Week 12 - Misfortune

Week 12's prompt is Misfortune.  The polar opposite of last week.

There has been a lot of misfortune in the Edwards line.  Follow each line back far enough and you will find a convict sentenced to a period of time in Australia.  Theft seems to be the most common cause. 

On the Edwards line, my great times a few grandfather, Robert Edwards was convicted of stealing 6 yards of canvas and was sentenced to 7 years in Australia when he was 16.  He was then sent on the ship Eliza from Liverpool to Australia. 

He never left Australia and eventually married my great (times a few) grandmother, Ellen McEvoy.

Another great grandfather, Thomas Lansdown when he was 19 was sentenced to 9 months and being twice whipped for larceny.

It's funny to think back of these as misfortunes when they lead my ancestors to Australia.  I'm sure life wasn't pleasant, but they were the beginning of a foundation of what our family is today. 

Week 11 - Lucky

Again this week I found the prompt to be challenging.  Hence the delay in posting.

Lucky.  The ideas that were given were as follows:  Do you have an ancestor who was lucky at something? Lucky to be alive? Lucky at cards? Lucky in love? Maybe you have an ancestor with a name that reminds you of luck or fortune. There's always "luck of the Irish." Maybe you have a story of how luck played a role in finding an ancestor. 

This one was tricky too.  I don't have any stories at luck in my genealogy.  Really I can only think of one.

I figure that I was extremely lucky to get involved in genealogy when I did.  Little did I know at the time that i only had three years left with my grandpa Edwards.  Because I got involved in genealogy when I did, I was able to acquire all of his work and materials when he passed away.  I know it gave him peace, knowing that all his efforts wouldn't be lost after his death.  
When I look at what I have acquired, there are some real gems in there.  My great-grandmother conversion story.  Life stories of past ancestors.  Pictures and a lot more.  

I have journals that are decades old and it allows me a glimpse into their lives at a time when I didn't know them.  

Just this week I borrowed all of the recipes and cookbooks from my Grandma Edwards to scan them all.  It is going to be a much bigger task than I originally thought, but I am excited to do it.  The best part for me was opening up the cookie recipe box and seeing a family recipe, waffle brownies, sitting right at the front.  Possibly the last cookie recipe she used.  And my favourite cookies.  

As I scan these recipes, and documents, I'll share more, but for this week at least, I do consider myself lucky.

Week 10 - Strong Women - Irene Elizabeth Gladys Chown Edwards

So strong women.

Who to choose?  I've known a lot.  My wife?  One of the strongest people I know.  Physically, spiritually, and more.  She has and can accomplish anything.
My mom, grandmothers, all of them are and were strong.

But I had one person on my mind a lot the past week.  My great-grandmother, Irene Elizabeth Gladys Chown Edwards.  I knew her a little, but I was only 7 when she passed away.  I do remember meeting her a few times, but not a lot of specifics.

But she was strong.  She had 12 kids and fostered others.  She lived in Australia during some hard times.  In the words of her husband, he described her as having a heart of gold.

Irene at age 18.


Both her and her husband converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in 1922.  They decided to uproot their family and moved to Canada for the sole purpose of being able to raise their children where the Church was strong.  They wanted their kids to have a solid foundation for growth in the Church and wanted them to marry Church members to have strong families.

Not an easy thing to do with that many kids.  But she succeeded.

So why has she been on my mind the past week?  I was going through some old papers of my Grandpa Edwards and found her handwritten account of her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  I didn't know that I had this and it honestly made my day finding it.

Now to distribute it to all that I can.

Thanks Grandma Irene.

Week 9 - Where there's a Will - Finding a Grandpa

This week's theme is Where there is a Will.  It could be a will as in a probate document, or unbreakable determination.
I don't have a lot of wills that I have come across in my research.  Maybe a couple, but none that come to mind right now.
So I thought of what I have spent the most amount of time on.  My personal brick wall. 

And that is finding my maternal grandfather.

See my mom never knew her dad.  Supposedly she only met him once after birth, and that was as a baby in a carriage.  Her mom was pushing her in a stroller when they happened to see him and he said hi and left.  Classy guy.
She grew up not knowing anything about him.  As an adult she learnt that his name was Bert Tanner.
He lived in Vancouver in the early 1950's and he told my Grandma that he worked in the mines.

