Showing 48 results

The Bartlett family was based in Plymouth, England. Thomas Bartlett and his wife Florence Emily Fortune had four sons, Alan, Edward, Richard and Jack. Thomas died during the flu epidemic in 1920 and his son Alan died of flu in 1926. During WWI Florence served as a nurse in Plymouth. The remaining Bartlett sons emigrated to Canada with their mother and settled in Ontario. All three sons served during WWII.

Ernest Henry Bartlett enrolled in the navy in England in the 1920s but influenza kept him from serving. Once in Canada he found work on a Great Lakes freighter before illness forced him to resign. He eventually found work as a journalist with the Toronto Telegram from 1924 to 1969, where he was the local expert on naval issues. He became the paper’s travel editor in 1962.

Ernest enlisted as a public relations officer and war correspondent with the Canadian navy in WWII. He filed news reports on the war effort in the Pacific and Atlantic.

On 14 August 1943, the motor torpedo boat that Bartlett was aboard was shelled in the Straits of Messina between Sicily and Calabria. He and his shipmates were captured and sent to a German POW camp in Marlag und Milag Nord. The camp was liberated 2 May 1946.

Jack Fortune Bartlett was also a war correspondent with the Toronto Telegram and the Galt Reporter in Cambridge, ON. During the war, he served with the Highland Light Infantry and was wounded in Holland. He later wrote a history of the Highland Light Infantry.

Richard Lear Bartlett served overseas in the 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment.

The Beer family was established in Ontario by Christopher Beer, a retired commander in the British navy, who was granted several hundred acres of land in Metcalfe Township in the early 1800's. In the early 1900's, Jacob Beer, a descendent of Christopher Beer, lived in Strathroy, Ontario, and had five children: Christopher, Joan, Walter, Vivien and Winlow. Private Walter Beer was a soldier with the 48th Regiment (Highlanders) during World War I and was killed in action in France. Vivien Beer was engaged to Captain James R. Allan, who was also killed in action in France in 1916.

The Gilchrist Family resided in Shanty Bay, Ontario. Henry Gilchrist was the patriarch of the household.

The Lennox family has Northern Irish roots in Simcoe County, Ontario. William James Wilfred (“Wiff”) Lennox (1883-1968) and his wife Fannie Jane Evangeline Watt (1895-1980) both shared a common ancestor, John Lennox (m. Mary Hinds) of Kilrae, Londonderry. John and Mary had been born sometime in the second half of the 18th century. Among their many children, they had two sons: John (1794-1866) and William (1800-1880). Fannie was John’s great-granddaughter and Wilfred was William’s grandson.

Wilfred (“Wiff”) grew up on his father James’ farm in Newton Robinson, Ontario. Wilfred was educated locally and later obtained his Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture degree in 1905 from the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario. Fannie was the daughter of Arven Cruickshanks Watt, the incumbent priest of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Bond Head Ontario. After her father’s death in 1912, Fannie and her family moved to Toronto where she attended Oakwood Collegiate and the Toronto Normal School. She may have taught for a year or two before her marriage in 1916 to Wilfred. She was a full-time homemaker from that time. Wilfred found employment with the Federal Department of Agriculture in the Plant Products Division where he worked until his retirement in 1948. During WWII, he was seconded to the Wartime Prices and Trades Board in Ottawa where he lived during the week.

Fannie and Wiff had three children: William (“Bill”) James Arven (1917-1991); John Watt (1920-1943); and Elizabeth Jane (“Bettie”) (1921-2010). The family’s home was at 9 Duggan Avenue in Toronto. The children attended Brown Public School and North Toronto Collegiate Institute. John was employed during the summers of 1939 and 1940 as a bell boy and later a deck hand on the Great Lakes passenger steamship “Manitoba.” In September 1939 he enrolled, like his father before him, at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. His roommate there was Richard Palmer. During his second year at O.A.C., John met Muriel (“Meem”) Young who had enrolled at the Guelph college for women, the Macdonald Institute, popularly known as Macdonald College. She and John became close and he carried her photograph with him overseas when he later joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. John was a member of the Canadian Officers Training Corps on campus and in spring 1941, after the completion of his final second-year examinations, he travelled to the Manning Pool in Hamilton , Ontario and applied and enlisted in the R.C.A.F. His older brother Bill also joined the R.C.A.F after his marriage in June 1942.

John was a steady letter-writer and kept up a steady correspondence with family, particularly his mother who for the most part appears to have been intended to share her letters from John with the rest of the family. These letters comprise most , though not all, of John’s letters in the fonds. Others – those written to and from Meem Young, and to and from Richard Palmer who was later killed in Burma – have been lost. This flow of communication continued constantly during the war throughout John’s training in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan at bases in Sydney, Nova Scotia; Victoriaville, Québec; Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec; and finally in Moncton, New Brunswick where John received his wings as sergeant pilot. He came home for disembarkation leave just after Christmas 1941 and stayed until just after New Year’s. By early 1942 he was posted to Debert, Nova Scotia and was shipped to the United Kingdom in February. John completed his training in October 1942, but was required to retrain in order to fly what was to him a new kind of aircraft nicknamed “heavies” – enormous Halifax and Wellington bombers. In January 1943 he received his commission as a pilot officer from the King and was thrilled to have received it in the United Kingdom. He was eventually assigned to the 405 Pathfinder Squadron which was designed to illuminate German targets in advance of a bomber assault. He flew a number of missions into Germany as crew member and then in April he assumed, as Pilot Officer, command of his own aircraft and six-member Commonwealth crew.

