Video Interview Alert!!

Yes – it’s time for another video interview! I’m sooooo excited!! The interview with my dad, Grant, was the first one I’ve ever done and now I have another one done. A lot of planning and scheduling goes into setting up and completing the interview but once done, it’s a wonderful feeling of accomplishment for all parties involved.

The next interview will be with my Aunt Ev, also known as Irene “Evelyn” Layton (nee Briggs & previously Murray). She is the middle child and only daughter of Stanley and Irene Briggs.

I’m hoping everyone will get to know and love Ev as much as I do – I mean, she is one of my favourite aunts (along with my Aunt Bea)! She is an amazing lady and a wonderful mother, and raised three loving and caring daughters, my cousins Sandy, Lynda and Donna.

In the meantime, to get prepared for Ev’s interview, I did a short interview with my dad, talking about his sister Evelyn. If anyone knows either of these two, you will know that they have a teasing, fun relationship that occurs a couple of times a year around each of their birthdays!

As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I’m hoping to travel to the United Kingdom in about two to three years with the hopes of trying to verify more information that I have found.

Again, if anyone is interested in going through the Briggs ancestry research with me, I would be ecstatic to have someone beside me discovering more about our family! So please send me a message if you are interested and we’ll get together for a chat. Maybe we can travel together as well!

Enjoy this short interview with my dad, Grant. I can’t wait to post Evelyn’s interview – look for it next week!

Sunday Night Family Dinners

On August 29, 2021September 11, 2021 By Vicky BriggsIn Aug 20212 Comments

It’s Sunday!! Well, for most people that work a standard work week of Monday to Friday, they would not be too happy about that (me included). However, growing up I remember Sunday as being the day we would pile into the station wagon and head over to Grandma’s for Briggs’ family dinners. Although it didn’t happen every Sunday, it did happen quite often.

There are two questions I ask during family member interviews that pretty much brings the same answer: 1) What family traditions have we let lapse that you would like to bring back? and 2) Favourite meal your mother made that would bring back memories if you had it today.

In our family, pretty much every meal we would have at Grandma’s would be roast beef, potatoes and some vegetables (and gravy of course!) apart from Christmas dinner. The other tradition that would happen around birthdays, would be an angel food cake with our favourite candy and/or chocolates in the middle but that’s another blog post for another time!

I know every time I made roast beef, my boys enjoyed it, but I always found it too dry (probably my cooking!). I haven’t made it for a long time. My preferred family meal is pork roast with mashed potatoes (maybe gravy), with a medley of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. It’s always the meal I like for my birthday dinner!

Traditions have become few and rare. My boys and I do get together for dinner mostly on holidays or birthdays. I think it may be something to start doing again at least 2 or 3 times a month.

What are some of your family traditions? Do they include favourite meals?

Also makes me think that it may be time for a Sunday Briggs’ family dinner – who has a house big enough to hold all of us??!!

Grant Briggs

On August 15, 2021September 11, 2021 By Vicky BriggsIn Aug 2021, Grant BriggsLeave a comment

Well, it’s finally here! The first video interview of a living family member, not to mention, the oldest living member of the Briggs family – Grant Briggs (my dad!). Although he is the oldest of our family, at times he does tend to act like the youngest!

While interviewing my dad, it was interesting to see how serious he was at times. While I didn’t remind him this was supposed to be fun, I do have to remember that people are not used to doing interviews so it will take a little coaxing to get them to loosen up. I have to admit, I’m not used to doing interviews as well, it is wayyyyy outside my comfort zone. I’m hoping by doing this, other family members will have an insight into some of their family history and what others were like when they were younger and we didn’t know them then.

The questions I asked were given well ahead of time so Dad had plenty of time to prepare. Although this was his first interview for my blog, I’m hoping there will be more. I will be interviewing one of his siblings next, so keep an eye out for that to be posted. In the meantime, have a listen and get to know him a little more. If you think of any questions you would like to ask him, please make a comment and he would be very happy to answer. Or, the alternative, let me know and I can add it to the next time I chat with him.

Thanks to Dad for starting what I hope is a long list of interviews to come. Enjoy!

Video Interview Announcement!

On August 8, 2021September 11, 2021 By Vicky BriggsIn Aug 2021, Briggs2 Comments

Yes, it has been a while since my last post. In my defence, life has thrown a couple of curveballs making it very difficult to get together to do video interviews. The interviews could have been done by video conference call but what fun is that!

The first person I wanted to interview I was not able to visit in person for over a year. As COVID-19 restrictions in BC were lifted during the past month or so, I decided to plan a visit with my parents in 100 Mile House, BC. Once there, the first of three interviews were done but then 100 Mile House received an evacuation alert. As both my parents are of an age to have concerns with the forest fire situations, concerns were raised. If ordered to evacuate, they would have been told to go North which they did not want to do. So, we packed up within an hour and headed South to safety and less smoke in the air.

I was able to complete the other two interviews before my parents returned to their home (hopefully not to be warned to possibly evacuate again).

Next week, the first of the three interviews with my dad, Grant, will be posted. Grant is the oldest of three to Stanley and Irene Briggs. The other interviews will be posted at a later date. I hope the interview will give everyone a chance to get to know my dad a little bit more than they did before and may help to start conversations or inspire more questions which I’m more than happy to ask in future interviews or call him up and ask him yourself!

In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at the Briggs Family Tree. Below is a snapshot of the Briggs line going back as far as 1583. I have found earlier dates, but they have yet to be confirmed and authenticated. Although some of the dates have not been confirmed, they are pretty close to the majority of the information I was able to find.

As you can see, there are many duplicate names, and some names that are in our family today. I’m still doing research on more information of the family line. As you can imagine, there are a lot of documents to go through to verify the information is accurate and pertains to our line. From Thomas Briggs (1775 – 1840) and onwards, the Briggs’ settled in Canada. Those before, were from England (so far!).

Interesting to note, sometime in the early 1600s, the spelling of the Briggs name changed from Brigge. Historical documents show the Brigge name had descendants as early as 1250 in the Yorkshire area of England. The majority of the descendants found from 1583 to the early 1800s, lived in the Yorkshire area.

As I am able to garner more information and verification of documents, more will be posted on the We Are Family Briggs blog.

As I mentioned in earlier blog posts, I’m hoping to travel to the United Kingdom in about two to three years with the hopes of trying to verify more information that I have found.

Again, if anyone is interested in going through the Briggs ancestry research with me, I would be ecstatic to have someone beside me discovering more about our family! So please let me know if you are interested. Maybe we can travel together as well!

Enjoy and I hope there are some comments regarding the family tree.