Dougall Part 12, Manitoba Peter

Peter³ Dougall (George², John¹, Thomas^A, John^B) was born 5 December 1855 in Montreal and baptized 13 January 1856 at Erskine Presbyterian Church, son of George and Agnes (Moffat) Dougall.[1] He died 27 December 1939 at Pembina, Manitoba.[2] He is buried at St Lukes Church cemetery, Pembina.[3] On 9 March 1882 in Montreal, Peter married Helen Anderson, daughter of the late George Anderson and his widow Agnes;[4] Helen predeceased Peter on 16 October 1935.[5]

See Note 7.

Peter was said to be a naval engineer with the Merchant Marine for some years[6] and then migrated to Manitoba in 1880 to farm. His location on both east quarters of Section 22, township 2, range 9 west was nearby that of his older brother James Joseph.[7] Peter returned to Montreal to marry, as did his brother, between filing his land claim and receiving the 1886 patent for it. In 1881, Peter was enumerated with brother James, both single farming men.[8] Ten years later, he is with his wife and son, next to the Lea relatives of my correspondent Felix Kuehn.[9]

Pembina Manitou Archive

Peter's father George likely also assisted his youngest son in building a new frame home of Peter's own design. The tall narrow section featured interior window seats for a fine view over the valley and his property known as Kirkland Farm. Although not clearly discernible, I would say the Dougalls posed for the photograph, with Helen in the garden she was planning and Lorne on the porch, assuming the man in front is Peter. Helen was probably well-educated; she was one of the founders of the Pembina Crossing Literary Society. She brought expensive wedding gifts with her from Montreal, possibly also inheriting resources from her father. Their home was furnished with many framed oil paintings, fine china, and a grand piano. Yet the couple led unpretentious, hardworking lives, generally acknowledged as exemplary and hospitable Christians―"incorruptibly faithful in their attendance at church."[10]

Peel's Prairie Provinces
(University of Alberta)

 The year 1902, about the time Peter was completing his new house, saw a solid step toward a momentous religious transition in Canada. Some would call it disruption. Formal talks were begun to unite three different faiths: Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists (it was not until 1925 that the United Church of Canada was officially formed). Many Presbyterians were against the idea of merging with Methodists, including our western Dougalls. Their early church building was shared with a Methodist congregation on alternate Sundays. Then a large new Presbyterian church was built at Manitou just after the turn of the twentieth century; Peter Dougall became an elder.

 

The incumbent of the new church spoke in favour of union, quickly falling out of favour with some parishioners who resisted. Dr. Matthew Young, friend of the Dougalls and great-grandfather of Felix Kuehn, was one who made his objections plain. Eventually each church congregation in the nation voted whether to join the United Church merger or not. When his church voted to join, Peter Dougall switched his worship to St Luke's Anglican Church at Pembina Crossing. He went so far as to stipulate he would not be buried at the Manitou church, therefore he and his family lie in St. Luke's churchyard.[11] This is indicative of how strong the feelings ran; although solid numbers of Presbyterians overall embraced the merger, it was difficult for many members to accept the change, especially if they felt bereft of the local church they loved. Nonetheless, the Presbyterian Church in Canada still remains a stalwart, separate entity.

 Only child of Peter³ Dougall and Helen Anderson:

i. GEORGE LORNE⁴ DOUGALL was born at Manitou, Manitoba on 30 June 1883.[12] He died, unmarried, before 1971 in LaRivière, Manitoba.[13] Lorne maintained the family farm throughout his lifetime except for draft service in the Canadian army from July 1918 until his discharge in November 1919.[14] His parents commissioned an oil portrait of teenaged Lorne in Highland dress, by a Montreal artist.[15] He befriended local natives, having a great interest in Indian lore, collecting artifacts unearthed while ploughing. Much of his collection later went to friends and neighbours; his cousin Agnes believed the Manitoba Museum acquired some pieces--this last has not yet been verified or not. .

My thanks to Felix Kuehn who considerably enlightened me on a corner of Manitoba history!

[1] "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967," digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 August 2013); Peter Dougall baptism, Erskine Presbyterian Church (Montreal, Quebec), 1856, folio 2.

[2] Peter Dougall, Manitoba death registration no. 39-06-048423 (1939), Manitoba Department of Health, Pembina division. Further information in undated newspaper clipping kept by Agnes B. Dougall.

[3] Felix Kuehn to Brenda Merriman, email, 2 February 2013.