That was it.

Mom never really had a huge desire to know who he was until recently.  Even then I think it scares her to learn more about him.  But me?  I'm a genealogy nut and have an insatiable desire to know things.  I need to know. 

So I took a DNA test and had Mom take one as well.  What did we learn?  A little, but not enough.

We found some 2nd cousins of Moms from Nova Scotia, all descended from Patrick Brown and Johanna Lannon. 

And none of their descendants are named Bert Tanner.

We thought we had it figured out.  One guy was a strong possibility.  We even had help from a newly found 2nd cousin, and this guy's daughter took an Ancestry DNA test to see.

Nope.  Not him. 

Starting fresh.

Now I'm looking at a couple of other possibilities.  One is Simon Thomas Toomey, who did live in Vancouver.  Lots more digging to be done.

Eventually I will find him.  It is just taking more work that I had hoped.

But as to the theme?  A Will?  I've got that in spades. 

Week 8 - Heirloom. Grandma's Spoons

This week's prompt is a little easier.  Heirloom.  Something special that has been handed down in your family.

There are a few things that I can think of that fall under this category.

My mother has old china dishes that were her Grandma Curliss'.  We only ever were allowed to eat off these dishes for some reason when we had stew for supper.  Never any other time.

My grandma Hogenson gave me a stuffed dog that was made from the fur of her fathers coat.  20 dogs were made total and for some reason she gave me one of them.

But I wanted to talk about my Grandma Edwards' spoon collection.

Growing up, I always remember her collecting spoons.  She had so many.  Display cases hung on the walls of her home.  Every time we went anywhere, or really anyone she knew, went anywhere, we would give her a spoon from the trip.  She had spoons from literally all over the world. 

When she died, there were hundreds of spoons that needed something to be done with them.  All the grandkids were at her house trying to clean, get rid of stuff that Grandpa wouldn't need, and more and there were these spoons. 

I had each of my kids choose one spoon for them to keep and I chose one as well.

It is in my bedside table and I see it every now and then and am instantly reminded of my Grandma.

The kids all put theirs into their special boxes and often ask to look at them.

It's a small thing, but something that I appreciate.

Week 7 - Valentine

I struggled with this prompt.  So much so that I delayed in posting a blog that week.  In fact I am now 4 weeks behind.  Partly because I was stumped on this prompt and partly due to a family holiday.
But now I am attempting to get caught up.
So.  Valentine.  The prompt is a love story in my family history.  Or an ancestor named Valentine.

I really cant think of one.  Even now, after thinking for a few weeks, I am stumped.

I think I'll have to come back to this one. 

Week 6 - Favorite Name - Ellen Edwards

So the prompt this week is Favorite Name.  What is your favorite name in your family tree?  One that makes you smile? Or an unusual one.

Unlike other weeks, I didn't have an initial thought when I read the prompt.  Usually I see the prompt and know exactly what I want to write about.

I guess my initial thought is my great-great-great-great grandmother.  Her name according to records is Ellen Hughes Byrne McEvoy Edwards.  The reason I first thought of her was that I don't know her parents.  I don't have any record of her before she was sent to Australia.

I have her on the Ship Asia in 1830.  She was initially sentenced to 7 years for stealing butter to provide for her kids.(no record if that is one child or two).  I can find a request that she made once in Australia to be allowed to marry again.  (It was denied).  I can also find her official release paperwork.

She was married to my great X 4 grandfather, Robert Edwards in 1832.

So why is this so difficult?  I don't have any record of her in Ireland.  No birth records, no census (too early) or christening forms.  I don't even know her maiden name.  I assume Hughes, but I don't know.  I have a date range for her birthday, but nothing more.

She came over to Australia with at least one son, whose surname was McEvoy.  So did she marry in Ireland?  Did she marry more than once?

No records of this at all.

I wish I could find even just one.  I would love to find her parents, siblings, etc.

So thats the story of Ellen Hughes Byrne McEvoy Edwards.

Week 5 - In the Census, Tom Clarke

This week's prompt is In the Census.  What intriguing find have you made in a census?  Or what is something interesting that you found?

