Tag: university

52 Weeks – Week Nine

Women

A new month brings a new theme for the 52 Ancestors Challenge, “Women”. The first week of the month shares that theme. It took a fraction of a second for me to think of who I wanted to write about this week.

I often see questions posed in genealogy forums about the preservation of records. Every time I see one, it reminds me of my Aunt Diana. The world knew her as Helen Burgess, a scientist and a leading expert on paper preservation, but with family she went by her middle name because she shared her first name with my grandmother. While Aunt Diana passed away more over 20 years ago – not yet even 50 years old – I can still find her work is cited in modern papers.

Helen Diana Burgess, B.Sc., M.Sc., M.A.C.
(1951 – 1999)
Me with my Aunt Diana. My grandparents’ house is in the background. I have no idea why we were in the neighbour’s yard.

I idolized my Aunt Diana when I was a kid. At the time, she was an undergraduate student at the University of Lethbridge. She was the only person I knew in university at the time. However, to me, her academic pursuits and later career were only part of her identity. I modeled a lot of my behaviour after her, from sharing her interests to developing a love of some of her favourite foods.

Aunt Diana excelled at nurturing children’s intellect without any us even realizing it. Many of my favourite gifts as a kid came from her, including many books. I still have a lot of them. While Aunt Diana read all kinds of books, her favourite genre was mystery novels. She had walls of bookshelves filled with them, and a few of the books she gave me were in that vein. These included the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series, about three boy detectives, which were everything boring old Hardy Boys books were not. I’ve passed those on to my sons. She also gave me a copy of L.R. Wright’s award-winning novel, The Suspect. That book kind of blew my mind, because it was a murder mystery set in Sechelt, Canada not far from where I lived, and not Sometown USA.

Aunt Diana also instilled in me her love of art. She loved to draw and paint. When I turned ten, she gave me a set of oil paints, complete with canvases, brushes, turpentine, and linseed oil. I often received postcards from her from around the world, as her work took her to some of the greatest museums of the world. I still have every one of those postcards. I was lucky enough to visit a few museums with her. It was something to have her as my own personal tour guide and art expert.

Diana graduating from the University of Lethbridge, 1973

Aunt Diana obtained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in chemistry in 1973. Diana followed this with a Masters of Science in bio-organic chemistry from U.B.C. in 1977 and a Master of Conservation from Queen’s in 1979. Her thesis at Queen’s was about the “degradation of cellulose during conservation bleaching treatments”. To mark its 40th anniversary, the Queen’s Art Conservation Program conducted an interview series regarding leaders in conservation with a link to the school. One of the sets of interviews was about my aunt, conducted with her friends and colleagues.

Some of my Aunt Diana’s books, including her two masters theses, which now sit on my mother’s bookshelf. After getting an “A” in Grade 12 chemistry, I could almost understand the title of her U.B.C. thesis.
Science!

In 1978, Aunt Diana started her career with the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa. By the time she took early retirement in 1998 due to her health, Aunt Diana was a Senior Conservation Scientist. She specialized in the conservation of paper artifacts, but she also worked with other materials. Diana was an expert in conservation bleaching, the use of enzymes, deacidification, and cellulose degradation analysis.

It was a big deal to me and my family when Aunt Diana was one of the scientists featured on an episode of The Nature of Things. The episode, “Turning to Dust“, was about the deteriorating paper in old books and their preservation.

On a more practical level, Aunt Diana would often give my mother tips about what household products – particularly bleach-based products – were worth it and which were rubbish. She also taught me decades ago about the perils of adhesive photo albums and the wonders of acid-free and archival paper products.

Of course, because Aunt Diana was a scientist who was at the top of her field, it always seemed normal to me that women could be scientists. Every time I see a query about preservation of genealogical records, it makes me wish I could ask her and reminds me how much I miss her.

With Aunt Diana back when I only had two siblings. She was my brother’s godmother. Her we are after the baptism.

52 Weeks – Week Eight 

Courting

Yeah! That’s why you’re the “judge” and I’m the “law-talking guy”.

Noted lawyer Lionel Hutz
View from the current Vancouver Law Courts, looking towards the former law courts, which is currently the home of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

This week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Courting”. If I was going to write about dating and romance, it would have been last week during what retailers are now calling “Valentine’s Week”. Besides, how my parents met is a story for another time. Instead, I am taking “courting” to be a loose descriptor of what lawyers and judges do. I acknowledge that turning a noun into a verb can be egregious, but here we are.

Canadian courts don’t use gavels!

It turns out that there are many lawyers and judges in my family history, as well as my wife’s. My brother-in-law is a lawyer. As well, many of my friends are lawyers and judges. Unlike most people who have lawyer friends, it’s because they’re lawyers themselves. However, most of my lawyer friends are people I’ve known since high school who all happened to go to law school later in life, including myself.

It wasn’t always this way. When I was a kid, the only lawyer in the family I knew of was my Uncle Leo Burgess. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a law degree (LL.B) in June 1972. I was surprised to learn that one of the partners of my old firm, for whom I did a lot of work, was in the same graduating class. We ensured that they were seated together for the wedding reception when I got married.

