One day I really must visit Prince Edward Island, my mother's homeland.

I became hooked on genealogy back in the 1980s when I started asking questions about my mother’s family history.  Although I was born and have always lived in British Columbia Canada, my mother Mabel Marion ANDREW and five earlier generations of her COMPTON ancestors were born and/or lived in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada’s smallest province on the east coast in the Gulf of St Lawrence.  So I have long been interested in this picturesque little province and its friendly people.  PEI has an active genealogy society and the PEI Archives provide their baptismal indexes and some other collections online.  The private Island Register site is great for networking and other resources.  But as always, not everything is online, especially the earlier records.

I have already told the story of my 4-times great (4G) grandfather Col Harry Childeroy COMPTON, who was the first generation to come to the island from England in 1803.  Other branches of my mother’s family came to PEI later that century.  My Great Great (2G) Grandfather Charles ANDREW immigrated to PEI from Cornwall in 1842.  And my Great-Grandfather Sydney RICHARDSON came to Ontario in about 1882 and moved to PEI in 1883.  So I have a lot of relatives to research in this small province.  And although I have never visited, it was my first favorite ancestral location.

This week's story is about Thomas Compton COMPTON, who immigrated with his father Colonel Harry Childeroy COMPTON to PEI in 1803 when he was about 14 years old.  I’m still unable to find his birth or baptismal record in Hampshire England.  Others claim he was born in Amport about 1788 or 1789, perhaps the same year his young mother Charlotte Lisle NEWMAN died.  His parents were married 28 Nov 1779 in Amport, and their older son Arthur Newman COMPTON was baptized 9 Aug 1782 in Amport.  Their daughter Charlotte Alicia Lisle COMPTON is listed twice in the christening records: first baptized the same day as brother Arthur in Amport  (her second name listed as Elvira).  The second christening took place four years later on 6 Apr 1786 at Nether Wallop, daughter of Henry and Charlotte.  As Harry inherited land in Wallop Hampshire from his grandfather, this baptism likely belongs to this family as well.  So perhaps there were two daughters born with the same name.  If so the the first one likely died very young.  Details of Thomas’s birth and his mother's ear death are still unsolved mysteries.  What a challenging time it must have been for the family.

In 1791 Thomas’s father Harry married his second wife Mary Anne LYNE in Dorset, and their daughter Lyne was born in 1793, a half-sister for Thomas.  Then Harry joined the militia (Perth Highland Regiment of Fencible Infantry) serving in Ireland during the Rebellion. So Thomas likely did not see a lot of his father in his younger years.  In 1803 Harry emigrated to PEI Canada, taking along his son Thomas, daughter Charlotte and housekeeper.  Harry's wife and daughter Lyne stayed behind in England, and his older son Arthur joined the British Navy (he drowned while serving in the East Indies in 1805).  They sailed from Portsmouth on the “Teresa”, leaving on 23 Aug 1803 and arriving in PEI on 23 Sep1803, a one-month journey by sailing ship.    The journey and new life on Prince Edward Island would have seemed like a real adventure for Thomas, then a teenage boy.

Conditions and amenities were rustic in these pioneer days,  but there was the promise of growth and opportunity.  The population in the whole province in 1798 was only about 4,000, sparsely distributed in rural areas.  Quite a contrast to England!  The family settled on the north shore of Richmond Bay, north of the town of St Eleanors in Lot 17, Prince County, where they built a grand house called the Pavillion.  Construction was complete by 1806.  The house was later destroyed by fire in 1844. 

On 13 Nov 1810, Thomas married Hannah JEFFERY, daughter of James JEFFERY and Jane Saunders RYDER. James and his family were from the Isle of Wight off the coast of Hampshire England, and emigrated to PEI in 1809, where James purchased land from Harry Compton.  Hannah obviously met Thomas COMPTON and had a quick courtship because their first son was reportedly born in August 1810, followed by their marriage on 13 November 1810.  Between 1810 and 1837 Thomas and Hannah had twelve living children, although their oldest daughter Matilda died at age 9.

