Week 43 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Cause of Death

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 43

Prompt - Cause of Death

There are a variety of places where one can find the cause of death. Many years ago the newspaper obituaries would often say in their printed obituaries. An example of this is my uncle Wally McLaughlin's Obituary.

The “in lieu of flowers” might shed some idea of how that person died. For example in lieu of flowers please donate to your local cancer group. Lately I find the wording even more vague. Such as Jane Smith died after a lengthy illness or Jane Smith died peacefully in her sleep. Such is the case of dad's older brother, John Peters' (1908 – 1976) Obituary.

Sometimes you find out from published family histories as is the case of my maternal great grandfather who married a Mueller / Miller. David Peters married Katharina Mueller on January 5^th, 1859 in Southern Russia. A Mennonite by the name of Jake Buhler traced back 8 generations of Millers. He wrote an excellent piece on the Miller family history. His third generation discovery of Peter Miller and how he went from Catholic to Martyr Hutterite.

Another source of cause of death can be the family's eulogy. I have a copy of my grandfather's eulogy. That is Andreas Krikau who died in Chicago on December 29, 1946. I may not know specifically how he died but that he had been ill for some time and had operations before he died.

 One other source is by asking a close family member to the diseased. I asked my younger sister about my grandmother's (Mary McLaughlin) decline and final demise. Bonnie wrote a letter to me in 2017 where she discussed the facts as she remembered. She remembers her being well and lucid when she came to visit her newest great granddaughter, Lynn in the hospital - June, 1987. One month later grandma was taken to the hospital due to confusion and suffered a stroke. At this time her speech was gone and one side of her body was limp. Over the next two years Grandma deteriorated and was bedridden needing everything to be done for her. Grandma died August 1, 1989 while waiting for an operation to amputate her gangrenous leg. I did not know or maybe I did not remember that she had a gangrenous leg. Her cause of death was more than stroke! Perhaps Sepsis.

The definitive way to find out the cause of death is by the death registration of which I have both copies of my mother and father's.

My father, Jacob Peters, died September 22, 1983 of Cancer. I remember the day that mom told us he had cancer. I was living in Regina and mom and dad in Saskatoon. Dad had an exploratory operation on March 17^th. She told me that the “luck of the Irish” had run out on him and that it was incurable cancer. It was an all too short time between finding out and when he died. On a death certificate it almost always has the primary cause of death as well as any contributing secondary causes. His immediate cause of death was listed by his doctor as “Secondary Adenocarcinoma”. This means the same type of cancer as the primary cancer but at a different spot. His antecedent causes leading to the immediate cause of death was firstly adenocancer of the liver preceded by adenocancer of the pancreas. The approximate time from onset to death was 1 year for the secondary adenocarcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the liver. For the adenocarcinoma of the pancreas it was 1 1/2 years. It notes that he had the surgery on March 17^th as I mentioned above. What I find strange is that just 6 months before, he was diagnosed by his surgery. So I presume based on the size etc. at the operation he had the cancer for close to a year before he sought out medical help and was diagnosed. I also presume that is why we were told it was cancer of the liver and the first I heard of it being from his pancreas was on the death certificate.

As an aside on perusing his death certificate it lists his address as “422” Witney Ave and should have been “442” Witney. That is a cautionary note that even on legal documents things can be wrong.

My mother. Lydia Vivian Peters nee Sullivan died January 24, 1987. The family use to say she died of a “broken heart”because she never got over dad's passing. We were not too far off on that cause. On her death registration her immediate cause of death was “myocardial infarction” which is commonly known as heart attack. It said it was two weeks from the onset to death. According to my younger sister who was there and witnessed the whole thing, she had a cardiac arrest on January 1^st of which 8 people were working on her to revive her. So in reality it was 3 weeks prior to her death. Her antecedent causes was A.S.H.D. which she had for 15 years. That is “atherosclerotic heart disease” which is the thickening and hardening of the coronary arteries. It is the thing that makes me take my cholesterol pills in order to prevent it.  The doctor listed her Diabetes as a condition adding to the cause but not causing her death.

Cause of death can be found if you do not have the death certificate. Saskatchewan Vital Statistics does not allow you to order a relative's death certificate until 70 years has passed. I found this out trying to get my grandfather, Franz Peters' who died April 16, 1952. Just 3 or so years until I will try again.

