Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Identifying Photos; Learning about Fashions - The Costume Gallery Library - free till Jan 3 2010

Eight images of an unidentified woman, shown in different poses. Described as all taken on one glass negative and at one operation, 1870, Ontario. Photographer R. R. McLellan. Canada. Patent and Copyright Office, Library and Archives Canada, PA-031478

When researching photographs of people, it's often very important to date the clothing they are wearing. Looking at other photographs from different time periods will help you work out a time frame for the image. The Costume Gallery is one of the on-line resources I recommend.

Penny Ladnier, owner of The Costume Gallery, has a special offer for access to her websites that's good till Sunday, 3 January 2010, at 10 pm EST. Whether you're hoping to identify one particular photograph or you're interested in the history of fashion, you'll find much of interest at The Costume Gallery and its related websites.

Some of these resources are free, but usually access to the Libraries and to certain other areas on Penny's 13 websites are by subscription only. Till Sunday, this is free. LOGIN using: cg2003 and the PASSWORD: neb7am66
in lower case with no blank spaces before, in-between, or afterwards.

Penny's main Costume Gallery website has just been updated and the Library now has over 5,000 pages. It's the 14th anniversary for The Costume Gallery, so there is a sale on subscriptions too till 14 January 2010. See the main page at The Costume Gallery Library for details, if you're interested.

The same passwords are also good till Sunday for these associated sites:

Costume Slide Shows:
www.costumeslideshows.comwww.fcdatabase.com (use only the password)
Past Hair Styles:
www.pasthairstyles.com
Past Designers:
www.pastdesigners.com
Past Hats:
www.pasthats.com
Past Communion History - Check the logo photograph here as Penny is working to return this image to its family:
www.communionhistory.com
Antique Brides:
www.antiquebrides.com

For more about Penny E. Ladnier see her profile here.

Penny also offers a service called Fashion Foto-Date. For $10, you can have a date analysis of the clothing shown in a scanned family photograph.

Friday, December 25, 2009

THE FINAL RESTING PLACE - GRAVEYARD RABBITS CARNIVAL

Sarah Ann (STAINES) SAGGERS grave (1849-1909), Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photograph, private collection, date unknown.

The topic for the January 2010 edition of the Graveyard Rabbits’ Carnival is –
The Final Resting Place.

This theme comes from Colleen McHugh, author of the GYR blog, The R.I.P.PERS. and Orations of OMcHodoy.

Colleen asked how families determine their final resting place – “In today's mobile society, does one choose a place near where they last lived? Or do they return to the place of their roots? Do they rest in a family plot? If so, and if married, whose family plot? How has the determination of the final resting place changed between the time of our ancestors and now?”

This seems a very sombre topic for this festive time of year, but, if one was considering some kinds of New Year’s resolutions already, this might be an apt question.

Now I don’t consider that mobility is necessarily more an issue now than in the past. Where I live in British Columbia, Canada, many of us descend from those who left their homes in Europe and Asia, venturing across the seas to settle here. And, even those whose families have been on the land here since time immemorial, often don’t live where their ancestors did, either by choice, by circumstances or, sometimes by government decree.

Burial customs, in some cases, have changed though, and alongside that, our attitudes, both social and personal, about funerals and burial practices have changed. In 1874, for example, the year my great grandparents, Sarah Ann Staines and David Saggers, married, there was great debate in the Church of England, to which they both belonged, and in the English press, about cremation.

The Bishop of Manchester, for example, while feeling “a sort of shudder at the idea of burning the dead” reluctantly admitted that “in a hundred years or so” this “might, perhaps” be the custom. (The Times, Wednesday, 25 March, 1874; page 12). His comments were likely in response to an influential article published in 1874 by the surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, “The Treatment of the Body After Death”. Thompson was later founder of the Cremation Society of Great Britain. Cremation was not deemed as legal in England till 1884, and not till 1902 was there legislation authorizing it. (See the Cremation Society of Great Britain, History.)

