All posts by Sandra McHugh

Dundee, genealogy, Migration, Quebec, Scotland, WWI

A Twist of Fate

Leave a comment

By Susan Gingras Calcagni

My great-grandfather, William Irvine, born on 31 August 1864 in Maryton, Kirriemuir, Forfar, Scotland1 was devastated by the death of his eldest daughter, Mary Ann, in 1911.2  Heartbroken, William was ready to hand over his lease as a publican and make preparations to sail to Canada with one of his daughters, Georgina. The 1911 census reveals that William was a Spirit Merchant at the Camperdown Pub located at 144 High Street in Dundee, Scotland.  William and his family were living at 22 Peel Street in Lochee, Dundee,3 just a 10-minute walk from the pub. This was a popular pub with the workers of the Camperdown Works, the largest jute factory in the world at the time.4 By spring 1912 William had found a new owner who was interested in taking over the pub and William had finalized preparations to emigrate to Canada.

Subsequently, William was shocked and dismayed to learn that his emigration to Canada would need to be delayed. James Jones, the new owner, could not take over the lease to the pub as planned. His son was due to return from India and the transfer of the lease had to wait until his return. This would have been overwhelming for William and this new development significantly altered the plans he had set in motion for a new life. He had come this far and would hold on to the one silver thread to achieve his goal. I can only imagine his strength and determination in the face of this situation and the need to change his plans.

While I was growing up, my Aunt Gladys Fairlie, my mum’s sister, was very keen to learn from her grandmother, Betsy, William’s wife, about her family history. As William Irvine died in 1931 in Montreal, Quebec,5 Betsy was the only one living to tell the family stories. Now here is where the family lore comes into play. Gladys was born in Canada, and not having immigrated, she would ask her grandmother why they came to Canada. Betsy told her that it was due to the death of their eldest daughter. It was said that this broke William’s heart and therefore he decided to leave Scotland for Canada. One can only dare say how devastated they must have been when forced to contend with the loss of their daughter, Mary Ann, at the tender age of 17 years old. As genealogists, we are often under the impression that our ancestors usually emigrated for economic reasons and opportunities to better their lives. In this case, it was not the sole cause for my family.  It was heartbreak, and further research revealed that it was an overwhelming one for William.

While researching William and Betsy’s immigration to Canada, I found that William was a widower at the time of his marriage to Betsy (something we weren’t aware of).6 A well-known step in researching family history is to leave no stone unturned, so I dug deeper into the records to learn that William had first married in December 1887.7 Unfortunately the death of Mary Ann in 1911 was not the first tragedy in his life. On 8 February 1888, his first wife, Mary McGregor Grimmond died days after giving birth.8 This was followed quickly by the death of their twin daughters, [Mary and unknown] on 29 February 1888.9 Chills ran through my body as I could only imagine how devastated my great-grandfather must have felt with grief and sorrow in his heart. My quest to learn more had increased ten-fold.

Moving forward, in 2002 plans for travel to Scotland were underway to learn more about my ancestors and especially about William and Betsy’s emigration to Canada. My Aunt Gladys and I were embarking on a fact-finding mission with the hope of confirming the stories she had been told by her grandmother over the years. Airline tickets were purchased and reservations were booked with plans to spend time in Dundee. I sent emails to the Dundee City Archives to book appointments to review the records to locate the address of the Public House where William was a publican and any other pertinent particulars we may extract. Meanwhile, I contacted the Balgay Cemetery in Dundee to plan a visit to the gravesite of Mary Ann Irvine. My Aunt Gladys had always yearned to locate and visit her grandfather’s pub and her Aunt Mary Ann’s gravesite. My desire to seek out these details were equally shared. My mission was underway and there was no disappointing my aunt.

