Community, Past, Present & Future

Family History Newsletter Production: Val Patenaude, Allison Editors: Annette Fulford, Andrea Lister October White Contributors: Annette Fulford 2017 Distribution: Brenda L. Smith

located was a picture of a gravestone in the Riverside The Family History group supports members in Memorial Park in Regina with the same name. The researching their family history research. Members gravestone indicated that he served in the military. have ancestors from around the globe. However, the gravestone stated that this person was They meet on the first Wednesday of each month at born circa 1900. The Earl Gordon West I was looking 7pm at the Maple Ridge Library. for should be born in 1897. Email: [email protected] At first I didn’t think I had the right person, because the details didn’t quite match up. However, a further Finding info on Soldiers and Family search found an obituary for this person in the Regina post WWI Leader Post at the Google News Archive which mentions that he was 64, not 62. He would have turned 65 by by Annette Fulford the end of the year. Back in 2015, I received an inquiry about a soldier and his war bride. The person looking for them was a The obituary said that he was survived by a wife, distant relative. Earl Gordon WEST married Maud Mary, and a sister, Mrs. Jean Woods of Vancouver. A Beatrice STEVENS in February 1919 near London, search of the same cemetery as Earl in Regina lists a England. Records show they arrived in at woman named Mary West but she was born circa Halifax on the Adriatic in August 1919 and were 1915. Maud was born between 1895 and 1900. She was headed to Manor, . I gathered as much slightly older than her husband and tended to stay the info as I could about them and set off to find more same age in records over several years. about them after WWI. I looked for additional details on his family in BC and I found Earl West in the 1911 Canadian Census with located the death registration for his father in BC in his parents Frederick Herbert and Christena Katherine 1953. The informant was his daughter, Jean Woods. West with one sister; Jennie May at Manor, Frederick Herbert West was buried at the Mountain Saskatchewan. He was also listed with his family in View Cemetery in Vancouver. I knew I had the correct the 1916 Canadian Census at Moose Mountain, which Earl Gordon West despite a wife listed by a different is near Manor, SK. The record indicated that he joined name but what happened to Maud? Did she die the military during WWI and was at a camp in young? Return to the UK? I’m not sure. Canada with the 152nd Battalion If you have any info on this war bride, please contact I was not able to view his attestation papers online me at [email protected] . because they are not scanned. I was, however, able to Regina Leader Post is online at Google News Archive at locate his birth in in the birth registrations for https://news.google.com/newspapers?hl=en . I have 1898. It showed that he was born on 12 December 1897 been using the Leader-Post as the newspaper to browse to Frederick H West and Christena McKay. His birth but it could be under Morning Leader, Leader-Post or in the 1911 Census shows 13 December 1897. Regina Leader. They don’t group the newspapers for I found Earl and Maud in the 1921 Canadian Census one place by location together. You can’t do a search at Regina. I Googled his name and the first thing I so you have to have a date to browse for an obituary.

1 The Family History Newsletter is a publication of the Maple Ridge Historical Society | www.mapleridgemuseum.org

MacDonell, Oct 28, 2017, 10:30 Red River Métis Genealogies CanadianHeadstones am-12:30 pm. https://resistancemothers.wordpress Announcement .com • 9th Annual Family History Show & Tell, Sat. Nov 18, Genealogies of Red River https://canadianheadstones.com/ 10:30 am–12:30 pm. Bring families. The CanadianHeadstones Photo whatever you’ve made to Project is free to all researchers. PRDH, Research Programme honour your ancestors. This The mission of the project is to in Historical Demography year continues the “home capture digital images and the https://www.genealogie.umontreal. movie” theme. Visitors complete transcription of ca/en/le-prdh without stories are welcome to headstones of our ancestors. As PRDH’s database, covering the watch and listen. No charge. decades pass, it is becoming seventeenth and eighteenth harder – if not impossible – to Kelowna & District centuries, thus contains the Genealogical Society read the inscriptions these stones www.kdgs.ca originally contained. By personal history of the archiving the images and ancestors of all French- • Harvest Your Family Tree transcriptions, these important . Conference, April 20 and 21, records are saved. “The new site 2018 Details later at Kelowna Library and Archives Canada is a completely new approach to and District Genealogical Service at the Vancouver Society. submitting, editing and Public Library searching. To assist users with The VPL is very excited to Tour of the History of Ocean learning the new processes, a announce the launch of LAC View’s Mausoleum group of new Help Pages has been service at the Central Library www.straight.com/listings/events/98 created. Some of the new starting November 8. Monday to 2066 features: Friday during LAC service hours, • Historian Maurice Guibord • all of Canada & Armed library patrons can speak to the will first lead you in an Services in one database national institution’s expert staff, exploration of the 1931 Abbey • ability to submit several receive assistance for research, Mausoleum, October 22, 11am- photos at one time request documents from , 2 PM, followed by free lunch. • re-sizing of photos will no and access key genealogy Free. RSVP: 604-435-6688 or: longer be required databases such as Find My Past. jason.probyn@dignitymemori • ability to add several photos to al.com one record, i.e., a family plot or Family History Events four sides of a stone Qualicum Beach Family History Society • a special cemetery record page Cloverdale Library with details about each www.surreylibraries.ca www.qbfhs.ca • Unlocking The Past seminar, cemetery. • Orientations, Saturdays, 10:00- April 20-21 2018, Parksville, 10:50 am, Nov 4, Dec 2 Pre- The Beach Club Resort. Online Resources registration recommended. Fee: free. Virtual Museum of Métis • Fun Family History Fridays, Maple Ridge Family History History and Culture Fri Nov 3, Dec 1, 2017, 2:30 pm Group, Wednesday, Nov 4, www.metismuseum.ca - 4:00 pm. 2017, 7pm at the Maple Ridge Library. Gina will be giving a • The collection includes oral Family History on the Cheap presentation on some of the history interviews, with Jamie Brown, Sat Oct 21, WWI cemeteries and memorials photographs and various 10:30 am - 12:00 pm. Free. she visited in Belgium and • Shocking Genealogy Secrets northern France, with a focus archival documents. on Commonwealth War Graves. with M. Diane Rogers and Paul

2 The Family History Newsletter is a publication of the Maple Ridge Historical Society | www.mapleridgemuseum.org