Autographs on Sydenham High School Classroom Wall 1901

My friend Karen owns an amazing antique store called Barriefield Antiques. One of her finds was this cutout from a classroom in Sydenham, Frontenac County Ontario. 

With her permission I am posting all the photos she kindly sent me so that  an interested descendant can look for a name of interest. You can contact Karen on her Facebook page at  or her Instagram account

 

 

 

Fascinating Story of NYC sanitation worker's $160,000 treasure

One man's trash is this NYC sanitation worker's $160,000 treasure

One man's trash is New York City sanitation worker Nelson Molina's treasure. During his 34 year career of keeping the Big Apple clean, he collected more than $160,000 worth of amazing trash finds. 

From antique guitars to action figures, check out his collection on display in an East Harlem warehouse. [Source: New York Daily News]

See the photos and read this man's incredible story at New York Sanitation Worker Collects $160K Collection From Trash

 

Score! Antique Documents 1879

Yesterday I took the day off work and went antiquing with my husband. 

I scored with a great find of several antique documents (Indentures, Mortgages, Deeds) from 1879. 

With only a quick glance through them I believe they are all for different families in different areas of Ontario Canada.

I'm very excited to start scanning and researching these documents and individuals. As soon as possible I will be putting the documents online both here on my Olive Tree Genealogy blog and on my Olive Tree Genealogy website. 

I'm also going to offer the originals for sale on my Antique Hunter blog, so stay tuned!

Looking For Mable

Several years ago, my husband bought a portrait of a beautiful woman. According to the antique dealer who owned the store,  the painting was done by Mable (or Mabel) Savage and was her self-portrait. Mable was said to be a teacher in Stratford Ontario Canada.

For years we have searched for Mabel to no avail. We do not know if she was a Savage by birth or by marriage. We estimate her date of birth to be ca 1870-1880 and this painting done ca 1890-1900.

Do you recognize Mable?  This is not the original frame. You can see from the shadowing that the portrait was originally in an oval frame that was not with the portrait. My husband bought the portrait loose and chose the mount and frame you see below.

What a Story I Have to Share!

Today I became the very excited owner of the coffin plate of my 2nd great grandfather, Isaac Vollick.

Isaac was born in 1832 in what was then Upper Canada (present day Ontario) and he died in 1904 in Hillsdale, Simcoe Co. Ontario. I've never found his gravestone or burial site, nor his wife's even though I know what cemetery they are in.

I hear you asking "ok what's a coffin plate and why is this a great story?"

Coffin plates were decorative adornments attached to the coffin that contain free genealogical information like the name and death date of the deceased. After the funeral service, these plates were often given to family to take home as a memorial to the deceased.

My becoming the owner of this coffin plate is an amazing story. I call it The Domino Effect, meaning everything had to fall into place, one tiny moment at a time.  Here is how it happened, step by step:

1.  Last week I realized I could not log into my website AllCensusRecords.com as I did not remember my password. No amount of searching found it so I did the usual thing - hit the "I forgot my password" link on my webhost. No problem, they email a new temporary password. But I wasn't sure what email address I had used to sign up on this host.

2. After checking my main email addresses with no luck (no response from the web host) I realized my account must be under a very old email address I haven't used in years. I rarely check mail there even though I do still have access. But off I went and yep, the password was there.

But what was even more interesting was an email, months old, from Gary French, the author of "Men of Colour: An Historical Account of the Black Settlement on Wilberforce. Street and in Oro Township, Simcoe County, Ontario 1819-1949" 

Gary was writing to me about my husband's black ancestor, Jonathan Butler, who settled in the Queen's Bush (near Waterloo Ontario) circa 1834. It seems Gary had found some evidence that pointed to Jonathan being originally from Pennsylvania. This was a very exciting lead as we had not been able to find any record of where in the USA he came from. So I quickly replied to Gary's email, hoping he was still interested and still at the same email addy.

Isaac Vollick 1831-1904

3. After a few emails back and forth, I casually mentioned in closing that I thought we had a "sort of" connection, as I knew that a son in his French family married a daughter of one of my Vollick family in Elmvale. When Gary wrote back I almost fell off my chair. This is what he said "..