With all the information swirling in my head, I was eager to start my quest. However, here is where my curiosity really started to unfold. Gladys was also told that William had his passage to Canada in the making and that the new owner of the Public House requested that William delay his departure, as noted above in this story. When we visited the Dundee Archives, you can imagine how thrilled we were when shown the entry at the Dundee City Archives10 with evidence that there was indeed an alteration in the transfer of the lease for the Public House located at 144 High Street, Lochee, Dundee between William Irvine and James Jones, Spirit dealers. Betsy, William’s wife, told the story that William was dismayed that he was required to stay on longer just until Mr. Jones’ son arrived back from India. Mr. Brian Cullens of the Dundee City Archives, who I had contacted by email, remarked that day on our visit that William probably had needed to alter his arrangements for his passage to Canada. This delay in the transfer of the lease saved William and Georgina’s lives. Originally William and Georgina had booked their passage on the RMS Titanic that left Southampton, England on April 15, 1912 but these tickets had to be cancelled. Eventually William and Georgina travelled on the Allan Line’s SS Scandinavian which departed from Glasgow on June 29, 1912, two months after the RMS Titanic’s fated voyage.11 After confirming at the Dundee City Archives that William did, indeed, change his travel plans made Aunt Gladys and I realize that we were in Dundee in 2002 because of this remarkable twist of fate.

Extracts from the Dundee City Archives, 2002

While in Dundee in 2002, we also visited the site of William Irvine’s pub which was then called the “Last Tram” located at 144-146 High Street. Below is a picture taken during this trip. This name of the pub honoured the historic end of the Dundee’s tram service in October 1956. In earlier years, the Camperdown Tavern, was nicknamed the “Tommy” or the Wounded Tommy. The soldiers of WWI who were badly wounded and who recuperated in Bright Street nearby the tavern at the Union Street Church Hall were nicknamed the “Tommies.” They were patrons of the tavern because the wounded soldiers would find it easy to enter and exit with no steps from the street level.12

The Last Tram, Dundee, Scotland, family photo by author, 2002

Often, as genealogists, we are asked why we do family history. Greater than the sum of these fragments, here is one of my responses. On the train ride leaving Dundee, Gladys and I were sitting there, and while crossing the Tay Rail Bridge, my aunt turned and looked at me. In a surreal tone she expressed her thoughts, “What would my grandparents and my mother think to know that I was there and sat in the family’s Public House, the same brick and mortar, and visited the Balgay Cemetery gravesite of my aunt that I had never met.”  This squeezed my heart knowing that I had fulfilled a dream of the person who has always been my soul mate and inspiration in life and genealogy, my dearest Aunt Gladys.

  1. New Register House Scotland, Statutory Birth Records, 1864, William Irvine, accessed 2000.
  2. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1911 Mary Ann Irvine, accessed 2006.
  3. ScotlandsPeople, 1911 UK Census, accessed 2011.
  4. Wikipedia, Camperdown Works, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camperdown_Works, accessed 22 June 2026.
  5. Ancestry, Drouin Collection, Grace Anglican Church, Montreal, Quebec, accessed 5 August 2026.
  6. New Register House Scotland, Statutory Marriage Records, 1892, William Irvine and Betsy Smith Lawson, accessed 2000.
  7. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Marriage Records, 1887,William Irvine and Mary McGregor Grimmond, accessed 2008.
  8. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1888, Mary McGregor Grimmond, accessed 2008.
  9. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1888, Mary McGregor Grimmond Irvine, accessed 2008.
  10. Dundee City Archives, Liquor Licensing Records, William Irvine, accessed 2002.
  11. Findmypast, Passenger Lists leaving UK 1890 -1960, William Irvine, accessed 2007.
  12. Wikipedia, Camperdown Works, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camperdown_Works, accessed 6 August 2026.
Quebec, Research tips, Technology

Archived Web Sites at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)

Leave a comment

Delete. Delete. Delete. All family historians and genealogists fret about what will happen to their research once they are dead. Before the digital age, they worried about their research being chucked in the garbage or, more recently, tossed into the recycling bin. Now they worry about the word DELETE.