Thomas’s father Harry did not stay in PEI, traveling back to Europe on more than one occasion before moving permanently to France in about 1821 where he bought a chateau and gifted it to his third wife Anna Maria Wells.  She had been previously married as well, and was the daughter of a Royal Navy commander. So Thomas, Harry's only surviving son, was left to manage the “colonial affairs” in PEI.  In 1839 just before Harry died, he deeded land in PEI to his two oldest grandsons Harry Alfred Newman Compton and John Arthur Newman Compton  (John died soon after in Kent England in 1844).  Harry was buried in the churchyard in St Launeuc, Brittany, France, but I’m told his gravestone no longer exists and his bones now reside in the village ossuary, the skull on a shelf with its name and dates.
 
Back in PEI, Thomas was not only a prosperous farmer of a sizable estate, but was also involved in local politics and public service.  He was also said to be a Major in the British Army, but I have no further details on his military involvement.  In 1812 he was a juror in the first murder trial recorded on the island.  In 1829 he was appointed a magistrate under the Small Debt Act, and in 1831 he was elected MLA as well as a tax accessor and collector.  In 1835 he and Thomas Richard petitioned the Governor to purchase 50 acres of undeveloped land in Lot 15 to build a grist mill.  In 1841 he was appointed  receiver of land assessments for St Eleanors.  Thomas seems to have also been involved in several Supreme Court cases between 1835 and 1847, at times the plaintiff or the defendant.  Several disputes involved S E Jeffery, perhaps a relative of his wife.

Both Thomas and Hannah were raised as Anglican, but later converted to Catholicism, perhaps influenced by his father Harry's growing affinity for the Roman Catholic faith (although Harry never officially converted).  It has been difficult to pin down the actual date of their conversion because both the Anglican church in St Eleanors as well as the Roman Catholic Church in nearby Miscouche were named after St John.  This has led to confusion and possible inaccuracies as to which children were baptized where. And not all records are available for this period.  While we know that many of their younger children were baptised in the Roman Catholic church, at least one daughter was baptized Anglican as an adult.  Most of his children were  married in the Anglican church as well as buried in Anglican cemeteries.  I would hope that all these changing allegiances didn’t cause too much friction within the family.

Thomas died on 5 Aug 1850 in St Eleanors PEI when he was only about 61. Buried with his wife and one daughter at St. John the Baptist Church [RC], Miscouche, their graves are unmarked.  Thomas's long will and codicils, filed in Aug 1850, contain a wealth of family names, relationships, land descriptions and references to existing lease agreements and neighbours.   We are indeed fortunate to have access to a transcript of such a wonderful family document. His wife Hannah lived another 21 years, dying on 13 Dec 1871. 

Thomas and Hannah’s many descendants  have carried on Harry’s COMPTON line in Canada.  So far I know of  64 grandchildren (30 boys, 34 girls), 5 of them dying as children.  I am descended from two of Thomas's children, Albert Harry COMPTON and Elizabeth Pring COMPTON, due to subsequent intermarriages. They were a prolific bunch!

A final note about PEI: this year they are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the influential and infamous land survey of the island undertaken by Samuel Holland in 1765 for the British Government.  The resulting division of the province into three counties and about 67 "lots" or townships had huge repercussions on the development of the province.  The Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown is currently displaying the original huge Holland map on loan from the National Archives in England.  They also hosted a series of eight lectures about the survey, map and history of Prince Edward Island.  If you missed attending them, the lecture videos can now be viewed on YouTube.

REFERENCES and FURTHER READING

PEI Public Archives and Records Office (PARO)
PEI, Miscouche St Jean de Baptiste (Miscouche / Malpeque) baptisms
Island Register - PEI genealogy resource and family tree site
Island Newspapers, UPEI, Robertson Library (1900-1962)
Prince Edward Island - Canadian Encyclopedia site 
PEI in 1850 - Culture Summerside site
Demographics of PEI - wikipedia
PEI Heritage Buildings by Charter W Jeffery, co-author of "The Jeffery Family of Isle of Wight and Prince Edward Island", 1998
PEI Genealogical Society site
Samuel Holland, 1765 Surveyor of PEI - 250th anniversary
and Samuel Holland series lectures on YouTube

Terry’s BOORMAN line certainly had a lot of large families. One of Terry's cousins six generation back may have had sixteen children, although with parental names of William and Mary I can’t yet be positive of that number. But we are fairly certain that in Terry’s direct line, the prize goes to his Great-Great-Grandfather Thomas BOORMAN and his first wife Mary Ann GREEN who had 14 children between 1837 and 1858 (21 years).   Their fifth born, William Scoons BOORMAN, was Terry’s great grandfather.  You will notice that the names “Thomas” and “William” are repeated quite often in this line.

