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

One of the joys of growing older is connecting with siblings and sharing family memories.  My two sisters and I meet annually to re-connect, have fun creating works of felt art (at least we think that they are works of art 🙂), and talking about memories of our childhood. One of my works of felt art created at our felting get-together In fact, this is an integral part of our 'felting sisters' week together every year.  This is a fairly new tradition but one that I thoroughly enjoy as the designated family genealogist.  I have spent years working on family trees and trying to find out as much as I can about the lives of our ancestors but I never really thought about recording my and my siblings memories.  After all, I think I remember what happened and, besides, who would be interested anyway?  But I am finally following all of the advice given in genealogy magazines, webinars and blogs about collecting family stories from immediate family.  Last ...

Well, I was going to spend this week, the week of the 75th anniversary of D-Day (June 6, 1944), researching what my relatives experienced on and around D-Day.  It was a lofty goal for just a week of research restricted to evenings after work (while putting in a fairly large vegetable garden!).  So, it didn't go quite as I expected - instead, I got pulled into the compelling story of D-Day.  I did some research into established facts about D-day, looked at timelines and picture, getting a more and more detailed picture of what happened and decisions that were made.  These can and have filled books and scholarly papers about just every aspect of D-Day.  Then I read an article in the Globe and Mail that talked about the 5 best books/films about D-Day.  Top of the list was the movie "The Longest Day".  I found that my local library had Blue Ray copies so went out over my lunch break to pick up a copy.  Not only is this a movie about "The Longest D...

June 6th marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing on the beaches of Normandy, France during WW2.  This upcoming 75th anniversary of D-Day got me wondering what my family who experienced the war, either in fighting or supporting roles, or 'on the home front' experienced that day. I will start with a (very) brief background of this event. The war had been raging in Europe for nearly five years, when the Allied forces embarked on an invasion of the continent that would turn the tide of the war.  This event resulted from years of preparation by the Allied nations to breach the Atlantic front in Europe.  Hitler's forces had advanced rapidly across Europe and the allies were at their lowest period. However, the defeat of the Germans by the Russians on the Eastern Front, and the defeat of Mussolini in Italy, gave renewed hope that the fortunes of the allies could turn.  It was recognised, though, that a coordinated and well thought out effort would be needed to...

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...