I started researching my ancestors in earnest earlier this year at the start of 2023. I am using Ancestry.ca to build my Morris-Mayor family tree*. It has quickly grown to over 1,800 people and includes other surnames like Moroz, Moad, Glowa, Muzyka, Kuderawic, Scott and many more. My eventual end goal will be to create... Continue Reading →
Amstrong Sisters Story Published in The Aldernews
While researching the Armstrong sisters, Olive and Blanche, whom I wrote about in a previous blog post, I contacted the Etobicoke Historical Society for some assistance in locating the Willie Morrissey horse breeding farm where Olive and Blanche worked. After a bit of back and forth, the society's historian Richard Jordan invited me to make... Continue Reading →
A Near Thing for ‘Stole The Ring’ and the Armstrong Sisters
On June 7, 1958, thousands of people gathered at the new Woodbine racetrack in Etobicoke[1] for the oldest and, arguably, the most prestigious horse race in North America, the Queen’s Plate. The pomp and circumstance drew a fashionable crowd, the upper crust of Toronto society—men sporting pin striped suits and top hats, and women in... Continue Reading →
The Hotel Morrissey & The Armstrong Siblings
In the blog post entitled A Near Thing for 'Stole the Ring' I wrote about the Armstrong siblings, particularly Olive and Blanche. This blog post is an addendum to that article. Since the Armstrong siblings had a close association with the Hotel Morrissey in Toronto, I wanted to write about the history of the hotel... Continue Reading →
The Ontario Moads – Part 1.1
In The Ontario Moads - Part 1, I wrote about the reasons why William and Elizabeth Moad may have left England to come to Canada. I speculated that the couple spent some time in upper New York state before coming to Canada in about 1829. Soon I will write about the Moads after they settled... Continue Reading →
The Ontario Moads, Part 1
Happy New Year readers! It's been awhile since I last posted, not because I haven't been doing research, I have been, lots of it, I'm just not as good at getting it written down and shared. Since that part is as equally important as the research I'll try to be a bit more consistent posting... Continue Reading →
A photo essay of Frank Morris
My paternal grandfather, Frank Morris, died 44 years ago today (October 11, 1979) at aged 68. He was born May 30, 1911 in Erickson, Manitoba, the fourth eldest out of twelve children born to Dmytro Moroz and Mary Chupka (short for one of these...Ciupchishyn, Cupczshyn, Cipezyszyn or Chupchishyn). A young Frank Morris Katie (Kuderawic) and... Continue Reading →
Remembering Kay Mayor
Today, is the 10th anniversary of my maternal Gramma's death. Born July 13, 1919, Kay Mayor died at age 94 on September 17, 2013. My grandparents, John and Kay, left their farm in Crawford Park, Manitoba in 1972 to settle in the town of Erickson in a prefab house on Railway Avenue overlooking Leda Lake.... Continue Reading →
Cousins: who’s who?
There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins etc., and then there are those that are once removed, 2x removed, 3x removed and so on. I can tell you right now, I will never get these straight. But I thought I'd try an experiment to see if I can work out examples specific to my family... Continue Reading →
God’s Lake Gold Mine
In the Saturday section of the Winnipeg Free Press on July 30, 1955, Joe Gelmón wrote a feature story about a fly-in fishing camp on God's Lake. He began the piece by describing what preceded the camp that was owned and operated by Barney Lamm. "Once Elk Island resounded with the merriment of a mining... Continue Reading →
A Picnic on God’s Lake
For as long as I can remember, my mom has had the photograph below of her parents, Kay and John Mayor, hanging on her wall. They are sitting on a rock up in God's Lake where John was working as a miner. Only recently while going through a box of family photos that my aunt... Continue Reading →