This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Valentine’. It is hard to know how your ancestors met each other and fell in love. Some genealogists are lucky to find love letters that were written between their ancestors. Others may have found diaries. Others, like myself, witness the love between a couple during the daily interactions of their life.
The love story I witnessed was my in-laws, Douglas and Mary Hobson. Doug was a captain with Trans Canada Airlines (later to be called Air Canada) when he met Mary Everett who was a stewardess with the company.
Mary wanted to be a stewardess. At that time, one was required to train as a nurse before applying to be a stewardess. Mary did this and graduated as a nurse from the Welseley Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1949. Shortly after her graduation she submitted her application to be a stewardess and was hired by Trans Canada Airlines in 1952 and stationed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Doug had served in WWII as a pilot with the Air Force. He had performed 39 tours (bombing missions) before returning home to Canada in 1943. Upon returning, he continued with the air force as a flight instructor before his official discharge in 1944. Doug then decided to continue his life as a pilot and applied to Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) and started his career with them 10 April 1944 and was stationed in Winnipeg in 1945. He flew for them until the 30th of November 1977 when he retired. During his 33 years and 8 months with TCA/Air Canada he accumulated 26,532:46 hours flying time.
Mary and Doug met during a TCA bowling event. They noticed each other; Doug was a charming, good-looking man and Mary was a beautiful young woman. Mary and Doug found themselves attracted to each other, but Mary noticed Doug had a wedding ring on his left hand and didn’t want to start any relationship. The two of them continued to run into each other through work parties and get togethers with friends. Doug informed Mary that his wife left him a couple of years prior and they had been separated since. Mary agreed to start dating.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to realize they were meant for each other and Doug introduced Mary to his seven-year-old daughter. As 1953 neared its end Doug petitioned the courts to divorce his wife, Ruby. The petition was heard in the courts and on the 1st of December 1953 the decree was awarded ‘unless sufficient cause be shown to the Court why this Decree should not be made absolute within three months of the date thereof’. At that time the usual period between the Decree and the Order to make it Absolute and Final was six months. Doug asked his lawyer to argue for this period to be reduced so that he and Mary could marry as soon as possible. The judge agreed to reduce the period and on 03 March 1954 the ‘COURT DOTH ORDER AND DECREE that the said decree mentioned and made herein on the 1st day of December, A.D., 1953 be and the same is hereby absolute and final’.
Mary and Doug were married ten days later on 13 March 1954 in Brockville, Ontario, Canada. This marriage lasted 52 ½ years and ended when Mary passed away 05 November 2006.
The family grew by two after the birth of their daughter and son making them a family of five. Family and friends were important to both Mary and Doug. They loved socializing and established great friendships with couples that had children of similar age to their own. Some of these friendships have continued and Mary and Doug’ three children remain in contact with these families; John and Barney Higham are one of these couples that communication by phone or email continues.
Doug commented on more than one occasion to me that he loved Mary and that he could ‘honestly say that they never argued with each other’. They just had ‘discussions’. I can state that I never saw them argue or even appear annoyed with one another. Mary did have a wonderful way to avoid disagreeing with him; this allowed her to win the important discussions. Doug always wanted Mary around and when she wasn’t, he truly missed her. As he aged he began having issues with his memory. Once when Mary was in hospital, arrangements were made to make sure that Doug was never alone because of his memory. One day I received a phone call from my son, who was keeping his grandfather company. My son reported that grandpa had left by taxi before he knew what was happening. I quickly got in the car and headed for the hospital Mary was in, as well as, making a phone call to the taxi company to determine where Doug had taken the taxi to. The taxi company informed me they had dropped Doug off at St. Boniface Hospital. When I got there and entered Mary’s hospital room I found both my in-laws having a conversation and Doug did not know why I appeared so concerned.
When both Mary and Doug were admitted to a long-term care facility they were not on the same ward. The desire for Doug to see Mary was too compelling and even with his memory issues he was able to find her on the few times he left the ward without an escort.
These two wonderful people truly had a love that lasted through all their ups and downs of marriage. I am glad I had the opportunity to know them and witness that love.
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Favourite Name’. My 10,000+ family tree contains 2,423 different names. When looking over these names I find I like a certain name because I like a relative or friend with that name, because of the unique way of spelling it, because it is unique, or just because I think it is beautiful.
How do parents choose a name for their child? This can be considered a very important and stressful time during a pregnancy because parents want to pick a name that suits their child but may be restricted by family traditions or country laws. In some societies it is common to wait a period of time (sometimes a few months) to get to know the child before naming them.
Some cultures have family names passed on from generation to generation by following this naming pattern:
The first son is named after the paternal grandfather;
The second son after the maternal grandfather;
The third son after the father;
The first daughter after the maternal grandmother;
The second daughter after the paternal grandmother;
The third daughter after the mother.
Other cultures encourage the child to have two or three names. The two-name pattern would be a spiritual or Christian first name followed by the name the person would be known by. With the three-name pattern the first name would be a spiritual or Christian name, and the second and third names would be more traditional and often comprised of three syllables.
In cultures where the family surname is derived from the father’s surname the mother’s maiden name is changed as she adopts her husband’s surname after marriage. This is referred to as patrilineal surname. Some families choose to carry the mother’s maiden name on through the children by giving one child this name as a first name or by giving multiple children or all the children this name as a middle name.
In the Eastern Slavic countries, the child would be given a first name, a patronymic middle name and the family surname. The middle name would end in -vych or -vovych for men and -ivna or -yivna for women.
In the Jewish faith the child is often named after a family member who has died. Parents hope that in honouring an admired family member this way the child will carry that person’s virtues during their life. It is also believed the soul of the loved one lives on in the child who bears his/her name. Sometimes parents choose to modernize the original name of the person they are honouring by finding a name that has the same or similar meaning, choosing a name that sounds similar, choosing a name that starts with the same letter or choosing a name that in some way relates to the memory of the person.
