Tag: surprise

52W Mark III – Week 36: We Don’t Talk About It

With the prompt of “We Don’t Talk About It” for this week’s  52 Ancestors Challenge, the expectation was likely that participants would write about the bad secrets. However, not all secrets are bad!

Adrianus Joseph “Arie” van der Fluit (1923 – 2002) and Christina (“Tiny”) Komen (1923 – 2000) on their wedding day.

My father and his siblings organized a surprise party to celebrate my paternal grandparents’ 40th wedding anniversary. Adrianus (“Arie”) van der Fluit and Christina (“Tiny”, rhymes with “genie”) Komen were married on November 7, 1948, in Langedijk, Noord Holland, Netherlands at St. Jan de Doper Katholieke Kerk (St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church).

Kerk van Sint-Joannes de Doper, Noord-Scharwoude, Noord Holland, Netherlands, where my grandparents were married.

All my father’s siblings lived in Lethbridge, like my grandparents, so all the family living there were in attendance. My parents and siblings were living in northern British Columbia at the time, so my folks left my brothers and sisters with some family friends. In addition to all their children and most of their grandchildren, several family members also came over from the Netherlands to join in the festivities.

My grandparents, all their children and spouses, and about half their grandchildren (my four younger siblings did not attend). Several more grandchildren were born years after this celebration.

I had already left home and was living in Vancouver, so I flew to Alberta. I had lived in Vancouver long enough to have gotten used to the very mild winters there, forgetting that it was real winter elsewhere. So I boarded my flight wearing only a light jacket, only to be greeted by -11°C weather.

Two of my father’s cousins who made the trip from the Netherlands to celebrate my grandparents’ 40th wedding anniversary. That’s my noggin in the lower right.

My grandparents took out a “thank you” notice in the Lethbridge Herald on November 22, 1986:

“We would like to send a very special thank you to your children and their spouses for the care and love they gave us on the day of our 40th anniversary and for the fine days that followed. For keeping secret the very big surprise that was in store for us. Also a big thank you to our grandchildren, relatives and friends for the cards, gifts and flowers and for the way they made our day so very special.”

Speaking of surprises, I was surprised to discover that I had written about this before, for last year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge! Upon making that discovery, I thought I might scrub this and choose a new topic. However, I changed my mind because (a) I’m feeling lazy (b) I have too many other things to do and (c) I had chosen several different photos than before. But let’s not talk about it, okay?

52W Mark II – Week 50: “You Wouldn’t Believe It”

Old newspapers are a great resource for genealogists. However, I do more than read just the item I’m looking for. I enjoy seeing what else was in the news on the same day as an ancestor’s birth, marriage, death, or other newsworthy action. Not only because it provides context for the familial event, but also because there are some really fun or interesting items to be found. There are all sorts of things you wouldn’t believe.

This is page two of the Newmarket Era (Newmarket, Ontario) for October 1, 1875.

The item I was interested in is found in the bottom right-hand corner, marked in red. It announces the marriage of our sons’ great great great grandparents, Charles Crittenden Van Norman and Isabella Newman Carmichael.

However, there are lots of fun, interesting, and odd bits on the rest of the page. The first thing I noticed is immediately above the marriage notice: a great bit about what appears to have been a foiled plot to rob Windsor Castle, when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

Buried elsewhere on the middle of the page was an item about the first appointees to the newly created Supreme Court of Canada. Note that there were no appointees from west of Ontario, although the only western provinces at the time were Manitoba and British Columbia.

That’s right, you wouldn’t believe it, the Supreme Court of Canada did not come into existence until seven years after Confederation. It wasn’t even front page news. The placement of the item in the middle of the page, in the third column, below a piece on new regulations for local postmasters, indicates the relevant unimportance of the court at that time. It wasn’t even the highest court for the country. That role was held by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the UK until 1949 – 82 years after Confederation. Elsewhere on the page is an item noting that the first choice for Chief Justice of the new court turned down then offer – he preferred to remain in his position as the head of one of the provincial appeal courts.

A few columns over is an item that you wouldn’t believe – “A Monster Devil Fish”. An incredible story about “A Florida Devil-Fish That Almost Baffled Fifteen Men”! The item ends by noting that “only only of these singular fish” had been captured before, “previous to the war.” Obviously, readers at the time would have known what war the story was referring to. Today, given that the item came from an American wire service, it’s most likely the reference was to the American Civil War.

Above the Devil-Fish item is another story that not only you wouldn’t believe, you probably would not want to believe.  “A Singular Marriage” tells the story of a divorced single mother of three (a “brave little creature”). She ended up in such a state of poverty that she was left with the prospect of begging, starving or going to the poor-house, unless she took a job as the housekeeper and nanny for her ex-husband, his new wife, and their two-year old daughter. “All these things and even more did the poor woman undertake, never by sign, word or look exhibiting the least evidence of discontent. But bitter her feelings must have been!”

You wouldn’t believe it.

52W Mark II – Week 39: Surprise!

Okay, I added the exclamation point to the theme of this week’s  52 Ancestors Challenge. However, the first thing that came to mind is what you’d yell for the guests of honour when they arrive for a party they weren’t expecting. So of course you need the exclamation point!

Adrianus Joseph “Arie” van der Fluit (1923 – 2002) and Christina Komen (1923 – 2000)

My paternal grandparents married on November 7, 1946, almost 77 years ago. For their fortieth anniversary, my aunts and uncles arranged a surprise party. All their children were in attendance, as were most of their grandchildren. I was attending second year university in Vancouver at the time, so I flew out for the event. As well, some of my father’s cousins (my grandparent’s nieces) came to Canada for the celebration.

This is cropped from the group photo taken during the celebration. I had neither the time not the interest in asking everyone’s permission to post the photo online.

While I grew up in the Canadian prairies and northern British Columbia, by my second year I had gotten used to the mild Vancouver weather and forgot to bring proper winter gear with me. Brrr!! Why on Earth did my grandparents marry in November? Why did they not marry in May? (For what it’s worth, their eldest child – my father – was born over a year after my grandparents married!)