When considering such large families, it’s interesting to look for patterns and trends. In this case, I count five male children compared to nine females, which doesn't exactly adhere to the law of averages!  Five of their children died* by the age of 2 (two boys and three girls), while nine lived to adulthood.  That’s a 36% mortality rate.  The repeated loss of so many children must have been devastating for Thomas and Mary Ann and their family.

Their children's births were not evenly distributed throughout the year:

• 2 in January (Mary Ann & Louisa)
• 1 in March (Elizabeth #1*)
• 1 in April (John Dalby*)
• 3 in May (Frederick*, Jane Hannah, and Harriet*)
• 1 in July (Thomas)
• 2 in August (William Scoons, Sarah Ellen)
• 1 in October (Elizabeth #2*)
• 2 in November (Eliza Amelia, Caroline)
• 1 in December (Alfred)

None were born in February, June or September (currently the most popular month for births in the USA).

I have to wonder if this marathon production of children contributed to Mary Ann’s early death in 1862 at the relatively young age of 45.  Her youngest daughter would have been only three and a half years old.  And because of her age, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mary Ann’s death was the result of complications with yet another pregnancy, but this is pure conjecture.  Living in London in this era had plenty of other health risks to consider as well.

Thomas himself was born 23 Aug 1810 in either Boughton under Blean or Headcorn in Kent, England.  He was the youngest of only five known children of Thomas BOORMAN (c1776-1845) and Ann CARPENTER (1780-1953).  Perhaps because he was the only son he felt the need to perpetuate the Boorman name for his line.  His nine surviving children managed to produced 58 grandchildren including 16 with the last name BOORMAN.  I'd say he succeeded.

Thomas's parents were non-conformist, so his birth rather than his baptism was recorded in the Herne Bay Union Bay, Mortimer Street registers, perhaps some time after the fact.  His three oldest siblings were certainly born in Headcorn up to 1806.  When the birth of his sister Louisa was registered, they were then "of the Parish of Boughton, formerly of Headcorn",  and "of Boughton" on the next line for Thomas's birth, so it is likely that Thomas was born in Boughton.  However, census and other sources claim he was born and baptised in Headcorn.  The family lived in both locations before they “moved to Camberwell in about 1820 where [Thomas's father Thomas] also opened a Wheelwright Shop.”

Anecdotal information on this Boorman branch comes from a family history written in the early 1950s by a relative Caroline Dyer titled "Notes on the Life and the Descendants  of Thomas Boorman”.  Caroline Winifred DYER was Thomas’s spinster granddaughter through his daughter Mary Ann BOORMAN.  She writes the following about her grandfather:

So according to family legend, this is how Thomas ended up in Wandsworth, on the south banks of the Thames just across from London and now part of that great city.  It was in Wandsworth where he met Mary Ann GREEN whose father was a prosperous tailor on High Street.  Although they were married on 13 Sep 1836 at St Giles, Camberwell, they continued to live in Wandsworth where their multitude of children were born.  His coach building business was located at 9 High Street.  As we follow the growth of his large family through the England census starting in 1841, Thomas is listed as a coach maker, and by 1881 he was employing three men and two boys.  Thomas has also been referred to as a wheelwright (like his father) in the birth record of his son Thomas, as no doubt that skill was required in the coach building process.

With the early death of his wife Mary Ann in 1862, Thomas still had a young family to raise, but he waited until 1882 to marry again.  His second wife Emma Stanton was reportedly the "niece of Mrs. Cavell, Thomas’s housekeeper", and considerably younger than Thomas (Emma was born about 1841 in Plaistow Essex according to the 1891 census).  So the question remains: who took care of his large young family in the interim?   By 1862 Thomas's oldest children where already grown, with his oldest son and daughter already married.  Thomas Jr already had a son of his own (of course they named him Thomas!), and Mary Ann was expecting her own first child.  In the 1871 census, Sarah Cavill was living with the family, an unmarried housekeeper from Essex and 68 years of age.  Presumably her duties included minding the younger children.

