In the past I had created other photo memory books for my side of the family using the online tools at shutterfly.com, but none for the Boorman side.  Last summer I decided it was time to rectify that situation.  I pulled out old photo albums and boxes of loose pictures, then scanned, enhanced and organized those that had not yet been digitized.  There were lots.  

Gradually a theme presented itself, and I decided to make Terry the focal point of the new book and save it as a Christmas present.  The title became “Terry Boorman’s Family”.  Terry's childhood naturally included his parents and sister.  As Terry’s life also includes his marriage and his children (no grandchildren yet), I also needed to add the younger generation to the book.  And finally I decided to include his parents’ siblings and Terry’s grandparents.  I was important for me to include all those relatives who had affected Terry's life, as well as information on his more recent heritage. 

With the book's scope set to include four generations, the next task was to pick the best of the photos and to group them by era and type of content.  Then I let the number and proportions of each group of photos mandate the layout of each page.  Because of this I always had to customize the pre-formatted pages included with the chosen book template.  It was worth the extra time and effort because the results were more personal and effective, and made the way I wanted.  ​

The front cover shows three different photos of Terry: as a toddler, a young man, and after retirement.  The back cover shows a grid of nine photos of his extended family throughout the years, including his childhood home.  And the 48 pages between the covers contain a large variety of colour and black and white photos with captions and short descriptive paragraphs. One of the first pages includes a “picture family tree” page, showing thumbnail-sized head shots in four rows, one for each generation: grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins.  ​

​The next group of photos involved Terry’s grandparents: Harry Eustace BOORMAN and Daisy Louise JOHNSTON and their five children: Bill, Ken, Jack, Sheila and Audrey.  I even added in two formal group photos from 1911,  showing four generations of the JOHNSTON family.  The youngest in the group was Terry’s father William Irvine "Bill" BOORMAN (a baby in his christening gown), then his mother Daisy Louise BOORMAN (nee JOHNSTON), his grandmother Deborah Sophronia JOHNSTON (nee KERFOOT), and his great-grandmother Eliza Jane KERFOOT (nee NEELAND).  The second picture also included three of Daisy's siblings: Russell JOHNSTON, Della JOHNSTON and Irene JOHNSTON.  It's fun to see the family resemblances.

Three more pages in the book were dedicated to Terry’s father of Bill BOORMAN, including his service in WWII in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves.  Four pages were devoted to Terry’s THOMAS grandparents and relatives: Ivor John THOMAS, Lily Mary YEOMANS and their five children.  Terry’s mother Lillian Joyce THOMAS was their youngest.

My mother Mabel Marion ANDREW was only five when her paternal grandmother Harriet Washbourne ANDREW nee COMPTON died in 1923 at the age of 74.  It would have been nice if my Mom had been granted even a few more years to enjoy her Granny Andrew. My grandfather Harry Charles ANDREW was the youngest of Harriet’s nine children, born when Harriet was forty, so she was almost 69 when my mother was born.  It’s also sad that Harriet died before she could meet four of her twenty-nine grandchildren, and that she outlived her youngest daughter Sadie who died in 1906 at the age of twenty. ​

Harriet Washbourne COMPTON was the oldest of eleven children born to Albert “Harry” COMPTON and Mary Robinson COATES on 8 May 1849 in St Eleanors, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. She was four months old when she was baptized on 9 Jul 1949 in St Johns Anglican Church, St Eleanors. Her grandfather Thomas Compton COMPTON emigrated as a teen in 1803 from Hampshire England to PEI with his father Harry Childeroy COMPTON.   Harriet's middle name WASHBOURNE (multiple spellings found) has been traced to her maternal grandmother Sarah ROBINSON whose older sister Harriet ROBINSON (born 1790) married a Henry WASHBOURN in Norfolk England, but didn’t have any children. So Mary decided to carry on this name through her own daughter - a bit of a twist on a family tradition, I think.