Wendy

Week 42 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Conflict

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 42

Prompt – Conflict

DEOXYRIBOSE NUCLEIC ACID

A few weeks ago I attended a genealogy conference in Kelowna. It was there that I bought my Ancestry DNA kit. I actually pre-ordered it for pick up at the conference. The price was too good to pass up in my opinion. It was $80 Canadian as opposed to $129 US dollars and at that point it was the only reason I got one. 

Unopened DNA Kit

In the past few years, DNA testing has become a huge thing in the genealogy world. Ancestry alone has 10 million samples in their database. At the genealogy meetings and of course the conferences there is always classes to attend and learn about its use in one's own research. I have to say that having sat through these classes I don't feel all that much wiser about the subject. I love to say that even though I have a nursing background, I practiced in the era where microscopes were used to look at cells and differentiate their type. Looking inside that cell and nucleus was just coming of age. DNA, chromosomes, nucleic acids, X and Y Chromosomes, mitochondrial chromosomes and genotypes all come together to make us who we are. It may have been out there in microbiology, but certainly not public knowledge.

 But as science tends to do it sweeps you up and carries you forward into the next century..

  Maybe with the help of some gentle reading and easy to understand blogs I might be able to understand this.

 Aside from the steep learning curve needed to understand this new tool in our genealogical toolbox;  there is the privacy and the whole ethical dilemma. Ancestry assures me that my privacy is important to them. They store my DNA and results without a name visibly attached. Ancestry will download the raw results at any time I choose and will even destroy the results and / or the actual sample upon my request. The only time this is not followed is when required by law. As you may of heard in the news lately two murderers were found using DNA from the crime scene and matching to gedcoms in  a public database.  (a GEDCOM is an open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid to genealogical research. Wikipedia) 

 Interesting and not surprising that soon police departments will be adding genetic genealogy departments. I have nothing to hide and thus this does not scare me however maybe my relatives might object for reasons that only they know. None the less, I am pretty much out in the public domain being on Facebook and having two genealogy programs – My Heritage and Ancestry.

I have had the kit for nearly 3 weeks and as of yet have not opened it or given my sample. An internal conflict battles within me trying to sort out if I should follow 10 million others in submitting my DNA. In speaking with some of my fellow genealogists from the DNA Special Interest Group, it is a lot of work once you get the results to put it together and figure it out. That is somewhat daunting because the family trees I am working on now are so much more work that I ever thought possible. In fact my family trees may never be done. I would have to ask myself why would I start something that is even more work with maybe little payback.

My reasons for doing the DNA test is my naive curiosity. Maybe it will tell me that my elusive maternal grandfather that is a dead end in my research is not really of Irish ancestry and I have been looking in the wrong place all along. Wouldn't that be grand?

Wendy

Week 41 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Sports

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 41

Prompt – Sports

Saturday was Hockey Night in Canada. My fondest memories were of those nights. Saturday night supper had to be done so that nothing interrupted the game. My father (Jacob Peters) loved watching hockey. He would lie on his stomach in front of the TV. He would have a pillow below his chest and elbows after all we had hard asphalt type tiles on our floor. In front of him was a bowl of un-shelled peanuts, his coffee and of course his ashtray. How he could eat, smoke and drink his coffee without choking I will never know. He often had to shoo away the cat and dog who would love to stand in front of him blocking his view from the TV. He loved a good hockey game. 

Bill Watching Hockey With My Dad.  Circa 1974. 

As far as I know he never played hockey. In fact on his attestation papers I discovered he played “third baseman in baseball”. I never knew he played ball at all! He loved watching his sons play hockey. I believe this is why he made an ice rink of our entire back yard. From the back porch step to the alleyway and from side to side. It was where I learned to skate all be it in “boy's skates”.

1984 Skating With Jackie at Neighborhood Rink

 How convenient to put on your skates and step outside to skate. And when you were cold go inside to warm up. Boot skating was just as fun though. My brothers got hockey sticks every Christmas and loved playing hockey on our outside rink. They would use my mother's “bluing” to mark the lines in the ice. They would catch holy hell when she caught them. By the way bluing is a compound that women used on their laundry to get their whites extra white and the collars clean. I guess since they hung their clothes outside on the clothes line for all to see it was important to have the cleanest and brightest laundry. As I understand it, bluing was replaced by bleach.