In their late 50s, in 1907, my great grandparents emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from England; neither ever returned there. As far as I know, neither left written instructions about the disposition of their bodies after death, but when Sarah Ann Staines died in 1909 her body was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, then, and now, the only cemetery in the city of Vancouver. In 1935, however, when her husband, David, died, his body was cremated, and, I am sure, his ashes were placed in the grave with Sarah Ann’s bones. He may have requested this, but there may have been other circumstances at the time favouring cremation. [Yes, there is a story here for another time.]

I didn’t realize till I started my family history research that Great Grandpa’s body had been cremated. As a youngster, I did know that my grandparents (his daughter and son in law) were buried, not cremated and that they had not wanted autopsies. They too were buried in Mountain View.

Grandma had come from England in 1907 with her parents; Grandpa was born in Toronto, and was the only one of his siblings to venture from home. He bought the family plots when my Uncle David, their son, died early in life, so I feel they must have decided then to be buried in Mountain View. I never thought it odd that my great grandparents and grandparents were buried here, instead of in England or Toronto. Yes, if grandma had died in England, I’d have thought it right she be buried in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, where she came from, but after all, she died here, her youngest son was buried here, and more importantly, we were here – we were the ones who’d visit –we were the ones who cared the most.

Mountain View Cemetery is even in their Vancouver neighbourhood, and Grandpa had worked at the cemetery, so I’ve never thought he would have wanted to be buried elsewhere. I’m sure my father didn’t think so either. And both my parents are buried there now – or rather – their ashes are. Neither gave me explicit directions about this – except my mother had had my father’s body cremated – and when I asked, she said she wanted no funeral – but just ‘to be with your father’.



However, we did all discuss cremation at various times – it was at one time here a topic of much discussion.

British Columbians were cremated early on, although it was not usual among Christians here. In 1956, though, the Memorial Society of British Columbia was formed in Vancouver. Debate then was more about the high cost of funerals than anything, as I recall, but the question of cremation (and embalming) certainly came up often then. Cremation and the scattering of ashes was sometimes posed as a convenient (and cheaper) alternative to more elaborate means of dealing with bodies.



Over the following decades, interest in cremations has grown in BC. It's estimated that now 70% of bodies here are cremated or more. (For a bit more about this, see a previous post of mine, Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens... March 2009.) With the rise in cremations has come interest in alternative memorials, but in BC, these are often still associated with cemeteries. Some have special columbariums; others allow ashes to be buried or scattered on their grounds, and often offer memorial plaques or the like.

From the 1960s on, I certainly said I’d not want my body buried. I wanted no religious services, I wanted cremation, and over the years, I’ve picked a number of places I’d want my ashes scattered! Odd in a way, as I’ve always been interested in the art and the information found in cemeteries. Like my parents, I was likely thinking about this as quite a practical question.

From the first moments after my mother’s death though, I knew I wanted to bury their ashes in Mountain View. Of course, by the time my mother died, I’d been deep into the family history for over a decade. That undoubtedly had something to do with my decision, but I think it was more emotional than that.

I knew I’d want to visit. Goodness, I visit strangers’ graves regularly, don’t I? Of course, I’d want to visit my parents’. And Mountain View to me is a beautiful cemetery in the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. And of course, so many other relatives are there as well.



There was one small concern. Would my mother have wanted to be buried with her mother in law? I don’t think she felt they got along that well. Still my mother wasn’t shy – if she hadn't wanted to be there, she’d have told me so, I’m sure.

And I too intend to be buried in Mountain View in the 'family plot' with my grandparents, parents and uncle. I believe I’ve made that plain to the family. Cremation yes, a memorial service – yes, with a piper (or a whole marching band of bagpipers, with drummers too, if I’ve got that kind of money at the end). And, I do hope to have visitors...

A SAGGERS, WEDD grave, Bassingbourn Cemetery, Cambridgeshire, England. Photograph, private collection.

A view of Bassingbourn Cemetery. Photograph, private collection. A burial list for this cemetery, managed by the Parish Council, is on-line at the Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth Community website. There is also a graveyard at the Parish Church, St Peter & St Paul, Bassingbourn.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

CHRISTMAS EVE - PIONEER DAYS - VICTORIA BC CANADA



A Merry Christmas. Embossed, coloured postcard, divided back. Stamped - General Delivery, Vancouver, B.C. Jan 1 5 I 12. US one cent stamp. Addressed to Mr. E. C. Shaughnessy, Vancouver, B.C.