[4] "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1627-1967," digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 August 2013); Dougall-Anderson marriage, Erskine Presbyterian Church (Montreal, Quebec), 1882, folio 7.

[5] "Deaths," database, Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency (vitalstats.gov.mb.ca : accessed 20 August 2013), Helen Anderson Dougall, death registration no. 040416 (1935).

[6] Family story.

[7] "Western Land Grants (1870-1930)," database, Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca : accessed 15 August 2013), citing microfilm C-5958; Peter Dougall, SE part section 22, township 2, range 9W, 12 January 1886. A separate patent was issued for the NE quarter.

[8] 1881 Census of Canada, Manitoba, district 186, Marquette, subdistrict 3, Mountain, p. 6, Peter Dougall; digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 19 August 2013), from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) microfilm C-13283.

[9] 1891 Census of Canada, Manitoba, Selkirk District, subdistrict Louise, division 2, p. 16. Peter Dougall; digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 19 August 2013), from LAC microfilm T-6295.

[10] Felix Kuehn, Departed Leaving Footprints in the Sands of Time, Chaper XI, "Our Noble Neighbours," p. 9.

[11] Kuehn, op. cit., p. 9 note 27.

[12] George Lorne Dougall, Manitoba birth registration no. 003913 (1883); database, Consumer & Corporate Affairs, Vital Statistics (http://web2.gov.mb.ca/cca/vital accessed : 10 April 2007). Note the more recent change of the database title as per Note 5.

[13] Family information. Manitoba death registrations are available only when seventy years have passed.

[14] “Particulars of Recruit,” service no. 528576 JO, 30 June 1916, digital image, Canadian Genealogy Centre (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html : accessed January 2007).

[15] Kuehn, op. cit., p 11. The portrait devolved into the possession of Felix's family but was destroyed in a house fire in 1976.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Dougall Part 11, Manitoba Jim

Dougalls: it's been a while, I know. Updating the Dougall family history as per my 2011 publication means, for me, drafting the new information as a blog entry. It's preparation for tackling the manuscript as a whole. Thanks to Felix Kuehn and his great-grandfather, Dr. Matthew Young, I can do this for two branches. Felix is unrelated to me but a marvellous chronicler of pioneer families in the McKenzie District of southern Manitoba. Felix willingly shares, and we have had many pleasant mutual exchanges. My new material is heavily indebted to him.

Many Dougalls went west from their birthplaces in Quebec. They shared the same emigrant Scottish grandparents as my own ancestor, William Charles Dougall (1854-1934) who also moved west to Winnipeg. Thus, cousins all, and the first generations to be born in Canada. Here I dwell on two of them—one couple as they were. Some of the source citations dating from years-ago cooperative family research have not been updated yet.

To my great surprise and delight, Felix brought to my attention a diary written by one Dougall, of his journey into the "Great Northwest." In his memoirs, Dr. Young quotes entries from April 22nd when the adventurers headed north from the border town of Emerson, Manitoba, up to May 28th. It's not yet clear if more description exists before that date, for example, details of the travel between Montreal and Emerson.

James Joseph³ Dougall (George², John¹, Thomas^A, John^B). Probably born in 1847, he was baptized 12 September 1847 in Montreal, son of George Dougall and Agnes (Moffat) Dougall.[1] He died in West Kildonan, Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 17 May 1940.[2] James J. of Pembina Crossing, Manitoba, married 28 February1883 in Montreal his first cousin Ellen Dougall of Farnham Centre, Quebec, the sixth daughter of his uncle James and Agnes (Fenton) Dougall.[3] Ellen was born at Cowansville, Quebec, 8 February 1856[4] and died in Winnipeg in 1949.[5] Both are buried in the Manitou Cemetery, Manitou, Manitoba, along with their two daughters.

St Andrews Presbyterian Church; Pembina Manitou Archive (http://www.pembinamanitouarchive.ca/)

James J. Dougall was occupied as a carpenter in the 1871 census, in his father's household.[6] It was another eight years before he and a group of like-minded friends decided to head for the Pembina River Valley of Manitoba. Jim, as he was known, wrote a diary about the 1879 journey and obtaining his land claim.[7]

The diary records the obstacles these hardy men faced as they explored almost virgin territory; even reaching the land office at Nelsonville was hard work. So much distance to cover and so few habitations. Fertile as it is, Manitoba mud is legendary for its impediments to man, beast, and vehicle. Jim mentions the hardships of reaching each point of reference, sometimes "to the knees in mud and water―a dreadful experience," broken carts, having enough supplies for rough camping, swimming oxen across a river, getting lost, how some discouraged men bowed out. It snowed on April 26th! Returning to Nelsonville, on 7 May 1879 he filed for part of section 16, township 2, range 9, on the west bank of the Pembina River.[8]

It was May 28th, the last available diary entry, when Jim reached his homestead property again with the necessary goods and livestock. A log house would be the first priority, a location chosen on the crest of an imposing hill with a splendid view of the valley, a home to be named "Hillside." Four years later at the age of thirty-six, having accomplished his main goals, he returned to Quebec to marry his cousin.