Those of us who post our research on web sites and blogs know that once the domain no longer exists, our research will also disappear. Quebec’s national library, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) has put an extraordinary initiative in place, the Archivage Web. This is a wonderful collection of Quebec web sites. Its objective is to preserve Quebec’s digital heritage and Quebec’s presence on the web. Quebec has harvested Quebec-centric web sites since 2012 and these sites can be accessed using a specialized web archiving interface. This initiative responds to the mission of the BAnQ to gather, conserve, and disseminate Quebec’s documentary heritage.

Here is the link to this extraordinary collection:

https://www2.banq.qc.ca/collections/collections_patrimoniales/archives_web/?language_id=1

This link brings you to a thorough explanation of the program:

https://www.banq.qc.ca/notre-institution/bibliotheque-nationale/programme-de-collecte-de-sites-web/

With this collection of archived web sites, the BAnQ desires to create a representative portrait of Quebec society through its digital presence. It selects web site to archive using the following criteria:

  • Of interest to the general public
  • Is well known in its domain
  • Has a current and historical value
  • Has original content and is compatible with the content of the BAnQ’s collections
  • Has a quality site

Genealogy Ensemble applied to the BAnQ to become part of its archived collection and we are delighted to announce that we have been accepted. The BAnQ uses a data-collection robot to collect the sites that are part of its collection and has already been harvested twice.

Genealogy Ensemble is honoured to be chosen to be part of the BAnQ’s digital heritage collection. Members of the public can access our web site through Archivage Web. When you access this page, just type in Genealogy Ensemble and this will take you to a calendar with highlighted dates. These dates represent the dates that a “snapshot” was taken. While you cannot search with these snapshots, you will be able to browse them. The advantage is that these snapshots will be part of BAnQ’s permanent selection and will survive after our blog is no longer active.

Of course, our hope is that genealogists and historians will use this tool for years to come. Even though the snapshoots cannot be searched in the same way that the live site can be searched, it does not mean that this will not be possible in the future. After all, our ancestors would never have imagined the digitization of their important documents.

genealogy, Scotland

Auntie Ann’s Second Sight

Leave a comment

Second sight has a long tradition in Scotland, more particularly in the Highlands and among Irish-Scots.  Scots are a superstitious people and many believe even today in the gift or curse of the second sight. 1 My family was Irish-Scots and maybe this is why they believed that they had family members with this gift. It is called the second sight is because the first sight is our normal vision that everyone has. Only some people have inherited the second sight. There are many Gaelic words for the second sight, the most common being An Da Sheallad, meaning two sights.2

Auntie Ann always said that she had inherited the gift of premonition. She knew things before they were going to happen. She also claimed that she could ‘feel’ things about people.

Ann Lynn McHugh Smith (1897-1975)

“Such nonsense!” my mother would snort when we got back in the car after visiting Auntie Ann. Her sister-in-law always had a story or two about the times she could foresee the future or just knew something. I used to listen in open-mouthed wonder while my father squirmed uncomfortably. My mother held her tongue during the visits but I could feel her bristling with indignation.

One time Auntie Ann told a story that scared me for years. She was in her kitchen and she felt a cold shadow pass over her. She knew something terrible had happened and she learned later that a toddler had fallen to his death in the neighbourhood.

Another story that struck me was about Auntie Ann’s son, Tommy Smith, when he was overseas during World War II. He was injured in battle and she claims to have sat right up in bed because she knew he was going to be injured in the leg.  When I was little, I could easily imagine Auntie Ann sitting up in bed, terrified and unable to reach her son.

There are detailed written accounts of incidents involving the second sight since the 17th century in Scotland. They have been collected by modern day folklorists and ethnographers. These include many detailed descriptions about how the prophecy appeared to the person with the second sight. Sometimes people saw exactly what was going to happen. At other times, they saw symbols and interpreted them. Sometimes these visions were accompanied by smells and sounds.3

When I would ask my dad about Auntie Ann’s second sight, he would answer that Scots believe that this ability runs in families and that Auntie Ann was convinced that she had this gift. But I wanted to know whether my father believed it. I realize today that my father didn’t want to hurt his sister so he never really said one way or the other.