Harriet grew up to be a tiny woman with a round face and apple cheeks, quite the contrast to her tall, long-faced husband William ANDREW, a first generation Islander whom she married on 27 Oct 1870 in St Johns Anglican Church, St Eleanors. She was 21. Harriet's daughter Delores (Dot) looked the most like her.  I have no first hand accounts of Harriet’s personality but I must assume that she was a loving and “nice” person, judging by her descendants!  Fortunately some photos of her have survived, and in general I sense a quiet, kind nature.  The  exception is earliest photo where she looks rather severe and tense, perhaps because she is trying to keep still for the photo and follow tradition by not smiling.  Could this formal portrait have been taken as early as her marriage in 1870? The other photos were taken when she was much older, some not long before her death.​

William and Harriet operated their family farm of about 200 acres in St Eleanors PEI on land once owned by her great-grandfather Harry Childeroy COMPTON (see my posting on William ANDREW for more details of their homestead).  There was always work to do: tending the garden, crops and animals, as well as raising, feeding and clothing their nine children: Alice, Albert, Delores, Horace, Isa, Fanny, Mabel, Sadie and Harry.  Everyone had to pitch in to help with the chores as they grew old enough.  Their children were born there between 1871 and 1889; many went by their middle names.  One photo shows Harriet sitting on a couch, busily mending a blanket.  No idle hands allowed!  They were thrifty, took care of what they owned, and made items last as long as possible.
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Harriet's youngest living daughter Mabel Hetty ANDREW graduated as a nurse in Charlottetown in 1918, and likely worked for a short time afterwards in that city.  But her father William ANDREW’s health was failing and she may have returned to St Eleanors to care for him before his death on 19 Jul 1920. Certainly by 1921 Mabel was living with her widowed mother Harriet in St Eleanors next to her brother Harry and family (I think that Harriet and Mabel  had their own apartment sectioned off in what had become Harry ANDREW’s home). Harriet only lived another two years, dying in 1923.  Five of her ten younger siblings had died before her.

Harriet and William ANDREW are buried together in the St Johns Anglican Cemetery.  A memorial plaque in their honour was later mounted inside the church by their growing family, unveiled by the youngest of their twenty-nine grand children in 1938.  At last count, they had sixty-eight great children (although there may be some I don't yet know about), and many younger descendants. Although Harriet and her husband lived their whole lives on Prince Edward Island, I don't believe that any of her descendants still live there.  

I have posted additional  information on my ANDREW and COMPTON families elsewhere on this website. 

"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.  
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.  
It is giving me  the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.

In the continuing spirit of the holidays, how could I not write about someone with a name like Jesse JOY?  And with a name like that, who would suspect him of being naughty? But names can be deceiving.  In his defense, his first discretion may not have been intentional.  It was hard to find relatives with a “naughty” paper trail.  Stories about those who were only guilty of minor pranks or misdemeanors are well hidden or have not survived.  So I had to dig deep.​

I found Jesse in a branch of Terry’s tree that I haven’t visited in a while.  He’s not a direct ancestor, nor is he even a blood relative.  Jesse was Terry’s 4-times-great uncle by marriage, who married Catherine GOUGE, sister of Frances GOUGE and Matthew Thomas ROBSON, Terry’s 3-times-great grandparents.  Both Catherine and Frances GOUGE were daughters of Robert GOUGE and Frances HART who were Terry’s 4G grandparents.  They were married in Newington in northern Kent, England on 24 Nov 1778 (just west-northwest of Sittingbourne on the road west to Chatham).  “Catharine" was born on 13 Jan 1794 in Kingstown.  There was a larger town of Kingsdown on Kent’s east coast, north of Dover and south of Deal, but Catherine's Kingsdown was a rural community about 3 or 4 km south-southeast of Sittingbourne. So they didn’t go far.

Catherine's husband Jesse JOY was christened farther south in Headcorn, Kent on 15 Jun 1791, the son of Robert JOY and Winifred WOOD.  Jesse and Catherine were married on 3 May 1814 in Borden, also near Sittingbourne (about 2km to the southwest).  By 1826 they were living in Bearsted (near Weavering on the eastern perimeter of Maidstone) where he worked as a saddler and rope maker. When his father died in 1828, Jesse inherited £80 and was co-executor of the estate along with his brother Thomas JOY and brother-in-law John MANNERING.  He continued to live in Bearsted.​

By 1841, Jesse age 50 and Catherine age 45 were living in Bearsted with two apprentice saddlers, another lodger and five of their children: Frances 20, Henry 19, Ellen 16, Jess Jr 10 and Eliza 7.  Their daughter Emma had already moved out and later married Samuel Wesley Copleston in 1845.  Their daughter Jane was born in 1827 but I have yet to find what happened to her. From land records in 1842, Jesse owned “Old cottage” and pasture land at Cross Keys and also rented one "Invicta Villas”, an orchard and other plots of land at Mill Hill Bearsted.  The 1847 City Directory and Poll Books say he was a saddler living on Bearsted Street.  All this seems fairly straightforward and even prosperous, with nothing to cause alarm.  

