Vee Von't Zay Anytink about Za Vor!

Yesterday I received two emails from my very distant cousin Nancy (a very distant cousin through the line of Russell Forman of Ontario; we are both descended from the original John Forman). She passed along a wealth of additional information about John Forman's brother Joseph Forman who also came to settle in Ontario. In addition, after some hunting that very day, she was able to give me the lowdown on my grandmother Mabel Nunn's (married to my grandfather James Harris Foreman) lineage. It seems that Mabel Nunn was the daughter of Samuel Nunn and Marilla Misener (I actually did find out the name of Mabel's parents from the 1901, 1906 and 1911 Manitoba census). However, Nancy was able to dig deeper and provided me with an even bigger load of information. So here is how it goes:

My dad, George Foreman is the son of James Harris Foreman and Mabel Alberta Nunn. James Harris is the son of William Foreman and Melinda Harris. William Foreman was the son of John Forman and Margaret Long who came to Ontario from England.

Mabel Nunn was the daughter of Samuel Nunn (b. 1846) and Marilla Misener (b. 1852). Marilla Misener was the daughter of Leonard Misener (b. 1799) and his second wife Sarah Elizabeth Knockout. Unclear of what happened to his first wife. Leonard Misener was the son of John Misener (b. 1774) and Catherine Young. This John Misener's father was also Leonard Misener (b. 1744) and mother Eva B. Bender (not clear of the spelling). Anyway the Miseners were a New Jersey family line.

From the 1906 census it indicates that both Marilla and Samuel Nunn (Mabel's parents) were born in Ontario as well as Mabel. I suppose at some point they must have moved from Ontario and in Manitoba had Mabel's younger brother Benjamin Nunn. There are still Nunns living in and about Manitoba. I am tempted to start calling these people in the phone book just to see if they perhaps are descended somehow from Benjamin who apparently we have lost track of. From looking at the 1911 Manitoba census it appears that both the Nunns and the Foremans lived in the same area in Wheatlands, Manitoba. At this point James Harris Foreman and Mabel Nunn are already married and have the first 3 children. My dad was not born yet for another 2 years.

It seems that there is quite a bit of German heritage in this family background as the Nunns were German, the Miseners were German and the Stivers (from whom my mother is descended) is also of German ancestry. It is only the Formans who specifically can be identified as originating in England. The Wilson line also goes back to the USA, specifically Alexander County of the Chicago area. I am hoping to trace that lineage back as far as I can but I am pretty sure with a name like Wilson it will also go back to England. It is all just very, very interesting. Will keep you posted further.

As in previous posts, I am unable to upload a picture yet again. Not sure why, too big maybe. Anyway I had hoped to post a picture of my grandfather for whom this search started, Charles Henry Wilson. I will sort out the pictures I have and upload them to Flicker so that they are grouped and labelled appropriately. Keep watching.

It's a Good Thing!

Oh what an exciting day today has been. A few weeks ago I sent away to the Province of Manitoba for some records relating to my grandparents' (both sides) marriage registration. I am particularly interested in tracing my roots down the Wilson line. Unfortunately there has been very little information about my grandfather Charlie Wilson. My own mother could not provide me with much valuable information other than to say that her dad worked primarily as a mechanic and was from Chicago, coming up to Canada working on the railroad. I have received some little bits of information from another descendent of the Stiver line (Stever, Stober often name is changed). Previously I received a copy of the wedding notice that was published in the local paper at that time. The notice unfortunately did not provide me any information about my grandfather other than what he wore. Today, after a few weeks, I finally received a copy of the marriage registration. I could barely hold back my glee to find not only the name of my great-grandparent Wilson from Chicago but also..... wait for this...... my grandfather had been married before!!!! The registration indicates that he was a widower at the time of the marriage when he was listed as age 34. My grandmother was listed as age 22 (thus shattering the long held belief that my grandfather was a good 20 years older than my grandmother). It also narrows down a bit what year my grandfather was born. Although the registration does not indicate birth dates, at least we can do the math. Charles Henry Wilson's father is listed as a Harvey Wilson employed as a "sea captain" and born in Chicago; his mother's name is listed as Hannah Williams and also born in Chicago. Exciting stuff huh? Oh and the wedding took place in Elgin, Manitoba on May 24, 1921 and witnessed by the bride's sister Lola Anderson and Lola's husband Victor. The social event took place in Oak River, MB where the couple would reside after the wedding.