Some countries, like Iceland, require the parents to stick to a limited list of names. This is to preserve the Icelandic language and to protect Iceland’s cultural heritage. Names must contain only letters from the Icelandic alphabet, they may not conflict with the linguistic structure of Icelandic, they shouldn’t embarrass the child and the gender-based name must be given to the appropriate gender. There are currently about 1,700 male names and 1,850 female given names on the list. Parents may want to name their child a name that is not on the list. To do this they must send a request to the Icelandic Naming Committee who will determine if the name follows all the required criteria before consenting to its use.
Many names have been identified with a specific gender by adding a letter to the end of the name or changing the letter at the end of the name. Some examples of this are Alan/Alana, Antonia/Antonio, George/Georgia Robert/Roberta, Verna/Verne and Victor/Victoria.
Some parents choose a name that is unique so their child will always stand out in the crowd. Many popular celebrities have been noted to have taken this path. Other parents may choose a name they love, but they spell it differently; add a letter, remove a letter or change a letter for another letter that will produce the same sound. Some names that were more common a generation or two ago are becoming more common again because they are now considered unique. There are some names from my list of ancestors that I don’t think will become common again, such as Patience, Shackel, Silence and Submit.
Some parents have given their child a gender-neutral name. Examples from my family tree are Allison, Bailey, Beverley, Brett, Carmen, Claude, Clemence, Dallas, Dana, Daniel, Devin, Emerson, Erin, Finley, Finn, Francis, Gail, Jean, Jesse, Kelly, Kelsey, Kennedy, Kimberley, Laurie, Lee, Leslie, Lindsay, Marion, Morgan, Robin, Shannon, Shaun, Shawn, Shelley, Stephanie, Sydney and Valerie. Some people don’t recognize that many names are now considered gender-neutral. The history of the name may have originated with one gender but over time was also used for the opposite gender.
My name is one of those. My parents liked the name Shaun and that was the name I was given. Shaun was the common spelling version for a male, but I was a little girl. I feel it has set me apart and helped make me unique. I have learned to live with the surprise when someone meets me for the first time and they expected I would be male. The first day of my new job as a nurse I was greeted by many of the staff with ‘oh, I thought we were getting a male nurse’. I have also lived with people wanting to call me Shauna and I have to keep correcting them. I have not appreciated the times when I have attempted to pay for a purchase at a store with my credit card and have been asked if I am using my husband’s card or asked to show identification to prove it is my card. But, I can easily recognize junk mail because it comes addressed to ‘Mr. Shaun Hobson’. I love my name and am glad my parents chose it for me.
Do you know the history of your name and the reasons behind your parents choosing it for you?
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘In the Census’. This prompt stumped me for quite a while, because I wasn’t sure how to interpret it. I consider the information I find in census records as a starting point for me to do further research. The information that can be gleaned from these records are:
the person’s name,
age,
gender,
marital status,
place of birth,
religion,
racial origin,
occupation, and
community of residence.
Over the years the questions in a census form have changed and they might also capture:
the position the person holds in the household,
the street address of the home,
the type of building they are living in and the number of rooms in the building,
whether their home is owned or rented,
the value of the home or the cost of rent,
whether the person can read or write and the language they speak,
the year of immigration, if they were not born in the country of the census, and if they naturalized to the country the year this occurred,
whether they have life insurance and, if so, the amount of insurance and the cost of it,
the number of months in the previous year they were employed and the amount they earned in wages,
the highest level of education they have achieved, and
if they are attending school, the number of months in the past year they attended.
The reasons I feel the census record is only a starting point in my research for an individual is because most documents are filled out by an enumerator and you don’t know who is providing the answers to the questions – it could be the actual person, a spouse, a child, an in-law, an employer or a landlord. Therefore, the information cannot be considered 100% accurate but only a reference. It is the other documents/records you look for to support your findings in a census that leads to more confidence regarding the information you accumulate about an individual.
With this in mind, the person I choose this week is William Maxwell Evarts. He is my husband’s 5th cousin, 3 times removed. The first United States Federal Census I found that records William is the 1860 census. It records William M Evarts as a 42 year old male who is living in New York, New York in Ward 18, District 2. It states he is a Lawyer and was born in Massachusetts. His Real Estate is valued at $3,000 and his Personal Estate is $2,000. The other people listed as living in the same dwelling are:
Helen M Evarts, a 39 year old female born in Vermont,
Charles B Evarts, a 15 year old male born in New York and attending school,
Allen W Evarts, an 11 year old male born in New York and attending school,
William Evarts, a 9 year old male born in New York and attending school,
Hettie S Evarts, a 7 year old female born in New York,
Mary Evarts, a 5 year old female born in Vermont,
Helen M Evarts, a 4 year old female born in New York,
Elizabeth Evarts, a 2 year old female born in New York,
Sherman Evarts, an 8 month old male born in New York;
Prescott Evarts, an 8 month old male born in New York.
This record does not indicate how these people are related to William, or if they are related at all. It is through the discovery of other records I am able to determine the 39 year old Helen is his wife and the children are his sons and daughters. Also, listed as living in this house is Rachael Brown, a cook; Rachael A Coombs, domestic help; Daniel King, a waiter; Susan Brown, a nurse; and Jane Dunn, a nurse. From this census information I can assume this family is well off and may be a prominent family in New York society. This led to more research and the life of William Maxwell Evarts.
The Evarts’ ancestors came to the USA from England between 1601 and 1637. The Evarts took part in the American Revolution with brothers and cousins choosing opposing sides. Those that chose to fight for Britain left the USA for Canada and are part of the United Empire Loyalists. My husband is descended from Sylvanus Evarts, who fought for Britain and became a United Empire Loyalist. Those that chose to fight for the USA stayed in the USA and many descendants became prominent in their chosen fields of occupation. William Maxwell Evarts is descended from a branch that fought for the USA.
William Maxwell Evart’s father was Jeremiah F Evarts. According to Wikipedia, Jeremiah was a lawyer, Christian missionary, reformer and activist for the rights of American Indians in the USA and a leading opponent of the Indian removal policy of the United States government. He was also an editor of The Panoplist, a religious monthly magazine from 1805 until 1820, where he published over 200 essays under the pen name William Penn.