My first thought when I saw this prompt was a census for a distant relative, Tom Clarke, who lived in Somerset, England and was born in 1872.

The reason I thought of Tom first, was because I was researching Tom and his family around the time that I wanted to get my kids more involved in genealogy.  I sat down with my daughter, Aimee who was 12, and wanted to teach her how to search for people, what to look for and what to do when something was found.

We started with Tom's family on this 1901 England census form:

If you want to view it in its full size, the link is here.

What this census record shows is Tom with his wife Mary and lists three kids, Elfie, James and Eveline.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

When we found the 1911 census, however we learnt a lot more.

Again, the link to the full size is here.

What this record shows is that Tom and Mary had 7 kids, 1 of whom died in infancy.  We only had record of three, and James didn't show up on this census record.  Only 5 of their kids are there.

I showed Aimee how to search for birth records in Somerset and we were able to find 6 of the 7 kids. 

What a learning experience for her and myself.  I had never noticed this column before and now it is one of the first things I look to see if a census record has it. 

We still haven't found the 7th child.  We are working on it and Aimee searches every now and then.

So, these two census records are really the two that opened my eyes to the value of census' and helped teach me and my daughter.

Week 4 - Invite to Dinner - Lamingtons

Week 4 is here and the prompt this week is Invite to Dinner.
Which ancestor would you most want to invite to dinner?  Is there a story of a memorable dinner with an ancestor, or is there a special recipe that's been handed down?

I decided to go with the handed down recipe.

It hasn't been handed down far yet.  It came from my Grandma Edwards.  She was always baking.  Whenever we went to Grandma's house, we were guaranteed to have something freshly baked sitting there for us.  Butterhorns, sugar cookies, pie, or her classic Lamingtons.

Her lamingtons were the stuff of dreams.  I tease my kids all the time that when something tastes good, I ask them how it is made and when they give their answer, I tell them that they are wrong, and that it is made by fairies scooping up rainbows.  They might be tired of this particular joke, but it almost fits here.  These taste like fairies scooped them from rainbows.

So what is a lamington?

It is an Australian dessert that is essentially a dense cake cut into squares, dipped in chocolate and then rolled in shredded coconut.

Here is the recipe:

3 Eggs
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup boiling water

Beat eggs for 15 minutes, add sugar, flour, bakign powder, then butter and boiling water.
Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
When cold, cut into squares, roll in runny chocolate icing and roll in coconut.

They really are my favorite dessert.  Now that Grandma has passed away, I don't get to go over and enjoy her baking anymore.
My wife now makes these every year for my birthday.
Any family function, these are guaranteed to be there kind of as a memorium for Grandma.

Week 3 - Longevity - The Chown Line

The prompt for this week is Longevity.  The intent was to explore the oldest person in your tree, someone it took you the longest to find or something along those lines.

I decided to go about it a little different.

I thought I would talk about the line on my family tree, that my Grandpa Edwards spent the longest or most amount of time on.

The Chown family.

By an agreed upon decision, my grandpa and his sister split up which lines in our family tree they would each work on.  This way there was no stepping on toes, disagreements, etc and they each worked on their agreed upon line.  One of the lines my grandpa got was the Chown line.

My great-grandmother Edwards was Irene Gladys Elizabeth Chown.  She was born in Binalong, Australia on the 19th of April 1898.  She died on the 28th of December 1985 in Taber, Alberta.

I remember my Great-Grandma Edwards.  I was 7 when she passed away, but I remember spending time with her and I remember her funeral.  It was the first funeral I ever went to.  She was an amazing lady who defined selflessness.  

Her parents were Samuel and Caroline Chown.  

Samuels parents were Alfred and Lucy Chown.  Alfred was the lucky one in my family that was convicted of larceny on the 9th of January 1846 in Dorset County, England.  He was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.  His wife, Lucy Lane, and he were married a year later, February 7th, 1847 in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, England.  

They and their children went to Australia aboard the Emigrant in 1849. 

I could go on and on about the Chown family and my ancestors.  Lots of things to be said here.  Maybe that is where the theme Longevity will play in.

Grandpa dedicated countless hours researching this line and to his credit found out a lot about the Chown family.

