Mother’s Day began back in 1908, when a daughter wanted to celebrate and recognize her late mother. What a concept!
Today’s message is simple – I would like to celebrate all the mothers that came before me – one of the main reasons why I’m here today.
Jeannette Gobin
Irene Matthew
Mary Irving
Effie Press
Marguerite Ricard
Stella Hartford
Cynthia Lasher
Elizabeth Barnard
Marie Kervinio
Emma Matthew
Elizabeth J. Dixon
Elizabeth Beevor
Marie Carrière
Martha Tuck
Sarah Mann
Eliza Lord/Loyd
Marie Dacquay
Anne Thomas
Hannah Sharp
Elizabeth Howard
Judith Gauthier
Jane Treloar
Mary Rae
Elizabeth Barker
Adeline Jacques
Sarah Thompson
Susan Copple
Mary Ann Elvin
Marie-Ann Le Roux
Drucilla Bradley
Catherine Messick
Sophia Banham
Marie Philippe
Margaret Hill
Beta Van Alen
Elizabeth Bradfield
Marie-Madel Morin
Sarah Eddy
Elizabeth Constable
Anne Riches
Angélique Girard
Charity Williams
Anna Deterick
Jemima Mear
Marie Emery
Jennifer Martin
Alida Van Alen
Susanna Youngman
Ursule Letourneau
Dorothy Burk
Annatje VanDeusen
Esther Cross
Mathurin Kerhalgand
Sara Byrne
Rebeckah Hotchkiss
Sarah Bullen
Anne Le Dilhuit
Martha Bolter
Elizabeth Dixon
Sarah Archer
Marguerite Hemon
Deborah Tripp
Charity Mallory
Lydia Porter
Yvonne Peuron
Anna Wilheim
Mary Rayson
Elizabeth Pfautz
Mary Waymire
All these women are mothers, and span over five generations in my family tree that have brought me to where I am today. Many of these women lived under very rough conditions, lost children and husbands, and left us way too young. However, without these women before me, I would not be here today.
There are many mothers in my life through extended family and great friends. They are a true support to all mothers around them and especially to me. There are countless women in my family and friends that do not have children. They are equally a very strong support in my life and many others. Whether they are related or not, mothers help mothers – it’s the way of women!
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers in my life today and in the past that have brought me to where I am today. Thank you to all these strong women for continuing to support myself and other women around them.
It’s a balmy spring afternoon, the sun is out, the piano is playing in the background, there’s conversation all around, kids are playing outside in the backyard, maybe collecting apples from the tree, playing tag or maybe even downstairs sliding back and forth on the rec room floor, adult siblings joking around fighting over their favourite cookie that their mother made and a beautiful lady sitting, listening, looking around at all her family gathered in her home for Sunday dinner.
That’s what it was like when we visited my grandma (Irene Stella Hartford Matthew) in her house in Delta on any given Sunday. My grandpa (Stanley Leonard Briggs) passed away at the age of 53 when I was young (6 years old) and I don’t really remember much about him. I don’t really remember having these dinners until I was a bit older.
My family (my dad, mom, brother and I) were living in New Westminster when Grandpa passed away in 1969, not long before my youngest brother was born. It was unexpected after having heart surgery, which was supposed to fix the problem he had, but had a heart attack about four days after the surgery and didn’t make it. Grandpa passed away 56 years ago today.
Grandma came from a large family where she was the youngest of nine while Grandpa was an only child. Grandpa did most of the household finances, shopping, cooking and other household chores as she was not raised to do those kinds of things. Grandma didn’t go to school as she had an illness when she was quite young, and her parents decided she would stay home and be schooled by her father who was a teacher. Her mother passed away when Grandma was only 14 years old, and three of her sisters ended up taking care of her. She married when she was 22 only to be divorced a short five years later. She married my grandfather a couple of years later.
They had three children – Grant Irving (1940), Irene ‘Evelyn’ (1943) and Stanley ‘Richard’ (1944). All three married and curiously enough, each had three children, just like their parents.