We wonder: being city-born and -bred, did Jim have any experience at farming? The suspicion is that as a teenager/young man, he spent summers at his grandfather's farm at Beech Ridge near St. Andrews East, Quebec―he speaks knowledgeably about soil in the diary. Whatever, this was a versatile family. His father George—a tailor in Montreal—was definitely involved to some extent with his parents' farm. In fact, after his wife died and beginning in 1888, George travelled west many summers to assist his son in preparations for a fine stone house. Felix worked with the memoirs of Dr. Young―also a pioneer, and good friend and neighbour of Jim Dougall―and other neighbours' recollections to bring a voice to early Pembina Crossing days.

The James Dougall home, Hillside Farm; Pembina Manitou Archive

Regarding the James J. Dougall home, great credit goes to his father George Dougall ... "a tailor who in his retirement takes up the art and craft of a stone mason. Although he was eighty-two years of age when he undertook to assist his son in the building of a new home, he was still perfectly capable of spending a day swinging a three-pound stone mallet."[9]

In Felix's words again:

A man of amazingly good health and possessing a constitution which allowed him take undertake any line of work that a man half his age could manage, I must especially write of his labours during the summer of 1900, vacation months which he spent almost entirely breaking rocks.
... With the assistance of his hired man, Jim Dougall dug out and hauled to his house yard several hundred tons of stone. These were carefully inspected by his father, who selected those displaying the best graining and finest colour. These he set out to split into pieces of appropriate size for the construction of his son's new home. In consideration of the fact that he had passed the biblical span by more than a decade, the elder Mr. Dougall was persuaded to make a single concession. When possible to do so, instead of straddling the stone he was drilling, he settled himself in his son's favourite rocking chair, an arrangement which allowed him to spend his normal eight-hour day without undue strain or unnecessary fatigue. Of course, I would not like anyone to think that breaking rocks for his son's home occupied him for the entire summer, for that was not the case. He also dug a drain for the sinks in the house from the kitchen to the top of the hill, a distance I should think of about thirty feet, two feet wide and six feet deep. Of course, this also occupied him for a number of days.[10]

The photo of George (1818-1904) is from the Peter Smith family. Alas, no photo of James Joseph "Jim" Dougall.

Another quote following the above:

The Jim Dougalls were well-known for their gracious hospitality and Mrs. Dougall for her excellent cuisine [and] exquisite desserts which graced the table. The Dougall home was one of the first places in our district where one could enjoy an apple pie made with apples grown in the family's own orchard. An old paper from the summer of 1898 notes that a single apple tree in his orchard had produced two hundred and eighty fine apples! 

The couple had two spinster daughters, who became school teachers. Eventually they rented their farm out and moved to 125 St. Anthony Avenue, Winnipeg. Agnes cared for her elderly parents in their final home and loved to keep in touch with her extended family by letter-writing. When Agnes died in 1967 it was the end of this Dougall branch. Agnes was a going concern and deserves her own biography.

Children of James Joseph³ Dougall and Ellen³ Dougall:

79. i. AGNES BENNING⁴ DOUGALL, 1884-1967.

80. ii. ELIZABETH JANE DOUGALL, ca.1885-1945.

One of Jim's younger brothers, Peter, followed him to Pembina Crossing, and will be my next Dougall subject.

[1] Erskine Presbyterian Church (Montreal, Quebec), baptisms. Originally researched by Salli Dyson, the church registers are now available (and the baptism confirmed) in Ancestry.ca's "Quebec, Vital and Church Records, (Drouin Collection)."

[2] Manitoba death registration no. 020420 (1940), Manitoba Department of Health, West Kildonan division. Also “Mrs. James J. Dougall,” unattributed newspaper clipping, undated, referring to husband James J’s death in 1940.

[3] "Quebec, Vital and Church Records, (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967," digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 2 August 2013); Dougall-Dougall marriage, East End Methodist Church (Montreal, Quebec), 1883, folio 5.

