Helen's Genealogy Journeys - Tracing My Ancestors Around the Globe

The average September temperature in Belize is a balmy 29 C with lows dipping to 23 C. Temperatures never varied more than a few degrees during the year.  As her entire war service was in Canada, Nena, for the first time, experienced four distinct seasonal temperatures typical of Canadian weather. She arrived in Toronto in early September to a warm fall, with daytime highs a hot 32 C and lows a refreshing 18 C.  However, by the time she took her oath for the WD-RCAF on October, 20, 1943, fall was well established and the high that day was a cooler 14 C with the nightime low dipping to a chilly 1.7 C.  This trend continued as the season progressed and, by the time she arrived in Paulson, Manitoba, in early December, the temperature never went above freezing with a maximum -2.9 C and minimum -14.8 C that month.  However, Nena reported that she never really felt cold, unlike a friend of hers, also from the Caribbean, who complained of cold hands.  Nena said that ...

Well, I thought that I would check to see how Aunt Nena got up to Canada from Belize to enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces in order 'to serve the empire'.  I thought it was the same way that dad did but, being a good genealogist, I wanted to confirm her travel dates and modes of transport. Dad received his Transfer Certificate (visa) to enter the United States in Belize on Jan 13, 1941.  On Feb 9 th  1941, he left Belize on the ship the S. S. Toloa, a United Fruit Company ship, sailing from Guatemala to New Orleans, arriving on February 13th 1941. He spent about a week with his aunt Mrs. A. White (his mother’s sister) at 6655 General Diaz for about a week.  Then his aunt put him on the Greyhound bus to Canada probably similar to the one in the picture below which was in operation in 1941. The bus took 2 days to reach Canada, stopping along the way in order for the passengers to have a meal.  They entered Canada through the port of entry of Detroit an...

Juanita Anderson WD-RCAF Aunt Nena was a firecracker.  She always had an enthusiasm for travel and adventure.  Her full name was Juanita Maria Anderson but we knew her as Aunt Nena. Before the war broke out, she was a teenager attending high school in New Orleans.  She was 15 years old  when she arrived in New Orleans on August 18, 1939 to start the fall term.  When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939, her  mother (my grandmother Henrietta Maria Orio) brought her back to Belize because she did not know if the estate money that she was receiving from England would be able to reach her in Belize due to the war, money that she would need to pay for Nena's education in New Orleans. Henrietta was a widow at that time with 5 children, one of whom was my father,  Charles "Buster" Anderson.  Although Nena continued her high school education in Belize, she never graduated and was eager to join her older brother (my father) in t...