"The Top of the Morning to Ya" ... and A "Wee" Bit of Irish Luck ... no Blarney!

"One wonders in this place, why anyone is left in Dublin, or London, or Paris, when it would be better, one would think, to live in a tent or hut, with this magnificent sea and sky, and to breathe this wonderful air ... " - John Millington Synge

First of all, in reference to the above piece of poetry, the air near the ocean was fresh when it was blowing away from the farmlands, but for much of our trip we were on country roads ... the smell was of cows, very big cows, and sheep, many, many sheep ... I told Stephanie that I would remember the smell forever. As far as family history is concerned, I wouldn’t want to mislead anyone, so at the start of this entry let me just say that there wasn’t a wee bit of research luck in Ireland, but I am told the luck was a long time ago. I am right now on my way back from ten days in IRELAND. Yes, again I can say I can’t believe I was there. Stephanie had wanted to go on a trip for her birthday and at first I was hesitant, but we went, we saw, we ate more potato dishes than I have eaten in years and did I say, we saw … evidences of ancient history, beautiful countrysides and seashores, beautiful farms and villages, even homelands that my second and third Great Grandmothers, Elizabeth Adams and Elizabeth Hannah Doherty (possible Dogherty, Dougherty) came from. But before I left I made sure I told myself that this was more about the trip than the genealogy, because rarely have I found a lot of new people, dates etc., and I knew Irish records were scarce. This was the case this trip also. But, I did get a feel for the land, the people and what Elizabeth and her mother Hannah left when they set sail for Canada in 1835. That is where the luck comes in, but I didn’t understand how lucky I have been until this trip to the Emerald Isle and it truly is Emerald! ! Many years ago I found a record in the Ordinance Survey Memoirs that stated that Elizabeth Adams, age 8 and Hannah Doherty, age 25 left their Townland, Bovagh (pictured above on the right and an old home from the townland below), Aghadowey Parish, Londonderry, Ireland in 1835 for Canada . The Ordinance Survey was founded in 1791 because England was concerned about being invaded by France during the Napoleonic Wars. The idea of these accurate maps gained wide appeal after the war. Ireland had 60,462 townlands and the Ordinance Survey of the 1830's was directed to map the entire country. It was originally intended to accompany each map with written topographical descriptions, or memoirs, for every civil parish. People were appointed to travel through parishes and townlands to record information . The Ordinance Survey Memoirs, as they were known, provided an insight into the characteristics and daily life at that time. Here is where the luck comes in. The lady at the Prebyterian Historical Society in Belfast told me that the memoirs were started in Londonderry(Derry) and cover nineteen of Ireland's counties. Londonderry was one of only TWO counties that had significant information collected. County Antrim and Londonderry are UNIQUE .... lucky ... for many of their parishes lists emigrants for a few, let me repeat and empasize .. a FEW years in the mid to late 1830's. "As emigration records these lists are unparalleled" ... The process took too much time and money, and again the project was basically scaled down/abandoned. There are few records of the 1830’s available. The fact that their names are recorded and their homeland and dates recorded I see now, as nothing short of an Irish miracle … the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I didn’t know how rare those records were until this trip. The lady was even surprised that I had that information. Well, I didn’t know where Bovagh was, but with a map, directions from a new friend, and a lot of twists and turns down narrow, narrow, … did I emphasis narrow enough … roads I found the Parish Church, Aghadowey Prebyterian Church on Ardreagh Road, in the middle of beautiful rolling hills and farmland. William told me that the church that now stands was built in the 1830's and there was an earlier church that stood just up the road to the east about 300 yards from the current building. The sign on the church states it was established in 1655. That should work! Sixteen sixty-five is years before either of these women were born, but everyone has told me there aren’t any records before about the 1850’s. WHERE HAVE THE RECORDS GONE … The Presbyterian Historical Society nice lady didn’t know. All she could tell me was that they