After Grandpa passed, my dad moved our family to his parent’s home. My parents took it upon themselves to show Grandma how to take care of her household which included finances, cooking and outside chores. We lived there only a year, but it is something that I remember quite vividly.
Going back to the ‘picture’ above I asked you to try and see, you can imagine the family gatherings at the house with my dad and his brother and sister, fighting over the cookies (my grandma’s famous heavy cakes), their spouses thinking their crazy, and all nine grandkids playing in different areas of the house and outside.
Grandma always made dinner and if it was someone’s birthday, there was always a homemade angel food cake with that person’s favourite icing and goodies in the middle (mine was Smarties!).
The reason I wanted to do a post like this was to ensure those memories remain for me. I know for my siblings and cousins, the Sunday dinners may have some different memories, but I hope this will help to bring some of the wonderful memories back.
Happy memories! Oh, and Happy 65th Birthday to my beautiful cousin, Sandy!
When thinking of an historic event, you may think of the Great Depression, World Wars, Pearl Harbor, Fall of the Berlin Wall or a more recent event, Covid-19.
When I think of historic events, I lean more towards major events in people’s lives. Although the historic events mentioned above can impact many lives, events, either minor or major, can influence someone’s path in life.
So, as you can imagine, there can be many such events in everyone’s life, meaning it would make it difficult to narrow it down to just one.
I’m not going to delve through all my ancestors to try and come up with something but take an easier path and go with an event in my own life. See there, I just altered my path!
There have been many events that have taken place and adjusted my path, impacting not only my life but also those of my own family. There are two major events that have happened in my life that have led me down the path to genealogy.
The first is my cousin Donna’s passing in October 2018, and the second is my dad’s open-heart surgery in November 2019. I won’t go into the specifics of these two occasions; needless to say, they both spoke to me in different ways but in some way became one.
My cousin, Donna, passed from cancer. When she found out what type of cancer she had, she thought it may have been genetic. She was insistent that her family all take tests to find out if they may have the cancer markers for what she herself had. If anyone knows Donna, they will know how pushy she could be when she wanted something, so I’m sure her family did take those tests.
Now, onto my dad, Grant. I know more about this story as I was part of pretty much every event leading up to and after his surgery.
A genetic medical condition, aortic stenosis, resulting in my dad’s open-heart surgery was one of the biggest eye-openers for our family and myself especially. I remember my mom & dad telling me about it and my first question was how we did not know this before. Well, as it turns out, Dad did know about it and he had mentioned it to his doctor quite a while ago. As a result, it was monitored if not regularly but enough to know that when my dad started feeling out of sorts, running out of breath on one of his many walks, he decided to check in with his doctor. This resulted in going to see a heart surgeon who concluded that yes, it was time for the surgery Dad was told he would need eventually. I attended appointments with my parents so I could be another set of ears for understanding everything and assist wherever I can.
Here’s where I started asking Dad questions – how did he know he had this heart condition. Because he was overwhelmed with all that was going on, the discussion didn’t last long. So, I started digging into family history. I wasn’t sure how to do this but started where one would think to start, by doing genealogy.
I started with Ancestry.com, and as what usually happens with most who start, became overwhelmed with all the information coming at me from many sources and not really understanding what to do with it.
It took a lot of research, a quick little course or two, joining a local genealogy society and a lot of questions. The outcome, I was pointed in the right direction and found the information I needed.
It turns out, my dad’s father, Stanley Leonard Briggs, had the same heart condition as indicated in his death certificate.
Registration of Death 1 Stanley Leonard Briggs – ca 1962 2
My grandfather, Stanley, had surgery to replace the aortic valve, however, four days later, he had a heart attack and passed. He was very young, and it was devastating as it was thought the surgery would have helped with the issue of aortic stenosis by replacing the aortic stem valve.
Stanley’s father, Thomas Albert Briggs, did have a heart condition and high blood pressure as shown on the Registration of Death.