He told me before he died that he had made contact with someone who traced the Chowns out of France into England a few centuries ago, but we never were able to make the connection to the Chowns that I am related to, that lived in Berwick, Wiltshire.

Maybe one day we will find that connection.  I sincerely hope so. 

Week 2 - Favorite Photo - Grandpa Ray

This is a tricky challenge.  I have a few favorite photos and for different reasons.

Here is the first one.  Honestly this is one of my favorite photos ever.  I thought for a while that I had lost it and was quite upset and tried to recover it from a variety of places.  Then inspiration struck and I saw that I had saved it on Facebook.  Social Media to the rescue!
This is my grandpa Ray Percy Edwards and myself fishing for salmon, halibut and other rockfish off the coast of Port Hardy, BC.  It was the summer of 2012 and the last time that grandpa came with my Dad and I fishing on the ocean.  We had a great week and caught a lot of fish.

My grandpa was one of the most important people in my life.  Every minute spent with him was valuable.  As I grew more interested in genealogy, I would spend more time with him, asking questions and just listening to his stories.  In April, 2017, I was in the Boston Airport waiting for my flight back home, when my sister called me on my cell.  Immediately I knew something was wrong.  My grandpa had just moved out of his longterm house to move into a home.  He had been there less than a month and had had a stroke and had bleeding on the brain.  The prognosis was that he wouldn't last more than a couple of hours.  Sobbing I texted my aunt, Shauna, who was sitting with him, to ask her to let him know how much he meant to me and my love for him. 
I caught my flight and at 2 am arrived home.  I texted my wife to let her know to not expect me and I went directly to the hospital, amazed that he was still holding on.  To be able to see him again, really comforted me.  I didn't realize how much I needed that. 
I spent most of the next two days and nights sitting in the hospital with a couple of cousins and all of my aunts.  (My father was trying to fly back from Moldova in time for the funeral).  We told stories, laughed, cried and rejoiced at the life Grandpa lived.  What was really great, was we all had a story to share that was unique to us, that no one else knew.  There was a lot of laughter.  It felt like Grandpa was holding on, just to hear us talk about him. 
A lot of prayers were said those two days.  I went over after supper the one night, and everyone was singing gospel hymns.  I sat down, joined in and never felt a stronger Spirit.  There were a lot of people and spirits in that room.  And a lot of tears.  We sang for a couple of hours.  I went home late that night and awoke to the news that he had passed away early that morning.
I miss Grandpa every day.  But the time I spent with him was so valuable, so precious to me, that I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

In terms of genealogical significance, here is another photo that I love.  Ray Percy Edwards and Verla Jensen on their wedding day, November 11, 1953.  They were married in Cardston at the LDS temple there.  Not sure who has the original photo anymore, I got this copy from Chantelle Froc, my cousin.

This is definitely going to be a challenge to keep up each week.  I'm glad for the email prompts I'm getting to keep me focused.

How I got started...

I wasn't late to the genealogy world by most standards.  But later than I should have been.
I grew up thinking and believing that family history was something that you did when you retired and had time for it.  No one else needed to.  Despite constant pressures, talks, promptings, I never felt the need.
In the Winter of 2014, our Stake Presidency gave a challenge to all the youth in the Stake to prepare a name to take to the temple for the Stake Temple Day.  I thought this was a great idea and fully endorsed it, thinking I wasn't a youth, I was a youth leader and exempt.  Then I learnt that the challenge included youth leaders as well.
I jumped in with both feet.  I created my account at www.familysearch.org and was searching all I could.  I knew a lot had been done in my family by my grandpa, but thought I could find one.  Instead, I found nothing for over a month.  No matter what I did, where I looked, I was stumped.  But I did learn the ins and outs of Family Search.
I was told I should sit down with Grandpa and ask for an area to start.  I did, and he told me he couldn't find a distant grandfather on the Chown (His mother's) line.  I went home, did a Google search and within minutes found him and hundreds of other names.
Thus began an obsession according to my wife, a hobby if you ask me and a worthwhile way to spend time.
Its been only 4 years.  I've spent countless hours doing research.  I've been able to help others as well.
I am by no means an expert, but I sure have fun doing it.

This blog was started as part of the #52Ancestor challenge by Amy Johnson Crow.
If you haven't yet signed up for it, I highly suggest you do.