William’s maternal grandfather was the Honorable Roger Sherman. According to Wikipedia, Roger was an early American lawyer and politician, as well as a founding father. He was never formally educated as a lawyer. In fact, his education is stated as never extending beyond his father’s library and grammar school. He was considered to have had an aptitude for learning. His early career was spent as a shoe-maker and store owner. Apparently, due to his mathematical skill he became county surveyor of New Haven County in 1745 and began providing astronomical calculations for almanacs in 1759. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was also a representative and senator in the new republic. He was the only person to sign all four great state papers of the US: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. It is because of Roger Sherman the United States government has two legislative bodies. It was his idea to create both the House and the Senate in order to resolve conflict between the big and small states.
William Maxwell Evarts
William Maxwell Evarts was born 06 February 1818 in Boston, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA to Jeremiah Evarts and Mehetabel Prescott Sherman. He was the youngest of five children, he had three sisters and one brother.
William grew up in Massachusetts and attended the Boston Latin School and then Yale College. He graduated third in his class with a Bachelor of Arts from Yale in 1837. While attending Yale he became a member of two secret societies; the literary and debate oriented Linonian Society and Skull and Bones. William was, also, one of the founders of Yale Literary Magazine in 1836.
After college William moved to Windsor, Vermont and taught school. He then attended Harvard Law School. After graduating with his law degree he moved to New York City where he was admitted to the bar in 1841, of which he was a founding member. He entered the law office of Daniel Lord.
In 1849, William was appointed the assistant United States attorney for the district of New York which he served until 1853. In1851 he was made a commissioner of the Almshouse (later known as the Commissioners of Charity and Correction).
In 1851, William began a law partnership with Charles F. Southmayd. It was named Butler, Evarts & Southmayd and later Evarts, Southmayd & Choate.
In 1856, the New York legislature appointed William to the position of New York Attorney General. In this position he argued to uphold the decision of the New York Superior Court to release eight black slaves in the Lemmon Slave Case. The Appellate Division affirmed the ruling and Virginia appealed. William Evarts represented the state in the New York Court of Appeals and won.
Arguments and Speeches of William Maxwell Evarts is a 3 volume set authored by his son Sherman Evarts. It was published in 1919.
William gained a reputation as intelligent and well prepared for arguments and a great orator in the courtroom. It wasn’t long before he was considered one of the country’s top lawyers. It didn’t take long before many prominent citizens hired William to represent them and he was entrusted with many large estates, including the Astors.
He served on New York’s Union Defense Committee during the Civil War and was a delegate to the New York state constitutional convention of 1867.
In 1868, William was chief counsel for President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. He delivered the closing argument and achieved President Johnson’s acquittal. This lead to his appointment as United States Attorney General from July 1868 until March 1869.
In 1872, he was counsel for the United States before the tribunal of arbitration on the Alabama claims in Geneva, Switzerland. His oral argument helped the United States recover on its claims for the destruction of Union military ships, commercial ships and commercial cargo by the CSS Alabama and other Confederate ships which had been built in and sailed from British ports during the American Civil War.
William served as counsel for President-elect Rutherford B. Hayes before the Electoral Commission and during President Hayes’ administration he served as Secretary of State. While in this position he acted upon reports of corruption in the foreign service and ‘cleaned house’ prior to the 1880 election.
In 1881, William was a delegate to the International Monetary Conference in Paris.
From 1885 to 1891, William served one term as US Senator from New York. During this time, he served as chairman of the US Senate Committee on the Library and was a sponsor of the Judiciary Act of 1891 (known as the Evarts Act) which created the United States courts of appeals.
William Evarts led the American fund-raising effort for the Statue of Liberty pedestal and was the chairman of the American Committee for the statue. He spoke at the unveiling on 28 October 1886.
William retired from public life in 1891 due to ill health. He died 28 February 1901 in New York City and was buried at Ascutney Cemetery in Windsor, Vermont.
William Maxwell Evert’s Gravestone
William married Helen Minerva Bingham Wardner 30 August 1843 at St. Paul’s Church in Windsor, Vermont. They had 12 children between 1845 and 1862; Charles Butler, Roger Sherman, Allen Wardner, William, Hettie Sherman, Mary, Helen Minerva, Elizabeth Hoar, Prescott, Sherman, Louisa Wardner and Maxwell. The family split their time between the high society circles of New York City and Windsor, Vermont. The New York Times reported on debutante balls and social gatherings involving many of the children, as well as, their time in Vermont.
Evarts Home located at 26 Main Street, Windsor, Vermont was built in 1815 by John P Skinner who was the owner of a busy stage line. William Maxwell Evarts purchased the Skinner home for $5,000 in the 1820s. It became part of a three-home residential compound of the Evarts family that grew over the years to include a number of homes and over a thousand acres-sometimes referred to as Evarts Estate. It also began almost two hundred years of ownership of the property by the Evarts family line. (taken from the Snapdragon Inn website – http://www.snapdragoninn.com/history/)
William’s son, Allen Wardner Evarts graduated from Yale College in 1869. He supported the founding of Wolf’s Head Society and served as the first president of its alumni association. He held the position for 20 years. He was also a law partner, corporate president and trustee of Vassar College.
William’s son, Maxwell Evarts graduated from Yale College in 1884, where he was also a member of Skull and Bones. He served as a New York City district attorney and later as General Counsel for EH Harriman, which later became the Union Pacific Railroad. He was president of two Windsor, Vermont banks and the chief financial backer of the Gridley Automatic Lathe. Maxwell served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives as was a Vermont State Fair Commissioner.
William’s grandson, Maxwell E Perkins became the noted editor of Charles Scribner’s Sons, and dealt with authors, such as, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and James Jones.
William’s great-grandson, Archibald Cox, served as a US Solicitor General and special prosecutor during President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
William Maxwell Evarts was well off and prominent in New York society. He was influential in the laws and government of the United States. He was respected by the people he met and worked with over his lifetime. His family continues to be influential in various aspects of the United States society.
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Invite to Dinner’. There are so many ancestors I would love the chance to meet and ask questions, especially those with a brick wall.
