Posting last updated 22 Sep 2013
Daisy Boorman, 11 grandchildren, Christmas c1953 Terry has told me that the descendants of Harry Eustace and Daisy Boorman (his grandparents) had a tradition for many years: a large family gathering every Christmas day in Victoria BC. I can only remember attending one such event at the home of one of Terry's first cousins, probably the Christmas before Terry and I were married in 1974. We had drawn names ahead of time, so gift giving was limited to one person each, with a price limit (perhaps $10?) as well. The gathering was more about socializing and eating and, as expected, it was crowded and noisy and thoroughly enjoyable! Unfortunately, these Christmas family gatherings fizzled out in subsequent years (as these things are wont to do when there is a change of generations), as numbers swelled and cousins focused on their own growing families and busy lives.
Boorman family reunion, 1979, Victoria BC So in 1979, Terry's mother Joyce decided to host an extended Boorman family gathering. I think she realized that the Boormans were losing touch with one another, and this was one way to remedy that. Joyce's first husband Bill Boorman had passed away years earlier, in 1966 at the age of 55. She had remarried and they had moved into a brand new waterfront condo at Laurel Point in Victoria, so she booked their large common social room for the reunion. Of Bill's 4 siblings, only two were still living: Jack attended with his family, but Sheila and her husband could not. But 9 of the 12 of Daisy and Harry's grandchildren, including Terry, were there with their families. Terry and I prepared a large family tree sheet with what information we had from personal knowledge and what Joyce could tell us. We prepared formatted labels for everyone to write their basic information on (name, birth, marriage ...) and then stick on the tree in the correct location. (We still have this large poster, but many labels are coming unglued after all this time.) We took lots of family group photos and enjoyed talking about family history as well as our current lives. I for one was expecting our first child! And the pot luck buffet was good too.
Some time after the reunion, Terry's Uncle Jack Boorman brought some information and copies of old family photos over to our house one afternoon (we were living on Allenby Street then), which Terry borrowed to make copies (working in a print shop came in handy!). This was before the days of consumer scanners, unfortunately, so the quality suffered at bit. These photos included group shots of the Victoria militia's 5th Regiment (taken about 1897), which included Terry's grand-uncle Walter William Boorman. There was also a photo of the Johnston & Kerfoot Outfitters store in Vancouver, connected to Terry's grandmother's (Daisy Louise Johnston Boorman) family. According to the Changing Vancouver website, I have since learned that Johnston & Kerfoot Outfitters was located at 108 Cordova Street, pictured doing a booming business in 1898. According to this site, it was Daisy's father James Johnston (who died young in 1900) and her mother's brother William Kerfoot who opened the store.
The early 1980s were for raising a young family and for learning and using the emerging personal computing technology. I created a rudimentary family tree program (using my 2 years of computer science studies to teach myself "BASIC" programming on our early Apple II computer). Of course when I later migrated to more sophisticated software such as the LDS's PAF program, I had to retype all the family information into it. This happened more than once over the years!
Terry, on the other hand, was spurred on in his family research by his good friend Gary, whose own father was meticulously researching their family history. Terry talked more with his mother about the Boormans as well as her own Thomas line. At some point Terry joined the local Victoria Genealogical Society for 2 or 3 years. In the 1990s with the emerging internet, he even posted some queries on genealogy forums. It took over 2 years to get a response, but this connected us with John, a distant cousin of Terry's who lives in England and who had done a lot of research on the Boormans of Kent. How wonderful! John also put us in contact with other researchers in England and Australia, who kindly shared information with us as well. About this time, Terry also received a letter from Rita in the mail, who had sent letters to all Boormans in the local phone books, trying to find relatives. Terry was apparently the only one to reply. It turned out that she is Terry's 3rd cousin, living relatively close on the BC lower mainland.
Terry, on the other hand, was spurred on in his family research by his good friend Gary, whose own father was meticulously researching their family history. Terry talked more with his mother about the Boormans as well as her own Thomas line. At some point Terry joined the local Victoria Genealogical Society for 2 or 3 years. In the 1990s with the emerging internet, he even posted some queries on genealogy forums. It took over 2 years to get a response, but this connected us with John, a distant cousin of Terry's who lives in England and who had done a lot of research on the Boormans of Kent. How wonderful! John also put us in contact with other researchers in England and Australia, who kindly shared information with us as well. About this time, Terry also received a letter from Rita in the mail, who had sent letters to all Boormans in the local phone books, trying to find relatives. Terry was apparently the only one to reply. It turned out that she is Terry's 3rd cousin, living relatively close on the BC lower mainland.
Large family chart taped together for 1999 reunion In 1999, 20 years after the first reunion, Terry decided it was time for another reunion to share our expanded information and to catch up on current family information. Joyce (Terry's mother) and Peter (another Boorman "outlaw" were the only 2 of the immediate "older generation" to attend; his Aunt Sheila and Aunt Mary were unable to attend. We were glad to welcome a few more distantly related individuals. Rita came with her brother Peter and his wife Elaine, as well as her 1st cousin Evelyn. Terry's 2nd cousin Alan attended, the grandson of grand-uncle Walter William Boorman. Susan represented the Albert Sidney Boorman family. And we were thrilled that for the first time in too many years, all 12 grandchildren of Harry and Daisy Boorman were able to attend with their families. Although most still live in the Greater Victoria area, one cousin came down from Campbell River and another flew up from California. It was a great reunion, sharing old photos, taking new ones with our new (and unfortunately low-resolution) digital camera, meeting the next generation as well as others from neighboring branches, and updating our large (literally) family tree further. Everyone was asked to complete a family group sheets. We're still talking about this reunion.
The next year was the start of a new century and a period of intermittent research and connections. Terry met with his cousin Pam and borrowed more of her father Jack's old family photos for copying. Rita went on a trip to England in 2002 and shared her photos as well as her research results. We had a visit from a Boorman researcher from Australia - we still haven't figured out if or how Nigel is related, but the quest continues. Nigel's website is no longer online, and much of the information he shared with us was hand-coded html text charts! Through Rita, we also connected with Betty, another 3rd cousin who also lives on the Island, and had some pleasant visits. In 2010, cousin Pam held a luncheon for the Boorman female cousins at her lovely home in Victoria. We had a very enjoyable visit, but no definitive plans emerged for another larger reunion.
Terry and Boorman grave in Staplehurst Kent In 2012, friends of ours were planning a trip to England in time for the Queens Diamond Jubilee. We had never been to England and it was definitely on our "bucket lists", so we decided to join them. Before leaving, I decided to re-familiarize myself with our Boorman tree and reestablish connections, as I had been focusing mostly on my own family tree for the past decade. I realized there was now much more to learn about the Boormans online, with access to new indexes, information and contact opportunities. I loaded our updated Boorman file onto my little netbook for reference during our holiday. During our trip we spent four days in Maidstone Kent, with day trips to both Staplehurst and Headcorn - all important loctions for our Boorman ancestors. We were lucky to meet a kind and helpful lady, a member of the Staplehurst Historical Society who had been part of their monument transcription team 20 years earlier. She was able to show us two surviving Boorman gravestones - we could barely make out the name Boorman, so we wouldn't have been able to find these graves without her. We had hoped to meet up with John on the trip, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out this time. We also saw Bath, Oxford, Hastings, Salisbury and London in our three and a half weeks in England. Lots more still to see. More information on our trip to Kent can be found on our travel blog.
Since we've been home this past year, I have kept in contact with John and others via email, and collaborated with other new contacts and researchers. Our database is growing rapidly, and it is truly so rewarding to continue expanding our knowledge of our Boorman heritage.
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