I’ve known for many years that my grandfather Ernest’s brother, Arthur Elvin Burch, left his wife Elizabeth and their young son behind in Winnipeg for parts unknown. He was living with them and his mother- and sister-in-law in 1901, according to the census of that year, but by about 1904-5 was there no longer. A brief note in the Personals column of the Manitoba Morning Free Press  (4 July 1904 p. 5) reads:

“Mrs. Burch left Thursday evening for the east, where she will spend the next year.” 

On her return, she and her son Herbert were listed as boarders on the 1906 Prairie Provinces census. Clearly, something happened around that time to change her circumstances.

My dad met that son, Herbert Burch, during their retirement years in Victoria, BC, eventually overcoming his cousin’s understandable aversion to the Burch family to become good friends. As far as I know, Herbert did not know where or why his father had gone from their lives. Back in Winnipeg, Elizabeth continued her career as a teacher, Herbert grew up and attended the University of Manitoba, becoming an accountant. In 1906 she is listed as married, and in 1911 as widowed.

Some years later, I found a 1910 death record for Great-Uncle Arthur; he died in the Oregon State insane asylum in Salem, Oregon.  That’s a long way from Winnipeg, and although it does provide an explanation for Elizabeth’s “widowed” status, it was a sad end for Arthur. I still didn’t know anything about his intervening years between 1904 and 1910.

But! this week I came across something quite unexpected on Ancestry.ca – the record of a male child born in Portland, Oregon on 26 April 1909 to Arthur Elvin Burch (of Toronto) and his wife (!!) Lonnie Mabel Huls of Kansas. What?!  Further searches revealed a little news article about a marriage in Kansas in September 1906 as well as another, earlier child, sadly a stillborn daughter, in June 1907.  Well, that certainly fills some of the gap! But why Kansas? Why Oregon?

Not only did Arthur marry again without the benefit of a divorce from his Winnipeg wife, but his second wife, young Lonnie, remarried after his death with some haste, only nine months later. Her second husband was William Edgar Smith, a dentist; their 1911 marriage registration in Portland indicates erroneously (or purposely?) that it was a first marriage for both parties – I’m not sure how Lonnie could account for her infant son at that point. In the space for “full maiden name” she entered “Lonnie Burch,” and the newspaper refers to “Miss Lonnie Burch.”  Perhaps it’s understandable that she was economical with the truth of a first husband who died of syphilis in an insane asylum!

Fast forward a few years and we find this family on the 1920 census, William, Lonnie and “their” son Robert E. Smith, now almost eleven years old. In 1930, Lonnie’s mother, 73-year-old Bettie Huls is living with them, as she is in 1940 too. Bettie died before 1950, dentist William in 1958 and Lonnie herself in 1961. 

I’m not yet sure what happened to Robert Burch/Smith, who would be my first cousin once removed, the same as his half-brother, Herbert. I wonder if Lonnie ever told Robert that Dr. Smith, the dentist, was not his biological father? He is mentioned in his step-father’s obituary as “Dr. Robert Smith, Brookings, Ore.,” and I think he died in December 1980. Did Robert have any children? So many questions still, but at least I know how Great-Uncle Arthur spent his last years, living up to the reputation of many a travelling salesman.

Tags: Burch, newspaper, Winnipeg

When I was younger, I thought the table, chairs, buffet and china cabinet in our family’s dining room had always been there and I simply took them for granted. But I later learned they had come to us at some unknown-to-me time and place from a cousin of our dad’s, whom he called “Cousin Sybil.” As I scanned old family photos last year, I spotted interior shots of our various homes, usually taken at family celebrations. Looking carefully at these first two, I noticed that at Christmas dinner in 1952 in Windsor, we were sitting on quite different chairs from those I know now. Then, in 1954, the furniture in the picture is that which is familiar to my sisters and me. The two photos have been taken from opposite ends of the table. So, clearly, this furniture came to our family at that time.

A Christmas card received in 1960 from Cousin Sybil says, in part:

“…imagining you in your beautiful cathedral on the Sunday and in your new home at the dinner table on Monday. How thankful I am that my treasured belongings found a good and worthy home and the story could be repeated over and over again.”

Further research has revealed that Sybil was a first cousin of Ernest Burch, our dad’s father, as her mother, Fanny Thorp and Ernest’s mother, Harriet Thorp, were sisters. (If you’re interested, that makes Sybil my second cousin once removed, or a second cousin three times removed to my grandchildren.)

Sybil never married, but remained in the family home at 31 Oxford Street in Guelph, Ontario, caring for her parents. Ten or so years after her mother’s 1942 death, she downsized and moved into a senior’s residence, Preston Spring Gardens, living there until her own death in 1974. That is how our parents came to own these pieces which had been commissioned in Guelph by Sybil’s father, an architect. The same furniture appears in family photos in each of our homes in Edmonton.

