Digging Up Our Family Tree

  My maternal great-grandmother, Elizabeth “Lizzie” John(s), branched out from her family in Wales, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada. Why did she leave her home? It was done for love! Lizzie was born August 31, 1882 in Gwindy, a small farm near Whitchurch Pembrokeshire, Wales. (mapcarta.com). Her parents, Charles John(s), a farm laborer and Sarah Nicholas married at the register office in Haverfordwest a month after her birth, on September 30, 1882. My mother told me that Charles always denied that he was her father. Sarah insisted he was the father, even putting his name on Lizzie’s birth registration, even though the weren’t married. Charles and Sarah had 8 children, one who died as an infant. Lizzie, the oldest, is living with her family in the 1891 Census in Milford, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. However, by the 1901 census she is working as a domestic servant. There are two possible 1901 census records with Elizabeth John working as a domestic. One of them is in Ste...

  I was fortunate to come from a large, supportive family of eight children. There were six girls and two boys. Yes, I have five sisters who can be bossy and opinionated but are always there for me. (My brothers are too, but his post is about sisters). I know I can rely on them. Which got me thinking about some of my female ancestors and examples of how they were supportive of their siblings. The Atkins Family William Atkins and Fanny Green of Buckinghamshire had seven children before Fanny died in 1904. There were five girls. Three of the girls, Beatrice, Alice, and Rosa were sent to Canada to work as domestics under the British Home Children program.  In this program, poor, charity-case children were sent Canada and often worked under difficult conditions. What amazes me about this family is that somehow, the sisters all kept in touch with each other. Rosa arranged for Kate to come to work at the same house she was at. Beatrice travelled from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan to visit ...

  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...