Ethnographers are sure that the second sight is an inherited ability.4 However, no one in our family has this ability now. And what would my mother say? “Hogwash!”

  1. McCain’s Corner, Barry McCain, blogger, The Second Sight Amongst the Scots Irish, July 17, 2015, https://barryrmccain.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-second-sight-among-scots-irish.html, accessed November 26, 2018
  2. Scotclans website, Prophecy, Scottish Second Sight, David McNicoll, February 2, 2012, https://www.scotclans.com/prophecy-scottish-second-sight/, accessed November 26, 2018
  3. Cohen, Shari Ann, Doctoral thesis abstract, Scottish tradition of second sight and other psychic experiences in families, University of Edinburg Research Archive, 1996,  https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/9674, accessed November 26, 2018
  4. Ibid.
Scotland, suicide

James’ Tragedy

Leave a comment

Suicide is a tragedy that leaves a deep and lasting scar. On an April day in 1864, James Hunter, 45 years old, my second great-granduncle, decided to throw himself in front of a train. All the sadness of this event is illustrated in James’ father’s registration of the death described as “accidentally killed on Monkland Railway by the engine.”1 The newspaper article is more direct, “Hunter threw himself in front of the engine.”2 Understandably, James’ father probably rewrote history to get through his pain of registering such a sad event. He also possibly wanted to avoid further pain for the family as a result of a suicide in the family.

In 1864, sudden deaths would have usually be referred to the Procurator Fiscal, known in other jurisdictions as the public prosecutor. There is no entry on the registration of death to indicate that the Procurator Fiscal held an inquiry into James’ death. They may have deemed it not necessary, as it was obviously a suicide. While committing suicide was considered a crime in 19th century England and Wales, this was not the case in Scotland. Citizens were free to take their own life, but it was assumed they would be answerable to God. In England and Wales, suicide was decriminalised only in 1961 with the passing of the Suicide Act. Prior to this, anyone who attempted suicide could be imprisoned and if they were successful and died, their families could be prosecuted. 3

James was born around 1819 and possibly in a colliery. James, like his father, was a coalminer. When he committed suicide he left behind his wife, Elizabeth Pettigrew, 4 and seven children.5

At the time of his death, James lived in Coatbridge, a village in North Lanarkshire in Scotland. Coatbridge is about 8 km north of Glasgow. James lived in Brewsterford, an area of Coatbridge that was close to the Calder Iron Works. It is therefore no surprise that James chose to end his life within walking distance of his home.6 The train of the Monkland Railways was at a level crossing at the Calder Iron Works when the locomotive engineer spotted James. Sadly, it was too late for the engineer was unable to stop the train in time to prevent the tragedy.7

Map of Calder Iron Works, 1859, Scotland’s Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry

Of course, no one can know why James committed suicide or at least there is no official record of why. The newspaper article indicates that he had been “dull and melancholy for some time past.” 8 We can guess that he was clinically depressed. His family and loved ones would have noticed but, unlike today, would have had no way to help him overcome his depression.

All suicides are a tragedy. It would have been catastrophic for Elizabeth and her seven children. Added to the shame and stigma of suicide, Elizabeth would have lost the breadwinner of the family. The older children were on their own by then but the four youngest ones were still in school.

