In his younger days, Bill was a better than average amateur golfer. Right up till his death, Bill kept in shape by playing a lot of tennis (when he was not playing golf). Bill was a transit driver in Toronto, (bus, streetcar and subway trains), before his retirement. Bill's cremation ashes were scattered in Mount Pleasant cemetery.
Marjorie died in Mt. Sinai hospital. She had broken her leg about a month previously and never fully recovered from this setback. Marg's cremation ashes were scattered in Mount Pleasant cemetery in the same general area as her husband's.
Doug worked at a news service known as "Canadian Press"
Joe served overseas with the Canadian Army in WW I and was wounded four times. (He was only 16 when he ran away from home to enlist in March of 1915. He lied about his age and joined up as an under-age volunteer -- regimental #925501). After discharge from the Army, he got a job with CN Rail as a fireman and later became an engineer. In WW II, he joined up again and this time served as a stoker on a corvette in convoy duty with the Canadian Navy.
Joe most certainly had to be one of very few Canadian veterans who were
engaged in active military service in both the 1st and 2nd World Wars.After his discharge, Joe resumed employment with CN Rail as a locomotive engineer in the coal-fired steam engine days. As he then lived in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, his work section included the northern Ontario bush country route from Winnipeg to Port Arthur (now Thunder bay). In this line section, he told me train crews often encountered deer and moose on the tracks feeding on the grain which spilled from the freight cars. Mostly, they would move when the horn was sounded, but in rutting season, the moose would often stand their ground, particularly the big bulls who would sometimes even charge the engine as they attempted to defend their territory. Joe said the train never even shuddered as bits of blood, bone and hide would splatter along the side of the engine. It must have been quite an experience!
Grace was in her 97th year when she died in the Pinecrest home for the aged in Kenora, Ontario
She was known by and preferred, her second name of Jean.
Little is known about Murdo. He was most likely a fisherman, as that was the prevailing occupation in this remote seaside community at that time, although he is listed on the 1881 census simply as a "Crofter". In the same census, (FHL Film #0203409), his two sons then still at home, Kenneth and Hector, are listed as "fishermen". It's also noted that while present day family members use a spelling of "MacKenzie", the census listing spells the name as "McKenzie" which, may or may not simply be a Registrar's spelling error.
Birth record LDS: C110592.
Birth record: LDS #C110661.
Birth record: LDS #C110661. He died as a young child as another Alexander was born to this family in 1867.
Birth record: LDS #C110661.
Birth record: LDS #C110661.
Birth record: LDS #C110661.
Birth record: LDS #C110661. He was apparently a "replacement" for an earlier Alexander who died in 1863.
Birth record: LDS #C110663.
Birth record: LDS #C110663.
Birth record: LDS #C110663.
Phillip's daughter describes her father as "somewhat of a historian who is also interested in stamp collecting, politics and reading". Phillip served in Egypt with the British 8th Army, (the famous "Desert Rats"), during WWII.
Mary served with the Canadian Women's Army Corps, (CWAC), during WWII. After the war, she went to England on a holiday, stayed with cousins, then decided to remain and take a nursing course. After graduation, she worked as a nurse in London area hospitals for a while before marrying and raising her family. Mary was reportedly very much the homemaker down to making the children's clothes when they were younger. In later years, she went through a series of debilitating strokes that reduced the quality of her lifestyle. After her cremation service in England, Mary's husband and family requested that her ashes be returned to Canada where they were subsequently scattered on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario along with those of her brother Dave.
While William was his first given name, he preferred and was known by his second given name of David, which in turn was shortened to Dave. He was an under-age volunteer and served overseas in WWII with the Canadian Army - 4th Armored Division through the Normandy and Netherlands campaigns. After the war, he was a transport driver for a large Canadian brewery until his retirement. During the last few years of his life, he endured a long painful fight with polycithemia, (a liver disease), that required numerous hospital visits for chemotherapy and blood transfusions. In a phone conversation with him shortly before he died, Dave told me he had made pre-arrangements for cremation and for his ashes to be scattered on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. This was a location he had long enjoyed visiting for fishing, deer and pheasant hunting.
Jim and his family are now naturalized American citizens after he was hired away from IBM Canada and re-located with the IBM branch in San José, California. (The family now resides in nearby Morgan Hill, a few miles south of Jim's work location in San José). Jim works in new product development and his "trouble-shooting" assignments for IBM require frequent international travel. He has a doctorate in computer science as well as a professional engineering degree. (IBM Canada had previously granted him a sabbatical as he worked towards his master's degree during which time he also lectured at the University of British Columbia). In his present position in San José, he was given a free hand to organize a new advanced Product Development Division. The new division started with one employee, (Jim), and has now grown to over 600. Jim has been awarded US patents, with more pending, for his work in computer software development. In the summer of 2000, he was made a 'non-management' executive of IBM with the title of "Distinguished Engineer" in a special corporate event in Montreal. In 2002, Jim was further recognized by IBM when he was elected to their exclusive top 300 employee list as a result of his work in new product development.