The person I chose this week is my husband’s great-great grandfather, William Bell. He is one of those brick walls. The information I have been able to find, regarding William’s life, is derived from the Census of Canada records, Marriage Banns from the respective parishes in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Death Registers from the Archives of Manitoba and the book Rural Reflections, Vol. II 1879-1982, published by the Isabella History Committee.
William Bell was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The records I have found place his year of birth between 1823 and 1828. The first record of his life was his marriage banns to Annie Grierson. The banns of marriage are the public announcement of an intended marriage between two specified persons. The banns are read in the parish church of the individuals and allow others to raise concerns as to why the marriage should not occur. The banns must be read aloud on three Sundays before the wedding ceremony. The first banns I was able to find were posted in William’s parish on 11 May 1851 and 18 May 1851 in Dryfesdale, Dumfriesshire and it states “William Bell in this parish and Ann Grierson in the parish of Applegarth”. The second record I found was the posting in Annie’s parish, Applegarth, Dumfriesshire, on 18 May 1851. It states “William Bell in Dryfesdale, and Ann Grierson in this Parish, Proclaimed two days – married elsewhere”.
The next record I found were the entries in the 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia for a Wm. Bell (even though the census states 1851, the enumeration did not occur until 1852). William is recorded as living in a one-storey framed house in the Township of Pickering, Ontario. It states he is a 25-year-old married labourer, born in Scotland and whose religion is Scotland Presbyterian. The others in the house are his 19-year-old wife, Ann Bell, and his daughter, Jennet Bell, who was born 20 January 1852 in the Pickering area of Ontario. This means they left Scotland and arrived in Canada between 18 May 1851 and 20 January 1852.
William continued to live and farm in the Pickering area until 1881/82. This is supported by the 1861, 1871 and 1881 Census of Canada. These censuses report his date of birth as either 1826 or 1828. William and Annie had eight children: Jennet, William Grierson, Margaret Grierson, Margaret Ann (Annie), Francis, Jean Agnes, Robert and John. Annie passed away 15 February 1874 as a result of complications following the birth of her son, John. She is buried at the St. John’s Presbyterian Cemetery in Pickering and on the headstone, it is written “In memory of Ann Grierson the beloved wife of William Bell died Feb’y 15, 1874 aged 42 years and 10 mo’s A native of Dumfriesshire Scotland”.
In the spring of 1881, William and his son-in-law, Walter Palmer, (Jennet’s husband) came to Manitoba to find a homestead and register it. They arrived by train in Brandon and then took off by foot looking for a homestead; about 70 miles later they found it. William chose the northwest quarter of 24-14-26 and took a pre-emption for the northeast quarter of the same section. This land was located in what became known as Blaris, Manitoba. Walter registered the southwest quarter of this section. William and Walter spent the summer clearing and establishing their homestead. They built a small frame house and the walls filled with grout (a lime and sand mixture). This created an eight-inch thick wall for protection against the heat and cold of the outside. They also started a garden and when fall came they harvested the potatoes and stored them in the small cellar beneath the house. After closing the house up for the winter, William and Walter headed back East.
In the spring of 1882, they returned to Manitoba to live. The party consisted of William, and five of his eight children: John, Robert, Annie, Margaret and Jennet, and also Jennet’s husband, Walter Palmer, and their two children, William Samuel and Ann Grierson. William Bell’s two older sons, William and Frances, chose to go to the United States and his daughter, Annie remained in Ontario for a few more years before moving to Manitoba with her husband and children.
According to William Samuel Palmer’s entry in the book Rural Reflections, Vol. II 1879-1982 he recalls that his mother, Jennet, “did not like the idea of leaving Ontario, but “Go West” was the slogan of that time and quite a number of people migrated west”. William’s entry continues on to state they took the Soo Line from Minneapolis to Winnipeg and then on to Brandon. In Brandon they were met by William and Walter who loaded up their belongings and headed to the homestead. They could not make this trek in one day and, according to William, they stayed at the farm of Mr. John Crockart for a while, located about eight miles north of Brandon. The travelling party consisted of eight people and they joined the three Crockarts and all 11 managed to live in a 16’ x 20’ log house.
They left the Crockart’s and continued their trek to the homestead with a wagon and a team of mules that were owned by another farmer. There were no roads or bridges and the three rivers, Little Saskatchewan River, Oak River and Arrow River, had to be crossed with caution because the waters were high from the spring thaw. It took three days to reach their homestead; each night they relied on the hospitality of farmers along the way. William notes the farm they stayed at the first night was located just west of Rapid City. It was owned by the Shanks and this family lived in what was called a ‘dugout’; a structure created by the earth and sod. One was required to walk down into the ground for four or five steps and the walls and roof were made from cut sod. “The inside of the ceiling was covered with cotton, to keep dust and dirt off the bed and table, etc.” William can remember his mother crying in bed that night, saying “To think we have come to this”.
They finally arrived at their homestead and the whole family lived in the house that was erected the summer before. The family quickly started the various chores required to finish the house, dig a well, build a stable, plant the garden, break the land, plant the crops and take care of the farm animals.
William Bell passed away 13 December 1887 and is buried in the Arrow River Cemetery. William’s headstone states he was 64 years old.
William Bell’s Gravestone
Various family members have pondered the reason for the move from Ontario to Manitoba. Some of us feel that William had a need to establish a farm and enough land for his sons to inherit. When William and Annie Bell arrived in Ontario most of the land in southern Ontario was owned and it was hard to find a farm for sale. I have checked with the appropriate property title offices in the Pickering area and cannot find a record of William Bell ever owning property there. According to the records I have found, they lived in Green River and Uxbridge; communities in Pickering. I surmise that he must have rented these farms.
I may have hit a brick wall with William Bell, but I do know he came from Dumfriesshire, Scotland and the history of the Bells from this area is recorded in many historical documents, books and websites, such as, Clan Bell International; Clan Bell North America; Wikipedia; The Lowland Clearances; Scotland’s Silent Revolution: 1760-1830, Peter Aitchison & Andrew Cassell; Memorial of the Clan of the Bells, 1864, C.D. Bell; The Bell Family in Dumfriesshire, 1932, James Steuart;
The Bell clan in Scotland is noted to have lived in Dumfriesshire which is part of the border area between Scotland and England. The clan was also known as the Bells of The Border.