 A portrait exists of Thomas Boorman in his later years, dressed in a suit and sporting a long white beard (shown above).  He had the characteristic high Boorman forehead and familiar “look” about his eyes. I get the sense that he was quite a short man. 

We also have a rather fuzzy image of handwriting which says “T Boorman 1885”; the family assumes that this was his signature.  It was written on the back of a photo, perhaps one of the above portrait?  I'm trying to gather more information on this.

According to the Dyer family history mentioned above, Thomas and Mary Ann attended the Congregational Church in Wandsworth where Thomas was a deacon for about 50 years up to the time of his death.  "They were both exceedingly upright, conscientious people - somewhat narrow minded in their religious views and most uncompromisingly honest and straight forward in their dealings.”  The word "puritanical" was also mentioned.  Perhaps that was their way of making sense of, and dealing with all the hardships that came their way.

Thomas died 20 Sep 1894 in Wandsworth at the age of 84 and 3 weeks according to the family bible.  His probate summary says that he was living at 41 Melody Road in Wandsworth and probate was granted to his widow Emma Boorman, with effects amounting to £552 8s 5d.  Thomas was buried in the Garratt Lane Old Burying Ground in Wandsworth along with his wife Mary Ann and young daughter Harriet.  And probably four young infants.  Their gravestone is still there, a little sad for wear and not in its original location.  The cemetery is now maintained as a park, a beautiful green space in the middle of a bustling city where people can stroll along the paths and rest on a bench under a shady tree, perhaps contemplating those that had walked there so many years before.

My mother’s first cousin Arthur Julian ANDREW ended his working career as a visiting professor in the King’s College School of Journalism in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the early 80s.  His own education was extensive, having attended King’s College School in Windsor NS, subsequently graduating from Dalhousie with both a BA and an MA.  He was also granted an honorary Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of King’s College in 1970.

Arthur started his working life with the Canadian Press, and served overseas with the Princess Louise Fusiliers.  But he is more publicly known for his distinguished career as a Canadian diplomat.  When a relative is accomplished enough to be included in Canada’s Who’s Who, it’s something to be bragged about!  

While in the Foreign service Arthur held six important posts.  His first posting was as Charge d’affaires to Austria in 1953 and 1954 during the “cold war”, around the end of the post-war Allied occupation of Austria.  It was a volatile time in Europe, with worker strikes and uprisings in nearby East Germany.

Between 1957 and 1960, Arthur held the position of  Charge d’affaires to Czechoslovakia, which was then a “people’s democracy" and a satellite state of the the Soviet Union under President of Antonin Novotny.  In Canada it was the start of the Diefenbaker era, supporting human rights and reforming Canada’s immigration laws.

Between 1962 and 1965 Arthur simultaneously held the foreign posts of High Commissioner to Cyprus, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Israel.  He had his hands full!  Cyprus had been a British Colony and the a Crown Colony until 1960, and joined the United Nations as an independent nation in 1961.  But the continuing unrest between Greek and Turkish factions on the island and the need for international intervention must have created repercussions for Arthur. The Jewish State of Israel, since it’s creation in 1948, has been frequently in the spotlight.  They were involved in the Suez-Sinai War in 1956, and the Six-Day War in 1967.  In 1963 during Arthur’s posting, Israel had a change of president, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, no doubt causing some upheaval in the diplomatic realm.  In August 1962, Arthur had the pleasure of meeting with Golda Meir, Foreign Minister from 1956 to1966, and Kadish Luz, Speaker of the Knesset from 1959 to 1969.

In his final two positions, Arthur served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. In Sweden between 1965 and 1969, the country was enjoying stable years of prosperity.  On the other hand, Greece (where Arthur was posted between 1975 and 1978) was in transition.  Their military dictatorship that had seized power in 1967 had ended in 1974 when Constantine Karamanlis became the new Premier.  But the war in Cyprus and the Greek Junta Trials of August of 1975 helped create turbulent times during Arthur's tenure in Greece. 

Between his postings abroad, Arthur took time to write a book published in 1971 titled "Defence by other means;: Diplomacy for the underdog”.  In 1969, he acted as Foreign Service Visitor to the University of Toronto.  In 1980 he retired from the Foreign Service.