As a further aside; we had a Samoyed dog at this time. He loved to run away since we did not have a fenced in yard. We used a long chain attached from his collar to the clothes line so that he could run up and down the yard. He did not like the ice rink. It was kind of hilarious to watch him try to run on the ice. His four paws went in all directions but forward.

My father bought Bill and I our first color TV. It was a 17 inch portable. They were visiting us at our first Regina home during the hockey playoff games. Of course it was a gift for our anniversary or because we had just bought our home, but we all knew it was so he could watch his beloved hockey game in color.

A little time later on a visit to Vancouver to visit my father's mother (Elisabeth Peters) I discovered that Grandma was a huge hockey fan as well. She would listen to the games on their radio. If you remember she was blind. She was going deaf as well because the radio was always painfully loud when the game was on. Who would have thought she enjoyed hockey? Was hockey a huge thing in her earlier life? I don't know. But how interesting to know that my Grandma Peters and my dad, Jake Peters ( mother and son) shared a common love for the game of hockey. 

Grandma Elisabeth Peters Enjoying The Hockey Game on Her Radio. Notice it on the table to her left.

Wendy

Week 40 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - Ten

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 40

Prompt – Ten

I have decided to give you ten random events that I did not know about my family prior to researching family genealogy.

1. Aaron Peters born 1746 in Pietzckendorf, Prussia. I believe this is in Poland of today somewhere between Lodz and Warsaw. He died January 1, 1802 in Schoenhorst, Chortitza Colony, South Russia. This is the oldest Peters I have found in my search. He is my 3^rd Great Grandfather. He was among the first families that moved from Prussia to Russia in search of a better life living in the Chortitza Colony of Mennonites. I know this because of the meticulous record keeping that Mennonites have. Strangely he died the same day as his 4^th child, Gertrude Peters who was 11 years old.
2. Franz Peters (paternal grandfather) born July 29, 1876 in Plum Coulee, Manitoba. Plum Coulee held town status until January 1, 2015. After that it amalgamated with the Rural Town of Rhineland and the town of Gretna to become Municipality of Rhineland. Plum Coulee is about 100 milometers south of Winnipeg and a half hour from the Canada / U.S. Border. As a matter of interest it is about 25 Kilometers from Morden, Manitoba where his wife to be was born.
3. My maternal great grandparents – Andreas Krikau (born January 20,1879) and Maria Katherine Kraft (born August 27, 1879) had ten children. I always thought there were 7 children until I read his obituary where it says; “ This union was blessed with ten children,three of whom predeceased their father to eternity.” From other trees found on Ancestry and My Heritage sites I have found out that their first child Maria Krikau died at 3 years of age. Their second child, John Krikau died at 3 months of age of pneumonia. Their actual birth dates are unknown. I have not been able, as of yet, to find proof for these discoveries. In fact in the beginning I rejected these trees because they did not match my tree with only 7 children. It was after I received Grandma's documents from my Aunt Phyllis that I discovered a envelope with “ my brother's grave no. in Winnipeg, Manitoba.”  Inside was document from Brookside Cemetery that was issued May 20, 1918 for Williham (sic). One of the unsubstantiated trees states he died of pneumonia at 4 months of age. This is quite possible since the Flu Pandemic occurred at this time.
4. I ordered my mother's ( Lydia Vivian Sullivan) birth registration from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Upon receiving it, I learned many details that I would not have had otherwise. She was born on April 19, 1922 in Winnipeg Grace Hospital and full registered name was “Lydia Sullivan” There was no Vivian in this certificate. She was a female singleton (not a twin) born at 11.48 AM by Dr. Coulter. Her mother Mary Sullivan, was an 18 year old immigrant from Russia. She was married at the time of the birth stating the marriage date as April 11,1921 in Winnipeg. Her 31 year old American - Irish husband was Patrick Sullivan who was living in Stony Mountain Penitentiary at the time of the birth. His occupation is listed as “prisoner”. Strangely they listed his place of birth as Los Angeles, California. This was now the third place listed as Pat Sullivan's place of birth in my searches. Mary put her address as 659 Herbert Avenue in Winnipeg which was her parent's home address. Mary and her child lived at her parent's home.
