Ancestor Hide and Seek

Alexander Cockburn was a 33 year old Royal Navy Warrant Engineer on H.M. Submarine Seahorse when he died in January 1940 near Heligoland Bight, Germany in the North Sea. The Seahorse did not have any credited "hits" and was the first British sub lost to enemy action in WWII, and it seems inconclusive when it was officially lost.  HMS Seahorse (98S) Alexander's father, Robert Tough Cockburn, was a Naval Warrant Officer and a Gunner, whose active service ended in 1903. Alexander's mother, Adelaide Tickner, came from a naval family; her father had served in the English Coast Guard and her brother Rowan, was one of the Chief Naval officers in attendance at the German Navy surrender at Scapa Flow, Orkney in 1919. (Rowan would go on be the Chief Constructor of the Portsmouth Dockyards, then Hong Kong Dockyards, retiring from the Sheerness Dockyards.)  Following in the footsteps of of the men in his family, and those of many men in the Portsmouth area, Alexander enlisted in ...

I may have been a terrier in a previous life. Terriers were originally prized for their ability to dig and get into small holes and burrows to hunt small animals such as moles, badgers, and rabbits. Now those who know me and have heard the profanity that sometimes falls out of my mouth might suggest I was probably a pirate in a previous life, but that is a whole other story. But I do think it's quite possible I spent at least one life as some sort of terrier, bred to pick up a scent and rocket down a rabbit hole after it; mindless of what I’m supposed to be doing, or whether I even know what I’m after. Looking at my family tree one day I noticed I hadn’t tried to look for the parents of Laura Mallory, one of my 4th Great Grandmothers. Available records for early Ontario settlers (Upper Canada at the time) tend to be pretty scarce. So I popped into Ancestry.ca, completely ignoring the 8 browser tabs I already had open for other tree branches-in-progress. After all, why continue w...

                   I have an interesting connection to my Great-great Uncle Tom. Not only am I proud of his service and appreciative of his ultimate sacrifice, I had his hat.  Thomas Humphries Pratt Tickner was born 22 Feb, 1889 in Portsmouth, England. He was my Great-Grampa Charlie's kid brother, and eventually followed Charlie to Canada, arriving in 1909. I haven't been able to find out much about his life in Canada, but am certain he must've stopped in Ontario to visit his brother Charlie and family on his way west. He settled in Edmonton, Alberta and somewhere along the way became a clerk and got married. When he enlisted in Jan 1915, he listed his previous military service on his Attestation papers. I know that when he was a teenager in England, he was what we might today call a cadet with the 6th Hampshires for 3 years. He was also a part of the 19th Alberta Dragoons for 3 years, and then 2 years with the 103 Calgary Ri...

Robert Steele was my uncle, but I don't know if we ever crossed paths, as he died, tragically at age 44, the year I was born. He was my mom's eldest brother, a half brother in fact, which she didn't learn about until she was around 16. That's what happens when you are the youngest of 7 children - everyone just assumes you know things. Either way, I don't get the impression that being half siblings mattered at all. They were one big family. End of story. Bob was a veteran of  WWII. He was a Wireless Air Gunner. Being pretty non-military I had no idea what that means, so I found this interview with a Wireless Air Gunner  Click to see interview with a Wireless Air Gunner Veteran . If the link is broken or you don't have time, the W.A.G. learned morse code, and then learned to shoot from a plane's gun turret. I was surprised so much of the training for RCAF crew occurred in Southern Ontario, near Guelph, St. Catharines and Fingal. Who knew? Since privacy r...

     My grandfather, Walter J Steele served his country for the entirety of Canada’s participation in World War One. Born in the small town of Woodstock, Ontario, he volunteered in response to a recruiting drive, and enlisted in the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces at Valcartier, Quebec on Sep 20, 1914. He was a few months shy of his 20th birthday, although his attestation papers say he was almost 21. As we have his record of birth in 1894, it’s unknown whether he may have thought it sounded better to be a bit older, or if this was a simple administrative error. His occupation prior to joining is listed as Painter. Since our Grandma was the artist in the family, he must’ve been a house painter or something like. He is described as 5’ 3, with dark hair and complexion, and a chest measurement of 33 inches. His only distinguishing mark was a scar on his right hand. Wally was assigned to “A” Battery of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (RCHA), wh...

Everything but a witch. I thought of this idea for a title or theme to write about while lying in bed one morning. I was pretty much avoiding the day, so let the idea twirl around in my head, which in turn churned up some other good ideas. Since I was trying to be intentional about actually writing when I get an idea, as opposed to just writing it in my head and promptly losing track it in the general busy-ness of life, I got up and headed for the computer.   That was about 7:45 on a Sunday morning. Clearly there was something magical about the idea – prophetic even.   By 2:10 that afternoon, I had found a witch.   No kidding. Since I’ve discovered more branches of my family tree firmly planted in colonial America, I find I have a veritable checklist of American historical stereotypes. My tree has pilgrims and Puritans, farmers and founders, lawmakers and soldiers who fought to protect their homes and ways of life, first against the native Americans they too...

It seems appropriate (and a bit meta) to share a post I wrote last year about trying to choose a name for this blog.   In the end I decided to start with a Genealogy themed blog.  Hopefully I'll start another blog sometime soon to write about all the random thoughts that float around in my brain. Consider yourself warned. © Brenda Vouvalidis 2019 April 2, 2018    It was finally time to take the plunge and start an actual blog – I had the time, I had been intentionally writing, so no more excuses. (I know, I’m waaay behind the curve on this).   I started out by doing what I do best-research! I had to find out "how to" and there are loads of good online resources.   Next,  I figured out what platform I wanted to use, and any number of other important details.  With a bit of nervous exhilaration, I felt ready to take the plunge.  But wait! I needed a name to set up the url.   Full stop!  What the heck was I goi...