The other piece of information that I received was my grandparents marriage registration on my father's side. Although I knew their names, this information also provides the names of the witnesses, one being the bride's brother, Benjamin Nunn of Wheatland and a Lulu Johnston of Brandon. My grandmother's name was Mabel Alberta Nunn and my grandfather James Harris Foreman. They were married on October 31, 1906 (Halloween wedding) inWheatland, Manitoba. Of course I knew the name of his parents, William Foreman and Charlotte Melinda Harris. The Foremans came to Manitoba from Ontario and before that from England. Interestingly, the Foreman name actually was Forman and I discovered this weekend from sifting through internet research that it was William Foreman that altered his last name a bit from Forman to Foreman. One Canada census in the late 1800s indicates that William Foreman has a different last name from the head of the household. Don't know why he did that but there you go - mystery solved!

A third bit of information I received was information on the death of my great-grandfather Marshall Bidwell Stiver. He died March 27, 1919, ten days after seeing the doctor; he died of the spanish influenza. He died at home in Elgin with his wife Eva May Stiver (nee Park) at his bedside. Both Stivers are buried in Elgin cemetery. My grandmother Constance is buried next to them; an Anderson grandchild is buried in front of them. The Andersons (Lola and Vic) are buried not too fary away in the same Elgin cemetery. Just thought you might like this little bit of information. My mother gave us a copy of a picture of her grandmother, who must be Eva May Stiver (nee Park) as my mother did not know her father's mother.

I am having no luck uploading pictures again so will try again later.

Baby James

I was going through pictures yet again this morning and came across a few pictures of James. I promised I would get back and post some so that you could enjoy how cute he was when he was so little. By the time this picture was taken of course our Dad had passed over a year before. Next month it will be 12 years since mom passed. Every year from the time dad died mom would say she didn't have much longer herself (depression/anxiety/schizophrenia/whatever the cause) and ultimately she lived 30 more years!

I haven't much to add to that today. Just thought I would post this. I have lots and lots to do today and blogging (or just the web) can just suck your time away until before you know it is suppertime and you got nothin done. Not to mention I have to spend some quality Baxter playing time as well. I'll have more to add, don't worry.

Happy Birthday James!

August 6, 2006 -- My baby brother's 43rd birthday! As per usual we celebrated with dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory, which is James' favorite place to celebrate. The evening was a bit of a comedy of errors as first the restaurant was busy. My meal turned out not to be very good and Olive's lasagna was dropped by the waiter face down on her place setting. Ultimately though we only had to pay for my meal (I ate half grudgingly); the restaurant didn't charge for Olive's meal which was replaced (after waiting a looong time) and of course James' meal was free being that it was his birthday. The waiting staff brought James his dessert topped with a sparkler and serenaded him with the happy birthday song. Simple things usually turn out to be the best.

I was going to post a picture of James in his younger, childhood days but was too distracted to hunt down a good picture. I'll post something like that later.

Yesterday being Friday and the end of the work week, George and I drove around our fair city. The evening was perfect for walking or doing really anything outside. It was perfect temperature and the city was bustling with activity. This is the ending of Week 1 of Folklorama and a walk arond The Forks after dark was entertaining. Outdoor watering holes at riverside with live music at one spot and competing taped music at another was enough to keep the night air humming. We walked around the site and stared at the sky which was being lit by light beams straight up into the sky as if to form a teepee. Darting in and out of the rays you could catch glimpses of fireflies flitting in and out along with sudden bursts of feathered creatures just catching the beam edge. It was just simply a most peaceful evening. I wish I had brought my camera with me last night; Winnipeg in the summer at night is quite a site, I have to admit. Next time .....

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Planes, trains and.... well just trains