I am interested in them [the Vollicks] as important settlers in the Elmvale/Orr Lake area. By coincidence, I recently purchased the coffin plate of Isaac Vollick (the one who died in 1904). macabre, but a very Victorian artifact."

 I was so excited. Not only was this MY Isaac Vollick (my great great grandpa) but my husband and I collect coffin plates! We have over 200 in our collection and my husband has put many of them online on AncestorsAtRest in hopes descendants will spot an ancestor.

4. Immediately I responded, telling Gary about our own coffin plate collection and how the coffin plate he had was for my 2nd great grandfather. Then I asked Gary to consider selling the plate to me IF and WHEN he ever decided he no longer wanted it. 

5. Gary agreed to sell it to me since I had such a strong family connection, even though he does not sell the items he finds which have some connection to Flos Township in Simcoe County. One of his missions is to find and preserve as many historical artifacts as he can for this local area. 

Coffin Plate displayed and sold as a tray

And so this morning hubby and I drove to Gary's office and the coffin plate was turned over to me to preserve and cherish. But the story does not end there. I asked Gary where he found the coffin plate and his reply gave me shivers! 

He found it in an antique store in Barrie - one which my husband and I go to frequently. The plate had been turned upside down (see photo on right) and was being sold as a tray! 

For some reason Gary picked it up and turned it over. To his surprise he realized it was actually a coffin plate for a Vollick! Since he recognized the surname and knew they settled in Elmvale he purchased it to add to his collection of historical artifacts for the area. 

And that is how I came to be the very happy and grateful owner of my great-great-grandfather's coffin plate. No doubt his widow Lydia carried it home with her and after her death most likely one of her daughters took it to her home. And so, 104 years later, the coffin plate has come to me. I will have it framed along with a photo I have of Isaac and Lydia, then in turn it will eventually go to one of my sons.

And that is what I call serendipity and an item wanting to be found.




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

A 1913 Fireplace Screen's Long Journey

Antique Fireplace Screen

This hand painted fireplace screen was given as a wedding present in 1913 to  Raymond John (Jack) Harwood & Florence (Flo) Beatice Willard. It is brass with a round mirror which is painted with flowers.

Jack and Flo were married in England and shortly afterwards, left for Canada where they began their married life. A son Godfrey William was born in Toronto one year later.

Godfrey was an only child and after his parents' death, the fireplace screen was one of the few items he kept.

Photo taken in Guelph ca 1917

Jack and Flo were friends of my maternal grandparents and the two families spent a lot of time together.

Godfrey is the little boy standing in this photo of my grandparents with their two daughters. My mother is the baby in my grandmother's arms.

Godfrey went on to marry a woman who became a lab assistant to Sir Frederick Banting, the inventor of insulin.

My mother went on to marry my father. The two lost touch with each other.

Many years later, long after my father's death, Godfrey and my mother happened to spot each other in a trailer park in Florida. It was a purely co-incidental meeting and they had not been in touch for over 50 years.

Godfrey's wife died shortly after this meeting. Can you guess what happened next? Godfrey became my step-father. Yes the little boy in this photo with my mother circa 1917 married my mother over 60 years later.

A touching aside to this story is that Godfrey lived with my grandparents as a teenager. My mother developed a bit of a crush on him but he left for Toronto to find a job and didn't keep in touch with her. He came back two years later, intent on asking my mother to marry him, only to find out she was engaged to my father. He left without ever telling her how he felt. 

Godfrey died in 1995. My 79 year old mother sold most of their furniture and belongings, then packed her car with what was left. With her car packed to the brim, she made the trip over the mountains and across the prairies from British Columbia back to Ontario.

Each of us four children of my mom received one item that had belonged to Godfrey. The fireplace screen went to my brother. He enjoyed it until for almost 14 years and then he passed it on to me.

And so the screen has had a long journey since it was first given as a wedding present 98 years ago. It sits in my living room in front of our fireplace and I enjoy looking at it every day. I plan to pass it on to one of my children, along with the story (or as we antique buffs call it, "the provenance") in hopes the story and the screen will always be passed on and treasured together.

Lost & Found: L. Pellerin Metal Trunk - a Genealogy Treasure

Hubs and I share a love of antiques as well as a love of genealogy and history. At an antique auction this weekend, we spotted a beat-up metal storage box.