haven’t survived. How do records not survive? I must have asked her that question four or five times. I saw the Book of Kells in Dublin. It survived from the 9th century! Were they burned in Belfast during the Civil War. “No,” she said, “they would have never been sent to Belfast.” That debunked one of my pre-Ireland theories. I went to the Minister, Reverand Kane’s house, which is just down the street from the church. No, he checked and his records didn’t start until about the 1870’s and he told me he is never able to help anyone who asks, and the records aren’t really his job. Really! I would think ministers would be very concerned about records. He did tell me that William Knox, a dairy farmer on Mullaghinch Road (Purple Hill Farm) would know, because he takes care of the Aghadowey Presbyterian Burying Ground (Cemetary), so it was off to see William, and luckily William and Delores were at home. William did have some computer generated lists of those buried in the cemetery and I copied them, but he said his dad had told him that a local drunk had at one time broken into the church and started some papers and book on fires, and supposedly many of the records may have been in those papers. The curator of the Presbyterian Historical Society didn’t know, the minister didn’t know, no one in Salt Lake City knew, but William Knox, dairy farmer and lifetime resident of Aghadowey at least had a story … stories, that is after all what a lot of genealogy is about. So the memoirs become even more of a miracle. William called a few people in Garvagh who knew something about the local history and they told him that I probably would find more information in the States ! I have heard that before! William told me that George Doherty lived in Garvagh and his parents are buried in the Aghadowey Parish Burying Ground. I found George the next day, in a flat above the butcher store. George knew nothing. His father was George and his mother was a BROOM. He told me there were a few other Doherty’s on Drumheil Road (that is not what it sounded like to me when he said it, but it takes a while to understand the brogue). I talked to Maggie, married to Mikey Doherty …. she knew nothing, but sent me to her sister-in-law … she knew nothing and only knew that her father was Roger and his father James (Jimmy) married to Ellen Haggarty…. I bet I could fill in the details if I had the time. That is all for the Doherty’s in the area. No one knew anything, except William, who also knew about some Archibalds in the area. Rumor or family lore, told to me by Frances Herren, of Arvada, Colorado, now deceased, says that Elizabeth Hannah Doherty became pregnant by the Lord of the Manor, or someone of that stature and she was paid off and sent off somewhere, maybe Scotland or Ireland to have the child or to relocate. Frances mother's rough notes make mention of Gretna Green, the Las Vegas of Scotland, but the notes were only about 15 words long with a lot of questions marks. The child would have been Elizabeth Adams. Elizabeth Adams and her mother had first gone to Quebec, or so her obituary reads, and then she to Ontario with her aunt and uncle William and MaryAnn Archibald. They settled in Peel Township. I took a picture of a house across the street and down a “wee” bit from the church. The house, “Gospel Hill,” William told me was once an Archibald home. In one family there was at one time at least six or seven Archibald boys and two Archibald girls. living on two different farms, and only one boy married. I don't know if any of them are related. No Adams families, but I did find two Adams graves in the Aghadowey Church of Ireland cemetery. Today I found a couple of wills to match the Adams in the Church of Ireland Cemetary. It’s just up the road from the Presbyterian Church (pictured above and to the left). For many years Ireland did not recognize ordinances performed in the Presbyterian Church, so many had baptisms, marriages etc. performed in the Church of Ireland. Another set of records I missed because I could not find the minister, Mrs. Crawford, who lives in Kilrea and splits her time between the congregation there and in Aghadowey. I called, went to her home, went to both churches... not there! I will have to write. What a shame! A wonderful trip … I know where they lived and I now know Ireland, almost all of it, because Stephanie wanted a birthday trip and asked me to come along. It is hard to pass up mother/daughter experiences like that. We had a few trying round-abouts, but we did see a rainbow in Ireland over the North Channel. Rainbows are needed in all of our lives!