Well I just had to sit down and get back to my blog. I'm sorry for not being so quick to post. My sister (KL's Mum) basically commented that "it was the pot calling the kettle black" in that I was accusing her of not posting very often! So here I am. I received an email regarding some Forman information just today that I found very interesting. There is a very distant cousin in Ontario who contacted me with information about my great great grandfather John Forman who came to Ontario from England back in the 19th century. Nancy is descended from on of John's sons and I am descended from another! Anyway she contacted me and has been providing me with oodles of delicious information. Well today she wrote to tell me about the discovery of a brother of the original John who also came to Ontario (named Joseph Forman) and mentioned that one of the things that he did was to work on the Great Western Railway. Well, didn't I just sell a picture of one of the first locomotives run on the Great West! The writing on the back of the framed photo claimed it was taken in 1862 and had written in pencil the names of some of the men in the photo. From reading what names I could, I figured one of them to be a Forman (and not a foreman if you know what I mean). My sister Irene and I really looked closely at this picture when I first bought it and really felt that the man (4th from the right hand side) looked an awful lot like a Forman member (we both thought he looked an awful lot like my dad). Well I leave this up to you to judge. I have posted the picture (as I have sold the item just recently) as well as a picture of the man mentioned in the picture who I think looks like a Forman (sorry the system could not upload this picture even though it said it did - how frustrating; I'm seriously thinking of changing blog servers). Hopefully you can zoom in and then get a better look. This was the best I could do under the circumstances. Let me know what you think. Have a look at the picture of my dad in a previous post - check out the forehead and eyes - they seem a dead giveaway to me! Write me and let me know what you think or just post a comment.
http://community.webshots.com/album/551561696DTxkBT By the way, this is the link to my sister Irene's photos taken of the Cancer Care Bear she and her friend designed and painted in Gimli, Manitoba in time for the Icelandic Festival this weekend. For those of you who do not know Irene, she is the lady in the hat with the glasses. The comments in the photos were done by her friend. Irene is so talented - man can she draw and paint. If you are near Gimli, don't forget to stop by the Credit Union and look at the ladies art. Fantastic.

Mothers, Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers

I returned safe and sound from my "little" vacation to Brandon, Manitoba. My visit with Uncle Merv and Aunt Georgina "Cookie" Wilson was lovely. Georgina and I drove out on Thursday afternoon after lunch to Newdale, Manitoba to see the tea house and gift boutique. They had an open house this weekend which would allow visitors to enter the proprietor's private home to tour their multitude of crafts such as quilts, pottery, art etcetera. When we arrived at the tea house at 2 PM we were asked if we had a reservation (of course we did not phone ahead) but we were able to sit down right away before a reserved group would be arriving later. I thoroughly enjoyed a pot of peach tea and an absolutely scrumptious saskatoon crisp with vanilla ice cream served in a tall baby blue colored cup! Georgina enjoyed a pot of mixed berry tea and lime tart. We both agreed our choices were delicious. I neglected to take a photo before we finished our snack (Krista could give me pointers for sure on this!). I did however take a picture of the charming yellow character home which entertains as a tea room. I also did get a few ideas for what to do with my silly old wood windows still sitting around from my renovation. If you are ever out this way you can't miss the tea room!

On Friday we took a planned trip out to Killarney, to visit Linda who is an old friend of Merv and Georgina, and whose sister had passed away the week before. She was spending some alone time out at her trailer which was parked for the season at the camp site in Killarney near the lake. On the way to Killarney the plan was to stop in Elgin and visit the cemetery where my grandmother, Merv's mother was buried 53 years ago. Unfortunately when she died in 1953, Merv could only afford the funeral and so a stone was never placed. He was unaware that she was buried next to her parents and, being that he had never met his grandparents, was unaware of their names. I had come across an old picture of my mother standing next to a newly planted grave site and recognized Elgin cemetery from my first visit about 2 years ago. Following detailed review of the picture we surmised the exact location of my grandmother. Merv was so happy to be able to locate his mother's resting place and will start making plans to have a stone placed where it should have been so many years ago. We contacted the person responsible for the cemetery and he was quite happy to accommodate our request to place a stone. As you can see from the picture of myself that we took that day, the cemetery has not changed too much in 53 years except the trees are a bit taller. Thank goodness for old pictures! This was a fruitful day all around. Okay, I'm having trouble uploading pictures today. I have tried 4 times to upload the 53 year old picture with absolutely no luck. I'm getting the message that it is uploaded but.... no way. There has to be a better way to do this so that I can have the effect I want. Frustratin'. One more time... I give up!

Here is a picture of Uncle Mervyn Wilson and his wife Georgina "Cookie" Wilson. He will be 78 years young come October 9th and she is so much younger than her husband being 70. She had a nasty fall this spring and fractured her wrist and ankle but has done so well in pushing herself to get mobilized. Good on ya Cookie! Will add the missing picture on another post (if it works).

Road Trip

Yesterday turned out to be a somewhat sad day. A member of my secular family passed away yesterday from a tragic car accident that occurred a week ago. So sad. If I had known on July 1st when I saw him last I would have given him a warm goodbye... you just are not allowed to know these things in advance. My dilemma now is whether to continue with my planned short trip out of town today... or wait to see when the funeral will be held. Hopefully the funeral will not be sooner than Saturday. I really do want to attend, but also do not want to postpone my plans. Will wait until the office opens to find out any news about the funeral.

I won't be posting anything further until returning from my trip (unless it is postponed). To all of you, take care and God protect you.