Thomas Albert Briggs, ca 1945 3 Registration of Death 4
Thomas’ father, Thomas Lasher Briggs, passed away at 81 years of age. At this time, it is unknown how he passed or of what. Some would naturally assume that it was of a heart attack, especially given his age. I do not have a copy of the death certificate – one item on my list to obtain.
As a result of finding out what Dad had was a genetic condition, my two sons and I were tested, and yes, we all have the same condition. So, we need to get checked periodically so when the time comes, we will need the same surgery my dad and grandfather had.
I’ve also found out that some other family members on my dad’s side have the same condition. They knew about it before I did my research. Since having spoken with my uncle, he was the one that passed on this information. To think we could have known before if only we had thought to speak about it!
An historic event for me is going through a major event in life that causes one to take precautions for what may happen in the future. My sons and I are trying to take better care of ourselves, getting exercise and eating better. We know this will not stop the condition from developing, but it will make us more aware if we are having any effects wherein it would cause the surgery to be needed.
Let’s just say I was very pleased with myself for being able to find out this information. If I hadn’t gotten the genealogy research bug, it may have never been known that it was a genetic issue that our family needed to be made aware of.
Oh, and I love doing this type of research – it is immensely rewarding finding out things about your family’s ancestors that brings light to who we are today.
I’d say that’s an historic event – how about you?
BC Museum Archives, Registration #1969-09-007215, Vital Stat Image 004479284_02037.jpg ↩︎
Whenever I think of sisters, I am reminded of the song, Sisters, from one of my favourite Christmas movies, White Christmas. The first couple of lines of the song reminds me of sisters, Naomi and Manuella Briggs.
“Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.”
Naomi Spencer Briggs, born July 25, 1886, and Manuella Octavia Briggs, born April 6, 1891. They were two of nine children (six boys and three girls) born to Thomas Lasher Briggs and Mary Irving.
Naomi Spencer Briggs, 18861 and Manuella Octavia Briggs, 18932
You ask, what is so interesting about these two sisters? Well, you can say they’re interesting in one aspect (they led a very quiet traditional life of the times), but in other aspects, they were almost like twins!
Here are many similarities:
both born and raised in the family home, Irving House, 302 Royal Avenue, New Westminster
both lived in the family home until it was sold to the City of New Westminster in 1950
both moved and lived together in their next home at 702 – 6th Avenue, New Westminster
both moved and lived together in their next home at 206 St. Patrick Street, New Westminster
both never married or had children
It is not really known what Naomi did with her time, but I have heard from some sources that she was a music teacher; Manuella was a piano teacher until she passed away – both had the musical gene!
both passed away at the age of 86 – Naomi February 12, 1973, Manuella December 19, 1977
both are buried at Fraser Cemetery
Here are a couple of the differences:
Naomi passed away at St. Mary’s Hospital; Manuella at Royal Columbia Hospital
Manuella was the second May Queen of New Westminster in 1904
Looking back through records, it seems they were pretty much together from the day they were born until Naomi passed, and Manuella was on her own until she passed. Talking with other family members that were more in touch with Naomi and Manuella in their later years, one of their nephews, Kingston Jr, had lived with them off and on throughout the years.
I don’t know about you, but if you’ve ever seen the movie, White Christmas, and are familiar with the song, Sister, I can just see them performing that song together – it really speaks to me for some unknown reason – it would’ve been a sight to see!78
Both Naomi and Manuella were very involved in the community, donating a lot of their time, and hosting many events at their homes as indicated in several newspaper articles. This was carried on after their mother, Mary Briggs moved back down to Portland, Oregon.
I would have given anything to having gotten the chance to get to know Naomi and Manuella. They seem like great aunties that would have doted on their nieces and nephews. Plus, I have a little bit of the music bug having taken piano lessons when I was younger.