Leo Burgess – University Graduate

Leo articled with an Edmonton firm called Field & Field, now known as Field Law. For readers in places where articling is not part of the process of becoming a lawyer, its essentially a form of apprenticeship that takes about a year. Law school teaches the law, articling is an introduction to the actual practice of law. The articling process usually includes completion of the bar exam.

I attended Leo’s call ceremony in Edmonton. While I was only in kindergarten or grade one at the time, I remember it vividly. It was the first time I had ever been in a courtroom. I don’t even know if I had seen one on TV at the time. Everything about it was striking. It was very much a very traditional courtroom, with lots of wooden everything. The court attire, consisting of gowns and tabs, was also unforgettable.

Leo remained at Field & Field for only a short time. From 1976 to 2003, Leo practiced at the Edmonton law firm of Brownlee Fryett, now known as Brownlee LLP. His expertise was municipal law. Leo became a partner in 1977. In addition to his legal practice, Leo lectured at the University of Alberta law school. In 1994, Leo earned an appointment of “Queen’s Counsel”, which entitled him to use the initials “Q.C.” after his name. In 1990, Leo was admitted to the bar of the Northwest Territories.

The Hon. Leo Burgess, Prov. Ct. of Alberta

Nineteen years ago this month, shortly after Valentine’s Day, Leo was appointed to the Provincial Court of Alberta. His appointment came as a surprise to my mother, since she always thought Leo hated going to court. He did, but having spent some time as a litigator myself by that time, I told her it came as no surprise to me. Leo served on the bench until his death in 2014.

As far as I know, all the lawyers I am related to are on my mother’s side of my family tree. One was my mother’s uncle, Seth Henry Nelson, Q.C. Seth graduated from the University of Alberta in 1912. This was likely an undergraduate degree, as the University of Alberta did not establish a law school until that year. As well, becoming a lawyer at the time often did not require a law degree.

The Cardston News, Jan. 9, 1958, p. 1

Seth practiced law in Cardston, Alberta for almost 60 years. After completing his time as a law clerk at a Cardston firm, Seth was called to the bar in April 1918. Seth was appointed a Queen’s Council (hence the “Q.C.”) in 1958. In addition to his legal practice, Seth was active in civic affairs. He was a school board trustee for 15 years, and was Secretary Treasurer of the local hospital board.

Calgary Herald, Feb. 22, 1940, p. 8

As well, Seth stood for election as an independent in the 1940 provincial general election in the riding of Cardston. He ran against the incumbent, Social Credit member Nathan Tanner, a former Speaker of the legislature who was appointed to Cabinet in 1937. Tanner defeated Seth in a two-way race, 2,160 votes to 1,808 (54.4% of the vote).

Seth remained active in his church, community, and legal work until he died in 1975, at age 83.

My 3rd Great Grandfather, Preston Thomas, also had a legal career amongst the many hats he wore. He was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, in 1814. He spent time in Tennessee in the late 1830s and early 1840s. In 1844, he joined the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and moved west. Over a period of many years, Preston was part of a number of missions for the church.

Preston was named a Probate Judge in Utah Territory in 1852, being appointed to the court upon its creation. Preston’s appointment was approved by an Act of the territorial legislature on February 7, 1852 (Laws of the Territory of Utah, Chapter XLV). He was assigned to the court in Utah County.

At the time, the Probate Court in Utah had a much broader jurisdiction than simply the estates of the deceased and those under guardianship (e.g. children, the mentally disabled), which was granted by federal US law. In addition to the usual jurisdiction of a probate court, the Utah territorial legislature granted the Probate Court jurisdiction over civil, criminal, chancery, and divorce matters. As well, the Probate Court heard appeals from the county Justice of the Peace courts. The Probate Court acted as a registry for incorporations and disincorporations and, in 1869, it was granted authority to determine land title claims.

In 1874, the federal government revoked the Probate Court’s jurisdiction over all matters except for divorce and probate matters. In 1877, the federal government revoked the Probate Court’s authority in divorce matters. Probate Judges were appointed by the legislature until 1874, when the judges were elected to a two-year term. In 1888, federal law changed the process, making the office subject to the appointment of the President of the United States. When Utah became a state in 1896, the Probate Court was abolished.

Preston Thomas
(1814-1877)

As far as I have been able to determine, Preston had no formal legal training. He did serve on a number of church and community committees, as well as a term as a member of the House of Representatives of the Territorial Legislature from 1857 to 1859, so he had some knowledge of rules and procedure.

Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, Vol. III No. IV, states that Isaac Higbee succeeded Preston as Probate Judge on December 27, 1852. However, Preston appointed to the Probate Court again, no later than 1864. He was still a judge of the Probate Court in 1866, as he was listed as such in The Law Register for the United States for the Year 1866 by John Livingston of the New York Bar.

Fun fact: at the convocation ceremony when I received my B.A. from U.B.C., Raymond Burr received an honourary degree. Of course, he was famous for the role of TV lawyer Perry Mason – and was quite the opposite of Lionel Hutz.

Look at me, becoming an official Law Talking Guy!

This brings the February theme of “Branching Out” to an end. The theme for March is “Women”, which is appropriate given that it’s Women’s History Month in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In Canada, it’s not until October, so that it coincides with Persons Day. However, Canada does mark International Women’s Day on March 8. Seeing the weekly themes for March, I’m quite looking forward to them!