On the night of May 4/5 on a mission to prepare the way for the bombers on a night raid targeting Dortmund in the Ruhr Valley, Lennox and his crew were fatally disabled over Lingen-am-Ems by a German fighter fire just as they crossed the Dutch-German border. Lennox maintained control of the descending Halifax bomber long enough for five of the crew members to escape by parachute. Those five survived. Lennox and his air gunner Bernard Moody were killed. John Lennox was one month short of his twenty-third birthday. He and his air gunner were initially buried in Lingen-am-Ems. After the end of the war, their bodies were moved to the Reichswald Forest British Military (now Commonwealth) Cemetery near Kleve, Germany, just over the border from Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Robert Lewis, writer, editor and media strategist, grew up in Montreal, Quebec. Upon graduating with an English degree from Loyola College in 1964, Lewis worked as a reporter for The Montreal Star. Lewis soon became a reporter and bureau chief for Time Magazine, covering news in Montreal (1967-1969), Ottawa (1969-1971), Boston (1971-1972), and Toronto (1972-1975). In 1975, Lewis joined Maclean's Ottawa bureau, becoming Maclean's managing editor in 1982, and editor-in-chief from 1993 to the end of 2000. Lewis conceived notable features for the magazine, including the award-winning annual university rankings and honour roll issues, and he led Maclean's into online publishing. Lewis's work has been recognized by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the Society of Magazine Editors, and the National Magazine Awards. In 2001, Lewis joined Rogers Media Incorporated as vice president of content development. Since his retirement in 2008, Lewis has worked as a freelance editor and media consultant. Lewis is a member of York University's Board of Governors and chairs its Community Affairs Committee. Lewis is also a founding member of the Canadian Journalism Foundation and acts as chair of the Board of Directors.

Jose Eduardo Marchant (1927-2012) immigrated to Montreal on September 13, 1972. His life before is almost a complete mystery. Vidozaba Vucadinovich Marchant (1938- )arrived in Montreal in the early 1970s. In Montreal they met each other, married, and had one son, Jean-Pierre Marchant, born in 1975. In the late 1970s, the Marchant family sold their home in Montreal and moved to Calgary in search of economic opportunities. They lived there until the mid-2000s, whereupon the family uprooted and moved again.

Thomas W. and Katherine Shore lived on a farm they owned in Sebringville, Ontario during World War I. They had at least one son, Charles William Shore (b. September 22, 1899) and one daughter, Jennie B. Shore. Misrepresenting his age, Charles W. Shore enlisted in the military in 1916, and was sent overseas to England where he served as a mess orderly in the early stages of the war. His family's efforts to have him discharged on the grounds that he was underage were rebuffed by the war office, although they promised not to send him to France before he turned 19. Shore was eventually sent to France about the time the war ended. In 1920, Jennie married a World War I veteran by the name of Ivan Bradshaw Miles Barr (b. December 31, 1897). After the war, Barr appears to have served with the Kitchener police department, the Customs-Excise Preventive Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), as Night Officer with the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, and as a Flight Sargeant with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Montreal. The family also had a cousin named Andrew Bach.

The Stong Family are farmers of Pennsylvania Deutch descent who farmed lots 24 and 25 of concession 4 of York township, the land upon which the Keele campus of York University is built. The Stong family emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1800. Sylvester (Seward) Stong (1746-1834) and his wife Barbary Bolinger (1769-1863) established a homestead on lot 12, concession 2 in Vaughan township where they raised their family of 7 children.
Their eldest son Daniel Stong (1791-1868) fought in the War of 1812 before he married Elizabeth Fisher (1798-1885), had 8 children and farmed lot 25, concession 4. There they built a two-story log house and two log barns. During the William Lyon Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837, Daniel and his eldest son Jacob sided with the Reformers. Daniel Stong was captured and held prisoner by the government.
Daniel and Elizabeth's eldest son Jacob Stong (1821-1898) married Sarah Snider (1821-1900) and farmed lot 21, concession 4 at Elia. He later bought his fathers' farm in 1854, and in 1860 he built a two-story brick house on lot 25. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1874 and in 1897 he was an original director and judge at the Canadian National Exhibition. Jacob Stong was known as a good judge of livestock and was also a local expert on roofing. He owned the local sawmill and was a member of the Methodist Church. Jacob and Sarah Stong had ten children. Jacob was killed while driving home when he was hit by a fast express train at Downsview crossing.

Samuel Stong (1844-1930) was the eldest son of Jacob and Sarah Stong. He married Christina McNaughton (1847-1914) and farmed lot 24, concession 5, was a notable horse dealer and raised seven children.
Alfred Wellington Stong (1859-1936) was the youngest son of Jacob and Sarah Stong. He married Jennette Elizabeth Jackson (1868-1935) and they lived and raised their five children on the lot 25 homestead.
Oliver Wellington Stong (1897-1993) was the second youngest son of Alfred and Elizabeth Stong. He married Verona Bowes (1904-?) and farmed lot 25, concession 4 until 1952. Their son was Vernon Oliver Stong (1937-2005).
Daniel Stong and Elizabeth Fisher's third son,Joseph Stong (1826-1904) was born on lot 25, concession 4, York Township. He married Elizabeth Snider (1833-1911). Their eldest son Jacob S. Stong (1851-1941) ran a grocery store and butchers on Queen Street East. His sons Ross Stong (1877-1943) and Joseph Perry Stong (1881-1955) would move to Seattle and later Vancouver where they established grocery stores.