Swift Current

Alan, Doug, Blanche (kneeling), and Kelli

In the early days of our research, we wondered if there were other family around who might have stories to share. One day, we talked about the Smith and Waite homesteads in SW Saskatchewan, and realized there might still be some family there. Dad remembered that Doris Thoreson lived in Swift Current, and we checked the online phone book to discover that there were a couple of Waites in that area as well. We decided to just phone them up and hope for a friendly response. I found the name and number for Doug Waite, and Dad dialed the number. As luck would have it, Doug was there, and welcomed our call.

Don Smith & Doris Thoreson

We found out that Doug's brother Alan lived nearby, and that they stayed in touch with Doris. We were really encouraged by this news, and decided to drive out to visit. Dad talked to Doris as well, and she invited us to come to her place, and said she would invite the others to come and meet us.

The five hour drive was just great. This was our first road trip, and Dad told me many stories along the way. I now wish that I had a voice recorder and that is something I say every time we go on a trip. I suppose that would perhaps stifle the conversation to some extent. We passed through Medicine Hat, and talked about some of the good old times with Lyle and Marg Smith, who had lived there for many years, and had raised their family there.

We arrived at Doris' place in the afternoon, and spent a little time getting acquainted. She had searched through some of her things, and had a few letters from my grandmother, Gladys, to share with us. So comforting to see that handwriting after so many years! We shared some of the results from our research, and took notes about Doris' extended family to add to our tree when we returned home.

Alan Waite was busy, but Doug and Blanche Waite joined us, and told us about their families. They also brought along some wonderful photographs, and encouraged us to take them home to scan them, as their daughter Angela lived nearby me in Calgary, so they said I could just drop them off to her afterward. How exciting to learn that there were more relatives living close to us, and in addition, I learned she was a writer! Her brother still lived near Cabri, and helped to farm the family's land.

Dad took us all out for a nice dinner, and although we had intended to stay overnight at a motel, Doris insisted we stay with her. We rested well, and the next morning we said farewell to Doris and drove to Cabri to Doug and Blanche's lovely home. They clearly treasure the past, as there were many photographs of the homestead and some of the farm implements, and they had a framed copy of the auction from when the Waite family left the homestead in the dirty 30's and moved north. We talked about how sad that must have been for the Waites, as they had worked so hard to build a life there, and like so many others, they had to literally walk away from everything. We have one picture of the wagon train as the family left their home.

Fortunately for us, Doug and Blanche live near to the old homestead, and they know the current owners of the land. We had permission to go onto the land and to poke around the remaining buildings, which were in poor shape, but still standing. How exciting!!

We went for a drive and before going to the land, we visited the Bestville Cemetery and the Verlo Cemetery, where a few family members were buried. First we discovered Mary Belle Waite's grave (died 1918), and then Bella Waite (died 1920). Mary Belle was my grandmother's sister, and had died as a young lady. Family lore says she was the favourite, and that Gladys and brother Lester were not treated as well by their parents, Jack and Mabel. We did not expect to find Joseph Mason Waite (died 1939) or Robert Waite (died 1957). Another surprise was to discover the grave of Mabel's father, John Arnold (died 1924), who was the great-grandson of the infamous Benedict Arnold. We took some pictures and signed the guest book, and hit the road again.

We drove onto the old Waite land, and took our time looking around. I hung on to every word, as the Waites and my Dad talked about how life would have been for the family in those early days. You could see where the old machine shed had been, and there was a small shed still standing. Some old rusty implements were lying around, and we wandered over to the big barn, where the windmill still stood. Near the barn was the base of the ice house, and we guessed at where the house had been. An old rusty bedspring lay abandoned in the field, and we recalled a photo of Grandma Smith (Gladys) sitting on it, so I took a shot of dad in a similar pose. After awhile we decided we'd seen all there was to see., and we went on to Hazlet, where the Smiths had farmed.

 

The Smith land was at the edge of Hazlet. There were no buildings left on that land, but we saw the grove of trees that would have been planted as a windbreak, and imaged how it might have looked in those days.

Thanks!

Today is the first day of our vacation, and at some point along the way, I hope to figure out how to post a comment of my own! Honestly, it seemed so easy to set up the blog and to post a few stories, and now I can't seem to post my own comment as a reply to the kind and encouraging words which have been posted over the past while.

Thanks for your kindness, and know I'll hope to have it sorted sooner than later!!

Kelli

Research and Field Trips

At first it was fairly easy to acquire information. Dad would read out data to me from notes he had compiled, and from charts he had painstakingly written out. From there, we turned to the Mormon family history centre in Calgary and their website, and were often excited to find new data to add to our tree. We were occasionally disappointed to realize the information was not accurate, but for the most part it was encouraging. We joined the Alberta Family Histories Society, and attended a few meetings, and even a convention one year. Who knew there were so many people who were interested in researching their family history?!