5. Elisabeth Dueck / Dyck died January 16, 1972 in Vancouver. My parents went to the funeral which was January 21, 1972. I ordered her death registration from British Columbia where I found out among other things that she was a welfare case and the funeral was handled by First Memorial Services Ltd. And was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. With the help and encouragement of my daughter living in Vancouver, we went to the cemetery and found her burial site. It is an unmarked grave. The office staff flagged it for us and I was able to see where she was buried and placed flowers upon her grave site.
6. My grandmothers second husband – Benjamin Franklin McLaughlin was a foundling. This I discovered in the documents from my Aunt Phyllis.  Benjamin was a 3 day old infant left on a doorstep. There is a letter from his half sister explaining the circumstances around being found. Benjamin was found in May 1871 on the doorstep of the Franklin home in Westfield, Huron County, Ontario and her parents ( McLaughlins) were the next door neighbors.  Mr and Mrs Franklin did not want the child so The McLaughlin's decided to take the baby boy in. They named him Benjamin Franklin (after the neighbors where the child was found) and last name McLaughlin. They never registered his birth as it was not necessary to do so at the time. Benjamin's adoptive mother did write in her bible the name and the date of birth as May 23, 1871. The family doctor examined the baby shortly after being found and fixed that day – May 23. Thus on June 8 1939 there was a document taken out to register Benjamin's birth. I figure that Benjamin was about 68 at this time and probably applying for Old Age Security and probably needed proof of age.
7. I ordered my father's attestation papers and his war diaries – actually photocopies. I really had no idea what I ordered and ended up with enough paper to fill two 3 inch binders. It is an interesting read. Attestation papers are an excellent snapshot of the recruit on that day that they enlist. I gleaned a lot of information on my father, Jacob Peters on that day of January 27, 1942 or his enlistment day. Further through discussion with my sister I was able to photocopy my mother's personal diary from the same time and found out that dad was imprisoned for lack of proper registration for the truck he was driving and dad lacked funds to pay the fine. He was presented with a choice of further time in prison or join the army. He chose the army.
8. I have an old album of my great grandparents, Maria and Andreas Krikau that my grandmother, Mary McLaughlin had. Most of the pictures are without names and dates. I believe this is the case of most old photo album pictures from back in the day. I have identified as many of the people as possible but there are many nice photos that are named Unknown and Unknown date. I think this is where all genealogists say they wish they would have paid more attention when they were alive.
9. My great grandparents, David Peters and Katherina Mueller immigrated to Canada in July of 1875. They brought 6 children ages 6 months to 10 years of age and David's mother, Susanna Klassen as her husband had already died in South Russia about 9 years before the immigration. Susanna Peters nee Klassen died and was buried in R.M. Of Rhineland, Manitoba. As of yet I have not found her grave site.
10. My sister had a scrapbook binder of important papers and pictures of mom and dad – Vivian & Jake. I now have it and it has been a great source of information for my family. In it I found the discharge note that my mom was given post delivery of me. I was 9 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long when born. The discharge date was March 29, four days after delivery where I weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces. I'm not clear if I was breastfed or bottle fed because their was a formula prescribed for me and it was 7 ounces of cooled boiled water with 1 1/2 tablespoons of corn syrup. Then as I read this it was added to 14 ounces of  “cow's milk”. I also note that between the age of 3 to 4 weeks I was allowed to have orange juice in a 1 teaspoon of juice to 1 teaspoon of sterile water. No wonder I have a sweet tooth!

These are but a few discoveries. I have so many more left to discover and research. It will never be done.

Wendy

Week 39 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Prompt - On The Farm

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 39

Prompt On The Farm

Gerhard (George) and Helena Heide Nee Peters

Helena Heide's Family

As a young child of 6 to 8 years of age I vividly recall my family visit to my Aunt Helen (my father's older sister) and Uncle George Heide's farm in Pierceland. I was a city slicker born and raised. It was so opposite to the life I knew. Outhouses were terrifying among other things and catalogues were used toilet paper. In hind sight it was quite efficient to provide reading material as toilet paper. It was the first and only time I was on a horse. I was riding bare back with one of the cousins and we fell off before the horse got away. Cats and dogs were not allowed in the house. Roosters really did run around after their heads were chopped off. Moose meat tasted weird. Milk really did come from a cow.