just off a narrow country road ...

Just off a narrow, dusty, rural road in the Elora countryside is a cairn pictured to the left, which pays homage to the original Scottish settlers, who immigrated in the 1830's to Nichol Township, Wellington County, Ontario and settled on land that they quickly named, Bon Accord, after the sign on the coat of Arms in Aberdeen Scotland, their homeland. This is the the site of the first church in which they worshiped. The history of the Knox Church, Elora says, "There was only a handful of Presbyterian Folk in the settlement - just five men and four women, nine in all. The leaders of this little group were Mr. Alexander Watt and Mr. John Keith," both eventual neighbors of my great great grandparents Thomas and Catherine Gray. "After exploring various sections of Ontario for a spot suitable for settlement, the little community had chosen Bon-Accord. They wanted a land of running streams and especially of one considerable stream and here along the Grand River and along the Irvine River they set up their homes, built their school and founded their Church. The first services were help in the shanty that occupied by Mr. Keith and Mr. Watt on the north bank of the Grand River. This was in the late Fall of 1834." Mr. George Elmslie one of the first group of settler writes in his account," Shortly after, Mr. Gilkinson invited us to his home, where were assembled the villagers and a few of the nearest settlers." Mr. Watt, as office as Clerk of Session, recorded, "A few individuals, having in the Providence of God, left Scotland, their native country, and settled in the Eleventh and Twelfth Concessions of the Township of Nichol in the Province of Upper Canada, feeling deeply the value of Gospel ordinances from their being deprived of them and now completely destitute met and unanimously resolved to used every means that might advance or obtain from time to time a supply of Sermon and a dispensation of sealing ordinances as frequently as possible." The account goes on to say that they had formerly been members of the United Associate Church in Scotland and they petitioned the Missionary Presbytery of Scotland to form a Church and receive a minister, or at least sermons. The meeting of the Presbytery authorizing the formation of the Congregation of Upper Nichol took place on February 8th, 1837. On Thursday, May 18th a small group of people gathered in Mr. Watt's barn and Reverend Thomas Christie, representing the Presbytery of the Canadas, although almost sixty years of age, traveled fifty miles by foot to preach and set apart this congregation as a worshipping unit of the United Associate Church in Scotland. "During the winter and spring of 1838 the congregation was busy erecting their first church on land donated by Mr. George Baron on his farm on the 11th Con. of Nichol. It was built of logs with plaster between the layers and is known as "The Old Log Church," pictured above to the right. The first service in this church was held on Saturday, June 2, 1838. It was a service preparatory to the service on the morrow and was conducted by Rev. Thomas Christie and the record reads. "The session admitted six persons to the membership of the Church - Thomas Gray, Catharine Gray, James Young, Margaret Young, Margaret Rennie, and James Argo, bringing the membership of the Congregation up to fifteen." Yes, Thomas and Catharine Gray, my great, great grandparents, who had immigrated probably in 1837 and Margaret Rennie, Margaret Webster Rennie, wife of Alexander Rennie, my Great, Great Grandmother Jane Rannie/Rennie Lillie's sister-in-law. I doubt they knew each other on the other side of the ocean, but here two sides of my family, both relatively new immigrants to Canada, united in a small congregation and a new log church thousands of miles from their Aberdeen, Scotland homeland. A beautiful, quiet spot off of a narrow dirt road in the same concession Thomas and Catharine Gray built their new home, marks the spot and after many, many searches, over a number of trips to Ontario, I found it. It was a quiet, quiet, peaceful moment and as the picture shows, it was like the sun was casting its rays right on the cairn and the people who worshipped there ... our people! It feels like a sacred spot even now. (Information taken from the booklet, "The History of Knox Church, Elora.")