If you’ve never seen White Christmas, here’s a link to my inspiration for this blog post:
I hope you have enjoyed a little glimpse into my thoughts about Naomi and Manuella Briggs – they seem to be two of a kind – sisters!
The textbook definition of ‘migrate’ is the movement of people away from their usual place of residence to a new place of residence or the movement of a person or people from one country, locality, place of residence, etc., to settle in another.
I believe I would be safe to say that pretty much everyone has ancestors that have migrated from one country to another – they emigrated from one country and immigrated to another.
There are several in our family line that I can choose from as I can honestly say everyone in my paternal line has emigrated from Great Britain. It was difficult to choose just one, so I chose one that is the furthest back whose information I was able to obtain.
Thomas Henry Matthew (3x great-grandfather) – emigrated from Great Britain via Liverpool, England on June 3, 1874, arriving in Canada via Quebec, Quebec on June 18, 1874.
Thomas was born March 13, 1838, in Porthleven, Sithney, Cornwall, England to Thomas and Ann Matthew (née Thomas).
Before leaving their home country, Thomas and Emma had three children – Alfred (my 2x great-grandfather), Sydney and Laura.
In 1871, England census places the family in St Mawes, St Just, Truro, Cornwall. So, we’re going to assume that’s where they travelled from to get to Liverpool (approximately 350 miles) and catch a boat to Canada! We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Let’s back up a bit.
As mentioned, the 1871 England Census places them in St. Mawes which isn’t too far from where they were married in Breage, and where Thomas was born in Porthleven.
In 1874, they made the decision to migrate across the ocean, far from their families, to start a new life in Canada. We can only speculate what their life was like in their home country, but it could not have been an easy decision and would have probably taken a long time to make it. Plus, the cost may have been a huge factor in the amount of time it took to prepare, and then the trip to get to the port where they would ship out. In today’s world, travelling from St. Mawes to Liverpool would take just a little over 6 hours. Factor in three young children (6, 4 & 2), I’m sure you can see how hard it must have been.
Let’s take a moment and take a closer look at the SS Ontario. The ship was built by A. McMillan & Son in Dumbarton, Australia. It was completed in 1874; dimensions were 335.7 x 38.4 ft and weighed (the tonnage) 3,175 gross. The ship was owned and operated by Mississippi and Dominion Steamship Co., and the passage booking was advertised under ‘Dominion Line’. Interesting enough, Thomas and his family may have been on the inaugural Atlantic crossing with passengers of the SS Ontario! The passenger list notes A. French as the master.
The voyage took 15 days with Thomas, Emma and the three children arriving in Quebec, Quebec, Canada, on June 18, 1974.
Passenger List of Ontario arriving in Quebec, Que 1874-06-185
Here’s another interesting fact: Emma was pregnant with their fourth child when they left home – their daughter, Charity Jane (“Jennie”) was born December 30, 1874, in Brighton, Northumberland County, Ontario. What that tells us, the family travelled even more after their sea voyage from Quebec City to Brighton which is approximately 660 miles.
From reviewing the Canada Census records for 1881 and 1891, they stayed in the same area. The 1901 census shows Thomas, Emma, and two of their children (adults) in Victoria, BC. Somewhere between 1891 and 1901, they moved from Ontario to Victoria.
