My moose hide moccasins

 I can’t remember if I posted a picture of the moose hide shoes that Lizzy Lowrie made me when I was a baby and I just saw a picture of them today so thought I’d do a quick post about them.  

Lizzy Lowrie (not sure how her name is spelled) was a First Nations Princess of the Kitselas Tribe.  She was (I was told) the last of the Kitselas ‘royalty’ and lived in Usk.  She married a white guy - Scottish, I think, and I cannot remember his first hame.  While I was born in Smithers, it was only because there was no hospital in Usk in 1945.  Lizzie made these and gave them to my mom for me.  Mother gave them to me at some point and I carried them with me through all our moves etc.  Then, a few years ago I got in contact with Helene McRae who was researching and writing about the history of Usk.  She and I communicated regularly via email and when we went to Terrace, Stefan and I stopped in to visit with her and Bill a couple of times.  Lovely, interesting couple who are both gone now.  I asked Helene if she would like the moccasins for a future museum or ?  She said she would love them and would look after them well.  I knew our kids had no connection with the north or anything and was happy to send them to her. During one of our communications, Helene told me she was in contact with Lizzie’s granddaughter and I asked her if she thought the granddaughter might like them.  She checked and that’s where they are now - back with Lizzie’s family!  Yay.

So, that’s the story of how I cam to be given them and where they are now.

This is Lizzie’s Granddaughter

Helene McRae holding a picture of Lizzie, and Lizzie’s granddaughter.  

Cheerio,

My mysteriously absent paternal grandfather

 I just had a comment emailed to me from a woman whose mother taught in Usk in 1945, which brought me to this blog - after 6 years!  Her mom would have taught my older brother, Danny.  I wish he were still alive and I could ask him if he remembered his teacher’s name.  Not sure if I have already written this story but when he was in grade 1, he used to come home and say to mom that he needed this pencil or this ruler or something for school and she would get it for him.  Then one day mom bumped into his teacher and she asked why Danny hadn’t been at school!  Haha - he would walk to school and if the flag was already raised he knew he was late so just wouldn’t go - but he was wily enough to pretend he was going! I sure laughed.  I don’t think I ever talked to him about it and heard what he did to while away the time until he could go home.  Anyway, Susan’s comment about finding Usk on this blog has brought me back here and I will update the info, or should I say ‘lack of’ info on my paternal grandfather.  

Last year while we were wintering in Yuma, I went to the Genealogy centre at the Mormon church and a woman there helped me search for my father’s father.  I find it terribly confusing to look on either of the sites she uses - Ancestry and Family Search.  She was great at trying to find him but I am no farther ahead now than I was all those years ago.  And I think I am just about at the stage where I am going to be content not knowing what happened to him or if he had another family, changed his name etc.  

Oh, I just realized that my previous post was in 2016 and in the summer of 2017 Stefan and I took a 4 month trip across Canada to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday.  We toured all ten Provincial Parliament buildings and thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  We went in our Leisure Travel Class B Van and just loved camping in it.  We were 100 days in Canada and then headed into the US and got to Yuma in mid October.  We left home June 15th.  Anyway, when we got to Manitoba, we went to the Vital Statistics Archives and did a search for my grandfather whose war records say he was born in Roseland, Manitoba.  There is no record of his birth there.  I even paid extra money and completed a ‘search’ form so someone would continue to search after we left.  When we got home from Yuma in the spring there was an envelope there with a letter saying no records were found.  Oddly enough, if he chose to change his name on his birth certificate, his original birth record would have been wiped out completely.  That is what happened to my father’s original birth info.  When I went searching for him under ‘Holmes’, he was not to be found.  His brother, Bill’s birth info was there under that last name but not James Edward’s.  Took me a while but eventually I searched under ‘O’Brien’ and there he was.  He officially changed his name in 1954 and his 1914 birth as James Edward Holmes is no more.  So that is what I think grandpa did and his info has totally been wiped out.  Goofy. 

Mother would have turned 109 on November 28th.  I thought lots about her that day.  The older I get and more I think about her, the more I admire the woman she was.  I hope she knows that.  :-)

So, that’s where I stand in my search.  Should I ever find out more, I will post it for sure.  

Cheerio,

New info on my paternal Grandfather,

Well, the mystery deepens.  Yesterday I saw something on Facebook about a genealogy workshop in Terrace for people to find info on soldiers during the 1st World Way; 1914-1918.  I am friends with a woman on FB, in Terrace, who seems to be very good at researching so I sent her a private message asking about the workshop and if it was just to find people who were from Terrace, in the war.  I told her about my paternal Grandfather, James Lonvill Holmes and how I could find no info about him after the war.  I had his attestation papers, showing him signing up, in Manitoba, that then the trail ended.