The true origins of the name are unknown. There are various theories such as the name came from the old French town of Belle, from a Frenchman named Gilbert La Fitz Bel, from another Frenchman named William Le Bell, from the shortening of Isabel, from the sign of a bell on an Inn, from the priests of the Druid agricultural deity Baal and from the moors of Denmark to the dales of Norway.
Blackethouse Tower ruins
The first records of the Bell name (variations are Bel, Bellis, Belle, Beall, Beal, Beale and Bale) in Dumfriesshire indicate they settled in the Middlebie Parish around the 11th century. In 1296, Bells are noted as landholders in these lands and, during the next four centuries, acquired what was almost a monopoly of a part of Annandale centered on Blackethouse in Middlebie parish. ‘As numerous as the Bells of Middlebie’ was a phrase known throughout Dumfriesshire. The Bells, an old West Marche Clan, were one of the eight great riding families of the Scottish Border since the early 1100s and were great friends and supporters of the Great House of Douglas, after Archibald Earl of Douglas granted lands to William Bell at Kirkconnel in Annandale in 1424. William built a fortified tower there which featured the Bell clan crest, still in use today. In 1426, William Bell’s lands of Kirkconnel were confirmed by James I under a charter recorded in the register of the great seal. The Bell Clan used to number their horses in the hundreds and their cattle and sheep in the thousands.
The Bell Clan allied with the best border families through blood and friendship. Their land holdings were extensive, and to survive, they engaged in the ‘reiving’ (to go on a plundering raid) of the period and participated in many battles against the English. The Bells of Middlebie were quite well known, especially for their fighting skills. Their lands were situated in what became the center of the struggles between Scotland and England. For centuries these border families fought, feuded, raided, and ravaged across, and parallel to, The Border. The Bells and Grahams, Armstrongs and Johnstones, Kerrs and Scotts formed ever-shifting alliances or declared implacable feuds with each other along and across The Border. The only constant was their loyalty to family being above all else.
Life on The Border was rough and dangerous; homes were burned, crops destroyed, livestock stolen or slaughtered, household possessions seized, and many of the local people were “put to the sword.” When politics were not the force behind an invasion, the Reivers were raiding for revenge or simply for loot. These constant wars and violent raids usually followed a scorched-earth policy resulting in The Border people sustaining their families by ‘acquiring’ movable goods, in addition to fending off those who wished to reciprocate and their reputation as ‘raiders, thieves and broken men’, was occasioned by circumstances which gained them a lasting place in Border legend. To minimize their loss, Border families lived in crude hovels constructed of a few stones, poles, and turf or thatched roofs, leaving little concern if destroyed as they could reconstruct their destroyed home in a matter of a day or so. Planting crops and storing grain were not usually done by The Border people because they could be easily stolen or burned. Instead, The Border people concentrated on keeping “goods on the hoof”, resulting in the target of most raids to be cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock. Counter raids offered some hope of replacing stolen livestock, which may have been stolen previously from the victim of that day.
During all of this feuding, plundering and fighting the local law was often hopelessly outnumbered on both sides of The Border. Expeditions to bring a semblance of order were occasionally dispatched from Edinburgh or London often resulting in the marginally effective method of hanging a number of the most notorious Border Reivers. The Bells, along with other Border families, became increasingly turbulent throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Bells were one of the thirteen clans considered “the Devil’s Dozen” for their reiving activities. The Crown’s determination to pacify the Borders led in 1517 to Clan Bell receiving royal letters of warning to keep the peace. The Bells are, also, included in the 1587 list of unruly clans in the West Marches. The Act of 1587 was passed ‘for the quieting and keeping in obedience of the disordered subjects, inhabitants of the borders, highlands and isles.
According to Wikipedia, the Bells are noted to have been part of the 1585 siege of Stirling Castle by Scots factions which resulted in the defeat of James VI, King of Scotland. The Carruthers clan were present at the November 2, 1585 Siege of Stirling. George Carruthers, 2nd Baron Homains and 6th Laird, was in command along with John Maxwell, Provost of Dumfries, of 3 companies of infantry and 2 troops of cavalry. This force was comprised of Carruthers, Bells and Irvines. It was normally the practice of the Bells of Middlebie to rally under the standard of Carruthers of Mouswald. Overall command that day was under Lord Maxwell. The Muster Roll from this siege gives a list of forty Dumfriesshire Bells, including the chief, William Bell known as Redcloak, of Blackethouse.
The frequent pillaging of both sides of the Border region continued until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. It was at this time that James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English throne as James I after Elizabeth I of England died. King James set out immediately to tame the Border region. His methods were cruel and he had the power on both sides of The Border to relentlessly bring about order. It took seven years of ruthless enforcement of harsh decrees before the Borders started to be a peaceable, stable place to live. By 1620 reiving virtually disappeared.
Border Reivers raided where they had to in order to survive. They were shaped by the conditions of their lives, that were largely beyond their control. Border people have been described as taciturn, harsh of voice, hard-headed, tough, unscrupulous, quarrelsome, and vengeful. These characteristics were certainly the result of enduring for centuries the conquering armies and outlaw raiders from the south and the scruples of a man would not be challenged if it meant he had to raid across The Border to feed his family.
In 1606, the attention of the King and the government was turned to the launch of the Plantation of Ulster, an organised colonisation to impose a Protestant influence in the province of Ulster located in Northern Ireland. This caused many of the families from The Border to move or be moved to Ireland where the name Bell is among the twenty most numerous in that province. The Lowland Clearances, between 1760 and 1830, further dispersed The Border Reivers.
According to Wikipedia, the Lowland Clearances were one of the results of the Scottish Agricultural Revolution, which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in Lowland Scotland in the seventeenth century. Thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from the southern counties (Lowlands) of Scotland migrated from farms and small holdings they had occupied to the new industrial centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh and northern England, or abroad to the Americas or Australia. Those that remained on the land had to adapt to the Scottish Agricultural Revolution.