In 1906, the Times Printing and Publishing Co., producer of the Victoria Daily Times newspaper of Victoria, British Columbia, sent a sprig of holly to the Morning Telegram in Winnipeg, Manitoba “as a Christmas greeting....This holly was gathered a few days ago in outdoor gardens, near Victoria, and is a tribute to the mild weather prevailing there at this season of the year”. (Morning Telegram, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 25 December, 1906, page 9.)

At this time of year, I wish that I could send each of you some holly too. It’s one of my favourite things about Christmas – we had two trees at home when I was young. But since I can’t do that, I thought some might like a glimpse of Christmas Eve in British Columbia’s early days.

In 1907, the Victoria Daily Colonist, then a rival of the Times, asked Edgar Fawcett, an old time resident, among others, to write about his memories of Christmases past in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Some of his comments will sound very familiar to modern ears.

Born in Australia, Fawcett went with his family to San Francisco in 1849. After some business reverses, the family emigrated again, to Victoria, Vancouver Island, in 1858, an eventful, indeed a momentous year – when gold was discovered on the mainland’s Fraser River, and the Crown Colony of British Columbia proclaimed in Fort Langley on the Fraser. (Vancouver Island had been made a Crown Colony in 1849, although it was still controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company.)

Fawcett was not overly sentimental – “...in speaking of 'the good old days' of the sixties, I would not convey the impression that they were literally so good, for they were, so far as I can remember, some of the hardest that Victoria has seen....” Nonetheless, “there was a something, a charm indescribable” about them.

The weather was different in the 1860s, he said: “Christmas, to be genuine, should be bright and frosty, with a flurry of snow.... Less snow and cold and more rain now.”

“After the advent of the first snow, and when deep enough, there might be heard the sleigh-bell, either on a grocer’s or butcher’s sleigh, or on an improvised sleigh made from a dry-goods case with a pair of runners attached, to which would be fastened a pair of shafts from a buggy or wagon not now usable.” Anyone with a horse thus had a sleigh for “long drives in the country or to church, or to a Xmas party or dance.”

He describes the week before Christmas as busy with preparations, like the decorating of the fronts of houses and shops with "wagon-loads of young fir trees"“Imagine Government Street, both sides, from end to end, one continuous line of green, relieved with, it might be with white; just enough snow to cover the ground, ‘bright and crisp and even.’ ”

Shopping too was done that week, at the few fancy goods stores, and at the butchers’ and grocers’. "There was not the choice in toys and fancy articles then. Children were satisfied with less, and were just as happy," Fawcett said.

But by the late 1860s Christmas ads in the Colonist featured such things as Balmoral skirts and velvet mantles (just arrived), all kinds of novelties from Paris, London and San Francisco, Christmas fruits (dried), all kinds of sauces and pickles, and “superior” English cheeses, music boxes, sugar toys, “crystaline candies for ornamenting Christmas trees”, Hudson Bay rum “33 per cent over proof, 50 cents per bottle”, men’s warm suits at $5 and up, and raffles for "turkies", geese and iced cakes.
“Presents to please everyone; prices to suit all.”
(For examples, see the British Colonist, Saturday morning, 23 December 1865.)

“Christmas Eve, after dinner, mother or father or both with the children, were off to buy the last of the presents, visit the shops or buy their Christmas dinner, for many left it till then. Turkey might not have been within their reach, but geese, wild or tame, took their place. Sucking pig was my favorite dish. Wild duck and grouse (50c per pair), with fine roasts of beef. Of course plum pudding was in evidence with poor as well as rich, although eggs at Xmas were $1.00 per dozen.

A great feature of Christmas time was shooting for turkeys and geese at several outlying places, and raffles for turkeys at several of the principal saloons and hotels.”



“We nearly all went to church; the Anglicans, and many Nonconformists with them, on Christmas morning, and the Catholics on Christmas Eve.”