the same picture that was in Grandma's box

Steve went to high school and played basketball with Ray Goodwin. Ray was and is a gentle giant. He married Sue and as young couples we became good friends. Sue loved genealogy so we shared experiences and stories. Sue and Ray moved to San Diego so he could go to law school and we visited them there when Stephanie and Brett were very young. After law school they moved to Denver, Colorado and we didn't see them very often. One day we got a call that Sue had been killed while on a genealogy trip back east. She had been hit by, I think a flat-bed semi-trailer truck. I have said that I am often alone on these trips and so this particular experience moved me. They had waited a long time for children and now she was gone. Steve couldn't go to Denver so I thought I would drive and while there look for my Great Grandmother Hannah Groat Lillie's sisters, Abigail Groat Fennell (Thomas), Winnifred Groat Whitney (William), Henrietta Groat Riley (Thomas), who had moved directly from Ontario to Denver, and Louisa Groat Knowlton (George) who it appears, had moved to California, before she moved to Colorado. From the census she was the first to immigrate in 1884, the rest in the early 1900's. I had found their names in their mother, Elizabeth Adams Groat's, will. There were ten girls and many, many years later I found a son James, on the records of the Norfolk Church in Guelph. I don't know where he went, but probably he died early, as he wasn't listed in his mother's will. Ten girls are very hard to track, they marry and leave not a trace, and who would have thought that they moved all the way to Colorado, four of them, none the less. One Mary Jane Groat Clos lived and died in Bellingham, Washington. That was another adventure, but this time for my sister-in-law Myrna and I. Well I had small children so I knew I could only be gone a few days. I love to drive and after all I was going with the "Cruiser." I almost need a moment of silence at this point. A ten hour trip is not daunting ... a time to think. I got there late and checked into a motel. The next morning I had a few hours so I headed to the Denver Public Library with the name of one descendant, Carl F. Schumaker, who may possibly be still living. In 1983 I had looked through Denver Directories and Census records and in the 1920 Census was Carl 1 8/12 year old living with his 19 year old mother Olive Shumaker and Thomas and Abigail Fennell (Abigail and Olive are to the right), sixty three and sixty year old. I might have had two hours for my library search and from the moment I entered until I left everything fell in place. Every book, every film gave me information. I never touched a source that didn't provide details of the family. In the Rocky Mountain News I found an obituary for Carl Fred Schumacher, who died at forty-seven of cancer. He was my one lead, or so I had hoped, but in addition to the names of his children and spouse was the name of a sister Mrs. L.W. Herren of Lakewood and a brother William R. Schumacher of Denver. I didn't know where Lakewood was so I went to the phone book to see if I could find William (Bill). Yes, he was there. I dialed his number and yes this was his family, but he told me his sister Frances (Herren) knew more of the family than he did and promptly gave me Fran's number. I called and went to her home and she had stories and pictures of all the family, all the sisters of Hannah and their family. Abigail's son Bob had been the first to come to the United States, first to Arizona because of his asthma, and then to Colorado, when Arizona hadn't brought relief. When Bob was situated, Fran said Abigail left Canada and her husband and brought the children to Denver. The census records indicated they immigrated the same year, 1907. Winney (Winnifred) had died in Pueblo after being institutionalized for female problems, something that would never happen now. I have her medical records. Louisa or Lou had a daughter Jennie (Jennie Adams Knowlton West), who was married briefly to Claude. Fran called her Aunt Bannie. Aunt Etta had a dog who wouldn't bark and a parrot who swore. ... Charlie , Abigail's son, married Ethel May Hill (May) in Canada, but lived for many years in Los Angeles. Fran told me that he was a developer and a builder and one of his daughters married first a man who struck oil and then she married Russell Tracy, Cecil B. DeMille's business manager. The internet says the business manager was John Fisher ... more research to do. When Fran went out there they ate at the Brown Derby and they knew all the stars. Well there were lots of stories. The one of the Lord of the Manor and the young maid I will leave for another post. I love a good story! When we went into Fran's bedroom she had all her family pictures laid out on the bed and amongst them was one picture that was very, very familiar. The same picture that was in my Grandmother Lillie's box (above on the left) and I never knew who they were. On the back of the picture is written, "Dad's cousins Finals." Who were the Finals? I had examined the picture so many times. I had wanted to put names to faces, but I didn't know how I was going to do it. One of the pictures was of Abigail and Olive, another of all the Fennell, not Final, "kids." Fran and I went to the Crown Hill Cemetary where are buried, Abigail and Thomas, Robert , Louisa and Jennie and I am sure others. Henrietta (Etta) not there! It seemed like she was a "wanderer." It took me many years to find Etta. In fact, that piece of the puzzle was solved only in the past two years and after many frustrating hours and years of research. I have now found all of the them ... those Groat "girls" and their children. All the way from Ontario to Colorado. Not one wrong film, not one wrong book, not one wrong phone call in two days. So close to me for so many years and it took the death of a sweet friend to get me there. Fran has since passed away. I haven't been back to Denver, but one trip was worth the drive for so many reasons. These searches may sound obsessive to some. I think it is a wonderful journey and I have met so many wonderful people along the way.

"Someone has to get in the old trunk.."

