Seriously?

The general sentiment of the population of Atlantic Canada today:

I took this picture outside the entrance to the Emergency Department today.  I had to go outside into the freezing rain from the clinic to our office in the next building, because a fire alarm went off just as we were finishing for the day.  Quick thinking and a dash for the door saved being stuck there until the all-clear.  You are not allowed to move around in the hallways in the hospital during a fire alarm, so can get trapped for ages  in places you don't wish to be.

Another bleeping ice storm.  When I got in from work, there was no power in the house.  In the seven years I've lived here, it has never gone out during a storm, so I was in a complete state of disbelief when it happened - and then persisted into the small hours of the morning, as it turned out.  By the time we went to bed, it was getting rather chilly, and the novelty factor had long worn off.  Where, O where, is spring?   <sniff>

Another Portland Storm Image

Look at this spectacular photograph I found on the BBC website.  This is the Cove House Inn in Chiswell in the foreground.  Apparently, the waves sent water crashing through the upstairs windows for two hours.  The downstairs windows had shutters.

Photo credit: Richard Broome, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26150788

Storm Chesil Beach, 5 February 2014

Check this out.  A.R. posted this video on Facebook for us to see what Chesil Beach looked like in the storm this week.  Incredible.  I noticed that the man who took the film from Portland, Stuart Morris, is the one who has written a few books about the Isle of Portland that I have yet to get my hands on.  It would be nice to meet him one day.

Stanley-Ethel Wedding Picture Deconstructed

Here is the same breakdown (lots more people this time) for Stanley's and Ethel's wedding photo.  I will fill in the names as I go.

Note:

Another "page break" for this posting - click on Read More (directly below) to see the rest of this.

Lily-Lionel Wedding Photograph Deconstructed

I've taken Lily's and Lionel's wedding picture and given each of the 19 people a number, so that we can eventually figure out with some degree of certainty, who each person is.  I'll put this onto the "Meadows" page as well, so as time goes on and this posting is pushed way down the blog and infrequently viewed, we will easily be able to see the progress on the Meadows page.   Then, I will do the same thing with Stanley's wedding photograph later.

It's thought that these are all Meadows family members in this picture, and that Lionel Waller was estranged from his family for some unknown reason.  Once again, we wish that someone had written down all the stories that my maternal grandmother used to tell, because no one now knows any more about the history.    There is one sister of my grandfather still alive in England (Lily's & Lionel's youngest daughter|),so there is still a chance that we will find out a bit more.

Note:

In order to stop this post going on and on from the 'home' page, because it's very long, I have inserted a new trick: a "page break" and you must click on Read More (directly below) to see the rest of this posting.

Lily, or Another Sister?

The young woman in the left picture is most likely one of Lily's sister in her wedding party.  And the woman on the left could be the same sister in 1914 or (I think), it is Lily.  Her husband, Lionel Waller, would have been back in uniform in late 1914, as Britain was at war, so that explains why he is not in the picture.  I shall ask Cousin Joy what the date of the wedding was.

  

Lily's and Stanley's Sisters?

Are these two the same person?

  

 

And these two?

  

Sara Meadows?

This lady gets her own posting, because she was not in the 1904 photo, but is standing next to Frederick Martin Meadows in the 1914 photo.  There is such an overwhelming resemblance to a couple of my immediate family members, that I think she has to be Sara Plowman Meadows, Lily's mother.  She lived until 1919, so where was she in 1904 ? 

Frederick Martin Meadows

This fellow is quite clearly the same person, and given his prominence in both wedding photos, we can safely assume that he is the father of Lily Maud and Stanley Arthur Meadows - Frederick Martin Meadows.

  

One of the Grandmothers?

All right.  I will do this one person at a time so that there is a separate posting to refer to for anyone wishing to comment, either in agreement or disagreement, or, hopefully one day, someone coming across this who knows with certainty who is who.   I always live in hope.

The pictures on the left will be from the 1904 wedding of Lily Maud Meadows and Lionel Percy Waller, and the pictures on the right will be from the 1914 wedding of Stanley Arthur Meadows and Ethel (surname to come).