“A special feature of the saloons on Christmas Eve was 'Egg-Nog', and all we young fellows dropped in for a glass on our way to midnight mass at the Catholic Church on Humboldt Street."

From the Colonist advertisements, there seemed no shortage of alcoholic refreshments in Victoria. William W. Gibbs's ad boasted:

Hear Land o’ Clams and Brither Scots,
Frae Clover Point to Queen Charlotte's,
If you want a glass of fine Brandy;
If you want a glass of fine Rum;
If you want a glass of fine Whisky;
If you want a glass of fine 'Bunster';
If you want a glass of fine Porter;
If you want to be waited on by a Lady:
Then make “tracks” for the
Royal Exchange, Fort Street.



According to Edgar Fawcett, for most the service at the Catholic Church "was one of the attractions of Xmas Eve, and the church was filled to overflowing, and later on there was standing room only. We went to hear the singing, which was best obtainable....



Amongst the well-dressed city people were many Cariboo miners. Trousers tucked in their boots, said trousers held in position with a belt, and maybe no coat or vest on. When the time came for the collection, all hands dug down in their pockets and a generous collection was the result....



‘Twelve-thirty’. Service is over, we are off to bed, for we must be up betimes in the morning for service at 11 o’clock.”



From the Victoria Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Sunday, 22 December 1907, page 50. The Colonist first published in 1858, the same year Edgar Fawcett and his family came to Victoria. The Victoria Daily Times didn’t begin till 1884. In 1950, the two businesses merged, although it was not till 1980 that the Times Colonist was published as one paper.

Edgar Fawcett's stories, and those of others, were later published and now you can read more about Victoria’s Christmases at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki

Some Reminiscences of old Victoria by Edgar Fawcett. (Toronto:
William Briggs, 1912). Project Gutenberg Release Date: July 13, 2008, EBook #26048.

And, if you'd like to read the newspapers,

Morning Telegram, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, issues from June 1898-August 1907 digitized and available free: www.manitobia.ca

Victoria Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, issues from 1858-1910 digitized and available free: www.britishcolonist.ca

Sunday, December 20, 2009

British Columbia - A Festival of Postcards

The Lions, British Columbia, Canada, [1919]. Photographer Leonard Frank.
Unused Post Card, divided back. black and white. Importex Company, Vancouver, B.C. Imprime en Allemagne. To see more Leonard Frank photographs, go to the Vancouver Public Library's Leonard Frank Collection.

WHITE is the theme for the upcoming edition of A Festival of Postcards. Evelyn Yvonne Theriault, the Festival's Editor, who blogs at A Canadian Family, is accepting anything related to white on postcards, even cards that are black and white.

I entered a Manitoba cemetery related card already in this Festival of Postcards, over at my Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia blog, but today I want to feature some British Columbia postcards.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish David Mattison, a tireless British Columbia researcher, librarian and archivist, a very happy New Year and a very happy retirement. His "Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska & Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950" and "The Camera Workers Bibliography" are indispensible to those interested in BC photographers. He is just retiring after 3o years at the Provincial Archives, and said the other day in an e-mail that he is especially proud of introducing automation and championing electronic on-line access for the Archives catalogues. (Read his Ten Thousand Year Blog for up to date news on digital issues.)

I quote from his e-mail: Equally as important to me as significant and long-lasting memories are of experiencing someone else's joy at finding a tiny or a large part of their history in the archival records preserved by the BC Archives, Royal BC Museum. (David Mattison to the Archives Association of BC e-mail list, Thursday, December 17, 2009.) Thank you, David. I've benefited personally both from your work at the Archives and your many personal historical projects as have many others researching their family histories in British Columbia.

Now, of course, at this time of year in Canada, thoughts of WHITE almost always bring snow to mind, although in British Columbia, even in the very southwest mainland area where I live, snow can usually be found somewhere (higher up anyway) all year round.

Most of the year, I can see some snow on the Lions, for instance, the two local mountain peaks shown in the Leonard Frank postcard above. The Lions name was officially adopted in 1924, but the Lions are also known as the Sisters, Ch'ich'iyu'y Elxwi'kn, or The Two Sisters as Pauline Johnson, the poet, recorded. The West Lion is 5401 feet high; the East Lion is 5245 feet. This is my favourite photograph ever of the Lions.