As farmland became more commercialised in Scotland during the 18th century, land was often rented through auctions. This led to an inflation of rents that priced many tenants out of the market. Furthermore, changes in agricultural practice meant the replacement of part-time labourer or subtenants (known as cottars, cottagers, or bondsmen) with full-time agricultural labourers who lived either on the main farm or in rented accommodation in growing or newly founded villages. This led many contemporary writers and modern historians to associate the Agricultural Revolution with the disappearance of cottars and their way of life from many parts of the southern Scotland.
Many small settlements were torn down, their occupants moved to new, purposely-built villages. Other displaced farmers moved to the industrial centres. In other areas, such as the southwest, landowners offered low rents and nearby employment to tenants they deemed to be respectable. While most Lowland Scots moved to the industrialized areas of Lowland Scotland between 1760 and 1830, some took advantage of the many new opportunities offered in Canada — to own and farm their own land. Those that chose to remain chose to do so because of their inability to secure transatlantic passage, or because of obligations in Scotland.
An Elizabethan Oak Overmantel carved with the Coat of Arms of Sir Robert Bell.
The last Chief of the Bell Clan was William Bell of Blackethouse from 1578 to 1623. His home in Annandale was known as Blackethouse and it was destroyed in 1547 during a raid by the English. William moved to another house near Kelso and named it Blackethouse, as well. History records that all Bells throughout the kingdom acknowledged Bell of Blackethouse as their Chief. William Bell of Blackethouse is believed to have used the principal Coat of Arms of the Family, (three gold bells on an azure background, and the Family Crest (a hand holding a dagger, ‘paleways proper’, with the motto, “I beir the bel”). After he died in 1628, the chiefship became dormant and without leadership the Bells ceased to exist as a viable clan. The descendants of the Lairds of Blackethouse stayed in the realm but moved to the cities where they contributed substantially to learning.
Bell Coat of Arms Azure, three bells, OrCrest: A hand holding a dagger, paleways, Proper Motto: I bear the bell Translation: I bear the bell
In April 1985, a letter providing proof of The Border Bells’ status was sent to the Lord Lyon requesting he acknowledge the Bells had, at one time, been a Clan under patriarchal chiefs and to allow them to reestablish the Clan. The Lord Lyon’s 06 May 1985 letter provided this acknowledgment and permission. Work started on tracing the senior Blackethouse line to determine the ranking Bell to be invested as Chief; Benjamin Bell, as of 2012 is the Chief Apparent of the Clan. Upon approval of the petition by the Lyon Court, Benjamin will be invested as Chief of the Bells. The Clan will then assume its rightful place among the Families of Scotland. Clan Bell had a tartan named “Bell of the Borders” established in 1984 and it is listed by the Scottish Tartans Society.
Bell of the Borders Tartan Designed by Bob Martin Tartan date: 01 January 1986
If I had the opportunity to invite William for dinner I would ask the following questions:
Where and when were you born;
What are the names of your parents and siblings and when and where were they born, married and where and when did they die;
Where did you live in Scotland and what were your occupations;
Where and when did you meet Annie;
Where and when were you married;
What was the name of the port and the date Annie and you left Scotland and the name of the ship you were on;
What was the name of the port in Canada you arrived at and the date of arrival;
What was the reason you chose Pickering, Ontario to live;
What was the reason you decided to move to Manitoba and homestead;
Oh, how I would love to meet William and ask all my questions. I would probably need to meet him for longer than a dinner to ask my questions as I am sure his answers would only lead to more questions.
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Longevity’. As I look over my tree I realize I have a number of ancestors on both my paternal and maternal side who lived a long life. I hope I have inherited those genes.
The person I chose, from this list of ancestors, is my maternal grandmother, Leila Ida Goodchild. She was born to William Elijah and Mary (née Harrison) Moore on July 1st, 1894 in Ninga, Manitoba, Canada and preferred to be called ‘Ida’.
Ida was the oldest of ten children; she had five sisters and four brothers. The youngest sister was born a month before Ida was married. Ida moved to Oxbow, Saskatchewan with her parents and siblings in 1911.
Ida met and married my grandfather, George Frederick Goodchild, on January 3oth, 1917 in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Canada. George arrived from England in 1905 and lived in the Boissevain, Manitoba area for a few years before moving to the Oxbow area in 1910. I never asked my grandmother how they met; I just presume George, with his English accent, swept Ida off her feet.
Leila Ida Moore, circa 1917George Goodchild, circa 1917
Ida gave birth to nine children; 6 daughters and 3 sons over 16 years. Ida delivered all of the children on her own. She would get a piece of material, cut a hole it in, put it in the oven to sterilize it and then use it to tie the cord. The next day she would be up doing the housework and taking care of the children. Of these nine children, one died at birth because the cord was around his neck during delivery.
Goodchild Children, circa 1939 Back Row: Stanley, Marion, Walter, Edna Front Row: Myrtle, Gladys, Bernice, Martha
Ida and George started their farming life in the Oxbow area. In 1919, they moved to the Lonely Lake district in Manitoba where they had a homestead. This lasted only a few years and in 1926 they returned to Oxbow where they rented farms over the next 20+ years. They started with the Winteringham farm on the hill, then moved to the Sair farm, then the farm in the valley and finally the Simpson farm.
Ida was a great provider. She would can vegetables and meat and make jams, jellies and preserves for the winter months. Even during the ‘Dirty Thirties’ there was enough food on the table for the family.
Ida would knit and sew clothes for the family and hand sew quilts to keep the family warm at night. Ida was known to take the cotton sacks, that the 100 pounds of flour arrived in, dye them and make dresses and bloomers for the girls. Ida’s quilting was impressive; her hand stitching was uniform and small. Many of her quilts have become family heirlooms and have been handed down to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
During one of George’s walks he came across an orphaned fawn and carried it home to take care of. It was fed milk from a bottle and Ida’s oatmeal cookies and bread. Over time the fawn became tame and the family named her Beauty. She left in the fall but returned in the spring for some more cookies and to show off her baby. She remained tame but was protective of her fawn and didn’t let anyone go near it.