Sadly in 1857 there is further record of Jesse JOY, this time in the criminal registers for Westminster, Middlesex. He was brought to trial at the Adjourned General Sessions on 30 Nov 1857, found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced with eight months  imprisonment. It’s hard to know if Jesse took money out of need to survive or out of greed and a wish to do better.  But in doing so he broke the law. This was another even harder blow for his family, friends and associates to absorb.  This was beyond “naughty”.

In 1861 Jesse was back with his family in Bearsted, still listed as a saddler and harness maker.  He was 69.  Only his wife Catherine and unmarried daughter Eliza were at home along with a boarder who happened to be a collector of poor rates.  Hopefully there wasn't a conflict of interest with his landlord. Their daughter Eliza died later that year, and the following year in Dec 1862, Jesse passed away at the age of 71.  He was buried on the 13th in Bearsted, where Catherine joined him in 1869. ​ His life had not lived up to his name.
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Christmas has to be our busiest holiday, whether you celebrate it as a Christian, a fan of Santa Claus, or as a cultural event.  For some, the season starts even before the beginning of November, when we’re kept busy planning and scheduling, making and shopping for gifts, reaching out with cards and letters, decorating our homes, baking and preparing food, traveling, partying, and sharing meals and gifts with family and friends.  It can be a time of wonder and delight, as well as a time of added stress, work and overspending.  This year we are strengthening our resolve to resist the over-commercialization of Christmas.  We’ll be spending less on unneeded gifts and giving more in time spent together, good deeds, and celebrations. We don't need all that "stuff"!  Our ancestors would probably have agreed.​

My paternal great-great-uncle Benjamin Lafayette ORRICK chose to marry Medora Frances WHITE on Christmas Day in 1870 in the town of White Rock, Franklin County, Arkansas where her family lived. Perhaps they really loved Christmas and thought that getting married on this special holiday would further bless their commitment to one another.  Or perhaps it was a practical decision and they needed to seize the opportunity when family and friends were already visiting or available. It was already a festive season. Funds may not have been plentiful.  I would have thought that celebrating two such important occasions on the same day would detract from one another, but perhaps the added excitement was welcomed in these harder times. Certainly a Christmas day wedding would guarantee they would remember their anniversary in years to come! As the choice of date was theirs, I hope Benjamin and Medora had a doubly happy wedding day.

Ben's father William Jackson ORRICK was born in South Carolina but likely spent part of his childhood in Alabama where some of his siblings were born.  As Ben’s parents and paternal grandparents all died in Arkansas, it seems the whole extended family decided to move west to Arkansas.   Benjamin’s mother Rebecca Elmira DYER was born in North Carolina and moved with her parents to Tennessee and then to Crawford County Arkansas in 1832 when she was nine years old.  William and Rebecca were farmers and all nine of their children were born in Arkansas between 1841 and 1867 including Ben.  Three of Ben's brothers sadly died as young children, one of them dying the month before Ben was born.  Benjamin was left with three sisters and two brothers.  His younger sister Sarah Elmira ORRICK was my great-grandmother who married John HENSON.​

Benjamin Lafayette ORRICK was their fifth child, born on 11 November 1850 in Frog Bayou, Crawford County, Arkansas near Fort Smith and Van Buren near the western border with Oklahoma.  (I notice that his birthday was on Remembrance Day, although it wouldn’t be celebrated as such until 1918.)  Benjamin's middle name “Lafayette" may have come from the Arkansas county by that name  (although it is quite a distance south from where they lived).  Or he could have been named directly after the Revolutionary War general Marquis de Lafayette who sided with the American colonies and who gave his name to the county and to the towns of Fayetteville in Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina.  In 1848, two years before Ben was born, his father purchased 40 acres of public land in Mountain Township, Crawford County, Arkansas, part of the Fayetteville lands district (later in 1882 William bought another 116 acres in the same area). Perhaps it was this early land transaction in Fayetteville that prompted the naming of his next son.  Mountain Township no longer exists, but from coordinates found online, I believe that it was located just south west of the current Mountainburg Township.