  1. Scotland’s People, Statutory Registers of Death, 1864, Deaths in the District of Old Monkland in the County of Lanark, 21 April 1864, James Hunter, accessed 23 October 2025.
  2. The Herald Glasgow Edition, Strathclyde, Scotland, 26 April 1864, page 3, accessed 23 October 2025.
  3. Wikipedia, Suicide Act 1961, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961, accessed 28 May 2024.
  4. Scotland’s People, Old Parish Registers of Marriages, 1839, Airdrie or New Monkland, James Hunter and Elizabeth Pettigrew, accessed 7 November 2025.
  5. Ancestry, family trees, children not double checked.
  6. Map of Calder Iron Brickworks, Scotland’s Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry, https://www.scottishbrickhistory.co.uk/calder-iron-brickworks-whifflet-coatbridge-north-lanarkshire/, accessed 1 December 2025.
  7. The Herald Glasgow Edition, Strathclyde, Scotland, 26 April 1864, page 3, accessed 23 October 2025.
  8. The Herald Glasgow Edition, Strathclyde, Scotland, 26 April 1864, page 3, accessed 23 October 2025.
genealogy

Getting the Names Right

Leave a comment

In the last mad dash to send Beads in the Necklace to print, we had to make sure that the names in the stories were right. Genealogists struggle with the difficulties of names every day.

There was the question of those pesky hyphens. In French Canada, hyphenated names are common. But not every double name takes a hyphen. Then what about apostrophes that were simply dropped?

And accents. Some French names had accents and others not. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason.

Some of the people in our stories had unusual names. Hermonie? Maybe it was Harmonie? Or even Hermionie? It was Herminie. And is it Catherine or Catharine? Or Isabelle or Isabella?

And how many ways can you spell Jodouin? Each source document seemed to have a different spelling.

And then what about place names. Do we use the French place name or the anglicized place name? With or without accents?

All these variations in the names made me think of my husband’s surname. I asked him, “Why do some people in your family spell their name Delatolas as Dellatolas, with two letter ls?

He shrugged, “I dropped an “l” when I emigrated to Canada.”

“Besides, my father and my brother had already dropped an “l”. Anyway, who cares?”

“Well,” I muttered, “Genealogists care.”

Dundee, Quebec, Scotland

The Cipher

Leave a comment

When I say that my grandfather, Thomas McHugh, worked as a cipher, Bletchley Park, MI5, Russian spies immediately come to mind. He was neither a Russian spy nor did he work as a cipher during the war. His employer was the Bank of Montreal, and it was his first job when he came to Canada in 1912.

The decision to immigrate to Canada was not easy for Thomas. He was in his mid-30s and already had seven children, between the ages of one and fifteen. For over 40 years, the jute manufacturers of Dundee, Scotland, had been providing employment for his parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, wife, and for him. However, by the early 1900s, he was facing a precarious future for his children.

By that time, Dundee had suffered a serious decline in the textile industry and more significantly, the jute industry. Jute was imported from India; however, the mill owners realized that it would lower production costs to open mills in India to prepare the jute and import the finished product to Scotland. Once mills were established in India, the jute production in the mills in Dundee decreased substantially.1

So when Thomas arrived in Canada, a little ahead of his wife and his children, he was eager and prepared to do any job that he could. The Bank of Montreal had its headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bank had significant dealings with Great Britain and there were correspondence and banking instructions back and forth between Canada and Great Britain daily. These instructions were mainly sent by telegraph overnight.  Some of these instructions were confidential, and it was preferred that they remain so. Overnight instructions reduced the number of people who would have access to them. And the time difference between Montreal and the United Kingdom meant that the banks in London and Edinburgh were open for business while Montreal was still asleep.

Thomas with Pal in Verdun

Even in those days, the banks were concerned about security, privacy and confidentiality. The banking instructions and transactions that were transmitted by telegraph were encrypted. It was the job of the cipher clerk to decipher them so that the bank staff could then ensure that the instructions were carried out as required.

To be a cipher clerk, one had to be reliable, meticulous and honest, and maintain the confidentiality of the bank’s business above all else. To decipher the information, the clerk used a cipher handbook and worked overnight, making it a difficult job for a man with a family.