TWIN: sister of Janice. Elaine loves to play the piano. She holds a piano teaching certificate and before moving to Morgan Hill, near San José, California, Elaine gave lessons in her home. (IBM transferred her husband and family to that location.) With the move, the piano is now almost as well-traveled as Elaine. The family moved from Portage La Prairie to Toronto, then to Vancouver, back to the Toronto area, then to Newmarket and now to Morgan Hill, California where Elaine is once again giving piano lessons from her home. As this is written (Spring 2001), she is also planning to return to the work force as a part-time school teacher. Elaine has written and passed her exams for this and is expecting to start this new career in the Fall session.
Kate has received a number of scholarships and will be attending the University of Berkeley, California starting with the fall semester in 2004.
TWIN: brother of William.
TWIN: brother of Andrew.
Marriage record GROS: 472/00 0003. Marriage147. John is listed on the 1891 census on his grandmother Margaret Eadie's farm "North Field", in Stirlingshire. For the early part of his married life, John helped his father farm "Little Camoquihill" (part of the Wilson estate). Here, the first three of his children were born. John and his wife Elizabeth signed as witnesses at his father's second marriage. Around the time of his father's second marriage, John moved to a farm known as "Wester Gerchew" near the Endrich river not far from Balfron. This was part of a larger estate, "Ballikinrain Castle", then owned by Lord and Lady Allen, (the founders of the Allen Line Steamship Company), and the rest of John's family was born here. According to his youngest daughter Belle, their lifestyle was reasonably comfortable for the times. This would change.
At the urging of John's oldest son Dave, (who had previously immigrated to Canada and had established a homestead farm west of Edmonton, Alberta), John and most of the family then still in Scotland, now immigrated to Canada in 1938. In Belle's words: "We left behind a comfortable stone house with electricity, indoor plumbing and all the other amenities". They were now faced with carving out a homestead farm in what were then the wilds of mid-western Alberta and began their new life in Canada in a log cabin. Belle recalls it took a long time to get used to the severity of the winters in those early days "as often ice remained in the water pails inside the cabin in spite of a roaring fire".
In notes supplied for this entry, Elizabeth's daughter Belle describes in graphic detail her vivid recollections of the lifestyle changes they endured after the family immigrated to Canada in 1938. She comments about her mother having had time to raise purebred collies on their well-equipped farm at Balfron in Scotland where they had all the comforts of a big stone house with electricity, inside plumbing and bathroom etc. They left all this to come to Canada and pioneer in a log cabin with no amenities and not even an accessible road. Her notes go on to describe the life of a pioneer homemaker in those days as a continual round of cooking, gardening, clothes washing, ironing and mending for a large family under primitive conditions where "-40 degrees (F) in winter was often just a normal day".
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Elizabeth's daughter Belle was the original verbal source of her mother's birth data
and her information is now known to have been incorrect based on the actual birth
certificate for Elizabeth as shown in Birth record GROS: 482/00 0015. Birth245.This certificate confirms Elizabeth McEwan was born on 7 June 1881, in Killearn,
Stirling, to Duncan McEwan, a woolen weaver and his wife Elizabeth Miller. There
was ONLY one birth for an Elizabeth McEwan for this date in ALL of Stirling, and it is
noted "Miller" also shows as one of the given names for Belle's other siblings.The 1891 census shows a William Millar and his wife Elizabeth (Miller) were domiciled at Balfron. This census lists their 2 oldest children (Elizabeth and Arthur McEwan born in Killearn) -- as their "Step" children. (Note also an "Arthur McEwan Waddell" was one of Belle's older brothers). This census entry makes it appear that Duncan, (father of Elizabeth and Arthur), likely died sometime around 1884. The widow Elizabeth then married William Millar in 1884, (no known relationship), with whom she had an additional 4 children all born in Balfron. (The 2 children by her first husband were thus listed as 'step' children on the 1891 census at Balfron).
Arthur immigrated to Canada arriving on June 21, 1919 on board the "S.S. Minnedosa" from Glasgow. At first he had the romantic thoughts of joining the RCMP. However, when he reached Alberta, he took a job as a cook for a construction company then building the main highway system in and around the Banff National Park. In 1935 he immigrated to Bermuda where he worked at a number of jobs including that of a Purser on cruise ships. Later, he went to work for a liquor import/export company on the island and eventually became their Sales Manager. In 1952 he timed one of his visits to Canada to be an usher at my wedding before going on to Alberta to visit his mother. Before his death, Arthur was married in Bermuda to a widow with two children. (No details other than her name was Florrie).
Margaret, (or Meg as she preferred), worked in London, England as a housekeeper for the George Black family, then the owners of the London Palladium. (Her photo collection included many of royalty who often visited the palladium). During the war she was able to knit over 400 pairs of socks for the Red Cross while sitting in London air raid shelters during the "blitz". After the war she immigrated to Detroit and became the housekeeper for Wm. Patterson (then the president of the Ford Motor Co). Later she was housekeeper for other prominent Detroiters before retiring to Australia on the Wyong river north of Sydney. Her sister Belle described this location as "paradise" with its orange trees and gardens with multi-coloured birds flying in from the park reserve behind her property.
Reportedly died at an early age.
Reportedly died at an early age.