Nine months later Ida Ellen (perhaps Ella) was born, the first of their eight children.  By 1880 they were living in Mountain, Crawford County with five young children: Ida E, William, Lenora E, Daniel J and 4-month-old “PE" - likely the same as Amelia Elmira born 10 Jan 1880.  Their household also included a “cousin" John WHITE age 21 from Texas, a Charles HENSON age 20 from Arkansas, and Mary Berna a female servant.  As Medora had a younger brother named John G WHITE who was born in Texas about the right time, John should have been recorded as a brother-in-law rather than as a cousin.  It’s also interesting to find a HENSON living with them (my maiden name), although I don’t yet know how he is related.  Ben’s sister married a HENSON who had a younger brother Charles born 1858 but I believe he died very young.  So more digging on this is required.

I may have found Benjamin in the 1890 census living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory in a boarding house. He was 38 (only 2 years off) and  born in Arkansas.  But there's no sign of his family, so maybe it’s not the right guy. By 1900, Benjamin, Maddie and their six children were living and farming in Davis Oklahoma, so we know that they moved to this neighboring state.  Perhaps Ben went to Oklahoma ahead of the rest to test the waters and prepare the way.  While this shuffling of locations was going on, Ben lost both his parents back in Arkansas; William died in 1893 and Rebecca died in 1900.  ​

Ben's venture in Oklahoma appears to have been short lived; some of his older children had trouble getting work there.  By 1910 the family had moved back to Arkansas, this time settling in Boone, Logan County.  Ben was age 60 by then, and they had three of their children and Medora’s elderly widowed mother living with them.  When Ben was only 66 he passed away on 10 Feb 1917 in Booneville, and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery.  After his death, Medora lived a further 12 years under the care of her oldest daughter Ida HARDIN and family.  She died on 13 Jan 1929 and was buried beside her husband.  

​Benjamin and Medora ORRICK celebrated 46 Christmas day anniversaries together.  I'll remember to give a toast to them this coming Christmas.
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REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Crawford County, Arkansas History and Genealogy - roots web
Township of Mountain (historical) in Crawford County Arkansas - hometown locator site
Locations for Benjamin ORRICK and Medora WHITE - custom Google Map

I have always been thankful for the maternal  influences in my life.  For most of my formative preschool years my mother, sister and I lived with my maternal grandparents, and I had much more contact with my nurturing maternal line relatives throughout my life.  And it was my maternal grandmother who encouraged my interest in family history.

Tracing a direct maternal lineage (mother’s mother’s mother …) has it’s own set of challenges, yet I’ve found it very rewarding and interesting. I have always been intrigued by the fact that the surnames for women change every generation. Of course this is because, in English and western cultures at least,  females usually take on their father’s surnames at birth and then their husband’s name at marriage (with exceptions in cases of intermarriage or illegitimacies).  So surnames aren’t designed to identify female lineages even though women are the ones to give life to their children and ensure the continuation of our species - a fairly significant contribution, I would say! This has never seemed right to me.  Others have obviously felt the same way because sometimes the mother’s maiden surname (or that of another female relative) is sometimes inserted as a child's middle name. I have numerous examples of this in my family tree.

I have traced my direct maternal line back as far as my 4th-great-grandmother on the Isle of Wight in England.  The surnames in this pedigree,  starting with my mother, are ANDREW, RICHARDSON, COMPTON, COMPTON, JEFFERY, and RYDER.  Yes, there are two COMPTON's is a row; the earlier one married a second cousin with the same surname.  As part of a tribute to my direct maternal line, I have already written stories about my mother Mabel Marion ANDREW and her mother Eleanor Louise “Nell” RICHARDSON.  It is now time to write about my great-grandmother Isabella Harriet COMPTON.  Known as Ella, she was the oldest of nine children born to George COMPTON and his wife Eliza Pring COMPTON (also his second cousin).  (Eliza’s middle name of Pring came from a relative on her mother’s side, although her mother’s maiden name was actually JEFFERY.)

Ella was born 13 Jan 1859 in St Eleanors, Prince Edward Island, Canada, likely on the family farm of 103 acres. She was baptised the following April in Richmond Parish PEI. My Aunt Harriet (whose middle name was Compton) once told me a bit about her grandmother Ella: "Grandma Richardson was born in St. Eleanors she was the eldest of 10 children [I count only nine] and worked very hard helping to bring up her siblings.  Her mother was very Delicate !!!!! or so we’ve been told.  Grandma was a great horse woman, and so was my mother [Nell], she used to ride side-saddle in Horse Shows when she was young in the town of Summerside, 2 miles to the south.”

