I have not posted much in 2017 for various reasons.
I am stepping down as Editor of
The Ottawa Genealogist (Journal of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario
Genealogical Society) and as Treasurer of the Branch.
Elizabeth and I were co-treasurers for
the 2017 Conference for the Ontario Genealogical Society which was held in
Ottawa the second weekend in June. That
particular job occupied an enormous amount of our time in 2017. The job did not end with Conference as there
were bills to pay and the books to reconcile. It was early November before we officially
closed the books.
Hopefully I will now have more free time to work on my family lines.
We
had been planning through
the winter and spring for the Folkins Family Reunion in Sussex, New Brunswick. Ed’s 2x great grandmother was Margaret Folkins
and this family has had a continuous reunion for more than 70 years. We attended back in 1993 and decided this
would be the year to go once again. We took our time driving there stopping to
see Grandby Zoo just south of Montreal the first day and then processing across
Quebec into New Brunswick taking a couple of days and finally arriving at
Sussex in time for the Reunion. The
first day was a bus tour of the area which included actually being on the Farm land
where the Folkins family had come just after the Revolution in the United
States. They were United Empire
Loyalists. More than 200 people attended
the Reunion and I enjoyed meeting many of my cousins.
I am on the left with my hand up.
Being in the Maritime Provinces we took the time to visit family on P.E.I.
Leaving
Sussex we traveled to Parlee Beach. Always an interesting adventure as I am also
descended from the Parlee family (John Casey Parlee married Margaret Folkins). We
visited two of the lighthouses on Prince Edward Island, Point Prim and Wood Islands, plus a tour of
Fanningbank, home of the Lieutenant Governor, and All Souls’ Chapel. We have visited Prince Edward Island a number
of times in the past so have seen a good deal of the Island already.
We headed home stopping at Riviere
du Loup where we had a whale watching tour the next day. The day was, unfortunately, cool and foggy but
we did see some whales. It was
interesting just traveling up and down the St Lawrence River. We had never done that before. Home again and our trip had been for 12 days
but we managed it very well.
A few weeks of rest and we were
off again to southwestern Ontario this time to visit with my cousins in Woodstock
and Brantford and to attend the annual Schultz-Kipp Reunion
(Ed’s grandmother was Ida Wilhelmina (Schultz) Kipp whose parents Johann
Friedrich Wilhelm Schultz and Wilhemine Fredericka Johanna Niemann who had
emigrated to Canada from Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Fredericka in 1850 and Wilhelm
in 1866). All of the people at the
Reunion are double second cousins or greater because Ida married William Henry
Kipp and her brother Charles married the daughter of a brother of William Henry
Kipp (Alfred). This Reunion dates back
49 years although we have only attended the last nine years. A bench was installed in the park at Princeton to commemorate the reunion. Plaque: Donated by Schultz-Kipp Reunion 49 Years 2017.
In 2018 we will have a week in
Florida going to Disney World. In the
summer there is a reunion of the Rathbun family on Block Island (off the coast
of Rhode Island). Once again we will try
to attend. Ed’s great grandmother was
Mercy Ann (Rathbun) Link. His 4x great
grandfather William Rathbun, by family lore, was said to have an itchy foot
which took him to southwestern Ontario in the 1830s. It must have stopped itching though as he
stayed on in the Oxford/Brant area for the rest of his life!
Happy New Year to all of my followers and family.