But where did Arthur get his start? He was born 20 Nov 1915 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada, the youngest of six children of Rev Canon Albert Edward ANDREW and Minnie Ethel SINCLAIR.  The family had moved to Windsor NS by 1921, and later to Newport and North Sidney, Nova Scotia before returning to live in Pictou in 1926. So Arthur attended grade school in Nova Scotia.  Most of his ANDREW first cousins (including my mother) grew up in Prince Edward Island (another maritime province), and there were some summertime family visits in both direction. especially as the children grew older.  One of my favorite photos was taken on such a visit to Greenhill Nova Scotia on 2 Sep 1936.  It shows three smiling faces of three first cousins, each the child of a different ANDREW brother.  Alice ANDREW (daughter of Horace) was born 1918,  this Arthur ANDREW (son of Albert) was born 1915, and my mother Mabel ANDREW (son of Harry) born 1918.  There were actually two cousins with the name of Arthur ANDREW, the second one born to Horace in 1920 in PEI and the brother of Alice.  So the Arthur in Nova Scotia was dubbed “Arthur Pictou” by his cousins.

All the cousins grew up and went their separate ways.  Arthur married Joyce Mowbray SIRCOM at the age of 25 in 1940, and together they had two daughters.  Arthur died on 31 May 1994 in Halifax, NS at the age of 78.

This branch of the family has fostered several accomplished, humanitarian and service-minded individuals, often involved at a national and international level. Such was Arthur’s life, and his achievements certainly deserve much admiration.

REFERENCES and FURTHER READING

Arthur Julian Andrew Career - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
Arthur Julian Andrew Bio
Arthur Julian Andrew - wikipedia
Arthur Julian Andrew, author - amazon
Allied Occupied Austria - wikipedia
Cold War (1953-62) - wikipedia
Canada and the Diefenbaker Government, 1957-63  - Canada Channel site
History of Czechoslovakia - wikipedia
History of Cyprus - wikipedia
Israel Modern History and Timeline - Jewish Virtual Library site
Golda Meir
Sweden History - Local Histories site
Timeline of Modern Greek History - wikipedia

When one thinks of school days, the first thing that comes to mind is grade school children attending classes.  Of course there is also post-secondary and post-graduate studies to consider, as well as adult education for continued lifelong learning.  Regardless of the level, thoughts usually run to the students involved.  But where would we be without the teachers?

In 1973 when I lived in Vancouver BC for a year, attending the University of British Columbia as an undergraduate, I was kindly invited to the home of my mother’s first cousin Geoffrey ANDREW.  Not only was Geoff a relative, but he had worked in management and on the teaching staff at UBC between 1947 and 1962. So for a shy young woman from a small town, not used to the big city nor experienced in mixing with important academics and professionals, the thought of visiting Geoff and his family was somewhat intimidating.  But Geoff was very skilled at putting me at ease, and seemed interested in my education and plans for the future.  And I got a sense of family from him. Perhaps his voice as well as his appearance seemed familiar to me (I have recently found an audio recording of one of his lectures online, and his patterns of speech and his sense of humor remind me of my Uncle Dean Andrew, Geoff's first cousin).  Of course as I look back I see the missed opportunities for learning more about his own family and life.  Now I have so many more questions to ask!  But I had a lovely visit and meal at their home on West 13th Avenue, also meeting his wife Margaret and youngest daughter, my second cousin.

Geoffrey Clement ANDREW was born 3 Jul 1906 in Bayfield Nova Scotia, the third of six children born to Rev Canon Albert Edward ANDREW and Minnie Ethel SINCLAIR.  He grew up primarily in Pictou and Windsor NS.  According to his family, he had fond memories of his summer holidays on Prince Edward Island, and the "wild antics" he would get into with his cousins there.  He attended Kings College in Windsor NS (which burned down in 1920), and earned a BA at Kings College at Dalhousie University in Halifax NS, and a BA and MA at Balliol College, Oxford.  Life was not all cerebral as I'm told he played hockey while at Kings.  And according to one family photo, he also knew how to throw a discus.

When it was time to start his career, Geoff gained experience as an English Teacher and Senior Housemaster at Upper Canada College in Toronto Ontario, which (according to wikipedia) is a long-established private school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. 