In the late 1940’s early 1950’s, the Simpson farm was no longer available for them to rent. By this time the children were grown and had moved away. George boarded with some neighbours. Ida did not want to take charity so she moved to Oxbow to look for work. She became a cook for the Oxbow Hospital and Oxbow School dormitory. She rented a small room in the attic of the hospital. Here she stayed until she had saved enough money to buy a home; a 2-storey house on Prospect Avenue. George moved into the house to live with Ida again.
During the oil exploration boom, Ida had oilmen as borders and fed them dinner at noon. She was a great cook and one of the oilmen came back a few years later for a visit and he mentioned how good her meals were.
George & Ida Goodchild, circa 1974
Ida was a determined woman who was self-sufficient, possibly some may say stubborn. At the age of 91 she was up a ladder washing the outside of her windows when she fell and broke her arm. She was admitted to hospital and during the healing of her arm other difficulties arose that prevented her discharge back home. She was admitted to a long-term care facility and passed away April 1st, 1988; three months short of her 94th birthday.
4 Generations: Myrtle (Goodchild) Walterson, Ida (Moore) Goodchild, Shaun (Walterson) Hobson & Mathew Hobson, circa 1985
I remember my grandmother as loving, cheerful and giving. She was known for going to bed in the early evenings and was usually up about 5:00am to start the day. One of her sayings that I remember well was “One hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after”. No matter the number of people who would drop in to visit she would put together a delicious tea or meal. For breakfast, she would always have a hot pot of porridge on the stove, no matter the season. Her biscuit jar was always full of freshly made biscuits and every time I make biscuits I think of the time I spent with her. I look forward to living a long, productive life like my grandmother.
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Favourite Photo’. This one is hard because I have so many photographs that I love.
After much thought and flip-flopping I have chosen my paternal grandmother, Margaret Einarson (her forename was anglicized from Margrét to Margaret). I have always loved this photo. It was taken when she was working in Dauphin. She was a very beautiful young lady. She is looking straight at the camera with no hint of a smile. Her face looks pensive and maybe a little sad. Her eyes look like there is a story behind them she wants to tell. I never asked my grandmother much about this picture, although she did tell me where and when it was taken. I wish now that I had asked more questions so that I could have known her better, including her dreams for her life.
Margaret was born September 18th, 1897 in Arnes, Manitoba, Canada at the farm called Búastaði. Her parents were Jón Einarsson and Sigriður Jónsdóttir, both emigrated from Iceland in the early 1890’s settling in the Arnes area where they met and were married December 21st, 1895.
Margaret was the eldest of four children and the only girl. In 1903, when Margaret was five and her twin brothers were three, the family left Arnes for Kettle Bay on Red Deer Point. They farmed there for nine years and then moved to George Street in Winnipegosis in 1912.
Margaret worked for a couple of years at the King’s Hotel in Dauphin as a dining room cook when she was 17 – 18 years old. Margaret, also, worked as a camp cook at Hnausa on the shore of Lake Winnipeg in the summer and in the winter she fished with her brothers on Hunter’s Island, which was thought to be haunted.
Margaret was a great storyteller and a story I remember her reciting was about Hunter’s Island. She said that one season they arrived to their winter camp after the snow came and everyone got right to work leaving her alone to take care of the camp. She was in the cabin when she heard footsteps on the roof. When her brothers came back she told them what she heard. They checked the roof and could find no tracks. Everyone went about their daily duties and each of them heard strange noises that couldn’t be identified. These noises continued to escalate in volume and frequency until they concluded the camp must be haunted and all but one of them left for a neighbouring camp. The one left behind did not spend the night alone. As he was calmly reading by candlelight, he saw a ghostly man raise himself to a sitting position from the floor, while laughing eerily. This spooked the camper and sent him running in his long johns through the winter night to safety in the neighbouring camp. In the spring when the snow melted they found the remains of a body under the melting snow at the original camp.
Margaret married Bjarni Schaldemose Walterson March 27th, 1920. They met at a community event when he offered to buy her an ice cream cone. My grandmother told me that before she met Bjarni she had been engaged to a young man from a well-to-do family but had broken the engagement before meeting Bjarni. Margaret gave birth to four children: Ólína (who was born premature and died the same day), Kristjan (known as Kris), Oliver (baptized as Ólafur) and Jóhann (who died from pneumonia at the age of 13 months).
In the fall, the family would head to the fall fishing camp set up on an island at the north end of Lake Winnipegosis. Margaret and her sons would help in the camp while Bjarni and the other men fished. A Tug would come once a week to pick up the fish to be delivered to Winnipegosis. One year the fishing wasn’t very good near the island so the group set up camp on a barge out in open water. The fishermen would go out in their boats from the barge. Margaret was hired to cook and keep camp on the barge. She had two little boys at the time and to protect them while she was busy working she would tie one end of a rope to a leg of each of them and the other end of the ropes she would tie to the leg of the cook stove. This allowed the boys the freedom of moving around the barge but kept them from getting too close to the side of the barge where they might fall into the water.
Their winter fishing camp was set up on Shannon Island at the north end of Lake Winnipegosis. There was a cabin and bunkhouse located next to a trail travelled by the natives. When they saw natives going by, Bjarni would invite them for a meal. On Christmas day, it would seem like half the natives from the Chemawawin Cree Nation Reserve at Cedar Lake would come and Margaret would spend the day feeding them.
When they were not out at a fishing camp they lived in their home on Third Street which they bought in 1923. Margaret and Bjarni stopped fishing about 1930 to allow Kris and Oliver to attend school in Winnipegosis instead of taking school by correspondence when they left for the fall and winter fishing. They bought a ¼ section of land in the early 1930’s and started farming, but remained living in Winnipegosis. In 1938, they bought more farm land and moved to the farm in 1940. They decided to also keep the home in Winnipegosis.
Bjarni died January 19th, 1944 at the age of 48, leaving behind Margaret a widow at 47. The boys were adults at this time and were still living at home and helping on the farm. Kris left to serve in World War II, leaving behind Oliver to work the farm. When Kris returned from the war he worked the farm and Oliver left for Lynn Lake, Manitoba to work in the mines.