As a child and even as a young adult I visited my Rahier grandparents in Carlton, Saskatchewan, Canada . They lived in the same house that my grandfather built before they married in 1915. The picture to the right is of Servais building the house. A one room frame farmhouse, to which he later added a bedroom and a kitchen. Grandma always told me he had promised her a big house when they got married. Sometimes my mother took me to the farm and sometimes I went with my Auntie Letty and Uncle Al. One time by brother Len, took us in his brand new car. I thought we were flying over the roads, and the car was definitely cool. I loved going in to the field and down the dirt roads with crickets jumping out in from of me. I sort of loved collecting eggs from the hen house. I loved picking Saskatoons down near the river. I loved going to the store in Carlton with my grandfather where he would buy us crackerjacks. I loved listening to him play his violin. I loved fresh, warm bread baked by Grandma in her coal fired oven. I think Grandpa's favorite meal was bread and milk. I loved living by lamp light, because they never had electric powered lights in the farmhouse. You got up with the sun and went to bed with the sun. I loved my grandmother, Isabella's English flower garden behind her house. I still love flower gardens. I didn't love mice. One ran over my covers one night as I slept on a cot. I didn't love warm milk straight from the cows. I didn't love going down the trail to the outhouse. It smelled as all outhouses do, and I didn't love watching my grandmother chasing the chickens so that she could slaughter them. I know it is the food chain, but I would rather buy my chicken cut up and packaged, or from Costco, already roasted. As a teenager I was bored at the farm, but a few more years and an intense interest in history and the farm took on a whole new meaning. My aunt, "Tots," who died after taking cold on a carriage ride is buried behind the house near a large tree. The cellar was fascinating and after they moved I could see large chunks of light between the rocks that formed the foundation. I can't even imagine a cold northern Saskatchewan winter in that house. My great grandparents, Gilles Joseph Rahier and Christine Guillemine Mathilde Bornkessel Rahier immigrated from Belgium in 1895 and with winter approaching they built a house from cedar poles, with a sod roof. One wing was for the family and one wing housed the animals. It is said that they almost froze that first winter. That first house is pictured above. Shortly after they built a two story frame home.(Pictured on the bottom left next to the first house) I never saw it painted. Both my great grandparents died before I was born, but I loved to climb the wood steps to the upper floor of their house. My great uncle George Rahier and his wife Annie lived next door. I loved going to their house, because they had horses in a big barn. I thought Uncle George's house was amazing! It was so much bigger than my grandparent's house and they had a hand pump in the kitchen. It was always immaculate, and my uncle was very funny. My great grandfather, Gilles was a carpenter and there were an array of tools in the room to the right as your reached the second floor landing of the old house. Old carpentry tools. I have always loved tools! I have an old "clog" that Gilles made for Minnie with those tools. But in the room to the left was an old trunk. I always wanted to see inside. I was always, for as long as I could remember, intrigued with what may be in the trunk. But it seemed like it was something you didn't talk about. A subject you didn't broach. I had the feeling that the home was "sacred," and I always thought as long as Uncle George was living the trunk would remain locked. He once told me that we shouldn't live in the past. I hope I don't, but I love it. I think I honor the past and my ancestors whose lives and hard work shaped my own present. On one of the walls of one of the bottom rooms hung an old faded picture of my grandfather's sister Minnie, the younger. The story seems to be that she was hit in the stomach with a baseball and as a result eventually died in that room. The years past and it was unsafe to climb the stairs. I was still curious. After doing a fair amount of Rahier family research I felt like there could be further information, secrets to be unlocked, inside the trunk. I had told numerous people, including my Rahier cousins, that I hoped they could get in the trunk. I live too far away, but I was hoping it's contents wouldn't be destroyed or lost. Within the past year and a half my uncle George got in the trunk. Letters, written in French, pictures (my grandfather Servais to the left), documents, all under lock and key for so many years. Family treasures, not seen by anyone, at least anyone presently alive. I wish I could have been there for the unveiling. When I read the story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I always thought about the trunk. What we think is my grandparent's wedding picture, was in the trunk (above and to the right). Their own children had never seen it before. The house is gone now. Why do houses have to be destroyed? I know it was condemned and family worried that someone may get hurt. My Uncle George and Aunt Annie's house was sold and moved to the reservation. There are still graves in the yard; Gilles and Minnie and Minnie the younger. The Canadian Rahier family history began in that yard. I haven't been there for years, and I don't think I ever really liked Crackerjacks, but I still try to like them because my grandfather, Servais, bought them for me when he took me to town.

