Lizzie the Black Sheep of the Vollick Family

Lizzie, the blacksheep of the Vollick family, was known as rebellious and stubborn. Her birth in 1863 was uneventful. There was no indication that her nature would prove to be much less compliant than her ten brothers and sisters.

Baptised as Mary Elizabeth to parents Isaac and Lydia Vollick, little Lizzie grew up in a bit of a rough and tumble, yet loving, family. What led her on her path to her eventual death of starvation at the age of 51 with only her 17 year old son at her side?

We might look at her involvement at the age of 15 with Stephen Peer who was a drifter some 10 years her senior. Stephen was considered a no-good drifter by Lizzie's parents and they did their best to keep the two apart. It did no good and a few months after her 16th birthday she eloped with Stephen. That was the start of Lizzie's downfall. Her family disowned her and her parents never spoke to her again.

June 5, 1895

Stephen couldn't hold a job and over the next several years he and Lizzie moved from town to town. By the time Lizzie hit her 33rd birthday, she had brought 9 children into the world. Stephen took whatever work he could find but the family lived in poverty. Not many details are known of their life for the first 17 years of their marriage but in June 1895 Lizzie's husband Stephen was attacked by a neighbour and the neighbour's son, struck repeatedly in the head with an axe and ended up in the local hospital with a serious skull fracture. He was not expected to live but managed to pull through.

A court case followed but Stephen could not attend due to his injuries. As it turned out, the attack began over an ongoing argument over the use of a water pump on the property where Stephen rented a small house. When the neighbour, a Mr. Hyde, tried to get water that hot summer day, Stephen attacked and punched him. At that point Hyde's son ran out of his house with an axe and the two men beat Stephen using the axe and their fists.

Two years later, Stephen died of Typhoid Fever, leaving 34 year old Lizzie an impoverished widow with 9 children between the ages of 1 and 11 years old. The family was so poor that Lizzie could not afford to bury Stephen so the city stepped in to assist her financially.

The brief notice in the local newspaper stated

Oct. 28, 1897
        Levi [sic] Peer died at General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon from typhoid fever.  Leaves a wife and nine children in destitute circumstances.  City relief officer made arrangements for burial and attended to needs of family.  Trinity Baptist church also assisting.  (article from Guelph Herald.)

Besides the tragedy of losing her husband and being left in such destitute circumstances, what has always struck me is how the newspaper did not even get her husband's name right. We know this is the correct death notice for Stephen as his death certificate confirms the dates. It may be that his middle name was Levi in honour of his father, and perhaps he was known by that name.

My grandmother was the oldest child when her father died - being just 11 years of age. I knew her quite well, as she lived until I was 15 years old. She never spoke of her parents, nor of the hardships she undoubtedly suffered after her father's death.

Mary Elizabeth Peer's grave

But back to Lizzie. One by one her children married and moved away. Eventually she was left with only her youngest boy Philip Edgar. When he was just 17, Lizzie died, leaving him an orphan. She was just 51 and died of starvation.

Shortly after her death in May 1914, young Philip Edgar joined his older brothers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, fighting overseas in World War 1. He was killed in France shortly before his 21st birthday, bringing to an end the story of Lizzie and her life. I am glad she didn't live to see her boy die. But she certainly had a traumatic ride through life.



Update: If you are interested in the Vollick family I also wrote three books on the Vollick and Follick descendants of Lambert Van Valkenburg. They are: 


From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: The Loyalist Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick and his Vollick & Follick Children (Volume 1) 

From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: V. 2 Cornelius Vollick and his Follick and Vollick Descendants to 3 Generations 

From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: V. 3: The Loyalist Storm Follick and his Follick and Vollick descendants in North America

What's Black and White and "RED" All Over?

What's Black and White and "RED" All Over? A Newspaper! 

Of course you knew the answer but did you know how much fun historic newspapers are and what great stories you can find about an ancestor? Sometimes you find an obituary or a bankruptcy notice. Other times you find a lurid story of death and deceit. 