Margaret moved back to the house in Winnipegosis about 1950 after Kris and Oliver had left the farm. Margaret died August 13th, 1990 at the age of 92.
I have wonderful memories of the Sunday dinners we would have in my grandmother’s small kitchen. There would be at least 16 of us packed around the table; with my family of seven and my uncle’s family of eight. There was always stories and laughter served along with a wonderful meal.
This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Start’. How do I interpret that? I have decided it means the start of my blogging, the start of my interest in genealogy and the start of Europeans in North America.
New Year’s 1999 my older sister and I discussed our interest in continuing the genealogy research our parents had started. My sister chose my mother’s side and I chose my father’s. My parent’s efforts to collect documents and photographs was time-consuming as they had to rely on contacting individuals or government offices by mail or phone to request information. When working by mail the correspondence sometimes went back and forth a few times before the requested information was received.
With enthusiasm to undertake this new task, I ordered Family Tree Maker, installed it on my computer and was eager to get started. I did not have much information past my great-grandparents and decided that since all of them immigrated from Iceland I would post my requests on the Icelandic Message Board of the Genealogy Genforum site.
February 20th, 1999, I posted a request for each of the four sets of great-great-grandparents (eight great-great-grandparents in all). Within a short few days I had received lineage information on six of my eight great-great-grandparents. One of the reports provided information going back to an ancestor born in 520 C.E. I felt like I had hit the jackpot!
This report provided information on the ancestors of my father’s maternal grandfather (Jon Einarson). As I looked over the 141 pages of the report (I wasn’t able to read much of it since it was written in Icelandic) notable historic names started jumping off the page at me. One of these names was Snorri Þorfinnsson. According to Wikipedia, Snorri is reported to have been the first European child born in North America. Estimates of his birth suggest he was born between 1004 C.E. and 1013 C.E. Snorri is my 24th great grandfather and I descended from him through his son, Þorgeir Snorrason.
Snorri was born to Þorfinnur “karlsefni” Þórðarson and Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir. Guðríður had previously been married to Þorsteinn Eiríksson, a son of Eiríkur Þorvaldsson (Erik the Red) and a brother to Leifur (Leif the Lucky) and Þorvald. It is reported that Leifur explored the lands west of Greenland around 1000 C.E. and landed at a few places along the coast, one of them being Vinland, where he built some structures to start a settlement. These structures are thought to be those found by archealogists and located at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada. Þorvald is reported to have made the next voyage to Vinland and was killed during a conflict with the Skrælings (the natives). Þorvald is considered the first European to be buried in North America. Þorsteinn died of a fever during his voyage to Vinland with his wife, Guðríður. The widowed Guðríður returned to Greenland to the household of Erik the Red and later married Þorfinnur “karlsefni” Þórðarson. She was said to be stunningly beautiful, Christian and with exemplary manners. Þorfinnur and Guðríður are reported to have made a voyage to Vinland for the purpose of colonization. This expedition is reported to have expanded the exploration of the area, possibly as far as present day New York.
Map from http://www.webexhibits.org/vinland/archeological.html
Snorri is thought to have been born in L’Anse aux Meadows. The Vinland Sagas, The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Eric the Red, indicate the birth of Snorri. It is also written in these sagas that when Snorri was about three years old his family left Vinland and returned to Iceland.
Snorri resided at the Glaumbær farm, located in the Skagafjörður district of northern Iceland. He had two children, a daughter named Hallfríður and a son named Þorgeir.
Snorri is considered one of two main figures responsible for the Christianisation of Iceland. He built the first church at Glaumbær which helped increase the Christian faith in the area. Hallfrid was the mother of Þorlákur Runólfsson (1086-1133) who was a bishop of Skálholt, located in the south of Iceland. Þorgeir was the grandfather of Brandur Sæmundsson (1163-1201) who was a bishop of Hólar, a small community located in the Skagafjörður.
After the death of Snorri’s father his mother, Guðríður, made a pilgrimage to Rome. Guðríður was considered the most widely travelled woman in the world then. On her return to Glaumbær she lived in solitary worship as a nun and established a nunnery there.
Photographed in Glaumbær, Iceland, August 1997 by Kathryn Buchanan
Identical statues of Guðríður standing in a boat with Snorri on her shoulder are located at Laugarbrekka, Guðríður’s birthplace, Glaumbær and in Ottawa, at the Canadian Museum of History.
My children standing beside a statue depicting their 25th Great-Grandfather and 26th Great-Grandmother. This statue is located at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, Canada; July 2000 by Shaun Hobson.Statue of Guðríður standing in a boat with Snorri on her shoulder located at at the Canadian Museum of History, July 2000 by Shaun Hobson.Caption under the statue at the Canadian Museum of History located in Ottawa, Canada, July 2000 by Shaun Hobson.
In 2002 American archaeologists, led by a team from UCLA, discovered the remains of a thousand-year-old longhouse located in the field beside the Glaumbær Folk Museum. This longhouse is believed to be Snorri Þorfinnsson’s farmhouse and its features are consistent with the description of his farm, as written in the Sagas.
I have accepted the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge and am starting my first blog. The first decision in creating this blog was to name it. This took some thought and I finally decided on Hobson’s Choice Genealogy. I feel the name is fitting since we have no choice in who we are related to. It is also fitting since Hobson is my last name and my readers may accept my writings or not.
Hobson’s Choice is a phrase that means there is no choice or there is a free choice in which only one thing is offered and there is no real alternative. The choice is to take either that which is offered or nothing.
According to Wikipedia the phrase is said to have originated with Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner in Cambridge, England, who offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in his stall nearest to the door or taking none at all. According to a plaque underneath a painting of Hobson donated to Cambridge Guildhall, Hobson had an extensive stable of some 40 horses. This gave the appearance to his customers that, upon entry, they would have their choice of mounts, when in fact there was only one: Hobson required his customers to choose the horse in the stall closest to the door. This was to prevent the best horses from always being chosen, which would have caused those horses to become overused. Hobson’s stable was located on land that is now owned by St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