Grouse Mountain, 4100 feet above sea level at its peak, is a well used recreational area, winter and summer, whether there is snow or no.


Here's one postcard though to prove we do have snow, even in June! Sleighing on Grouse Mountain, BC, in June. Alt 4300 feet. 103,904 JV. Love Photo. Souvenir Post Card, coloured, unused. The Valentine & Sons' Publishing Co., Ltd. Montreal and Toronto. Published in Great Britain.

However, snow isn't the only WHITE connection a postcard or a postcard image can have. I've been thinking recently about why and how people collect certain things, like postcards, for instance. My tastes and my collections are 'eclectic' to put it in a nice way... but if I were collecting WHITE related British Columbia postcards I might hunt for -


Cards that relate to places named WHITE, like this lovely one that shows White's Creek Bridge in the Fraser Canyon.


White's Creek Bridge and Fraser's Canon, near Spuzzum, B.C. Coloured. Souvenir Post Card; unused. The Valentine & Sons' Publishing Co., Ltd. (I believe White's Creek is now officially Findlay Creek. Why I do not know...)

Or I might look for postcards that relate to places or people with names or other historic or common associations with WHITE, like this favourite from my British Columbia postcards, showing a place associated with pearls.

Spray of Pearls Falls, Indian River Park, "Wigwam Inn" Vancouver, B.C. Dominion Photo Co. Postcard; coloured, unused. This is now in Say Nuth Khaw Yum Heritage Park, Indian Arm Provincial Park.

If I was going to collect 'WHITE' British Columbia postcards, I'd need to be on the lookout for any cards associated with these places I've identified already (or perhaps with complementary themes, like BLACK). I've identified some places to start with. This might involve a lot of research as some names are used in more than one area of British Columbia, and many names are no longer used, but a groups of postcards collected around this theme could make a great display.

I’m making no pretense of this WHITE related place name list being complete. I’m sure there must be many places in British Columbia that would fit here. Please let me know of them.

Some of the sources I used were British Columbia Place Names by George Philip Vernon Akrigg and Helen Brown (Manning) Akrigg (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, third edition, 1997), the 1931 Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory and the GeoBC BC Geographical Names database on-line: http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/bcnames and the new book, Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia by Andrew Scott (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009).


Blackie Spit – at White Rock (named after a blacksmith named Walter Blackie!)

Bones Bay – Steamer landing – Minstrel Island. reached by Union Steam ship from Vancouver (1931) – cannery – possibly related to Minstrel Island’s name ( 'Mr. Bones' and 'Sambo' being stock characters in minstrel shows.)
Bones Creek – see Bones Bay – also Sambo Creek.

Brides Creek
Bridesville – Greenwood – really named after a David McBride though apparently.
Bridal Creek – Popkum/Chilliwack.
Bridal Falls – Popkum/Chilliwack.
Bridal Lake – formerly Summit Lake – renamed in 1964. “This was the site of the Commonwealth's first outdoor Cabinet meeting, in conjunction with the highway's opening ceremony 15 August 1964. Order in Council 2282, passed on the spot, changed the name of Summit Lake to Bridal Lake, to symbolize the marriage and unification of the formerly separated areas of East and West Kootenay.”
Bridal Veil Cascade – mouth of Joker Creek, Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.
Bridal Veil Creek - Kootenay Lake.
Bridal Veil Falls – on Bridal Creek, Cheam Lake, Chilliwack.
Bridal Veil Falls - On Whisky-jack Creek, north side of Yoho National Park – now Whisky-jack Falls (1970).
Bridal Veil Falls Park - Provincial Park 1965.
Bridalveil Creek (one word) - Kootenay Lake.

Cottonwood – Quesnel.
Cottonwood Canyon – Cariboo.
Cottonwood Flats – Salmon Arm.

Also perhaps,

Lambs – reached by the Union Steamship from Vancouver (1931).
Mayo – an E & N railway flag station.
Osprey Lake – a CPR flag stop - Yale.
Oyster River – Comox/Alberni.
Pages – SS Skeena – New Westminster.