Recently I came across a story written by my Uncle George about the Homestead in Pierceland. It was apparently published in a history book of the area. He tells his and his wife's story about living off the land that was rarely forgiving. Their tenacity to build against all odds while growing their huge family. This rare glimpse into living off the northern lands of Saskatchewan during the depression era and beyond is an awe inspiring story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

“Our story starts in Hague, Saskatchewan where Helen and I were born. My parents refused to learn English, so got a dictionary to translate German to Spanish & decided that we would all learn the language because we were moving to Mexico. I had no desire to move there because I was dating Helen, & therefore we decided to get married on July 1925. That November, three trainloads of Mennonites left for Mexico, but I and my sister stayed behind. We lived in Hague for a few years, where three of our children were born & then moved on to Fielding, Saskatchewan. My family who went to Mexico have all died by this time except, Isaac and Claus, who still live there. My sister who stayed died in Burns Lake BC. When we moved to Fielding, my brother Bernard, wanted to come back so I sent him the ticket & he lived with us for a few years until we moved to Pierceland. When we moved to Fielding we had a hard time because Helen could speak no English and I very little. We had nothing, but luckily I found a job for $45 a month, top wages at the time. We saved our money and bought a team of horses, a wagon & a hay rack and loaded up everything and moved to Pierceland arriving July of 1932. It took us 28 days with 4 small children to get there. When we first got there we thought we had made a huge mistake, it looked like a desert because of a fire that had gone through in 1919. We had no idea how we would make a living but knew we had to try. We had no tent, so I made a dugout, a deep ridge, 9'x10' with a peaked roof of log poles & sod, where we stayed nice and dry until October when our log home was complete. Actually our log home never was finished because the logs were 36'x38' and far to big to finish so we lived in a small corner with a flat roof which if it rained outside 2 days it rained inside another 2 days. Our son John, Born in Cold Lake was the first of our children to call this his first home. This place was not called Pierceland when we first got here, but in the fall of 1932, Joe Hewlett dragged a granary in and called it the Pierceland Post Office. Mail them came by horse delivered by (Frank Norris) from Cold Lake to Pierceland & Beacon Hill. In order to have meat to eat I had to hunt deer and while doing so at one time I found a beautiful patch of blueberries, which we picked and sold to Jack Manderson's store for 3 cents a pound. This bought us flour, sugar, and supplies for the winter. The next year we dug seneca roots & sold then for 3 cent a pound, which makes a pretty skimpy living. Helen remembers a time when we borrowed our friends team of horses & wagon, with a grain box and crossed the Waterhen River and picked cranberries there for a week straight. When we had a box full we sold them to Jack for 2 cents a pound & he was able to sell them to peddlers there who bought the whole lot for 3 cents a pound in spite of the fact that they were so juicy that the juice was dripping so badly that it looked like blood dripping from the box. Pete recalls a time when after a hard time working that they were rewarded with a bottle of orange pop which then sold for 2 for5 cents. In the early years Helen used to carry bread dough 1-1/2 miles to be baked in our nieghbours oven and then home the same distance. When Anne was born we could not afford milk and so she drank tea from a bottle and not milk. We made our own pablum from flour boiled then drip dried and oven baked, with a little sugar this was pablum. We didn't have a garden that first year so I dug potatoes for 2 neighbors, one gave me a bag of turnips and the other a bag of beets. To this day I can not tolerate eating turnips. The mosquitoes and sand flies where so bad that we built a smudge in a pail & put it on the wagon pole in front of the horses, so that they could move their ears and there noses would not get plugged. The horses died of swamp fever shortly after we moved there and after that we either walked of took the dog team wherever we needed to go. Many times when I was away Helen, with 6 children in tow would row or sail across Jeglum Lake then walk to Pierceland for supplies & back home again a distance of 4 miles each way. After Betty was born on the Indian reservation in April we headed for our own homestead & camped 1-1/2 miles away for a month while I cleared a road to our place. Our homestead was a tent that Helen made out of