Leamington Spa Courier - Friday 17 March 1905

 As genealogists we love those exciting bits of news, so much so that I often think we lose sight of the humanity attached to the story. I try hard not to forget about the sorrow, the pain and yes the joy experienced by the ancestors I read about in newspapers. But it is easy to forget they were just like us and felt the same emotions we do. 

Yesterday I found a newspaper article from 1905 about the death of a friend's ancestor. I was pretty excited because the headline was "FATAL FALL" and the very first sentence began with  

"Richard Booker was indicted for feloniously killing and slaying Frederick Mustin...."

Leamington Spa Courier - Friday 17 March 1905

A murder! Wow. Who doesn't want an ancestor who was murdered? Or better yet, was a murderer? As I read on, my initial reaction of excitement changed to  disappointment. It turns out that Frederick, 84 years old, was arguing with Richard, a much younger man. When Frederick raised his crutch to threaten Richard, Richard pushed him away and Frederick fell. And that was it. The verdict was that Frederick died of a heart attack, no doubt brought on by the excitement and commotion of the argument. After a trial Richard was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter. 
And thus what I hoped was a lurid story was simply a story of two men arguing and a sad accident leading to the death of one of them. I hadn't given one thought to Frederick's daughter who was in the house at the time. What would her reaction have been to the sounds of the argument and the sight of her father lying dead on the sofa? And what about Richard Booker? How did he feel? According to the newspaper story he was quite distraught over what had happened.

What other family did Frederick leave behind? How were they affected by his death? These are the questions I try to ask myself when I find a newspaper story about an ancestor. It is too easy to get caught up in the "the more lurid the better!" mentality of genealogy research.

I suspect that our fascination with the lurid, the dramatic and the unusual is due to the very nature of genealogy research. It's essentially a dry study - full of names and dates and a few essential facts but with no real substance.  Rarely do we get a sense of the person behind the name attached to birth, marriage and death dates. Were they a good person or a nasty bit of goods? Would we like them? It's not easy to learn the character and personality of an ancestor from the ordinary events of life. So finding a newspaper article with something exciting and out of the ordinary is a way of not only putting meat on those bones but also of perking us up and bringing some excitement to what otherwise can feel at times like drudgery. 

Don't get me wrong - I love researching my ancestors! I have been hooked since I was 14 years old. I love the thrill of the hunt, the excitement of the chase and the joy at finding one tiny little tidbit of information. But let's face it, it can get tedious looking at frame after frame or page after page or hunting for days, weeks, months and years for one fact. 

But I do think we need to remember that our ancestors lived, laughed, cried and loved just as we do. So the next time you find an exciting and dramatic event in your ancestor's life, take a minute to reflect on how it affected that person and everyone who loved them. 

And if you aren't subscribed to any historic Newspaper sites you might want to think about asking for a subscription to one for Christmas. You never know what you might find.

89 Year Old Woman May Go to Jail for Refusing to Fill out Census Form

As part of her personal protest against Lockheed Martin, an 89 year old woman has been taken to court for refusing to fill out the Canadian 2011 census form.

Audrey Tobias has no issue with the collecting of census information, instead her issue is with Statistics Canada's use of the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin's software to crunch the numbers.

In 2006 Lockheed Martin's role caused concerns in Canada that personal and private information from the Census might have to be released to the United States under their Patriot Act. Then the Canadian government decided they would use the software for the 2011 census forms.

That is when Tobias decided she could not, in good conscious, support the filling out of the form because Lockheed Martin is a foreign based arms manufacturer. She has been charged with violating the Statistics Act and a judge will deliver his verdict on October 9th. She faces possible imprisonment and a fine which she says she will not pay. She could also be ordered to perform  Community Service but she has stated firmly that she will not do so because to pay a fine or perform Community Service means that she believes she is guilty of wrong-doing.

How do you feel about her refusal? As a genealogist I want her to fill out her form but I do not agree with the Government forcing her to do so. I also think it is a waste of everyone's time and money taking her to court over her refusal when there are far more serious matters in the world today.

Read more about this story at: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-woman-89-pleads-not-guilty-in-census-protest-case-1.1481472#ixzz2glEIHJXv