[4] Ellen's baptism eludes me in the Drouin Collection, although Salli Dyson apparently saw the church record.

[5] Felix Kuehn to Brenda Merriman, email, 5 February 2013; Manitoba death records are not available until 70+ years have passed.

[6] 1871 Census of Canada, Quebec, District 106, Montreal, St. Antoine Ward, subdistrict B, division 2, p. 83. George Dougall household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 October 2010), citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-10046-10047.

[7] The diary is quoted in Felix Kuehn's work in progress, Departed Leaving Footprints in the Sands of Time, Chapter XI, "Our Noble Neighbours," pp. 2-5. Felix grew up in the neighbourhood, collecting tales of ancestors and their friends. Diary excerpts have also been previously quoted in some  histories of Manitoba.

[8] "Western Land Grants (1870-1930)," database, Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca : accessed 15 August 2013), citing microfilm C-5942; James Joseph Dougall, NE part section 16, township 2, range 9, W1; no image or date.

[9] "Our Noble Neighbours," p. 6.

[10] "Our Noble Neighbours," pp. 6-7.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Silent Sundays

Photo BDM November 2012

What is it, you ask? It's part of a Tunisian marriage contract for a nineteenth century Ottoman family. Displayed in Dar Essid, Sousse, Tunisia. No transcription available! The once-luxurious home is stuffed with sadly decaying historical artifacts.

Girl With Cat

A recent visit to Saskatoon revealed a delightful family story. A sculpture by Arthur Price has pride of place in the entrance to the conservatory of the Mendel Art Gallery and Civic Conservatory.

Girl With Cat has been fascinating children for almost fifty years; (not the best) photo, BDM July 2013.  

Here's a better one:

prairieartsters.blogspot.com

Opened in 1964, the Mendel borrowed the sculpture for display the next year and it became very popular. Children especially were charmed with its life-size presence and hands-on appeal. But the cost to buy it was beyond the means of the young gallery. That's when my little cousin Caroline got involved. Even as a nine-year-old, she was quite familiar with visiting the new cultural centre. Girl With Cat enthralled her, reflecting a large portion of public opinion. With no fund-raising underway, she wrote a letter to the director, sending money she and her brother had saved toward the sculpture's purchase.

One dollar and nineteen cents.

Saskatoon's StarPhoenix recently did a story on this, "Childhood Gift Keeps on Giving." [Sorry, the printing is in blue pencil.]

Caroline's letter sparked a campaign in the city, mostly among children's organizations and activities. Thus the sculpture became a proud permanent acquisition in 1970. No telling what a determined little redhead can accomplish! Visitors are encouraged to stroke the cat and the girl's hair; little ones will even join her in the rocking chair.

Very sadly, Caroline died before her time in 2010. She was in the happiest years of her life, a career in elementary school counselling her great joy. Her husband dedicated a nearby bench in the conservatory to her.

It chokes me up every time I see this lovely photo of brother and sister in later life.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Cemeteries Part 17: Silent Work

To the enlightened, cemeteries are heritage parks. Quiet places of beauty, a solitary enjoyment, or even a picnic en famille. We in North America have begun to appreciate their significance, the need for maintenance, and the uncovering of small, forgotten ones. Walking tours of older cemeteries are introducing the general public to historical treasures. Genealogists and family historians have an abiding interest, it goes without saying, in transcribing memorials. But time and weather (sometimes theft!) wreak havoc on granite, marble, and other materials. And so groups of disparate people, not necessarily genealogy-oriented, have been formed for physical preservation efforts. This post is solely to herald their efforts and not the associated projects dealing with advocacy and legalities.

One related project that impresses me is a venture that could be a community model. The CK Cemeteries Preservation Project is an independent project that grew from concern over conditions in Chatham (Ontario) cemeteries, a concern echoed everywhere in this province. Cemetery owners, often municipal entities, can only allot so much time and funds (not enough, heritage-minded folk would agree) for maintenance.

CKC volunteers hard at work; photograph courtesy of Trish Nigh

The CKC group not only unearths dozens of sunken or buried grave markers, they are repairing vandalized stones, photographing their work, and learning history at the same time. A ground penetrating radar machine assists with locating fallen, covered stones. Armed with their “little shovels,” a great deal of back-breaking work is involved, digging and lifting, to re-position fallen or broken stones. One stone and monument at a time. With a great deal of respect for the interred and the families they represent. The volunteers find quiet satisfaction in the learning process, both physical and historical.

