ABOUT 1905, my grandmother-to-be embarked on a madcap car trip with her mother’s first cousin, Harry Vars. Along with two other relatives and a chauffeur, they motored 800 kilometres, from Buffalo to Norwood, Ont., and back. Ruth Birdsall’s letters home were breathless with awe and amusement. (“I have to pinch myself to see if I … Continue reading Tales from the Vars: Adventures, duels … and jails
Hey! Paul Revere took my relative’s horse!
OK, so Paul Revere’s horse – which may or may not have been called Brown Beauty – was commandeered by the owner’s son, Deacon John Larkin. So not quite a theft. But … the good deacon apparently did so without his father’s permission, the thought being that his father, Samuel Larkin, would eagerly support the … Continue reading Hey! Paul Revere took my relative’s horse!
Surely we were destined to meet
A few months back, Frances Graff was cleaning out a closet in her home in Washington, D.C., when she stumbled upon a 2003 clipping from the Globe and Mail – a Lives Lived column I wrote after the death of my cousin, Charlotte Grover. The Globe story delivered a flood of memories. When Frances was … Continue reading Surely we were destined to meet
Severe cold indeed!
My book Life & Legacy may be a done deal, but the research rabbit holes still taunt me. Just the other day, Ancestry.ca delivered an interesting tidbit – a 1908 newspaper obit for Annetta Elmhirst, whose gravestone identifies her as Nettie Annetta Elmhirst. A couple of weeks later Ancestry.ca added an "In Memorial" for Annetta, … Continue reading Severe cold indeed!
Will it never end?
That question flashed through my brain on a regular basis – usually in full caps – while I was researching Life & Legacy, my book about my grandmother, Ruth (Birdsall) Elmhurst. Sure, I was fully engrossed in the research. After all, my endless forays down family-history rabbit holes were unravelling my own Peterborough County roots … Continue reading Will it never end?
Messages from my grandmother
Letters flowed from Ruth (Birdsall) Elmhurst’s pen like a fast-moving creek, her quirky penmanship barely keeping pace with her speeding thoughts and earnest observations about the world around her. Ruth, my paternal grandmother, closed several of the missives in my stash of letters by listing the other people she had to write to that evening. … Continue reading Messages from my grandmother
Moving Forward 