He met and married Margaret Monro GRANT in 1937.  She was the daughter of  William Lawson Grant, and granddaughter of George Munro Grant, the distinguished president of Queen’s University.  Margaret was a graduate in economics, social work and librarianship.  They started a family, and it is no surprise that their five children have inherited their parents' combined drive, interests and scholastic abilities.

During the Second World War, Geoff was the Secretary of Wartime Information Board in Ottawa from 1943 to 1945.  He subsequently held the position of Director of Canada Information Services from 1945 to 1947.  In 1947 he was approached by Norman "Larry" Mackenzie who he had worked with during the war and who was then the president of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver BC. So in September 1947, Geoff and his young family moved west and he started work at UBC as Professor of English and Executive Assistant to President Mackenzie.  In 1953 he was promoted to Dean and Deputy President, and became a member of the UBC Senate. Also in 1953 he was appointed by the Carnegie Foundation to study university administration in Canada, the USA, Great Britain and Europe.  Sometime before 1960 he was part of an international team that spent three months in New Zealand as consultants to their government on higher education development.  I really don’t know where he found the time for it all! 

Judging by the many photos online from the UBC Library Digital Collections, Geoff's responsibilities at UBC also included public relations and participation in ceremonies.  He accepted and gave out awards, gifts and money to sponsors, graduates and unidentified individuals.  He unveiled art and new plans for the university, dug sod in preparation for new buildings, attended social functions, welcomed dignitaries, and even escorted the young granddaughters of the visiting Lieutenant-Governor Vincent Massey.  And of course he gave lectures, did research and wrote articles.  He led a very busy professional life.

Geoff decided to leave the University of British Columbia in 1962, and his new job took him back to the nation’s capital as Executive Director of the Canadian Universities Foundation.  In 1964 he visited Vancouver and gave a lecture on "Provincial and Federal Responsibilities for Higher Education" for the Vancouver Institute.  The organization's name changed in 1965 when it became the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), and Geoff continued working there until his retirement in 1971.  He was then 65 years of age. 

Geoff and Margaret returned to live in Vancouver where he was active in the Alumni Association, and enjoyed fly-fishing expeditions with his friends in the Harry Hawthorn Foundation. Margaret became active in the school board, which seemed to entail "30 hour days".  They were active supporters of the arts and humanities in the community, including involvement in the Vancouver Festival.

On a personal note, I sent Christmas cards to Geoff and Margaret for a few years after my visit in 1973.  And in return I was thrilled to get not a card, but a poem written by Geoff, creatively updating us on their past year's activities.  Thankfully I have managed to retain three of these special poems, which bring back wonderful memories.

In June 1981, Geoff and Margaret ANDREW attended a dinner at the UBC Faculty Club in his honor.  The following month he turned 75, and a year after that his wife passed away.  Geoff died at home in Feb 1987 from cancer at the age of 80.  He is surely well and dearly remembered.  A memorial tribute to Geoff ANDREW was recorded by the UBC Senate. Included were statements about Geoff's character and his roles outside their university:

REFERENCES and FURTHER READING

Photos of Geoffrey ANDREW - UBC Library Digital Collections
Lecture for the Vancouver Institute:  Socialized Education in New Zealand [misnamed] - by Geoffrey C Andrew, recorded 1960-11-05 - introduction includes speaker bio
Vancouver Island Institute Lectures, 1950s 
UBC, Charles Woodward Memorial Room Collections - transcribed 1985 interview with Geoffrey ANDREW regarding the startup of the medical faculty at UBC
UBC Calendar, Officers and Staff, 1947-1948: Geoffrey C ANDREW listed on pages 9 (Staff) and 18 (English)
The Harry Hawthorn Foundation Collection - Geoff ANDREW's friends for extracurricular fly fishing
University of King's College - wikipedia
A Brief History of the University of British Columbia

My Great Aunt Alice ANDREW didn’t have any children.  So I guess you could say that she created "no additional population”.  I'm really taking liberties with the theme this week, but I couldn’t seem to focus on any ancestors who might have been in the “non-population” census schedules for agriculture, industry, manufacturers or even the 1890 Union veterans.  Although we have no shortages of farmers or agricultural laborers in our trees,  I have not yet done justice to these additional sources of information.

