Historic Homes - the Sandercock House

Sam Sandercock Home, St. Mary's Ontario Canada

This home was purchased in 1919 by my husband's 2nd great-grandparents, J. Samuel (Sam) Sandercock (Sandercott) and his wife Ann Theresa Jackson.

The Sandercock family lived there until 1974 when their bachelor son Wilbur aka Tiny died.

Recently the St. Mary's Museum in St. Mary's Ontario did a write-up in the St. Mary's Journal Argus about the Sandercock family and this house. Much of their genealogical family information came from my husband,

As the published article states, Sam and Ann lost two of their sons in WW1. I've written about the Sandercock family and those boys previously on the Olive Tree Genealogy blog, and featured a postcard sent by one of them (Cecil) to his only sister Myrtle (my husband's great-grandmother) during the war.

Postcard from Cecil Sandercok 1918

Hubs' family believes in preserving and passing on family treasures, and hubs is lucky enough to own the postcard sent by Cecil two months before he was killed in 1918 as well as Cecil's war medals.

We also have a photo of the Sandercock family with Sam and his boys in full uniform, taken shortly before they were all sent overseas.

Cecil Sandercock WW1 Medals

In a serendiptitious twist,  last year hubs was given Sam Sandercock's mustache cup to add to his collection of antique mustache cups.

Sam Sandercock's Mustache Cup

The photo behind Sam's mustache cup is of Sam and his son Bill who was killed one year before his brother Cecil during WW1.

Journal Argus story of the Sandercock House

Sometimes You Get Lucky and Sometimes You Don't

My husband's Aunt Evvie got him started in genealogy and family history at a young age. Aunt Evvie was his grandfather's sister and she was the keeper of the family photos and treasures. When hubs was a teenager, she gave him many of the Massey and Sandercock photos.

Aunt Evvie is long gone but her husband Mac is still alive. A few months ago my husband went to visit Mac.While visiting, Mac showed him items that had once belonged to hubs' ancestors - among them an antique Carriage clock from the Massey house and a set of dishes that belonged to hubs' great-grandfather Sam Sandercock. During the visit Mac gave my husband a few small items including Sam's mustache cup.

Hubs' planned to return but soon after the visit Mac fell ill and was taken to the hospital. He did not recover enough to go back to his home and was sent to a nursing home. Mac called an auctioneer and gave instructions to put everything in his house up for sale. Unfortunately no one in the family, including my husband, knew about the auction. Mac's very elderly and also blind so letting family know would not have occurred to him.

And so it is all gone - everything was sold and my husband found out when it was too late. He would have been the first one there to buy some of the family items. It seems such a shame that these items have now passed out of family hands into the hands of strangers who know nothing of the people that once owned and treasured them. Hubs doesn't blame Mac, but he is saddened to think he missed out on keeping the items in the Massey family.

Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935

I'm pretty excited about the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 that came online on Ancestry yesterday. You can search the Canadian Passenger Lists by using the Free Trial on this page

The lists include the following ports of arrival (yes, even some Eastern USA ports!)

* Eastern US Ports
* Halifax, Nova Scotia
* Montreal, Quebec
* New York, New York, USA
* North Sydney, Nova Scotia
* Quebec, Quebec
* Saint John, New Brunswick
* Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia and Pacific Ports


I've already found several of my ancestors arriving in Canada in the early 1900s. My grandmother always told me that her Fuller in-laws came to Guelph Ontario in 1920 and settled there but in 1933 they went back to England. Well, I found them on a 1930 passenger list (surprise!) but it said they had lived in Guelph between 1920 and 1929. I have not found them before 1930 - more puzzles to unravel!

My husband has several ancestors who sailed from England to Canada in the late 1800s and so far I've found four of them. One is Samuel Sandercock who was the father of Cecil and Bill who are featured in my Displaying Family Memories articles.

The Canadian Passenger Lists are going to be an incredible bonus to those searching their ancestors' arrival in Canada 1865 to 1935. I can hardly wait to get back to searching today!

For those whose ancestors arrived before 1865 see Filling in the Gaps in Ships Passenger Lists to Canada

Displaying Family Heirlooms - WW1 Medals and Photo

This is our framed grouping of military memories of Cecil Sandercock. Cecil was my husband's great grandmother Myrtle's brother and he was killed in WW1, at the age of 20. Myrtle kept all her treasured memorabilia of her brother Cecil and eventually every object was passed down to us. This is one of two framed tributes we have for Cecil.