Well, it didn't take her long and she had a TON of information!  She'd gone on the Government of Canada website, war records, and there was 50 pages of info on him!  It's actually the same site where I found his Attestation Papers a year or so ago and I guess they've digitized more of the records!  I remember once time that Father said he'd been told his dad was shot as a deserter during the war.......and, actually, a couple of years ago I did find a list of those shot for deserting and his name wasn't listed.  Anyway, here's what I found out.

He did, indeed desert!  I think it was May, 1917 - then he must have re-enlisted or something because his record continues right to 1919, when he was discharged.  I have yet to study all the info in more depth but wanted to just get this information down so there's some recording of it.  Here's the website where his war records is:

http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B4460-S017

SO, did he ever come back to Canada?  Did he have a new family in England?  On one of the papers, he is shown as James Wm Holmes and with a birth place as London, England........what that's about, I have no idea.   He did, apparently, spend 9 months in jail for deserting. 

SO, the next mystery.  When did Grandma actually get together with Patrick O'Brien?  Auntie Bessie, Bessie Lilian O'Brien, was born March 10, 1916.  That makes her only about 18 months older than Father - and he was a Holmes.  Both Auntie Bessie's marriage certificate AND her death certificate show she was born in 1916.  By next year I should be able to access her actual birth record, as they are released 100 years after the birth, I believe. 

Bessie Lilian O'Brien's marriage and death info:

Not sure whether her middle name is spelled 'Lilian' or 'Lillian'. 

I'll keep searching, and Carol, in Terrace is checking England to see if she can find any info on James Lonville Holmes - post World War 1. 

Cheerio,

The naming of my oldest brother......

We have now moved into our condo, where we hope to remain until we tip over.  Got home April 15th, from Arizona via Penticton, and all our furniture was here, everything unpacked.  In the spare room closet were our 8 BIG Rubbermaid tubs of photos and paraphernalia, as well as about the same number of cardboard boxes with stuff like that!

So, Stefan and I decided, since we had NO unpacking or anything to do, we'd tackle these bins etc first thing..........and that's what we did.  Took us the better part of a month but we whittled it down to 2 bins - one containing photos etc from the time we were married, forward; and one that contains heritage/history info/stuff.

While going through everything, I found a photo copy of a bible that must have belonged to my maternal great grandparents, the Millars.  Alexander McDonald Millar (1853) and Fanny McAlpine (1855) My grandmother, Elizabeth McAlpine Millar, was their 2nd child and first daughter, born in July, 1878.

OK - now to the story of my brother, Danny's, birth.  He was born on September 19, 1938, in Prince Rupert, BC.  Mother didn't say how his name, James Daniel, was chosen (well, 'James' was obviously after our father, James Edward) but I do remember her telling me that Grandma (her mother) was quite incensed about her choice and said 'I wonder that you'd name him an Irish name like that'.  Mother said she replied 'well, you named your first born after somebody's behind!' (her older sister was named Fanny).  Anyway, it was a funny story - and typical of Grandma - she was quite a critical person - I remember her always saying things like 'I wonder that you'd wear your hair like that...' and things of a similar nature. 

So, back to the copy of the family bible........  I don't remember seeing these pages before now so I was super interested in reading it.  AND, their 5th child, born December 18, 1884, was named JAMES DANIEL MILLAR!  I was super shocked when I read that, let me tell you, because I clearly remember mother telling me Grandma's reaction when she chose the name!  Then I thought, 'well, maybe that brother died really young and Grandma had forgotten about him....'.  Checked the page - nope, he married Isabel Neill on June 6, 1917 and died on July 16, 1962.  So, the whole name thing remains a head scratcher....  :-)

The photo copied pages don't list where the marriages or deaths took place but, as far as I know, all of the Millar family moved to Canada - and I know Grandma and Grandpa's wedding, on July 16, 1909, took place in Winnipeg.  I wonder how many Millar relatives I have in Manitoba.  I don't think mother knew many of her aunts, uncles and cousins, unfortunately.  There was one, Ruby, who lived in Calgary, but I don't know whose child she was - just that she was a cousin on mother's maternal side. 

I've rejoined Ancestry for another year - only the Canadian one, though - might have to bite the bullet and pay for the 'world' one so I can do more work in Scotland.  We'll see............