At first we thought it was an Army footlocker. It was painted black and had a name and address stencilled on the top and two of the sides. Its rough shape couldn't hide how well made it is. Although the stencilling was faded and worn on the top, the sides were fairly clear so the name was legible. Hubs best guess re age of the box is 1900 to 1950, and probably closer to 1930-1950.

Impulsively we bid on and won this well-used item. It was the name and address that hooked us. The box was sent by L. Pellerin in India to himself in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec. Of course we wanted to find out who L. Pellerin was and do a little genealogy research on him!

Part of the street address was missing. We could only read "188 _RIGON STREET" I used Google Maps to look at all the street names in Shawinigan and easily found Rue Frigon (Rue means Street). Clicking on Street View brought me to an actual view of the street and perhaps the very home where this box was delivered!

A quick Google search revealed only one L. Pellerin in Shawinigan Falls - Louis Arthur & Albertine Pellerin of Shawinigan Falls Quebec had a son Emile Roger Pellerin who was killed 24 November 1943 while serving in the Royal 22e Regiment RCIC. Louis seemed a good candidate for our trunk with the name L. Pellerin

The Drouin Collection on Ancestry.com revealed the marriage of a Louis Arthur Pellerin to Albertine Caron in 1917. Louis was living in Trenton Ontario (a Canadian Air Force base) but the couple married in Shawinigan.

Next I searched for and found Louis in several census records using Ancestry.com

In 1891 he was in St. Maurice, St. Etienne des Gres which is Trois-Rivieres, with parents Arthur and Annie (which confirmed the marriage record). Shawinigan is considered part of this area. He was 2 years old so his date of birth was circa 1889.

The 1911 census found them in the same general area. It was very difficult to find the family and I had to use many tricks on Ancestry.com - wildcards, no names, dates of birth only, etc. The family was misindexed badly as "Pattersn" Yes - no "o", not "Patterson" but "Pattersn" which isn't even close to the actual name of Pellerin. Louis was misindexed as "Ls"

We were still not certain that our trunk belonged to Louis who was born in 1889. With hubs leaning more towards 1930 to 1950 as the time period, I looked for a son with the initial "L". Once again the Drouin Collection on Ancestry.com came to the rescue and I found a son named Joseph Lucien Yvon was born in July 1929 in Shawinigan. It is almost certain he would be called Lucien and not Joseph. Did he own the trunk?

I think we have found the right family and the trunk belonged to either Louis Pellerin (born circa 1889) or his son Lucien born 1929. One of them went to India (we think the sending address is Kundara, S. India) and shipped his trunk back home. Was it military? We are not sure although the trunk does resemble a military footlocker. Did he ship his military kit back home? Was it a personal trip? Did he send back gifts for family members?

Even though we are not sure of the provenance of this trunk we feel a connection now to the family who owned it. And that has changed our minds on what to do with the trunk. At first hubs was going to repaint it after cleaning up the rust. But we don't want to paint over the name! So hubs is going to carefully and gently clean it, then leave it as is.

Perhaps someone who knows the family or who is a descendant will read this blog post and contact me. Perhaps one day we'll know the full story of L. Pellerin in India shipping something back home to Shawinigan Falls Quebec.

Meantime we will continue to treasure this little find and hubs is going to store his own genealogy family treasures in it (his baby blanket crocheted by his great-grandmother, his grandfather's silver christening cup, various family documents etc)

Antiques and Genealogy Treasures

One thing I've noticed, being an avid antique hunter and collector, is that quite often you will see antiques with a genealogy interest. I always carry a small memo pad and pen in my purse and recently I began jotting down the genealogy notations or inscriptions on antique items.

The more obvious antiques are framed marriage certificates or baptism records, as well as identified photographs or photo albums. Postcards have names and addresses as well as the sender's names. But there are more obscure genealogy items just waiting to be found -- a silver inscribed baby's cup, an engraved trophy, soldier's framed photos or records of service, etc

On a weekend trip I found a 10 inch high silver plated trophy cup engraved

Interstate Association Trophy
Buffalo Audubon Club
May 31, 1915
First prize won by George N. Fish

Perhaps one of George's descendants will read this post and reunite with the item or at the very least, learn about George's interests.