So while my grandfather, the cipher, did not work in espionage, I still think that his first job in Canada was rather interesting.2

  1. Wikipedia web site, The History of Dundee, online<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Dundee>, accessed February 19, 2017.
  2. McHugh, Edward. Personal knowledge. [Father of writer].
Scotland, WWI

Gunner John Hunter, World War 1

5 Comments

When I discovered that my Great-Uncle, John Hunter died at the age of 20 in either France or Belgium in 1917 during World War I, I assumed that he had died in battle. He was a gunner, which mean that he either served the guns, handled ammunition, or drove the horses. My first thought was that this seemed like a particularly dangerous assignment.1 With further research, I discovered that it was almost inevitable that he would die.

John was assigned to the 87th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). He lived in Fife, Scotland and the RFA was actively recruiting there. In World War I, the minimum age was 19 to sign up, so John would only have seen a year of active fighting before his death. 2 He either enlisted voluntarily or was forced to as the Military Service Act was passed in 1916, requiring the conscription of unmarried and widowed men without any dependents.3

Courtesy War Museum, Recrutment Posters

The 87th Brigade was an infantry brigade formation of the British Army. By the time John would have joined the Brigade, it was serving on the Western Front.4 John would have likely participated in the Battle of the Somme and Passchendaele.

John was taken ill when he was in the theatre of war. He was sent to the Lord Derby War Hospital in Winwick, Borough of Warrington, Chesire, England. He was in a diabetic coma when he died on September 7, 1917, with my grandmother, just 16 years old at the time, at his side. Their mother had died in April 1917 and their father was also serving in World War I and was positioned in France at the time of his son’s death. My grandmother would have been summoned to his bedside and she would have had to make the journey from Lumphinnans, Scotland to Chesire, England by herself.5

Imagine the terror of being diagnosed with diabetes prior to 1921, the year insulin was discovered by a team of doctors, Charles Banting, Charles Best, and J.B. Collip and their supervisor, J.J.R. Macleod,  working at the University of Toronto.6 The symptoms would have included a terrible thirst, excessive urination, lethargy, and perhaps confusion. A urine analysis would have been done and a high glucose level would have confirmed diabetes but there was nothing to be done before the discovery of insulin except a strict dietary regime. We now know that diabetes can be triggered by trauma in someone with a genetic predisposition. There Is no doubt that the trauma of trench warfare would have had its toll on John.

When my grandson was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 16 months old, the doctors questioned whether type 1 diabetes was in the family. We could not think of any relative who had type 1 diabetes. We now know that we were wrong. My grandson will live a normal life with the help of a pump that provides insulin as he needs it. But John did not have a chance. He was living through traumatic circumstances, had a genetic predisposition, and life-saving insulin was not yet discovered. 

  1. Wikipedia, Gunner (rank), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunner_(rank), accessed 17 June 2025
  2. War Museum, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-joining-up, accessed 17 June 2025
  3. War Museum, https://www.iwm.org.uk/learning/resources/first-world-war-recruitment-posters, accessed 18 June 2025.
  4. Wikipedia, 87th Brigade, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/87th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)#:~:text=The%20brigade%20was%20assigned%20to,the%20rest%20of%20the%20war., accessed 17 June 2025.
  5. Death certificate, John Hynd Hunter, issued 22 April 2025, Grace Hunter, sister, was the informant.
  6. The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Discovery of Insulin, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-discovery-of-insulin, accessed 18 june 2025

Greece, Quebec

Easter Celebrations

Leave a comment

I am spending this week madly rushing around to get ready for Easter Sunday. My husband is Greek and we celebrate Easter with Greek traditions on this day. Forty guests are expected at our house for the celebrations.

The star of the show will be a lamb on a spit. The “lamb team” starts early in the morning to prepare the lamb, filling the inside cavity with herbs, onions, and lemon, and then sewing it up. It will turn on the spit for many hours. We used to take turns turning the lamb but now we have an electric motor to do the job.

Courtesy Greek Boston

My husband and his uncle will also prepare the kokoretisi early Sunday morning. Kokoretsi is also roasted on the spit. Kokoretsi is a traditional dish of lamb intestines wrapped around seasoned offal, including sweetbreads, hearts, lungs, and kidneys.1 Everyone loves it, although I have to confess that I do not find it appetizing. Surprisingly none of the younger people in our family are interested in learning how to make it.  In a decade or so, kokoretsi may no longer be served.