Owner of the Chatham-Kent Cemeteries website and also one of the first original volunteers, John Skakel notes the difference between the terms preservation and restoration, concluding firmly, " ... we truly are doing work that brings the grounds as a whole closer to what they looked like originally and not just the stones." Since their program has been carefully refined over a long period, he adds they are more than willing to share advice when contacted. The Chatham-Kent Council has recognized their quietly heroic work. Occasional donations assist with necessary materials and tools.

Similar undertakings happen in many corners of the world, some obscure and some well-known. Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust in London, UK, is a charity that rescued from neglect and vandalism one of those iconic places where famous figures are memorialized. Well-organized volunteers give training on different facets of maintenance; working parties extend to landscape cleanup and gardening. 

Then there are unsung loners. One man in the Ottawa Valley on his own tackled a small burial ground all but obliterated by thick overgrowth, poison ivy, and trees with stubborn roots; biting insects are another obstacle. It only takes a generation or two of family leaving the area for a cemetery plot or small burial ground to succumb to nature. He didn't stop at the restoration; he researched the deceased to bring their lives to light. There are more of these stories of search and rescue than you might think; one can find unexpected examples, probably not far from your own home.

Here, from South Carolina, is but one of a multitude of sources that feature workshops on doing it right. How about that lengthy list of items required for an inclusive understanding?! It's also necessary to know the laws on several levels that can affect proposed projects. Some groups focus on particular perspectives, such as The Association for GravestoneStudies that concentrates on historical artistry and symbology. 

These small armies represent people from every walk of life who band together in hard work and frequent bonhomie. Seems like unconditional love to me. I salute volunteers everywhere who serve their communities and, in so doing, benefit family historians.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

John Fraser: Still Missing

By far the most popular post I ever made was “John Fraser, Missing in Action.” It was Part 5 in an ongoing (apparently endless) series about my various Fraser families.

That was over four years ago.

Let me point out, my John Fraser is STILL missing in action.

wikipedia.org

You would not know from the two comments on site that the post probably has more hits than all my posts combined. The attraction mystifies me. It must be the phrase missing in action that does it. Are people searching for a contemporary family member? Do they expect it’s about a military man? Identifying a missing soldier/sailor/airman? A combatant lost in the jungles of Vietnam, the deserts of the Gulf War, the mountains of Afghanistan?  

How disappointed are those people when they find it’s about genealogy? A man born two hundred years ago. Not only that, I sure as heck didn’t know much about John Fraser the blacksmith four years ago and still don’t!  

I fear I have let a lot of folks down. On the other hand, who is to say the odd person who landed here (with other expectations) went away to Ancestry.com or FamilySearch or another vast database, to become smitten with the family history love bug?

Possibly MY John Fraser is hidden among thousands of faceless John Frasers featured there (or not) but none of them will tell me why he disappeared from wife and family in Quebec ca.1840.

~ Being a subtle reflection on the limitations of online name indexes and databases: the mere surface of a sea that runs deep and unpredictable without the proper navigation skills ~  

What I have done in the interim is satisfactorily find two of his four children (apart from his daughter Catherine, my direct ancestor), Duncan and Eliza. More on Eliza here. The third and last is a son called—wouldn’t you know it—John Fraser (born 1835). Another no-show.

Not to mention the father-in-law of the desaparecido John Fraser: being another John Fraser, farmer at Rivière Rouge, Argenteuil, Quebec. Suspicions are that a family farm burial ground became overgrown and forgotten. Suspicions are not evidence.  

At times I feel doomed to wander the centuries, crying for the spectres of John Fraser(s). 

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Frasers Part 21: Eliza(beth) born 1839

The instincts were right ... that the missing younger siblings of my ancestor Catherine (Fraser) Dougall (1833-1914) might have followed her from Argenteuil County, Quebec to Renfrew County, Ontario is working out. It's not just instincts, of course. One develops a theory, hypothesis, when ancestors disappear from one place. It takes a combination of geography, history, and social contexts to recreate a cold trail, if there is a trail at all.

Not that easy to find a map that extends from Montreal all the way west; this one from Champlain Local Heath Information Network almost does the job.

Although Catherine married her husband Peter Dougall in the same St. Andrews East (St André Est, Quebec) Presbyterian Church where she'd been baptized, his blacksmithing occupation soon took them across the Ottawa River to Vankleek Hill, Ontario. From there, they had moved to the town of Renfrew by 1861 and were well-documented all the way to their twentieth-century retirement and deaths in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

But for years Catherine's siblings rested in limbo (where were all my potential Fraser cousins?!) The sister and brothers were John born 25 January 1835; Duncan born 10 November 1836; and Eliza(beth) born 4 February1839.[1] Their parents were John Fraser and Nancy (Ann) Fraser ... both were Frasers.