This grouping, which is in a 15"x24" frame, is Cecil's photo in his Canadian Military WW1 uniform, his medals from the Great War (WW1), his death plaque and the official notice of death which went out, with the plaque, to every next of kin of a soldier killed in that War.

We decided to mount Cec's medals and death plaque directly on to, instead of recessed in, the charcoal grey mat we chose as the contrast mat for the objects were were framing. We chose a lighter grey for the overall mat which would go around the edges. We could have gone with a narrow light grey mat but we felt the framed group was too long and skinny if we did that, so we opted for a fairly wide light grey area around the interior grouping.

The outside frame we chose is a semi-gold frame (although it looks like silver in this photo) with marbled reddish brown flecks. To complement this we chose a reddish brown mat for the death notice and Cec's photo. The outside frame is very large and also raised in two levels, rather than being flat to the wall.

Because the mats change from light grey around the outside to charcoal grey on the inside, we outlined the charcoal grey mat with a detailed gold frame. The interior frame has a raised design which appears sculpted.

Choosing the right spot to hang a framed Family Heirloom or grouping is almost as important as framing it! Because this framed set of family treasures is very large and clunky we wanted it to be above a piece of furniture that was also large and clunky.

This tribute to Cecil Sandercock has a place of honour on our living room, above our Victorian bow-front china cabinet. You may notice another military photograph to the right. That is my grandfather in England circa 1910 in his Kent Buffs uniform, with his rifle and bicycle.

Everyone has their own taste and their own creative ideas, so please remember that my articles on displaying family treasures are only meant to show you what my husband and I have done, and explain why we made certain choices. In the end you must do what pleases you - frame or display your heirlooms in a way that pleases you and display them wherever you like, as long as you display them!

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Displaying Family Heirlooms - Making Sure the Handwriting is on the Wall

My husband's great grandmother's younger brother Bill Sandercock was killed in August 1917 during WW1, while standing beside his brother Cecil. Cecil sent a postcard to his parents about Bill's death. Bill was only 20. Sadly, one year later in August 1918 Cecil Sandercock was also killed in France. He too was just 20 years old. Two months before his death, Cecil sent a postcard to his sister (my husband's ancestor).

Their sister Myrtle kept all the postcards Cecil sent, as well as his military medals and Death Plaque. She also had photographs of her brothers and her father (who also enlisted in WW1) in their military uniforms. All of these family treasures were passed on in the family - first to my husband's grandfather, then his father and then my husband. I'm sure some items went missing, for no one knows where Bill's medals or Death plaque are. So we decided we needed to organize all the heirlooms and display them as a group.

This would prevent any more from being lost in future years, and would ensure that future generations know what items belong to what individual - and the meaning behind each one.

After laying out each item, we realized we had too many for one display. So we decided to keep the postcard separate from the rest. The postcard also had an extra small decorated card that went with it so we had two paper items to frame. The original postcard was beautifully decorated on the front with raised ornamentation of embroidered cloth.

The main colours in the embroidery were purple, green and pink with a bit of yellow. Embroidered in purple was the phrase "To my dear Sister" The embroidered flowers were surrounded by a beige frame with embossed lines.

We chose a beige mat and gold frame with black flecks. Then we chose a forest green mat to use as a double mat, which gives a very nice effect of three colours - beige, green and white - when it is bevel cut and placed around the objects. We wanted to show off the feminine beautifully decorated postcard but also bring in some more neutral colours that would also enhance the postcard. Thus the gold flecked with black for the frame and the choice of forest green for the second mat.

But Cecil's hand-written note was on the back. Here was a dilemma - how to frame a postcard when we want to see both front and back?

The solution was actually simple - we used clear glass instead of the usual cardstock mat. Thus the beige frame surrounds both the postcard and the small decorative paper that came with it. For the postacrd, the double mat of forest green was placed under the beige and clear glass under that. For the small decorative paper, the forest green mat is not cut away but is placed under the entire piece.

The result is very effective, we can turn the frame over and read the postcard at any time and whatever wall we hang it on shows through the clear glass mat. And Myrtle's favourite brother will always be remembered.

See our second display of Cecil's War medals, death plaque and military photo.