Digging Up Our Family Tree

  The Statue There is a statue in downtown Edmonton, Alberta of a railway worker lounging on a bench. Beside him is a lunch pail and open thermos. Each time I glimpse it, a memory startles me; I think it’s my Granddad Dunn! It must be the overalls and cap that remind me of him. It’s not him, of course. It’s a statue, sculpted and forged by American artist, Seward Johnson, called “Lunchbreak”.   Photo by Michael Kuby for Avenue Magazine, July 4, 2017 David Walter Dunn, my maternal grandfather – well he was actually a step father, was born the 18 June 1906 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was the third child of John Dunn and Christina Clayton. His older sister, Jessie was born in 1902 and Clayton was born in 1904 in Hamilton, Ontario, as well. In the fall of 1907, when Granddad was just a year old, his parents moved to a remote area of British Columbia near Procter, a small village on Kootenay Lake. The family lived in the area less than year when his father, John Edward Dunn, d...

  The curious case of the missing death registration My great-great grandfather, Thomas Miller, census records show was born between 1836-1839 in Ireland. The only information I have on his parents is from interviews a relative did of elderly family members. He talked to them before 1973. The interviewees said the father of Thomas was Jacob Miller. That’s all I know about his parents. Census records from 1861 to 1911 show that Thomas Miller lived in Kinloss Township, Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. Family stories said he married Catherine Young. My first hope of finding the parents of Thomas Miller was to look for a marriage record. The marriage record I found stated that Thomas Miller, aged 21 (born 1834), married Catherine Young, age 18 (born 1837), on March 6, 1855 in Goderich Township, Huron County, Ontario. There were no parents’ names listed. Heavy sigh! The witnesses were no help – neither were a Miller. I was hoping to at least find a sibling. I will check to see if either o...

  We have an army man in our family tree. He’s not a close relative; the son of our 5th great-grandfather’s son’s daughter. That makes him my 4 th   cousin twice removed – if my calculations are correct. Albert Edward Carpenter was born 2 September 1866 or 1867 in Saltfleet, Wentworth, Canada to Albert Edgar and Sarah Carpenter. Albert’s grandmother is Eliza Jane Pettit Carpenter VanWagner.  In 1891, Albert Edward is in infantry school, possibly in Toronto. He participated in the Boer War from 1899 to 1900 with the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was involved in operations in Orange Free State in April and May 1900, including actions at Zand River, in operations in Transvaal in May and June, including actions near Johannesburg and Pretoria and operations in Orange River Colony and Transvaal, east and west of Pretoria. By 1901 Albert has returned to Canada and is in Montreal, Quebec. From 1911 – 1912 he is the commanding officer of the Royal School of Infantry at the Stanley B...