Recent developments have been the discovery of a Duncan Fraser who died in May 1861 in Beckwith Township, Lanark County.[2] His age on the gravestone was spot on. The location more or less jibes with an Ottawa River Valley migration pattern. He was in the Beckwith census in 1861 with a wife and no children;[3] his marriage record has not yet been found.

Even more interesting was an Elizabeth Fraser who married Alexander Gordon of Pakenham Township, Lanark County, 30 October 1860.[4] But wouldn't you know it: census information about the Gordons had conflicting information about Elizabeth's age and place of birth. It was questionable if the "John and Ann" parents on her marriage record were MY John and Ann/Nancy Fraser.

NOW I can feel confident that Elizabeth (Fraser) Gordon is the missing sister. After searching for her death registration and a potential newspaper notice, the best find was this:[5]

 Sister of Mrs. P. Dougall of this place. Hallelujah! ... with one small niggle that the notice is not from the newspaper in her place of residence—the town of Pembroke. Despite the fine search service of the Pembroke Public Library, the Pembroke Observer did not (oddly?) contain a death notice or obituary. But the family had previously lived in Pakenham Township for between twenty and thirty years till the move upriver to Pembroke in Renfrew County.[6]

Elizabeth's age in the newspaper and her death registration is a few years shy of her actual birth year.[7] The cemetery stone says the same thing.[8] But the February part is right ... I'm willing to give the rather common feminine mystique (age reduction) its due. Elizabeth Fraser Gordon and her husband are buried in Calvin United Church Cemetery, Pembroke. Many thanks to The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery for its awesome website and intrepid volunteers.

Identifying Elizabeth, of longtime Pakenham residence, somewhat bolsters the argument that the Duncan of nearby Beckwith was also her (and my Catherine's) brother―hard to say what level of probability this reaches. Alas, vital stats abstracts from Perth Courier, premier newspaper of Lanark County, were silent about both their deaths.[9]

The remaining sibling, brother John Fraser, is still missing in action like his father John Fraser: two needles in a haystack. Still, the pool of research prospects has not dried up yet.

[1] St Andrews East, Quebec, Presbyterian Church baptisms; correspondence from incumbent W. Harold Reid to author, 23 September 1970.

[2] St Fillan's Cemetery (Beckwith Township, Lanark County), digital photograph, The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cangmg/ : accessed 10 September 2011); Duncan Fraser stone.

[3] "1861 Census of Canada," Canada West, Lanark County, ED 24, Beckwith Township, p. 16, stamped p. 45, Duncan Fraser; digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 10 September 2011), citing Library and Archives Canada (LAC) microfilm C-1042.

[4] Marriage Registers of Ontario, 1858-1869, Renfrew County, p. 26, Gordon-Fraser marriage; Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 248 reel 14.

[5] Renfrew Mercury (Town of Renfrew, Ontario), 9 October 1891.

[6] Alexander Gordon household, digital images, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed September 2012-March 2013):

"1861 Census of Canada," Canada West, Lanark County, ED 21, Pakenham Township, p.7; citing LAC microfilm C-1042.

"1871 Census of Canada," Ontario, District 80, North Lanark, subdivision 2, Pakenham, division 2, pp. 13-14; citing LAC microfilm C-10019.

"1881 Census of Canada," Ontario, District 114, North Renfrew, Town of Pembroke, p. 78; citing LAC microfilm C-13234.

"1891 Census of Canada," Ontario, District 113, Renfrew North, subdivision D, Town of Pembroke, p. 121; citing LAC microfilm T-6365.

[7] "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 ...," digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 23 March 2013), Elizabeth Gordon, registration no. 014427 (Renfrew County, 1891).

[8] Calvin United Church Cemetery (Pembroke, Renfrew County), digital photograph, The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cangmg/ : accessed 19 September 2012); Alexander Gordon stone.

[9] "Newspaper Clippings, Spencer - Perth Courier Obituaries," Lanark County GenWeb (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onlanark/ : accessed 23 March 2013).

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Wordless Wednesday

Ai Weiwei is coming

Hands On Latvia: Krūmiņi

Before we hit the highway from Riga to Limbaži—armed with maps, ancestor charts, old photographs, and our Latvian survival dictionary—we had no idea if any Jurikas descendants still lived in the area. In fact, we didn’t know if we could locate the erstwhile farmhouse or identify it from a 75-year-old photo. Or if it indeed still existed. 