flour sacks, sewed by hand and the floor was spruce boughs and we put plastic over the baby to keep her dry and warm. By this time I had bushed enough for Isaac Unrau, for him to come & plow a patch of 4 acres for our first real garden & a wheat crop. I had also bushed 10 acres for Henry Keller and for that he gave me a cow that was worth $10. This was our first cow, but it had a desire to run home all the time so Helen had to walk over a mile to milk it morning and evening. Over 75 families moved on to homesteads, each having a quarter section. Some of them were, Kellers, Peters, Unraus, and Harders. The first school, Helen, Mary, George and Pete attended, which was 3 miles away. First teacher was P. J. Moynihan. Trapping was the only way to earn money for food & clothing from 1931 to 1937. My trapping line was from Pierceland to Sicup Lake, a distance of eighty miles, which took me 5 days to reach to far cabin, with back packs weighing over 95 pounds of food, and on the way back this would be replaced with furs. I was usually gone for a month then home for 3 days and back again, which we did for 7-1/2 months each winter. In the fall of 1937 and old fisherman, Isaac Unrau, hired me to teach me how to ice fish with the 12 nets that he had. Then we sold the fish to peddlers that came to the lake. One time while trapping I fell through the ice up to my armpits and being all alone and two miles from camp when I got out I started running, by the time I got to the camp my pants where frozen so solid that I could not bend or brake them. In the spring of 1938 we bought out second cow from Mr. Pollock for $10, money from trapping. After helping Corny Unrau cut logs for a new house he in turn helped me cut logs for a new house which was 20'x20' with a new style cottage roof. Both families moved in by the fall of 1938. I donated three acres of land for a new school house, which was ready in a year and five of our children attended that school. In 1938 we had two oxen, Hummy and Mike. On one occasion when I was hauling a load of sand with the oxen, Ann who was about 4 years old fell off the wagon. I hollered for the oxen to stop but the wagon wheel rolled over her back. We immediately took her to the Cold Lake hospital where she stayed for about 10 days, with luckily no broken bones only bruises. In 1938 I traded the oxen for horses which was the best team I ever had, Tiger and Tony. In the fall of 1940 I had my own fishing outfit and I made a deal with Frank Harder to give him half of my fish for eight shallow nets. I was lucky to be able to catch more fish with these old rags than he did with his new ones. I then had enough money to buy new nets and with 12 nets altogether I was now fishing on Pierce Lake and on Cold Lake. In January of 1941 it was too cold for school so they shut it down and we decided to go on a holiday to Saskatoon, with the horses and a caboose heated by a stove, where 10 of us survived all cozy and warm. Saskatoon was our home for about a month and on our way home the caboose caught fire and we lost all our blankets and other stuff, but as luck would have it our neighbors helped out and we got home in April just before Vivian was born. Plus on the way home all eight kids woke up with the measles. In 1942 I started fishing on Primrose Lake with a full outfit. The first year I had no cabin, therefore, Mary George and I slept in a grain box for five days. We fixed up a cabin which needed a half wall, a window and a door. We used this cabin until the Air Force took over the lake. Later I moved and insulated caboose up and stayed in it, which is still there. That same winter I bought one hundred tons of raw fish for which I paid 10 cents a piece, which made a pretty big pile of frozen fish. It was about 40 degrees F. below or colder but about 3 PM that same day a warm chinook came and was flapping the tails of the fish around, so wanting to save the fish I hired some men to help me shovel snow on the pile and lost only 50 pounds. I sure though I had lost the whole pile but was so very lucky. In 1946 we started getting the Family allowance which sure helped our family of thirteen. I bought my first "pony" tractor in 1949 after trapping. Muskrats were five dollars a pelt and I made $5,000.00 in three weeks, using only one horse and a sled. With this it now took me only 10 days to works the trap line which was about one town line of 24 miles. Tragedy struck our family when our son-in-law, Dan Heinrichs, drowned. We were a Sandy Beach on Pierce Lake having a family picnic. There was our family and Helen, our daughter, and her family. Mr. & Mrs. Khol and their daughter, who was playing on an inner tube when she fell off. Helen's husband, Dan, ran to rescue her but they both lost their lives. Dan left behind, besides Helen, two small daughters, Marlene, Darlene and his unborn son.