And the pearls -

Pearl Harbour - Finlayson Island.
Pearl Island - Village Island.
Pearl Lake - Buttle Lake.
Pearl Peak - Iroquois Ridge.
Pearl Point (159) – previously Camp Point. Tsimpsean Peninsula, north of Prince Rupert.
Pearl Rocks - Pennask Lake.
Pearl Rocks - Sea Otter Group, south of Calvert Island.
Pearly Lake - McQuillan Range, Cassiar.
Spray of Pearls Falls – Wigwam Creek, above Wigwam Inn, Indian Arm. (The name could have come from a sad, but romantic story, or could have a more prosaic derivation. )

And,

Poplar Creek – Kaslo.
Poplar Grove – Penticton.
Shoal Bay – Lower Thurlow Island – reached by the Union Steamship (1931).
Snowshoe – Fort George.
Soda Creek – Quesnel.
Sugar Lake – east of Mabel Lake.
Sugarloaf Mountain – Nicola Lake (named for the sugar that some Douglas fir trees on the mountain produced. Akriggs).
Sugarloaf Hill - Goldstream.
Sugarloaf Hill - Kamloops.
Sugarloaf Mountain - Okanagan Lake just below Whiteman Creek, Vernon.
Sugarloaf Mountain - east of Merritt.
Sugarloaf Mountain – near head of Beaver River on South boundary of Glacier National Park, Golden.
Sugarloaf Mountain - Pemberton.
Sugarloaf Mountain - NW side of Choquette Glacier, E of Stikine River.
Sugarloaf Peak - Whidbey Reach Gardner Canal, just SE of Kemano.

Then there's

Rainbow - CNR flag stop, near Fort George.
Rainbow - flag stop PGE railway, near Lilloett.
Rainbow Falls - reached by Burrard Harbour Navigation Co. (1931).
Chameleon Harbour – reached by Union Steamship from Vancouver (1931).

And, just a few of the WHITEs - there are almost 200 -

Kluskus Lakes – from the Carrier language – meaning place of small whitefish.
Kwadacha River – Sekani word for ‘white water”. [Also now a park.]
White Boar Lake - Mallandaine Creek, Kootenays.
White Creek - Dewar Creek just above St. Mary River, west of Kimberley.
White Creek - name no longer accepted - into Bromley Creek, Yale.
White Creek - Salmon Arm, Shuswap Lake.
White Creek - Sandon Creek, Kootenay.
White Creek - Lakelse River.
White Lake – Keremeos/Okanagan Falls.
White Lupine Ridge - east of Lilloet Lake.
Whiteman Landing – Okanagan Lake - not an official name.
White Pelican Park - near Williams Lake (also Stum Lake Park). Established 1971 to protect the American White Pelican.
White River – HBC trading post, north of Fort Grahame.
White Rock – on Great Northern Railway line – Vancouver area.
White Sulphur – Eastern British Columbia Railway line – Fernie.
Whitewater – Hudson's Bay Company post – north of Fort Grahame.
Whytecliff – North Vancouver.
White Spit - northwest of Seal Islets.
White Spruce Creek - Hay River.
White Spruce Island - Carp Lake, Cariboo.
White Swan Creek - Henderson Creek, Smithers.
Whites Landing and Whites Landing Creek - Fraser River (not official names).
Whitesaddle Mountain - west of Tatlayoko Lake (named for the look of its glacier).
Whitesail Lake - southwest of Ootsa Lake. Named by Chief Louis of the Cheslatta Indians for its whitecap waves.
Whitesand Island - Malaspina Strait.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Christmas Surprise - The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - 2009

Santa and Diane at Eaton's Toyland, 1951, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Black and white photo, originally in an Eaton's department store Toyland folder.

It's almost Christmas! Only 7 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes...

The 2007 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories was my first introduction to many of my genea-blogger friends. I especially remember meeting Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family and Jasia of Creative Gene who together originated the 2007 Advent Calendar.