Jürri (Juris) Jurikas moved his family to Krūmiņi farm on the Lāde estate near Limbaži about 1857. We presume this was to assist his sister Kadri whose recently deceased husband, Pēteris Lipsbergs/Lisbergs, had had the farm management right. So brother Jürri soon assumed that role. Later, mild land reform in the 1870s forced the landowners to allow peasants to buy a small portion of their estates. At that time Jürri's son Jahnis (Janis) Jurikas acquired the deed to Krumiņi, a property of slightly more than 27 acres. Old maps indicate the farm was about five kilometres south of the town of Limbaži.  

Exploring the town was its own interesting experi-ence, but we had more on our agenda. We headed for the small Orthodox cemetery. Thanks to some expert assistance ahead of time, I knew approximately where to look for my Jurikas family. It was a national clean up day across the country and a few people were moving about here and there in the cemetery; we had seen numbers of them picking up trash from highway ditches (maybe that’s why the town was so deserted-looking!). They were sprucing up plantings on individual gravesites. 

Quite apart from an annual clean up day, cemetery care in Latvia is largely a family responsibility. In rural areas especially, care extends from preparing the body of the deceased to digging the grave. Ancestors are honoured with plants and flowers (artificial flowers are disdained), evergreen boughs protecting them in winter. Families regularly come to visit, bringing their children to help. Small tools, decorative items, watering cans, and containers were evident in every cemetery we saw. Sometimes a small seat or bench has been installed for comfort.

Jurikas Plot

Two figures were already standing in the right general direction. Over there I’m sure; I lead the troops. Beyond the excitement of finding the burials, a strange frisson of expectation was forming in me. We gaze mutely at the four neatly aligned graves, dominated by the cross inscribed with the name of Jahnis Jurikas. The two strangers were also gazing mutely at the same graves. My frisson erupted with clarity and I addressed the older man, “Are you Jurikas?!” He answered hesitantly, “ ... Krastiņš.”

Jurikas-Krastins Plot

“You are my cousin!” I burst, commenc-ing to babble until his blank face stopped me. There we were: standoff. No English on one side and no Latvian on the other. What to do but pull out the family chart and with my assistant handling the dictionary department, show him that his mother and my mother were first cousins. He showed me his mother’s grave in a different section. His son was with him. They understood we were from Canada and mentioned a cousin who went to Edmonton. But the strangeness persisted — no smiles, no shared excitement, no animation. As we fiddled with cameras and before we could ask a million more questions, the two left. Went away across the field. Perhaps he was more stunned than I was. My cousin Janis Krastiņš.

Tykkyma Familia

The oldest Jurikas burial plot has markers only for Jahnis and his wife Katrina Tukkums. I can but speculate on the additional two graves, for example, the deaths of his parents are not accounted for yet. One looks like it could be a child.

Jahnis and Katrina’s children all died elsewhere except their son Janis whose daughter Tekla married Imants Krastiņš, and thus that family carried on with the Krūmiņi farm. This group is buried separately. Many of the Tukkums family rest here as well; they lived on a neighbouring estate. 

Onward we went, lamenting the unasked questions, to search for the farm. The unpaved roads were liberally pot-holed and muddy from rain that morning, giving our driver serious reservations about a potential wild goose chase. However, having memorized the 1937 photo and on the alert for a certain road junction, we navigated the few miles. Slowly.

This is the farmhouse we were looking for (1937)

Krumini today

And voilà. Not so difficult after all.Especially with the Krastiņš name right there on the mailbox. Paldeis (thank you)! You can see the house has changed a good deal. Here we met another teenage son of my new cousin, who was almost as shy as his father. His uncle lives here; Janis and sons live in Limbaži.  

A good end to a very interesting, sometimes strange, often rewarding day.