In the fall of 1949 we built our new house 18'x20', out of lumber. This house had a bedroom upstairs and later on we added two more bedrooms and a kitchen. Also in 1949 George got his Deputy Game Warden's Badge, which he held until 1972, for a total of 23 years. It was also the years that he had his first heart troubles, as he was driving by car to Saskatoon, with Helen, Jake and Mrs. Ernest Lepine. This was time too when Jake ate too many bananas and Helen had her eye operation. In 1950 George legally began acting as a hunting guide. Many of the hunters were Americans, from California, Michigan, the Dakotas, Montana, Atlanta and Georgia, some also haling from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. He usually had 40 or more hunters in a season. In his 23 years of hunting he had only one hunter ever lost, and then only for 24 hours. This was Sid Unrau, a local fellow but his first time in the bush, and one hunter from Battleford, Saskatchwan was lost for 2 hours. I never had any shooting accidents while guiding; after all my preaching on safety and carelessness no one dared to do something dumb. Most of the hunters bagged their game, with several moose dressing over 1,000 pounds Joe Kisch of Saskatoon shot a trophy moose and Mr. Jones of Meadow Lake, Sask., got a moose that dressed over 1,100 pounds, which was also a trophy. George himself shot a moose that dressed around 1,000 pounds in 1949, in the early moose season. George's Partners were, Albert Pahlke, & Ernest Promeau. While setting up camp one year his partners said, how stupid we were to come with no snow and no tracks to follow, They kept this up all evening and I was too angry to say anything. The next morning George told them that they could go which ever way they wanted, but if they went west I would go east. They were just not going in the same direction if they thought that it was sheer stupidity. So they went west and George took of in an easterly direction and out of sight, and started running so that they could not follow him. About a mile east George heard a moose calling, and followed the sound and about an hour later He has his moose. The moose was so big that he thought it might be tough so he cut off a good sized chunk off the hind leg which he took back to camp where the others were waiting. They asked if I had heard any shooting, to which I replied, "No I hadn't heard anyone. They said it could not have been me shooting because it was too fast so he pulled the chuck of meet out of his pack and asked them to cook it to see if it was fit to eat. In 20 minutes it was well done, so since the meat was good he told them to leave their rifles at camp because we had all the meat we needed. We went out and dressed the animal and skidded it back to camp with the horses. The moose was so big that the horses tired out three times while coming to camp. After packing up we camped at Gold Mine Creek for the night where we spread the meat out on sticks to cool as it was really cold in the canyon. When we arrived home the next day we divided the meat but there was more that we could handle, so we let the people in town know. One man in particular, Joe Vanhovard, upon picking up his meat was surprised that it was frozen and asked where my freezer was as it had not frozen in Pierceland. I told him it was the little wooden shed and he was really stumped. Another incident, about 1970. was when George had Harvey Farslow as guide and the hunters were some professors from Saskatoon and a doctor from Norway. Ian Hendersen from Saskatoon and his partner shot a cow and calf one day, so we brought them to camp and dressed them. That night some bears stories were told and low and behold that night some bears dragged the moose hides away. The next morning Ian went about a quarter of a mile into the bush and saw a black object and thinking it was a bear he emptied his .308 automatic into the black spot, then ran back to camp before checking to see what it was that he had shot. At camp he met his partner and wrote a note for me and left it on the table. When Harvey and George got into camp & read the note, Harvey said,"If he shot five shots into the bears chest we may as well wait here." Just then Ian and his partner came back into camp laughing and Ian's partner said, "That bear grew horns into a five point bull moose. Ian looked for his note but since George had put it into his pocket, and Ian not wanting his wife to hear about his bear story, George then gave the note to his partner to give to Ian,s wife. In the early 1930's one of my trips up north to Big Island Lake I spotted a moose rubbing his antlers on a big jackpine, so I shot it with one shot. By the time I got it down to my friend, Louis Pumas, came down from where the moose had chased him and since I thought the moose had more claim on him than I did I gave it to him. Ten days later when I came back Louis had the whole thing sliced and dried and put in a gunny sack, which