This year, many more Genea-bloggers are participating in 2009's Advent Calendar. There's a post over at the Geneabloggers website explaining this year's Advent Calendar. Included is a schedule of topic prompts. You can post only once or participate in every one, or even link to your 2007 posts, if you're an oldie like myself, as most of the prompts are the same. Jasia, I read, is thinking of making her posts into a book - great idea!
It's not too late to add yourself to the Advent Calendar.

Today is a Grab Bag day - author's choice - and since something Christmassy (and very funny!) happened today, I wanted to join in.

Now, one of the Advent Calendar topic prompts is "Fruitcake – Friend or Foe?" Here's my 2007 post for this topic: "Fruitcake - Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories". Oddly, perhaps, I didn't talk much about fruitcake - only that I LOVE IT!, my kids don't, and that I also love Christmas pudding (which I did talk about. I even included my grandma Sarah's recipe).

I've bought my Christmas pudding already for this year. Please, please, don't faint dead away at the idea of store-bought Christmas pudding. There's only me to eat it, after all, and this is a Crosse and Blackwell Brandied pudding - I think it will be good enough, at least with lots of sauce (and perhaps a tad more brandy?)

But as yet I have no Christmas fruitcake. For me, somehow a fruitcake needs to be home made. (I do have a friend who makes amazing Christmas cakes but, if she's been baking, she's not shared any recently.)

But, what?!
To my surprise, the postman today delivered a big box from my daughter, who won't be 'home' for Christmas this year.

And on the big box was a big note:

Hi, Mama ,

You are going to need to open this box before Christmas, although not the presents!
There is one thing that you will need to take out right away! Not wrapped, should be obvious :)
Please be warned:
If one little piece does NOT taste good...please discard immediately :)... I tried... ha!

Love me!

Now my daughter has a history of funny presents. One year she gave me purple wool and knitting needles - that's a story for another day - but this year? Well, I did open the box (a bit cautiously), I shook and prodded all the wrapped presents - there was one that rattled - wonder what that is? But I know you want to know what else was in that box....
...

....
.....
......
.......
........
.........
..........
...........

YES, indeed, it's a fruitcake - made by my own daughter - who hates fruitcake, but loves me!

If there were to be a future prompt for the most surprising Christmas gift, or the most-likely-to-be-forever-remembered Christmas gift, this post belongs there.

My two, with Santa in the 7os, Coquitlam, BC, Canada.


Thank you, dear daughter, Merry Christmas! and yes, I surely do love you :-) <3

The Fruitcake!

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Coming Up at Herstory Cafe in Vancouver

December 7th, 2009, Monday, 7 pm, SFU Harbour Centre, downtown Vancouver.

Caesarean Sections in Canada, 1945-1970

This talk by Sally Mennill explores the post war history of c-sections and childbirth.

Sally Mennill is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia's Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research focuses on women's health history and the history of childbirth in Canada, especially on caesarean sections in post-war Canada. Sally is a labour and post-partum doula and she is active in the Vancouver doula community.

7 pm. SFU Harbour Centre Campus, 515 W. Hastings, Vancouver, BC. Room 7000, 7th floor. Free, limited seating.

More information: http://www.herstorycafe.ca

Watch for news on the 2010 Herstory Cafe presentations.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Treasure Chest Thursday - Dad and His Shoes


Well, here's an 'everyday' family treasure, a shoehorn. This was one of my dad's - now it's mine - and yes, I do use it.

This one must have been an advertising giveaway at one time. It reads:

Cheramy's Shoe Store & Repairs
904 Brunette St.,
Maillardville, B.C.

Maillardville is the name for the French-Canadian settlement that grew up around Fraser Mills, now in Coquitlam, B.C., within walking distance for me. Dad might have known someone in business there, but never lived nearby.

My dad always was careful with his shoes. He used a shoehorn to put them on; put wooden shoe trees in them at night so they'd keep their shape longer, and polished them regularly. As I child, I thought that was his army training, but likely he was taught to do that earlier.

(Why are shoe trees called trees? I don't know but here are some shoe trees that would have made my dad smile.)


Dad at home with the cats - Purrt and Teddy.