After doing some more research, I was able to find some wonderful information! Tom and Emma did move to Victoria in 1891. I found this information on the Victoria Heritage Foundation website:
1460 Gladstone, Victoria, BC: 1891-1928: Carpenter, joiner and builder Thomas Henry Matthew (1840-1928) and Emma Jane (née Matthew, 1843-1923) were born in Cornwall, England. They married there in 1862 and came to Ontario in the mid-1870s where Tom operated a lumber mill. They moved to Victoria in 1891, bought this property and built the house. Their sons Alfred Henry Poltaire and Sydney Edwin were also carpenters and helped build the house. Alfred became a miller for The Brackman-Ker Milling Co (1004 Catherine St, Vic West). The Matthew daughters all married in this house: Laura Annie worked as a milliner at Spencer’s Arcade until 1897, when she married builder Aaron Parfitt (1421 Grant St, Fernwood). Charity Jane “Jennie” married bricklayer Herbert Knott (1466 Gladstone Av) in 1898. Rosina Georgina “Rose” married music salesman Alfred Huxtable in 1901 (1422 Fernwood Rd, Fernwood). Tom and Emma marked their 60th anniversary in 1922 at their summer home, 296 Beach Dr. Emma was a strong churchwoman, first with Metropolitan Methodist Church and then Belmont Methodist. She was a life member of Sherwood Auxiliary, Women’s Missionary Society. Tom taught the Adult Bible Class for decades.6
As far as I can tell, the house is still standing today – might be a great road trip! Tom and Emma lived in their home until their passings, Emma in 1923 and Tom in 1928.
This is just one story of an ancestor who came from their home in St. Mawes in England to a new home in Victoria, BC, with a couple of stops along the way.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to move from one country to another in 1874 with communication being so difficult having just written letters back and forth, and taking just as long, if not longer, to cross the ocean by ship. In today’s world, moving would be a little easier to manage as communication with family and friends is much more accessible.
Thank you to Thomas Henry Matthew for having the courage to move his family to a foreign country and make their new home.
Charity, Alfred (2x great-grandfather), Emma, Rosena, Lietney, Thomas (2x great-grandfather) & Laura (source unknown)
Source: General Register Office of the United Kingdom↩︎
Source: “England, Devon and Cornwall Marriages, 1660-1912,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGY9-HJSD : 24 April 2019), Thomas Henry Matthew, Bachelor, 22 May 1862; citing Marriage, St Breage, Cornwall, England, the Devon Record Office, Exeter. ↩︎
Recently, I had the pleasure of making a connection with someone who had done a search for a name in my family tree. This ancestor is not in my direct line; however, it is someone that I had put on the back burner to research later due to his involvement in WWI and WWII. My great-grandfather, Thomas Albert Briggs, and three of his brothers were in WWI. There were several cousins that were also in WWI and I will be researching those in the future.
Right now, we’ll take a quick peek at Dr. Tillman Alfred Briggs. He is my 1st cousin, 3x removed. In other words, His father, Alfred Penner Briggs (2nd great granduncle), is my 2x great-grandfather’s (Thomas Lasher Briggs) brother.
Photo Credit – The Canadian Letters & Images Project
Tillman was born June 12, 1886, in Victoria, BC, to Alfred Penner (“Pen”) Briggs and Hazel Evelyn Veronica (“Minna”) Tillman. He was the oldest of five children (two brothers and two sisters). The birth date is noted in the birth registration and death registration, and the year is noted on his headstone. The thing I found amusing is that 1887 is the noted year of birth in his military records specifically the attestation papers – maybe he was nervous?
The 1911 Canada Census lists Tillman as a student at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, where I’m going to assume he became a doctor as the 1921 Canada Census lists his occupation as doctor.
So, what happened between 1911 and 1921 – World War I. Tillman enlisted November 23, 1915, in Victoria. His Attestation notes his occupation as a physician. At the time of enlisting, he was already a part of the military force with the No. 5 Field Ambulance (based out of Quebec) for approximately three years, and a physician/surgeon at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria.
Now back to the connection I mentioned above. Capt Tillman Alfred Briggs was part of 116th Battalion CEF (Cdn Expeditionary Force). Mark Carmichael has a Facebook page called “116th Battalion CEF – The Great War”. He reached out to me through Ancestry asking for information, pictures, stories, etc. on Tillman. Mark had found a diary of Tillman’s starting October 18, 1915, and ending June 21, 1919. I did eventually find it (as he had pointed me in the right direction) on Vancouver Island University’s website under Canadian Letters and Images Project:
Mark is posting Tillman’s diary entries along with some wonderful context and pictures that truly make you feel like you are there. It takes a lot of research and time, and trust me, I know all about that! I urge you to look up his page – the first entry is titled “Finding Gold” on November 22, 2024:
Upon Tillman’s return, he lived at the family home located in Victoria (which to this day is still standing – 154 South Turner Street).
