Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year and may 2018 be a great year

Some fireworks from early in December on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada. Light Across Canada.

It is to cold to actually go down to Parliament Hill tonight at midnight to see the real fireworks.

As one of my cousins pointed out recently, no matter what happens keep moving forward.
As a matter of fact that is really what the Kip Family motto means. I translates as Never Go Back.



Saturday, December 30, 2017

A brief look at 2017

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.

Friday, December 29, 2017

200 Ancestor Hints (Shaky Leaves at Ancestry)

Have a look at my Wife's post on her blog  English Research from Canada.

200 Ancestor Hints (Shaky Leaves at Ancestry)
http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2017/12/200-ancestor-hints-shaky-leaves-at.html