Photography credits April 2013 CDM, CBM, BDM.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Silent Sundays

King Street East; photo BDM  February 2010

Hands On Latvia: Limbaži

Nativity of Christ Cathedral, Riga, Latvia; Photograph www.globe-walls.com

When you read about the magnificent Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Riga having been turned into a planetarium by the Soviets it could break your heart but for the meticulous restoration completed since the 1990s. Surely my family members who migrated to Riga worshipped here in the late nineteenth century. The Orthodox church had established its first presence in Riga around 1836, becoming a full diocese in 1850.[1]

I begin with that image because my Jurikas family was among the estimated 100,000 Latvian and Estonian peasants who in the late 1840s abandoned the prevailing Lutheran faith for Russian Orthodoxy. To oversimplify, it was a form of protest against the Germanic landowners who were Lutherans.[2]

"The now standard explanation for this astounding occurrence stems largely from two aspects of the era that have yet to be explored deeply with respect to the conversions. Namely, the conversions took place during a period of agricultural crisis and amid a series of rumors that suggested conversion to “the Tsar’s faith” would yield worldly benefits: freedom from manorial authority, land to be held without obligation, tax relief, and so on. 

"While the agricultural situation and rumors are not to be ignored, I suggest that excessive attention to these factors has led scholars to emphasize credulity and desperation at the expense of discussions of peasant behavior amid a period of social contest. Evidence of peasant claims and acts of disobedience – in particular illegal departures from manors and false complaints about religious persecution – need to be integrated into the study of the conversion phenomenon."[3] 

Lutheran church, Vecsalaca estate, Salaca parish; from 1833 to 1842 my Jurikas ancestors attended here, in the town of Salacgriva. Photo CDM April 2013.

Therefore the conversion by my great-great-grandparents, Jaan (Jahn, Janis) Jurikas and wife Liso Riis, was not a singular or unusual act. The Baltendeutsche nobility controlled most of the land tilled by Latvians; each estate, also known as a manor, had many farms upon it. Land ownership entailed authorization from their Russian overlords to act as local magistrates, thus dispense justice. For instance, whipping was a common punishment for peasant misdemeanours and there were plenty of both complaints and whippings in the nineteenth century.

Genealogical research in Estonian and Latvian records shows that Jaan and then his son Jürri (Juris) moved family five times from one landlord's estate to another between 1823 and 1857. So it's quite possible an "illegal departure" (maybe more than one!) was involved along the way. According to the family story, Jaan was sentenced by the manor landowner to be whipped; he fled the estate to find refuge in the Orthodox church. The incident probably occurred when the family was living on the Lahze farm, Pāle estate, Limbaži parish.

St Katherine Church, Vilkene, Pāle estate; this is the last Lutheran church in which family baptisms took place (1843); photograph BDM April 2013.

We were able to follow part of the Jurikas trail, at least from the time they entered Latvian "territory" from what is now Estonia. Jürri finally settled at Krūmiņi farm, Lāde estate, Limbaži. More on this, next episode. And so Limbaži became their closest town.

This is the town's lovely little Orthodox church, as pretty as something out of a fairy tale. But ... this is not where Grandma Marija and her siblings were baptized. Not exactly. This church was built on the same spot a few decades later in 1903.

Photograph CDM April 2013.

Thanks to this site ("Lost Latvia") we can see what the original church looked like.

The town of Limbaži was quiet on a Saturday except for the museum volunteers tending a cooking pot over a fire where we were urged to partake of a delicious barley "porridge" topped with a tasty meat stew. It truly hit the spot after miles of navigating back roads. We explored the ruins of the castle built by Albert, Bishop of Riga, at the beginning of the thirteenth century and saw something of the local museum offerings.

Photograph BDM April 2013

 

SO quiet we wondered where all the people were! The few we did meet were ever so friendly.

Photograph BDM April 2013.

But we still had two more quests to undertake before the day was over. Please do come back again for a final post on Latvia.

Back to my original digression. Restoration of important historical buildings in Latvia has proceeded at an amazing pace since independence was again established in 1991. To me it's astonishing that so much has been accomplished out of the Second World War ruins and damages of the Soviet occupation. Documents, plans, and descriptions of destroyed heritage buildings were available to recreate them. In many cases it's not the first time. Some churches and other landmarks dating from the thirteenth century have been reconstructed several times over, after war and fire devastation.

[1] “The Latvian Orthodox Church,” Orthodoxy in America (http://www.pravoslavie.us/LatvianOrthodoxChurch.htm : accessed 2 February 2011).

[2] Bruno Martezans, “Conversion of Latvians to the Orthodox Church,” Roots=Saknes (http://www.roots-saknes.lv/Religions/Conversions.htm : accessed 18 January 2011).

[3] Daniel C. Ryan, “Rumour, Belief and Contestation Amid the Conversion Movement to Orthodoxy in Northern Livonia, 1845-1848,” Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, Vol. 28 (2004 (http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/ : accessed 18 January 2011); published by Folk Belief and Media Group, Estonia Literary Museum.

© 2013 Brenda Dougall Merriman