We asked others in the family to help us by providing the data for their extended families, and we filled in more gaps. Dad made copies of our tree to pass around to a few in the family, and we hoped others would catch the bug, but as much as people seemed kind of interested, nobody really jumped on the bandwagon. We did connect with a few people in the extended family who had stories and pictures, etc., such as Aunt Marion and Aunt Alice, and that was really great. For me, anyhow, the stories and pictures made the project even more interesting. Dad, being a true engineeer, was happy enough to see the pictures and hear the stories, but he was more interested in the hard facts. Really, he wanted certificates, etc. to be able to prove what we had in our files. The time came to pursue "sources" in a serious way, and I realized that most of what we had in our tree was from what others had told us, and we had not collected the "proof" along the way. Oh dear!!

Now we began to mail away for various certificates, and occasionally we were fortunate enough to receive them. Often, however, we were told that we would not be able to access the information online or by mail, and we would need to visit the county clerk's office, or the archives in the various cities. Seriously? Yes!

Our first "field trip" was to Swift Current, Saskatchewan. We drove there in 2001, and met up with some of the Waite family who still live in the area. I will write a separate blog entry about that soon.

Our second trip was to Ottawa, Ontario, where we stayed for about a week. We worked at the archives and also rented a car to drive around as much of Ontario as we could manage. Again, I will write about that trip in a separate blog entry.

Our third trip was to North Dakota and Minnesota, to research the families who migrated through those states on their way to Saskatchewan. We drove many miles and met many people along the way. I returned to the area around Fargo a few months later with Doug and the boys to tie up a few loose ends, and I would welcome the opportunity to go back someday.

This year (2011), Dad and I plan to go to Philadelphia to find out more about John Smith. We will need the help of a professional, for sure! Plans for that trip are underway, and I will continue to post as we make progress.

Family Names

With a name like Smith, you have to know that it was encouraging to realize we had more unique names in our tree, as it was not easy, and still is very challenging, to deal with the Smith name. We do have many Smiths in our tree, for sure, and it is kind of good fun for me to tease that part of the family about the fact that Smith is quite likely not our/their real name. John Smith, from Switzerland, has been a brick wall from day one, and it is my keen desire to someday find out enough about him to determine what the "real" family name is. Whether he was Johannes Schmid or any other name remains to be proven, but it gives us a significant challenge, and those who know me know that I am quite up to most challenges, so I truly hope we solve this mystery someday soon.

The other names in our tree?

On Dad's Smith side: Waite (or Wait), Sundell (which was Andersson before they came from Sweden), Arnold (you bet, we are the descendants of Benedict's illegitimate son), Peterson, Hay, Mason, and Manhard.

On Mom's Lockerbie side: May, MacHarg, Stevenson, Steele (or Steel), Davidson, Lytle (or Little), Bell, Seaman, and Cameron.

Where did they come from?
Smith -- supposedly Switzerland, and perhaps Germany or Wurtenburg.
Sundell -- Sund, Sweden -- they were named Andersson, but changed their name when they emigrated
Arnold -- England, Connecticut, New Brunswick, Ontario, North Dakota, Saskatchewan
Peterson -- Sweden, Minnesota
Hay -- Scotland, Pennsylvania (Pottsville & Philadelphia)
Waite (Wait) -- Ireland?, Quebec, Ontario, North Dakota, Saskatchewan
Mason -- Ontario, Saskatchewan
Manhard -- Germany? or Holland?, New York, Ontario

Lockerbie -- Scotland, New Jersey, Saskatchewan
May -- Ireland, Ontario
MacHarg -- Scotland, Philadelphia, Saskatchewan
Stevenson -- Scotland, Ontario
Steele (Steel) -- Scotland
Davidson -- Scotland, New York
Lytle (Little) -- County Mayo Ireland, Ontario
Cameron -- Scotland, Ontario
Bell -- Scotland, Ontario
Seaman -- New York, Ontario

In the Beginning ...

Dad started researching our family history in the early 1990's, after he retired. As a gift one year, Doug and I gave him an old computer of ours, and we gave him a software program, Generations, to use to compile his data. That was all good, but Dad was not much of a typist, and it was a little frustrating for him to input the data he had on hand. He asked if I would like to help him with that part, and I agreed. Soon afterward, my son Braedon started preschool, and I would go over to help Dad for a couple of hours each week, typing in whatever he asked me to, and helping to generate reports. I heard many stories about my grandparents and others in the family, and it was great to spend time learning about the "old days" while we worked away.  Little did I know how addicting this work would become! Soon I was hooked, too, and the rest is history ...