Ida Alice ANDREW was known in the family as “Aunt Alice”.  She was the eldest of nine children born to William ANDREW and Harriet Washbourne COMPTON on 10 August 1871 in St Eleanors, Prince Edward Island.  As the family grew, her mother must have relied on her to help care for the younger children on their family farm.  By 1881 five children had arrived, and by 1891 all nine children had been born and were living with their parents.  Harry ANDREW, the baby of the family and my grandfather, was then only age one, going on two.  I cannot find Alice in the 1901 census, but according to a short published memoir about her father, Alice was a professional nurse in Charlottetown by 1906.  She might also have taken her nurses training in Charlottetown like her younger sisters Isabel ANDREW (who was also trained by 1906) and Mabel ANDREW (who graduated in Charlottetown later in 1918).

By 1911, Alice had moved to Winnipeg Manitoba and was working as a nurse, earning an annual salary of about $485.  She was 33 years old, still single, and lodging in a women’s boarding house with many other single nurses at 373 Langside (the poor condition of the census image leaves some of these details open to interpretation).  At some point Alice met Rev. Ernest John SECKER who was born in Norwich Norfolk England in 1886 and emigrated to Canada about 1910.  On 5 Jan 1916, Alice and Ernest married in Winnipeg; Alice was 44 years old and Ernest was not quite 30.  Alice's age might have been the key reason why they didn't have any children. By the time of the 1916 census they were living in Marquette Manitoba just north west of Winnipeg.  Sometime before 1923 they moved to Selkirk Manitoba, north east of Winnipeg. 

As a clergyman in 1923, Ernest accepted a posting to Florence Nebraska to take charge of St Marks Church.
Florence was the earliest settlement in Douglas County in north east Nebraska and had been annexed by the City of Omaha in 1917.  On 24 Jan 1923, Ernest and Alice left the Winnipeg area and crossed the US Canadian border bound for Nebraska. In their immigration documents, Alice is described as age 53, 5 foot 7 inches tall with a dark complexion and dark brown hair.  Ernest was only 36, 5 foot 5 inches with medium complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes. I wish I had a photo of them together.

Alice sometimes traveled on her own back to Prince Edward Island during the summer months to visit relatives and perhaps to lend a hand.  My Great Uncle Fred MAY (her brother-in-law) had a camera, and in the 20s and 30s at least, Alice would often be included in his photos.  In July 1927 she is pictured twice, once outside her sister Mabel MAY’s house in North St Eleanors, and again on a ferry boat with her sister Mabel, perhaps bound for Nova Scotia to visit their brother Albert ANDREW. (Mabel’s hat looks a trifle moth eaten to me!)  On 1 Aug 1935 Alice was part of a large family group photo, sitting next to her sister Mabel.  That same summer she’s shown having a more casual meal with Mabel in the May’s back garden.

Probably the earliest photo I have of Alice was taken prior to 1910 and shows her with a niece and two nephews.  What a marvelous hat she wore, which helped soften her tailored suit.  Thanks to another relative, I also have a lovely photo of Alice ANDREW in a long light-colored dress and accompany hat and dark parasol (see the beginning of this post). As her maiden name was written on the back of that photo, it was presumably taken before she married Ernest in 1916 as well.

Alice and Ernest continued to live in Nebraska for the rest of their lives.  In 1930 and 1940 their address was 8011 31st Street in the north end of Omaha quite close to the Missouri River.  There is no such address today.  At that time, St Marks Episcopal Church was located at 31st and Young Streets (today that location is occupied by the Promised Land Worship Center, 8019 North 31st).  So they were living just down the road, if not next door, to St Marks Church.  In 1945 Ernest became the priest at Trinity Church in Norfolk Nebraska in Madison County, north west of Omaha.

Alice died in Omaha in 1956, with Ernest following her in 1976.  They were buried side by side in the Prospect Hill Cemetery, Norfolk Nebraska.

REFERENCES and FURTHER READING

Historic Florence Nebraska
Florence Nebraska History
Douglas County Historical Society
Florence Nebraska, Wikipedia site
D G Paz, “A Study in Adaptability: The Episcopal Church in Omaha, 1856-1919,” Nebraska History 62 (1981): 107-130 
Trinity Episcopal Church, 111 South Ninth Street Norfolk, NE 68701