Another Jane ...

I have written about the two "Janes," but there is third Jane, who entered my life many years ago and has had a significant impact on me and my family, both here and those that have gone. Jane came to Salt Lake City from her home in Michigan to search her roots. We are related through our Gray families. While researching she came across my name in the card files in the old genealogy library. Before computers we found information in card files. My address was a previous one and at first she decided that she would write to me when she got home, but then she told me she said, "Heck, she lives here," so she found a number and called. "Yes, my grandmother was Helen Gray and her parents were William Gray and Jane Reid." I made an appointment to pick her up. She came and we have been dear friends ever since. Her letters to me always included "extras," including pictures and recipes and snippets of fabric and wallpaper. She loves family history and quilting and "hooking and flowers." I love those things too. She loves birds. I am not too excited about birds, but her enthusiasm is contagious. Two summers ago she even gave me a short "hooking" lesson when I visited her. We joke because Jane is a "hooker," but of wool. Her basement looks like one of the fabric stores that I have visited in Manhattan, or maybe even Scotland. She lives in a home built by her parents near the shores of Lake Michigan. Her grandparents,Edwin Manley and Elizabeth Jane Gray, whose father David Gray was a brother to my grandmother Helen Gray Lillie, moved from Kincardine, Ontario to Grand Rapids, Michigan,where he was the head of upholstery for the Truscott Boat Company. When the company moved to St. Joseph the family moved also. He loved to farm and in 1907 he bought ten acres, including a yellow clapboard house that was owned by Captain Langley, a Great Lakes captain. There they build their resort where the people from Chicago would come to escape the summer heat. A Truscott boat is in the Maritime Museum in St. Joseph. I saw it when I went a few years ago. I love her home. It is also a museum, but of things close to her heart, and my heart also. I have a stitchery above the door in my kitchen that she did for me that says, "Happiness, a little fire, a little food, an immense quiet." Again, things I love! Her cat, Daisy, enthralled my children, because he played the miniature piano. Oh yes, she loves cats ... I do not! Well, we are also cousins. We have been to Scotland together and walked the lands of our family; Aberdeen, Belhelvie,Old Machar,New Machar, Foveran. The Belhelvie/Old Foveran church remains are above and to the right. We discovered gravestones in the New Machar churchyard for our third great grandparents, David Gray and Christian Thomson (picture top left). My maternal grandmother's, Isabella Broomfield's family is from Devonshire, England. That is not the connection I have with Jane. We are related through my father's line. For many years the Bromfield's lived in little town called Hemyock, in fact my great great grandparents, William Bromfield and Sarah Wood were married in the church in Hemyock. One day, before my first trip to England, I told Jane that my family was from Hemyock ... astonishment, almost silence. Jane's family was from Hemyock also.The Manleys were gentleman farmers and one a brewer in Hemyock. The buildings that housed the brewery were on the little river that ran through the town. No way ... that is almost WIERD! Remember we are not related through this line. After a little research I found my family on witnesses of births and marriages of her family. We were destined to be friends ... our ancestors were friends. Neal A. Maxwell, now deceased, an apostle of the L.D.S. church, and a missionary who served with my mother-in-law Barbara in Canada, says there are no coincidences in the underpinnings of our lives. " None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings "coincidence." This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by "coincidence" but instead by "divine design." Well, Jane introduced me to many things, including Hemyock, and clotted cream. She continues to be on my mind and in my heart a great deal. Still, with projects that we have worked on together not finished, she haunts me. Last time I was with her she mentioned that she didn't think anyone would care about her family history work when she was gone. I care and so many others who have and will benefit from her hours and hours of "family" will care. Our friendship and kinship, by Divine Design!

My cousin, my sister, my friend!