I found a picture of kokoretsi on the My Greek Food Recipes blog, one of my favourite sites for Greek recipes:

Courtesy My Greek Food Recipes©. All Rights Reserved.

Of course, the lamb will be accompanied by many Greek favourites such as tzatziki, spanakopita, lemon potatoes in the oven, and more.

Another highlight of the day will be the Tsougrisma, a game played by bashing eggs together. Easter eggs are dyed red, representing the blood of Christ shed on the cross.2 Once dyed, red eggs are woven and baked into tsoureki, a three-braided Easter bread representing the Holy Trinity.3 The rest of the eggs are used as a table decoration and are used to play Tsougrisma, which means “clashing” and “cracking” in Greek. The cracking tradition symbolizes the resurrection of Christ and birth into eternal life.4

Courtesy Greek City Times

To play the game, each players holds an egg, finds another player and taps the end of the egg lightly against the other player’s egg. They then tap together the ends that are not broken. They then move on to other players until both ends of their egg are broken. The person who has an unbroken egg at the end wins the game.5

Of course, the Easter Bunny also visits us on this important day. The children are always very excited to hunt for Easter eggs in the back yard.

I am really looking forward to this day of celebration with our family and friends.

  1. Wikipedia, Kokoretsi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoretsi, accessed 16 April 2025
  2. The Greek Food Shop, How to play the red egg game, 13 April 2019, https://greek-food-shop.com/2019/04/13/the-best-greek-easter-tradition-how-to-play-the-red-egg-game/?srsltid=AfmBOop0byvUV9-0uNZ0blsMeOGivhbWh8gIqWrTxx9w3PV9Rd6qTRcE, accessed 16 April 2025
  3. The Spruce Eats, Greek Easter Egg Game, https://www.thespruceeats.com/greek-easter-egg-game-1705738, accessed 16 April 2025
  4. The Spruce Eats, Greek Easter Egg Game, https://www.thespruceeats.com/greek-easter-egg-game-1705738, accessed 16 April 2025
  5. The Spruce Eats, Greek Easter Egg Game, https://www.thespruceeats.com/greek-easter-egg-game-1705738, accessed 16 April 2025

Aboriginals, Gaspé, genealogy, Quebec

The Gaspé Peninsula

Leave a comment

The Province of Quebec is breathtakingly beautiful.  I have been all over the province and I am constantly amazed.

One of my favourite trips was when, in 1982, after we had moved into our first house, we decided to leave all the angst of being a first-time home owner at a young age and go on a road trip. We decided to visit the Gaspé Peninsula. We simply loved our trip. The countryside was stunning and the Gaspésians showed us a warm welcome.

Courtesy Tripadvisor

Did your ancestors settle or live on the Gaspé Peninsula? The first European to arrive in the Gaspé was Jacques Cartier when he landed in Gaspé Bay in 1534 to plant a cross and claim the land for the King of France. The Iroquois occupied the area. It is believed that the name Gaspé derives from a Micmac word meaning “land’s end.” 1

When the Gaspé belonged to New France, there were only about 400 fishermen living there. Harvests were plentiful and the coastal high winds were excellent for drying cod. However, James Wolf and his forces attacked the residents in 1758, destroying their homes and possessions and sending them back to France.2

Still, some Gaspesians managed to hide from the authorities and remained on the peninsula until 1763 when it became a British territory. They were joined by Acadians who fled from the British who had implemented a compulsory deportation order for all Acadians in Nova Scotia. In 1784, a significant number of Loyalists, fleeing the American Revolution, settled on the Gaspé Peninsula.3

If your ancestors came from the Gaspé, here are some sites that can help you with your research:

The Quebec Genealogy eSociety has extensive links and resources (requires a membership). Some of the resources include births, marriages, deaths and some census records, and newspapers: https://genquebec.com/en