When our parents moved to Victoria in 1976, the first home they lived in did not have room for this set, and I don’t at the moment recall exactly how they solved that problem. I believe they placed the china cabinet in the living room and the buffet in the basement. About a year later, they sold that small house and bought the one on Richmond Avenue, where the dining room once again housed the Guelph suite. The upper section of the buffet was removed to allow for that large round decorative plate to hang above, and Peggy used it for a headboard in her bedroom for many years.

After our Dad’s death in 2003, I brought all the pieces back to Alberta, as part of my share of our parents’ estate. The large dining room on the farm had plenty of room to show these pieces to good advantage, especially after Rob lovingly refinished the “headboard” portion of the sideboard — who knows, maybe it still bore traces of a certain glass of milk once hurled at it!– and reattached it to the heavy base. He always intended to refinish the table, too, as it had suffered some sun damage over the years in Dad’s bright and cheerful dining room, but he only managed to complete one leaf. I filled the china cabinet with treasures old and new, from both sides of our family.

To me, although these pieces are definitely “treasured belongings” as they were to Sybil, they also seemed to be simply old, second or even third-hand used family furniture. I was surprised one day when a visitor to our home asked where we had acquired so many beautiful antiques! Considering that they were probably created in the 1890s, they are indeed exactly that, and I am grateful for the attitude adjustment!

In 2013 it was all on the move again. The dining room furniture has once again returned to Ontario, where it was crafted, and soon after our arrival here, we found an excellent craftsman who refinished the table to its former burnish. It has been the scene of many happy family celebrations at 27 Quinpool since 2013. Long may the tradition continue!

Tags: Burch

Ernest Clarence Burch, circa 1911

I would love to have known my paternal grandfather, Ernest Burch. By all accounts he was a gentle, humourous, brave and loving man. Words used to describe him include “indefatigable worker, gentle and courteous, , spiritually minded” and “one of those rare spirits whose strength in gentleness was a benediction.”

Born February 27, 1881, the youngest surviving son of a large family, he grew up in Toronto, Ontario, but saw something of the world as he travelled to Jamaica for his sister’s wedding, to New York with his brothers, and to Winnipeg as a lay reader, before settling to his theological studies at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.

Ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1907, and married in 1910, he served parishes in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Prince Rupert. However, it was only a few years before multiple sclerosis rendered him blind. Returning to Ontario, he found part time work in several small parishes, where he could  find his way about the church and lead services from memory. Failing health led to his forced retirement in 1917, and he and his family removed to Ottawa to live with his wife Ethel’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. William J. Gerald.

Ernest was bedridden the last eight years of his life; he died 9 June 1925 and is buried in Beechmount Cemetery in Ottawa. My father, who grew up to be very like Ernest in many ways,  was only 14 years old at the time.

Sources:

Ontario birth registration #39618 of 1881, Archives of Ontario;
Ontario marriage registration #5972 of 1910, Archives of Ontario;
Ontario death registration #9458 of 1925, Archives of Ontario;
Various original ecclesiastical licences and other personal papers, privately held by PaperQuilter

Tags: Burch, photo

Edward and Harriet Burch and their family, circa 1886, Toronto, Ontario

This is the picture that started it all for me.

While visiting with my father in the months after my mother’s death, he and I were looking through old photographs. I knew that the little boy in the velvet suit, lying in front of all his older siblings, was my dad’s father, my grandfather, and therefore the parents in the centre must be my great-grandparents. Dad did know their names, but of the others, all he had to say was, “The girl is Eva, she married and went to Nova Scotia.  One of the boys is Harry and one is Fred, but I don’t know which, and I know nothing at all about the others.”

I thought that was terribly sad, that my Dad had all these uncles and didn’t even remember their names! It was understandable, because this family lived in Toronto, Ontario, and both of his paternal grandparents died before he was born. As a small boy, my dad lived with his parents and maternal grandparents in Ottawa, and thus lost touch with his Burch relatives.

I was determined to find out what I could about Edward Burch, his wife Harriet Thorp, and their family of sons and a daughter and to share this with my dad.  I hadn’t a clue where to begin, but everyone is a beginner at some point, and I’m not afraid to ask questions. I like to learn and I like to do research, so I thought I’d start at the National Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa, the next time I visited family there.

The first thing I learned was — bring a pencil! The helpful person at the Genealogy Desk showed me how to find Edward’s family in the index to the 1871 census, and then how to load the relevant microfilm. I scrolled through to the designated page, and the magic began — there they were!  But the only writing implement I had with me was a lip-liner, so, my very first genealogy notations are in smudgy red on a scrap of paper.

I’ve learned a lot about Edward and his family since then, and a lot about using archives, microfilms and genealogy software too. I hope to share Edward’s story and those of many other ancestors with you in these pages.

In the photo left to right are: Charles Edward Burch (seated, 1862-1923), Harry (1870-?), Edwin Walter (1868-1953), Eva Harriet (his twin, 1868-?), Frederick Ashton (1875-1950), Arthur Elvin (1872-1910);  in the centre Harriet Thorp Burch (1846-1898) and Edward (1837-1911), and in front, my grandfather Ernest Clarence, (1881-1925).

Tags: Burch, photo