Ancestry Saturday

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon taking the long way out to Bay Roberts, learning about the history of Elizabeth's family in the process.

It was Elizabeth's grandmother's 85th birthday this past week so we spent some time celebrating over the weekend. One of the get-togethers was in Bay Roberts, about an hour from St. John's, so we decided to make a day of it. With two cars in tow, and one knowledgeable grandmother, we set off on a mini-road trip with a few stops along the way.

We stopped frequently while driving around Holyrood as this is where Elizabeth's grandmother spent 3-4 summers during her childhood. Before then, her family spent their summers in Branch on the Cape Shore. However, after war broke out, gas and tires were more expensive so they opted to stay closer to St. John's during the summer. Plus, her father was a policeman and had worked in Holyrood for a few years previously so they already knew everyone in the community. These are a couple of the houses that her family stayed in during the summers of the late 1930s and early 1940s:

We had anther interesting moment in Holyrood when we drove past a derelict building which Nanny explained used to be "a rubber factory that didn't produce tires, if you know what I mean". So all of us, including Nanny, went about the rest of our day thinking that this old factory used to produce condoms. Turns out, they made rubber boots! 

We continued on our drive, pulling to the side of the road frequently when we came across a nice view or a point of interest, all the while listening to stories of Nanny's life growing up in St. John's. In Conception Harbour, we stopped to see the main draw for the community, its fleet of sunken whaling ships. These ships were left in the harbour and were intended to be used for scrap metal, but instead they sat there wasting away and eventually sunk. The SS Charcot is the only wreck that can be seen above the water. 

We continued on our trip, with our next stop being the cemetery in Coley's Point. It was a great way to piece together the family tree, although it was tough to keep everything straight. The crazy thing about looking at genealogy is how the family tree grows at an alarming rate when you go back a few generations. For example, these are the headstones of Elizabeth's great-great-great grandparents, Elijah and Emma Dawe:

... and they are only 1 out of the 16 sets of great-great-great grandparents that Elizabeth has; it's just one branch of the family tree! This point was made even clearer for us earlier in the week when we read an article by Wait But Why discussing family trees - past, present, and future. It is a thought-provoking article that brings up a lot of interesting points about your family's history and your place in all of it. 

After visiting two cemeteries and over-flowing our brains with information, we went to see the houses that Elizabeth's grandfather and his family grew up in. That branch of the family tree, as well as a couple more, lived in Bay Roberts and area so it was fairly straightforward to understand how everything fit together, especially since we had a knowledgeable tour guide.

The day finished off with a PARTAY to celebrate Nanny's 85th birthday! Everyone had lots of fun and we're sure it'll be a day to remember.

Nanny and "the kids"

In other news, with any luck, we will be going to Mexico this week! We were denied boarding on a flight to Mexico a few weeks ago because of passport problems so it's hard to get excited about the trip when we know that something could end our trip before it has even started; we'll believe we're going to Mexico when we're actually there! Luckily Luke has a shiny new passport so fingers crossed for Mexico road trip 2.0.