GoGaspé is a site devoted to the Gaspé Peninsula with a tab that directs you to history and genealogy links and resources. Local Gaspesian genealogists and historians have contributed to this site: https://gogaspe.com/

Jacques Gagné’s compilation about the Channel Islanders on this blog: https://genealogyensemble.com/2016/08/21/the-channel-islanders-of-eastern-quebec/

Jacques Gagné’s tips on researching your Gaspé ancestors on this blog:https://genealogyensemble.com/2019/01/20/tips-on-researching-gaspe-ancestors/

Musée de la Gaspésie: https://museedelagaspesie.ca/en/index.php

Sources for information about settlement of the Gaspé Peninsula.

  1. The Canadian Encyclopedia, Lee, David, 7 February 2006, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gaspe-peninsula#:~:text=In%201784%20about%20400%20English,dependence%20on%20the%20fishing%20industry, accessed 11 February 2025
  2. The Canadian Encyclopedia, Lee, David, 7 February 2006, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gaspe-peninsula#:~:text=In%201784%20about%20400%20English,dependence%20on%20the%20fishing%20industry, accessed 12 February 2012
  3. The Canadian Encyclopedia, Lee, David, 7 February 2006, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gaspe-peninsula#:~:text=In%201784%20about%20400%20English,dependence%20on%20the%20fishing%20industry, accessed 12 February 2012
England, Immigration, Manitoba, Quebec, Scotland

The Harvester Scheme and the Empire Settlement Act

Leave a comment

Who would have thought that finding the immigration records of my grandparents would have led to me to learn about two British government initiatives designed to promote emigration to Canada in the 1920s?  I was browsing the Library and Archives Canada web site and found digitized records of Form 30 that recorded the entry of every immigrant between July 1921 and December 1924.1  I was thrilled to find the form that my grandfather, George Thomas Deakin, signed in August 1923, and the one that my grandmother, Grace Graham Hunter, signed in February 1924.

My grandfather’s form indicated that he came to Canada as part of the Harvester Scheme.  In 1923, Canada had a bumper wheat crop and North America could not provide the labour needed to harvest the crop.  Under the Harvester Scheme, the two major Canadian railway companies entered into an agreement with the British government to transport 12,000 workers out west where they would earn $4.00 per day plus board.  This was considered a successful scheme as 11,871 migrants came to Canada to work on the farms in Western Canada. The harvest was successfully completed and 80% of the harvesters stayed and were considered “successfully assimilated.”2

Source: The Farm Collector

Like the Harvester Scheme, The Empire Settlement Act was also an initiave to provide Canada with badly needed labour. It was passed by the British Parliament in 1922 and its purpose was to provide an incentive for migrants to settle in the colonies.  Canada badly needed farm labourers and domestic workers.  At that time, the Canadian government favoured immigrants from Great Britain as a means of ensuring the predominance of British values.  In the early 1920s, it was difficult for Canada to attract immigrants from Great Britain as Britain was enjoying a period of prosperity right after World War I.  Another reason was the prohibitive cost of transatlantic transportation.  Even passage in third class would have been expensive for a farm labourer or a domestic worker.3

My grandmother came to Canada to enter into domestic service as a cook and her destination in Montreal was the government hostel.  Hostels were located in major urban areas across Canada.  These hostels were partially funded by the provinces and immigrants from Great Britain were allowed free dormitory accommodation for 24 hours after their arrival.  Young ladies were looked after by the Superintendent of the hostel and referred to a church worker.  They were also referred to Employment Services of Canada who would find them employment.4

1 Library and Archives Canada:  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca, accessed March 2013.

2 Foster, John Elgin, 1983, The Developing West:  Essays on Canadian History in Honor of Lewis H. Thomas, University of Alberta, accessed March 2013.

3  http://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/empire-settlement-act-1922, accessed March 2013.

4 Crawford, Ruth, 1924, “Canada’s Program for Assimilation”, The Rotarian, May 1924, p. 16, accessed March 2013