horace Burgess, had nineteen children. He had nine children with his first wife, my great great grandmother Sarah Cook. Their eight child, and youngest son, was Milton Leo Burgess, my great grandfather. After Sarah died, Horace remarried, to Julia Josephine Lundquist, with whom he had ten children.

The woman in my family tree who appears to have had the most children is Horace’s paternal grandmother, Violate Stockwell. Violate and my great x 4 grandfather, William Burgess Sr., had 12 children, including my great x 3 grandfather William Jr. Violate had her first child, Harrison Burgess, a year after she married William. Violate was 19-years-old when Harrison was born. Violate was 42 when her last child, Vilate, was born. There is a 22-year difference between Harrison and Vilate. In fact, Harrison had been married for two years when his youngest sister was born.

Forget about so many descendants – so many kids! I highly doubt Harrison was put to work helping his mother with his younger siblings. I’m willing to bet that task fell upon the eldest of his sisters, Rosina, who was four years younger than Harrison. Needless to say, times have changed. My mother absolutely put me, the eldest of five, to work helping her with the household and with my younger siblings. It certainly provided me with plenty of life skills I am grateful to have.

52W Mark II – Week 20: Bearded

For the 52 Ancestors Challenge, we’ve gone from Bald to Bearded.

What immediately comes to mind is a comment a cousin of mine made on Facebook quite a while ago. Despite appearances, he is quite the huge heavy metal fan.

I have family history albums on Facebook, organized by time periods. I uploaded some photos of some 19th and early 20th century ancestors. As was the style for the men at that time, many had a significant amount of facial hair. My cousin’s comment was: “Awesome – those are some pretty metal beards!”

So please enjoy these pretty metal beards (and a mustache).

Top Row: Henry Lyman Cook (Gx3 grandfather), William Burgess Jr (Gx3), William Burgess Sr. (Gx4). Bottom Row: John Alexander Nelson (Gx2), Robert Nelson (Gx3), Johannes Jansz “Jan” Pater (Gx2).

52W Mark II – Week 19: Bald

Leo Burgess, about 1947

I know the topic of “Bald” should lead me to write about my follicly-challenged ancestors. However, the opposite thought immediately came to mind when I saw this weeks theme, brining to mind my very not-bald maternal grandfather, Leo Burgess.

My grandpa Burgess had a full head of hair until he died at age 75. In fact, his hair was jet black for most of his life and did not start to grey until late in life. Ever since my earliest memories of him, he always had the same hair style. Now and again my mother tells an anecdote about her father based upon that fact.

Me with my grandparents, Helen Lerner and Leo Burgess

Like most high schoolers, my mother followed the latest trends in hair styles. My grandfather was often away from home for days at a time in his job as a train conductor. During one of those absences, my mother changed her hairstyle once again.

Leo Burgess, October 1971

Upon returning home and seeing my mother’s new do, my very blue-collared grandfather was not impressed. He could be very gruff and stern at times and it was often reflected in his tone of voice. According to my mother, her father asked something along the lines of “what the heck is that”, although I imagine it was a little more harsh than that.

My mother shot back with, “well, what do you call that?”, pointing to his hair. My grandfather abruptly changed his demeanour and a very proud look came across his face. In an almost sing-song voice, patting his hair with the heel of his hand, he exclaimed, “it’s a pompadour!”

Leo Burgess, sometime in the mid to late 80s.

52W Mark II – Week 16: Should Be A Movie

My grandfather was in a movie – sort of.

Every week, participants in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks are invited to post on the hebdomadal theme at her Facebook group, Generations Cafe. In my post there for last week, I noted that it’s been quite the struggle participating in the challenge this year. For every week’s theme this year, it felt like I had already written about the current topic – sometimes more than once. It’s getting hard – challenging even! – to think of something new that fit, which I also found interesting enough to me to write about.

This week, I’m not going to fight it, I’m just going to go along with it. So you’re not experiencing deja vu when reading about my grandfather, Leo Burgess, and his brush with Hollywood. 

My grandfather worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway for over 30 years, first as a brakeman and later as a conductor. During his time with the CPR, he worked on the train crews for movies like Silver Streak and Superman: The Movie.

My grandfather, Leo Burgess, is the man wearing a cap standing on the right side of the photo.

Working on Superman was one of the highlights of my grandfather’s life. He was always proud to talk about meeting one of his favourite actors during filming, Glenn Ford.

I assume photo referred to in the letter is the same photo that appeared in the CP Rail News, above.

During the eulogy at my grandfather’s memorial service, one of his friends told an anecdote that suggests my grandfather felt that he had gotten familiar with the cast and crew. The scene took six days to shoot. Apparently during a break in filming, Ford was talking to a group of railway workers when my grandfather sauntering up, put his arm around the actor, and said, “How’s it going, Glenn?”

My grandfather was working in the engine during the filming of this scene.

Today my parents live about a 30 minute drive from where this was filmed. The tracks are gone, but the memories live on.