was the only way he could get it home in one trip on foot. In 1951 Helen, daughter, came home with her new husband, Jake Isaac, and four children. There were 23 people in our house for the winter. Helen, wife was a professional baker by this time and we baked bread every day, 100 pound of flour a week and two big pails of potatoes every day. In 1952 I got my out-fitter,s license and in 1953 Helen and I traveled to Lloydminster to attend the weddings of our two oldest sons, George and Pete. In 1956 the girls came home from British Columbia and tore down the log house. In 1957 a small house was built for Mary and Ike during August before their first son was born, where they lived for a couple of years before moving to Buffalo Narrows, Sask. We then used the house for brooding 200 chicks at a time until it burnt down in 1960 along with the chicks and Ed's Whiskey. We sure had to laugh, because Ed losing all his whiskey made up for us losing all our chicks as the bottles exploded. In 1957 after the three youngest boys helped me earn $350.00 and going to Saskatoon I lost it all to a pickpocket. In 1959 I began mink ranching starting with 60, but due to the fact that I lost so many because of low flying jet planes in the end I lost all the young one year plus 13 old ones that I killed the rest and gave up that business. In 1960 Abe, my brother and his wife from Mexico came to visit us. A few months later out house burnt down as Helen was baking and I in the mink shed saw smoke pouring from the chimney and out from under the roof, as I ran and was only able to save Helen and lost everything else. When the kids got home from school the house was in the cellar. We could not even make coffee. In town I called our sons in Lloydminster, They came that night with blankets and groceries and others donated clothes, groceries, dishes and other necessities. The Eatons Company and the Red Cross also helped us out greatly. It was 1961 when we began building our new house. Poured the cement in the summer and moved in by fall, our first home with a basement. In 1967 our three youngest sons all got married. Mel's in Lloydminster and Jake and Dave's in Saskatoon. I missed Mel's wedding as I was flown to Saskatoon to have a gallstone operation. Lloydminster was the location of our family reunion in 1968, where all our children and their families came except Helen & Mary. Emma the last of our 18 children went to work in Lloyd, then in Saskatoon in the hospital. Helen & I were alone for the first time since 1925. George and Florence moved to Surrey, B.C. in 1969. I acquired a new toboggan in 1970 and on a trip up north it blew a piston 30 miles from Goodsoil. I walked back 23 miles in 2 feet of snow, seven hours by the time I got to my truck and couldn't move my feet enough to drive and could not walk for 2 weeks. 1971 proved what a lucky man I am for I won a battle with cancer of my jaw, where they removed part of the jaw and replaced it with a piece of my rib. Five years later all tests had been negativeS In the spring of 1972 we moved from the farm to the town of Pierceland and we love being close to neighbors and have joined the Seniors Club and met and made many old and new friends. Mel also sold the farm in Barrowman. That fall the boys came home to help me build a 10'x28' extension onto the house. We made a trip to Vancouver the year Helen's mother died at 92 years old and were stranded there for 6 weeks because trains and buses were snowed under and planes were on strike. In 1973 we ended up in Vancouver again when after spending Christmas with Jake and Cheryl then Jack and Kay's for New Years, Then on to Creston, BC. to Mary & Isaac's and then by bus to Vancouver. In 1975 Helen & I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, with 10 of our children coming home, to make this the thrill of our lives, with a repeating of our marriage vows at the United Church in Town and a reception and later on a dance at the Community Hall. As a gift from our family we got our first color television set as well as other things. We are so appreciative of all that was done for us. Helen and I had the opportunity to travel with our daughter Viv and Ed and their family to Mexico in a motor home. We were gone for three weeks and visited with my brothers Isaac and Klaas, whom I had not seen for 50 years, and after seeing how they lived I was doubly glad that I had not gone with them to Mexico, for they were so poor it was worse than living in the 1930's. I was so glad that my family had a better chance to make better lives for themselves. During this trip we also saw, Disneyland, Knots Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, Hollywood, Universal Studio, Las Vegas, and the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, etc. In 1977 I had a bad nosebleed. A blood vessel had broken. Kay and Jack were visiting us and they drove me to Goodsoil. I was taken by ambulance to Saskatoon. The End.”

Wendy