I have a cousin I have never met. We have written to each other and researched our Lillie family for over 25
years. We are similar ages and I think share similar interests. Our grandparents, William Rayburn Lillie (on the left with an "X") and Annie Lillie Robinson (at the bottom on the right, Annie Lillie, Ruby Lillie (married name Angell), children of Thomas Lillie and Hannah Groat and Roy Lillie, their nephew, son of William Rayburn Lillie and Helen Gray) were brothers and sisters and lived in Guelph Township, Wellington County, Ontario and later in nearby Salem, Nichol Township, Wellington County. When Arlene's grandmother, Annie, died at a young age her daughter, Arlene's mother, Geraldine Robinson, was raised by our great-grandmother Hannah Groat Lillie, in Salem in a home vacated by my grandparents William Rayburn and Helen Gray Lillie, when they moved west to Manitoba in 1908. Hannah and Geraldine are pictured on the right. Her first letter to me dated January 2, 1985 starts;

Dear Sharon, (my own middle name is Arlene ...)
My name is Arlene .... and I am a member of the Church in North Bay, Ontario. I have been doing genealogy on my mother's family and it appears we have something in common ... Would you be interested in corresponding and sharing whatever details we have on these ancestors. I hope to hear from you soon ... she did and we have shared and shared and shared. Her valediction then was, Sincerely, Arlene ...

My response to her dated 11 January, 1985 begins;

Dear Arlene,
I was so excited to get your letter, in fact tears came to my eyes as I read it. I have spent so many years researching the Lillie line and up until now have never run into anyone, in my (extended) family who (shares my religious background.) ... Two summers ago I spent two weeks in Ontario doing genealogy and I have had such an urge to go back every summer since. I felt so much at home there." Sincerely, Sharon ...

... when we write it is no longer sincerely, but definitely "love." I love this cousin, sister, friend. Again, we still have never met, which leaves a little hole in my heart, but as the years have passed and we have grown as mothers and wives we have shared stories and support. I feel like I know her family somewhat. She is a much better researcher than I, and I am sure a much better person. Letters have changed to email and occasionally a call. There is still excitement in our finds and I still shed tears (I am right now). This past summer she lost her sister and I know I don't feel her sadness, but I feel sad for her. That is what happens when you love someone. So the Spirit of Elijah draws families together here and beyond this earthly existence. She will be richly rewarded for all she has done for her family and many others on both sides. She has been a wonderful example to me ... my cousin, my sister, my friend! (for you and Shirl)

Two Janes

My great-grandfather, William Gray, was married twice. His first wife died shortly have childbirth. He and she had one child, Catherine Jane Gray, and apparently an official or unofficial, adopted son, Robert Ferguson. They all lived in the Bon Accord settlement, in the country surrounding Elora, Nichol Township, Wellington County, Ontario. His second wife, was my great-grandmother Jane Reid Gray. Her picture is to the right. She was born in the Puslinch (Holstein), Wellington County, Ontario, where she was also raised. Her parents were William Reid and Hellen (Helen/Ellen) Gillespie residents of Holstein, Ontario, and her brother Hugh Reid married William's sister Catharine. Where was and who was William's first wife? It seemed a huge puzzle. In the spring I had found an old marriage register (remember this was before internet research) showing the marriage of Thomas Gray (I think his name was Thomas William), to Jane Allan, but that was all the information I had. So, off I was, in July of 1983, on another adventure. I had made arrangements with my father's elderly cousin, Amy Young, since deceased, to pick her up in London, Ontario and have her take me on a little tour of the Elora are. The Elora Cemetary is a beautiful, quaint, country cemetary, near the town of Elora, Ontario. The Elora Gorge waterfalls over the Grand River and a wonderful old mill that has been turned into an inn and great restaurant, make Elora a great day destination. I walked the rows and rows of the cemetary finding many deceased family members, Lillies, Grays, Downings and towards the back, BINGO, William Gray, with not one but two headstones, finally solving the question, who was William's first wife. In my letter the next month to Bertha Vickers Beug, Jane Allan's granddaughter, I wrote;

"Visiting the Elora Cemetary I found four headstone in the early Gray area. One in the ground for William Gray. One to the immediate left for Jane Reid and William Gray , it is much newer and was probably placed there at the time of Jane Reid Gray's death. One to the left of that one for the three small children of William Gray and Jane Reid, Godfrey McDonalld Gray, Helen Gillespie Gray and an infant daughter, who they named Margaret, but the one I think you would be most interested in is an upright old white stone just to the right of Williams's Gray's flat marker in the ground. It is almost impossible to read and I tried to get a rubbing with black wax, but it was very hard and the words carved into the stone are not raised above the stone, but I did get some information. I can't tell you all the wording, but it did say, "Jane, wife of William Gray, and lists her death date as September 1st, 1866, aged 28 years 11 months" ...