In 1881 the family is listed as living at Beech Point Prince County PEI, the name given to part of Lot 17 including St Eleanors.  Ella’s age was mis-indexed as 27 rather than 21.  Her eight siblings ranged in age from 19 to 1​.  So I don't doubt that Ella played a role in caring for her younger siblings.

We know that Ella became a nurse, although I have not yet found any record of her formal training.  Anna, one of her sisters who was almost seven years younger, was an early graduate of the Nursing School of Prince Edward Island Hospital in Charlottetown, beginning her training in the original hospital and completing it in the new hospital on Kensington Road in 1898.  Presumably Ella received similar training.  Ella continued nursing, probably part time as needed, even after she married and had children. I have heard stories of Ella assisting in some very grizzly procedures including an amputation, which is why she didn’t want her daughters to go into nursing. 

Ella COMPTON met Sydney RICHARDSON in about 1883 after he had been recruited from Ontario to start up the first cheese factory in Prince County PEI. Ella was almost 27 when she married Sydney on 9 Dec 1885 at St Johns Anglican Church in St Eleanors.  He was three and a half years younger than her.  At first they rented a cottage owned by the Darby family, across the road from the Darby farm.  Their first child Melbourne RICHARDSON was born there the following year.  According to Melbourne, "My father had a small cheese factory, supplied with milk from the farmers surround[ing] it … After a couple of years or so, father bought a small farm 25 acres, a good house about 7 rooms, 2 stories.  A good barn suitable for 3 cows, 3 horses and mows for hay for long winters.” They had four more children: Frances Lulu in 1888, George Lewis in 1891, my grandmother Eleanor Louise "Nell" RICHARDSON in 1894, and Frederick C early in 1897 who died as an infant.​

Ella participated in farming and gardening activities in addition to raising her children and nursing. In 1907 she won second prize for her Bradshaw plums at the Prince County Fall Exhibition.  Family stories mention everyone pitching in with farm chores.  Sydney also helped out with the cooking but relied on his family to help out on the farm when he worked at his nearby cheese factory.  There was lots of work to keep everyone busy, but they also took time out to socialize and get involved in church and community activities.

In 1915 this news item was published in the Charlottetown Guardian (Oct 28, 1915, page 8, column 4): 
“Western Personals … Mrs. Sydney Richardson, St. Eleanor's, and Mrs. William Andrew, North St. Eleanor's, spent a few pleasant days with friends and relatives at Port Hill.-V”
Mrs. William ANDREW was Ella’s first cousin whose maiden name was Harriet Washbourne COMPTON and whose son Harry ANDREW was destined to marry Ella's daughter Nell RICHARDSON.  Port Hill was another community on the north coast of Prince County PEI to the north west of St Eleanors.

Later in 1928, I found another short notice published in the Charlottetown Guardian (Monday 5 Nov 1928, page 8, column 4): 
​“Personals.  Mrs. Sydney Richardson of St. Eleanors, has returned home this week from Seattle, Wash., where she had spent an enjoyable three months visit with her two sons who reside there.”
The two sons were Mel and George, both working in mattress manufacturing.  I have a few family photos from this 1928 trip, so I was glad to learn the approximate dates and duration of Ella's once-in-a-lifetime visit to the west coast.  While there, Ella would have met Mel’s three children for the first time, just missing the birth of their fourth child later that November.  Her son George had married the previous summer in Spokane and did not have any children yet.  The trip included swimming and camping at a nearby lake, and visiting old growth forests with enormous, towering trees.  I'm sure Ella took home many wonderful memories of her growing family and her trip to the Pacific Northwest.

About 1935 when Ella was 76, she suffered a debilitating stroke and was bed ridden for the remaining 15 years of her life.  This would have been so hard on her as well as her family.  Her daughter Lulu became ill and died in 1940, followed by her son George in 1943.  In 1946 her son Mel and his wife Marion journeyed across the continent to visit his parents and his home province of PEI.

Her daughter Nell, the last of their children still living in PEI who had stayed behind to help her father care for Ella, finally moved west to Vancouver Island in 1950 to join her husband. Nell arranged for other Compton relatives to care for her ailing her parents.  Ella's granddaughter Harriet CLARK (nee ANDREW) was her only descendant left on the island.

​The following year on 16 Mar 1951, Ella passed away at the age of 92, followed soon after by Sydney, her husband of 65 years.  They are buried together in the St Johns Anglican Cemetery in St Eleanors PEI.
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