Over my years of family research, I have come upon many distant relatives. It is always a pleasure to unearth someone you never knew only to find they have some wonderful information you might never have discovered. Sometimes it is a huge breakthrough about a family member, other times it is a photo or a memento. Just recently I was in touch with a cousin out west and we were talking about ancestors. He had recently moved and came across an old book. “Aunt Agnes” or “The Why and the Wherefore of Life” by a Clergyman’s Daughter (Selina Gaye). Inside the cover he found an inscription that read: He realized that the Edith in question, while his great-great aunt was someone I knew more than by name. His great-grandfather was Edith’s brother. Edith was a maiden aunt who remained at home and worked as a dressmaker. She cared for her parents and when they took my mother in as a young child they cared for her as well. My mother was the youngest child of Edith’s youngest brother. Later in life, when Edith’s parents were gone and she was getting on in years she came to live with us. She helped my mother and made all our clothing and cared for us as she had my mother. There was no kinder a person than Edith. She thought always of others before herself. Edith died in 1957, just short of her 85th birthday. I was just a young child at the time. She left very little but memories of her are still strong in my mind. My cousin thought I might appreciate the book. How right he was. I received it in the mail just the other day and I have been looking at it ever since and remembering fond times with Aunt Edie. The book is a bit tired and shows its age much as Edie did as I remember her, but the cover like all old books has a blue cloth covering and is embossed and textured. Just as I remember my aunt. The finishing touch which is only seen when viewed from the side. Gilded pages signifying a treasure. She was that as well. Edie would have been nine years old when she received the book. It would have been a school prize for her reading abilities. It will be a treasured memento for me. Thank you Ron for “Aunt Agnes”, and thank life for my "Aunt Edie" and all the other aunts like her. My next quest is to find out where in Toronto S. S. No 10 York was. I know they lived on Saulter Street, so I imagine it would have been close by Edith McEwan (1872 - 1957)
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Stephanie Bell-Boissonneault"When researching Family never leave a stone unturned, not even a pebble." Archives
July 2023
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