I think these two characters might be one and the same.  And probably one of the grandmothers?  I haven't got dates of death for either of them, but Sarah (Payne) Quinton is the more likely candidate as she would have been 73 and 83 when the photographs were taken, and Mary Ann Meadows would have been 86 and 96.

Stanley and Ethel Meadows

Here is the first of the information on the Meadows' family from cousin Joy.

Her grandfather, Stanley Arthur Meadows, who was born in 1889, married Ethel (will get last name) in 1914.  Here is their wedding photograph.  It appears very much to be taken in the same spot as his older sister Lily's wedding picture.  Joy thinks it is either the sloping garden behind the family house at 239 Cavendish St. in Ipswich, or possibly the parkland that used to be opposite before houses were built on it.

Stanley and Ethel only had one child ten years later, a son, who is Joy's father.  Ethel died in childbirth, and this son was brought up by some of his aunts and uncles who all lived together in Cavendish St.  From the sounds of things, they were a rather lovely family, and Mum and A.R. remember them all very well too.

Here's Lily's and Lionel's wedding picture again (below).  My next project is to match the faces that are in both of the photographs and see what I (we) can work out.

Weather... feh.

After hearing about the weather in the U.K. on the last CBC radio news report, I went to the BBC website to see how the Dorset relations were faring.  Here was the first thing I read: There are currently nine severe flood warnings - meaning "danger to life" - for Gloucestershire, Dorset and Wales.

The other main news stories on the BBC World News were all to do with the snow storm battering the North East U.S. and slowly descending upon us in Atlantic Canada.  The video clip from Ohio informed me that our Ohio relations are up to their ears in vile weather.

Then I saw this, and found out about how our Aussie cousins are doing in direct comparison to Canada this week -  they're experiencing an extreme heat wave: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-25590234

Short of  hurricanes in Hampshire and Hereford, or an unanticipated tsunami washing away my brother on Vancouver Island before the end of the day, there is not much left in the meteorological department that is not being unloaded upon members of my family today.  Yes - I know tsunamis are not weather-related, but you know what I mean.

And now, it's time for another hot cup of tea at my end.   Good luck one and all!

Long Overdue Meadows Update

Last July, I had a wonderful surprise in the form of contact through the blog from a relative on the Meadows side of the family (and I really should take the time to figure out all this third-cousin-twice-removed business, but even if I did, I am not sure how many family members reading this would know what I'm talking about). Simplifying medical jargon all day for people, I learned long ago that it's much better to use language we all clearly understand and to forgo terminological exactitude on occasion.

Therefore, let me introduce you at last to Cousin Joy, who is the granddaughter of my great-grandmother's brother.   Looking at the Meadows page, you will see that Lily Maud Meadows (Granddad Waller's mother) had a younger brother named Stanley Arthur Meadows.  He's the chap.  It is his granddaughter, Joy, who contacted me and not only gave me all sorts of new information on the family, but also sent an old photograph of her grandparents' wedding in 1914 with many matching faces to Lily's and Lionel's wedding picture of 1904.

More on this in the next posts.  It is another horrible day outside the igloo, so I will be staying indoors again and working on the blog.  And counting the days until spring.

Here are some other pictures I have of Lily and her younger sister Nell (Ellen).  They were taken at Lily's and Lionel's 50th wedding anniversary celebration, which would have been Christmas Eve, 1954.   None of the other Meadows siblings were in the few photographs I have.  Sorry about the grainy quality, but I had to enlarge them quite a bit.

Nell & Lily

Auntie Nell

Lily & Lionel

New Year's Day

Happy New Year to all the far-flung, extended family.

It's a bitterly cold day outside my igloo, so the quest for a Snowy Owl is on hold for a bit longer.   This year's New Year's Day bird count is solely for the insane and the cryo-impervious.   I have been told of a place nearby where a Snowy has been seen for the past three nights, so I will head up there later, in the warmth of my car, to check that out.