I have not done extensive research on Tillman, however, I have collected a lot of data which I need to sift through and ensure it’s validity.
It appears that Tillman was also involved in WWII (which is probably where the above picture is from as it is noted from around 1940), just haven’t verified the information yet.
Tillman passed April 20, 1958, at the age of 71 of a heart attack in Nanaimo. He was physician/surgeon up to his untimely passing.
There is a lot more to Tillman’s story which will take time to dissect. Having been given the gift of the knowledge of his diary from Mark, and his wonderful stories, I feel I have been challenged to put together Dr. Tillman Briggs’ story before and after his diary entries.
One more tidbit of information to note – Tillman was awarded the Military Medal from King George V in 1919.
I look forward to challenging myself to learn more about Tillman. As well, I look forward to more stories from Mark and his context from the diary entries.
Thank you to Mark Carmichael for bringing Tillman back into the forefront of my research – I look forward to more diary entries and stories!
UPDATE: Mark has created a Substack page to make sharing of Tillman’s diary entries much easier for everyone to access:
This past week was full of surprises – the first being, I need to remind myself to slow down and not rush through the courses. Aced all the assignments, rushed to get the exam completed and did not do as well as I thought I would – surprise!! Don’t rush and take your time to absorb the information. Time to move on and do better with the rest of the courses.
The best surprise of all was seeing my dad, Grant Briggs, for his 85th birthday. He was so happy to see his grandsons (my two boys) and it proved to be the perfect time to take some family photos as my mom had been asking for some updated ones.
I’m proud of my sons for taking the time to travel and see their grandfather for his birthday – they made him very happy (and their grandma, too!!).
Plans for another visit coming soon but, in the meantime, happy 85th birthday to my Dad, and many more – we already have plans to be there for the next one!
This week’s post will be a short one. Challenges in my life have told me to take a breather this weekend and rest as I fight a nasty cold – yuck!
Good news is, there will be a great post for next weekend. My sons and I will be heading up to visit my parents for my dad’s 85th birthday. Photos to come!
Life will become busier over the next little while. I have decided to further my genealogy research passion and obtain my Professional Genealogist certification as a Personal Historian. I did take a course three years ago and found that I enjoyed it. I’ve now signed up for five courses and hope to complete them by summer. It will take a couple of years to complete the full certification (total of 24 courses!). After that, I will then look at specialties with the first being Canadian Records, followed by English Records, and possibly Eastern European Records (maybe Scottish Records as well).
As you can see, there’s a lot of work to do but I am so looking forward to it. My goal is to have all this completed by the time I retire so I have something to keep me busy!
In my spare time, I’ve become quite interested in building Lego! Thanks to my friend, Janice, who gifted me with Lego sunflowers. Since then, my son, Jeremy, has given me a couple of wonderful sets. Slowing down for the time being as I redirect my attentions to my studies. Here’s some of my favourites:
Over the next couple of months, I will be making some visits to family over on the Island, up North and down in the States. I’m going to make some great connections, gather more family stories and just have some fun! It’ll be great fodder for the blog so look forward to some great blog posts over the next little while.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, have a great week and everyone be safe!
This week’s post suggestion is ‘Overlooked’. I had a very tough time trying to find a relative in our family tree that I had overlooked, taken my time researching or just haven’t found.
Something came up on my Facebook newsfeed that caught my eye. It was posted by my cousin, Lynn. Lynn is my 1st cousin 1x removed on my father’s side through his mother. Lynn and I met through my ancestry research. We got together a couple of years ago and just haven’t been able to reconnect since then (not for lack of Lynn’s trying!). She was in my area earlier this month, but again, we were not able to get together. She did reach out to me last May hoping I could meet her father and possibly do an interview for the blog. And, once again, life got in the way.
