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| Vivian Peters |
Week Two –
Favorite Photo
Who is your
favorite child? They might as well challenged me to this question.
It was difficult to pick just one photo.
I chose a picture
of my biological maternal grandfather. He is known by many names but
he is what I consider my brick wall that probably got me into this
whole genealogy life.
His name was
rarely mentioned around grandmother McLaughlin . She was named Maria
(Mary) Katherina Krikua and was born June 8, 1903 in Warrenburgh,
Russia and died August 8 1989 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Mary's
family immigrated to Canada in the fall of 1911 where they resided in
Rosthern, Saskatchewan for a few years before moving onto Winnipeg.
Mary was just 18 years old when she married this man. Her family
did not approve.
While I was
growing up he was referred to as Pat Sullivan. My mother called him
by many other descriptive names and the only one that I can probably
share was that “hot headed Irishman”. It was my aunt that pointed
out in those days everyone called men of Irish descent - Pat or
Patty.
Doing my due
diligence I decided to order Mary's wedding certificate from the
Winnipeg Vital Statistics office. It didn't help that Mary was listed
as Krikow and not Krikau. When it arrived I finally had a name for
him. Bob Windsworth Sullivan and he was 29 years old on their
wedding day of April 11, 1921. It states he was born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, USA. I did some mental gymnastics and decided he was
born in 1892. His father was listed as William Sullivan and his
mother was Mathilda Olteri and both of them born in Ireland.
Shouldn't that be enough to get some information of him off the
internet, but alas I came up with very little.
The June 1, 1921
Canada census listed him as Robt. Wentworth Sullivan. The census
says he was 30 and his birth year was circa 1891. I presume his
birthday was somewhere between the wedding and this census. It is
listed that his parents were born in the USA as well as himself. His
year of immigration to Canada was 1912. They also said he was
“chief” (sic) on a dining car. It took me awhile to understand
that this was meant to be chef.
This is where the
plot thickens. Family lore is a funny thing. I never heard this
from my grandmother's mouth but my oldest and youngest sibling recall
snippets of it and it went like this; Bob, Pat, Robert was a chef and
he worked on the railway line that ran between Winnipeg and
Saskatoon. During this time Mary and Pat resettled in Saskatoon
while his work took him back and forth. We understand that Pat
married a second women in Winnipeg – a wife at each end of the
line. He was a bigamist? As I like to say oi vey!!! Apparently
somehow the wives found out about each other and charged him with
bigamy and sent him to jail at Stony Penitentiary in Winnipeg.
I have learned
this truth, if women are scorned, hurt or betrayed by their spouse
their is no wrath equal to it. Plus they take pleasure in erasing
all memorabilia of this person who wronged them. Many years later I
was given Grandmother's important papers. In the box was grandma's
marriage certificate which was ripped up the center not quite
splitting it in two. By the way on this marriage certificate he
listed his name as Robert Windsworth Sullivan.
I spent many a
year looking for divorce and court cases that might prove this family
folk lore true. Thus far I have not been successful and was beginning
to think it was just good old family folk lore even though my aunt
Phyllis (Mary's daughter in law) vehemently disagreed with me and
urged me to continue looking.
This past year I
decided to order my mother's ( Lydia Vivian Peters nee Sullivan)
birth registration. After several months it finally arrived and with
more surprises about her father. My mother was born on April 19,
1922. Her father is listed as Patrick Sullivan and the most startling
thing is his address as written on the registration form. Father's
residence: Stony Mountain Penitentiary. His occupation: prisoner.
He is a 31 year old Irish American who apparently was born in Los
Angeles, Cal. What the heck. Grandmother was living at her parents
place.
The folk lore has
strings of truth. But he was in jail within his first year of
marriage. I have as yet to order any court documents which I think
could possibly shed more light on this man and possibly more
contradictions.
The family folk
lore continues in that he moved on to Kamloops British Columbia where
he remarried and had many more children. As more information became
available on line I continually looked for a death certificate of a
one Robert et aliases Sullivan. In 2011 I found a death certificate
for a Robert Wentworth Sullivan who died in Chilliwack. How many
people have a middle name of Wentworth. I ordered the certificate
and once again I am not ready to say that this is conclusively my
grandfather. His place of death was in the unemployment insurance
office of Chilliwack. He died on November 24, 1952 of
atherosclerotic heart disease. He was a cafe chef and it listed he
had been a chef all his life. He was a married male Canadian
Irishman who was born May 29 1887 in Truro, Nova Scotia. He had only
been in British Columbia for the past 10 years. The informant was his
wife's brother and he knew nothing of his parents.
The photograph
has a note on the back by an unknown author. “Taken at the back of
the Barry Hotel by P.S. baby father on April 14 -1924. She is 1 year
11 months and 25 days old. Dear don't destroy this picture. Save it
for baby to show it to her when she is much older. Barry Hotel
Saskatoon.”
Pat Sullivan has
taken a picture of his daughter, my mother. Vivian has such an impish
pose for her father. The note on the back suggests that Mary was
already unhappy in her marriage by the fact that someone wanted her
too keep the photograph to show Vivian when she was older.
Wendy
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| The Back of the Above Photo |
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| Robert W Sullivan and Maria K Krikau Wedding Day |