When I let the dogs out for a very brief time earlier, I decided to try taking pictures of the ice that's still coating the trees through a #14 welder's glass (the kind recommended for solar viewing, if you are a complete geek and not only know these things, but have gone out and bought the goggles and the correct glass insert).  The result is pretty neat.  Here's a the same tree photographed without and with the welder's glass held in front of the lens.

Cerrigceinwen

Okay.  Time to play catch-up and add some things to the blog that have nothing to do with weather in Canada, and everything to do with the point of this project: our ancient relations.

View Larger Map

Last September, A.R. & U.P. went to Wales for a holiday, and I asked them if they would stop and take some pictures of one of the little dots on the map off the North Wales Expressway to Holyhead called Cerrigceinwen, as this location is the birthplace of one of my great-great grandmothers, Mary Evans.   They kindly set off down a road that ended up as not much more than a grass track and found the church of Cerrigceinwen - and that was about all there was left to see.  Cerrigceinwen is the name of the parish, and there is not really a village, or even a crossroads there now.  I did go onto Google Street View later and "drove" all through it myself and I could see that it was really off the beaten track.  The church itself is closed and is for sale, but all the parish records are safe in Llangefni apparently.  I am hoping to get to Wales and spend some time researching in 2015.

Here are the pictures A.R.  took for us.

Thanks, once again, to A.R. for her enthusiastic assistance, even though this is not her side of the family.

Christmas Day

It was the first Christmas at my sister's new farm, and what a beautiful day.  One niece, Dad, and I went out on a photographic expedition before The Feast.  Here are some pictures of the surrounding land.  The drive down was gorgeous with the bright light reflecting off all the ice-encrusted trees, but my camera was in the trunk, so I didn't get any shots along the way.  The roads weren't too bad, thanks to the crews who'd been sanding/salting/plowing around the clock for 4 or 5 days.  As you can see, a dusting of snow came down after we got there, which was just right.

Today's Temperature

There is a reason why we obsess about the weather here in Canada.  It is only December 14th and we are getting mid-January temperatures and I, for one, am not amused.  See the blog entry for July 15th. There is about 120 degrees Fahrenheit difference.

JFK Assassination 50th Anniversary

Frame 367 from the Zapruder film

Between the fact that I had just been to Dallas this past spring and that my life was conceived somewhere around the date of Kennedy leaving this mortal coil, I have been following all the hoopla leading up to this auspicious anniversary with more interest than your average Anglo-Canadian.  Below are three photos I took when I went down to Dealey Plaza early on a misty April Sunday morning.   Even at that hour, there were tour buses arriving one after the other - it took some time before I could get pictures without any people in them.  It was a remarkable experience to be there and to talk to all the characters that populate the area.  



Elm St. facing in the direction down which the motorcade was travelling.



Taken from  the 'Grassy  Knoll'.  Notice the X's on the road marking where the two bullets hit.



6th Floor Window  of the old Texas Schoolbook Depository building

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry - 100th Anniversary Song

Here's something to listen to on this Remembrance Day. My eldest brother belonged to the PPCLI for most of his military career, so it is fitting that I add this to the family blog. Next August the regiment will be celebrating its 100th anniversary, and this song was commissioned by the Colonel in Chief of the Regiment, the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, to commemorate the occasion.

It features some of the wives of serving members of the PPCLI singing in this. The title of the song, "Ric-a-dam-doo", is the name of the Regimental Colours, reportedly from the Gaelic for "cloth of your mother", and Princess Patricia herself made the flag.

Making Way with the Welsh

At last: I have been tracking down some of the Welsh relations today.   I'd thought I had an impossible task on my hands with my great-grandparents being Jones and Evans, but I made some solid headway with the censuses today after all.

This is 'Granny Jones', my great grandmother, and the only old picture we have of any members of her generation.  I must find out if any of Dad's cousins have any pictures of their Welsh parents and grandparents.

Esther Jones, nee Evans c. 1947

I've added the first of the information I've sorted out onto the Jones page, but there is more to come when I have time to concentrate more on this.