For this blog post, overlooked to me means not making those connections when you’re given the chance. Unfortunately, Lynn’s father, Richard Dennis Matthew, passed away earlier this month. I regret not taking the time to meet with him. However, I do know that Lynn will keep his memory going with her family ancestry work.
I have been given permission from Lynn to post her father’s obituary:
Richard Dennis Matthew
Born: 26 May 1935 in New Westminster, BC
Died: 05 Jan. 2025 in Surrey, BC
He is survived from his first marriage with Ruth Bedard by daughters Valerie Lynn Carr (John Braak), Deidre J. Matthew and son Darryl W. Matthew. 5 grandsons Adam, Darcee, Travis, Rhyse, Gage.
Margueritte O’Niell, his second wife passed in 1985.
Adella Davis, his third wife passed in 2018. He is survived by stepdaughters Anita Davis and Brenda Holt (John Holt) and grandchildren Laurissa, James, and Evan.
His brother John Matthew and sister Valerie Parks have both passed on. Survived by his brother and sister Jeff and Nola Bedard.
Richard graduated from Duke of Connaught high school in New Westminster in 1954.
He joined the RCAF in 1955 and was stationed in Germany during the cold war, working as a radar technician. It was there he was in a serious car accident that gave in a titanium hip and a painful limp for the rest of his life.
He was stationed in Cold Lake, Trenton and Summerside before retiring as a master corporal.
Richard had a passion for stamp collecting and was a 58 year member of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada. He and his friend Clair could spend hours combing through his collection. He was also an avid watcher of movies and TV series and kept a written record of thousands of shows he watched. We were regularly over for Pizza and Picard on the Sci Fi Channel.
He gave his energy to several charities, most notably the Implant Awareness Society where he and Adella spent countless hour supporting the cause.
Richard passed quietly after a brief residency at the Fleetwood Place care home in Surrey BC.
These are Lynn’s words from her post: “I would also like to add at 89 yrs old, a pacemaker and a titanium hip he did really well.”
Lynn & family, I’m so sorry I didn’t get the chance to meet Richard – my sincerest condolences on losing your father, brother and grandfather. Please remember to keep the stories alive.
For everyone else, remember to take the time to make those connections, gather the stories and make some memories – you never know what could happen.
As I had mentioned in my blog post of December 30th, I’m following the program of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks wherein they provide weekly prompts to give ideas for genealogy writing. This week’s prompt is ‘Nickname’. This was a tough one for me as we do have several nicknames in our family tree but some are difficult to determine why they have those nicknames.
The first one that comes to mind is my great-grandfather, Thomas Albert Briggs. Newspaper articles I have found, use the nicknames ‘Dick’ and ‘Dixie’. Having asked a couple of family members if they knew why, they were just as stymied as myself.
All articles are from Newspapers.com: image numbers 63307641, 775512106, 775779796 (missing one)
Other family members I have found to have nicknames are the following:
Henry Clarendon Briggs: Harry
Beatrice Aileen Matthew: Lena
Stella Hartford: Tilla
Hazel Evelyn Veronica Tillman (wife of Alfred Penner (Pen) Briggs): Minna
Eliza Gregory (wife of John Thomas Herbert Matthew): Lila
Helen Frances Jackson (wife of William Irving Briggs): Nell
Margaret Henry (wife of Albert James Briggs): Mattie
There are several that have a shortened version of their Christian names:
Ernest → Ernie Stanley → Stan Ronald → Ron
We also have some that use their middle names instead of their given first names:
My Aunt Ev whose given first name is Irene after her mother
My Uncle Rich whose given first name is Stanley after his father
And finally, there is me! My given Christian name is Veronica and I go by Vicky – to this day, I’m still not sure how I received that nickname.
Nicknames are a part of every family – some you know why and some you just have to scratch your head.
If you know of others in our family, please let us know – bonus if you know why!
We Are Family Briggs 
.jpg){kind=link}