Jane Allan, TWO "JANES." She died a little more than a week after her daughter Catharine Jane Gray (pictured at left with her husband, George Vickers, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota), half sister to my grandmother Helen Gray Lillie, was born, August 22, 1866. Solved, just in time to let Catharine Jane's daughter Bertha, who then lived in Minnesota, know who her grandmother was. Civil registration in Canada did not begin until 1869, so there would be no other official record of her death, and the local church does not have that particular record anymore. I am often alone in rather remote cemetaries and often wonder, especially before cell phones, if any would ever find me if something happened. On a day to day basis I rarely tell people where I am or where I am going. But, wonderful discoveries and really peaceful and exciting days amongst the stones and trees of beautiful cemetaries.

... and now you know the rest of the story ... GOODNIGHT

Hello Americans . . . stand by for news!" This was Paul Harvey's tag-line. A radio host for over 50 years he began a feature in 1976 called, "The Rest of the Story." I loved listening to it. I couldn't wait to hear the "rest". I now have my own "rest of the story." A number of years ago, when we were attending Expo 86 in Vancouver, my aunt gave me a couple of "Rahier" family documents. One was a short letter to my grandfather, Servais Joseph Rahier, from his teacher, Professor Silvestre, in the area of Heusy,Verviers, Belgium, two or three were postcards, one of a church and one of a home in the city of Verviers. The postcard of the home was signed Rosa Rahier. As a genealogist I am always looking for clues, so I had the letters translated. There were no clues .... nothing new, but they are treasured keepsakes. His teacher tells of changes in the city since Servais and his family had left. The letters are in French and from a man who obviously cared for this young student, my grandfather ... Fast forward almost 25 years and I received an email last year from Leonard in Santa Rosa, California, with whom I have researched my Rahier family. He asked me if I knew who Servais Joseph Rahier was. Off course ... he was my grandfather! Leonard, in turn, had received an email from a gentleman who operates a small historical museum in Belgium.

"Hello I am historian of the area of Verviers (Belgium) I have just discovered a dated letter 1901, with 6 photographs of Rosthern and Servias Joseph Rahier who writes to his former professor in Heusy (Verviers) The photograph represents Servais with the harvest of 1912. 2 and 3. Beating. 4 Express train leaving the station of Rosthen for Duck Lake. 5 the Rahier house in the North of Rosthern to 2 miles and half. 6 a group of Four men who draw with the rifle in front of a lake In the letter Served known as qu' it have 2à Hectares of ground He says qu' he had on December 28, 1897 a little sister who bears the name of Guillemine and on April 11, 1901 a brother of the name of Georges -- Could you tell me if there exists the downward one of this family."

My grandfather left Belgium in 1895,with his parents and his sister Anne Marie, who was actually born on a previous seven year emigration to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was nine years old when they left Belgium for the second time. "They arrived in the spring ... with little more than the clothes they wore and some hand-baggage and $100 in his (father, Gilles's) pocket." He told me that he remembered the Sunlight Soap billboards when they arrived in Canada (probably Quebec). The letter, dated 14 June 1901, was written to his teacher in Heusy. It tells of their farm, their crops, and even the birth of his sister Guillamine (Minnie) and a little brother, George. Even then, Grandpa, and possibly his father, were amazing photographers. Now years later they have come full circle, not to Canada, through a historian in Belgium, to a man in California to me, his granddaughter, in Utah. WOW ... I was and still am amazed and speechless. Miracle! Technology has given us so many opportunities , especially in family history. Another emotional moment ... for me they all are ... and now you know ... the rest of the story .... GOOD NIGHT! (the letter and pictures can be viewed in this movie clip.