52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 19 Prompt Newspaper

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 19

Prompt - Newspaper

Newspaper.com

Recently I have subscribed to this site.  It is the largest online archive of newspapers.  The archive has almost 17,000 newspapers.   Some of the newspapers date back to the 1700's.  They apparently add a million pages each month.  You can browse the newspapers by searching country, city and date. Or you can put in keywords and narrow the search by date and country.

It has been the most amazing site and when I can, I browse without an agenda especially those papers from the early 1900's.  They would print anything.   For example I found this news article in The Times from Munster, Indiana dated April 8, 1945.   It was on page 12.   This is my maternal great grandmother, Maria Krikau. 

Or this example of my 1^st cousin once removed (Freddie Krikau).   Again from The Times from Munster, Indiana dated July 3^rd, 1940. 

Of course I decided to search my maternal grandfather.  Remember the one I blog about every once in a while.  The black sheep!.  The man who married my grandmother (Mary Sullivan; nee Krikau) as well as another woman making him a bigamist.  It was a hushed family story.   His life had been wiped out of my grandmother's life quite meticulously.   She never or rarely spoke of him to us.  For some time at the beginning of my genealogical endeavors I had written off this bigamy story as a fairy tale .  Then a few years back I requested my mother's live birth registration and found out that her father, Patrick Sullivan lived in Stony Mountain Penitentiary as a prisoner.   Okay it was not just a family folk lore.  This past week I found this news article in The Winnipeg Tribune dated Monday, April 10, 1922 on page 6. 

Another so called "nail in the coffin" of this hushed family folk story.  The bigamy story is true.  This Patrick Sullivan lived at 609 Herbert Avenue in Winnipeg.  That was the same address as registered on their marriage registration.  By the way that is the address for Mary's parents!  This is my maternal grandfather without a doubt.

The date of this article was April 10, 1922.   My mother, Vivian Peters, nee Sullivan was born on April 19, 1922., just 9 days after Pat Sullivan was charged and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Two different pieces of information prove what at first I did not want to believe.  This means I have more digging to do.  Can I get his court records?  Can I get any information about his stay in Stony Penitentiary?  When did they move to Saskatoon?  When was he released?  If it was a two year sentence and he was incarcerated right away he would be released according to my math; April. 1924.  However here is something to think about.  Patrick and Mary had their second child September 24, 1922 in Saskatoon.  Maybe he was released earlier than the full two year sentence.

This story of my grandfather, Patrick Sullivan, aka  Pat Sullivan,Robert Sullivan, Bob Sullivan, Robert Windsworth Sullivan and Robert Wentworth Sullivan, will continue. 

Circa 1922 - Patrick Sullivan

Wendy

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 18 Prompt - What Was Written

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 18 
Prompt - What Was Written
 

I have had a blog for sometime.  I remember blogging about H1N1 pandemic.  At the time I was working for Alberta Health.  I was a clerk in a child's immunization clinic (not a nurse).  I have decided to re post it as I had written it 10 1/2 years ago!

Monday, November 2, 2009

As I See It On Being Prepared

In my opinion.

In the post 9/11 era, governments came together to encourage all of us to be prepared for that next disaster. Agencies were set up to help sort out the logistics. Companies big and small were asked to put together a plan. Daily adds were placed in various media to ask us if we were prepared? Health Canada even sent out glossy brochures to help us get ourselves prepared.

In the recent past we have been warned about the upcoming and overdue big flu pandemic. It would be a natural disaster of proportions that none of us could imagine. Get prepared.
As an employee of the health region, I have received many emails regarding the upcoming pandemic. Each with a proud assurance that the region is ready and well prepared.

We sat in our watertight ships waiting to float out into the pandemic sea and sail on through to the other side. We were prepared and we were ready.

Patient zero emerged in Mexico. Within weeks it had spread to 23 countries world wide. The good news was that it was at the end of the flu season for the northern hemisphere. There would be a grace period of 6 months and this would be adequate to get the vaccine prepared and ready for mass distribution. The news of H1N1 dwindled to the back pages of the newspapers as the summer blossomed forth in all of its warmth.

September rolled around and our school classrooms became petrie dishes and went into overtime producing Wave Two of the H1N1. Most, but not all, were mild cases. It would be a gentle reminder that we were into the Pandemic Season. It was an excellent time to brush up on ways to prevent the spread of flu. In my own personal opinion, I had a better chance of stopping a full speed freight train than I did the pandemic. The ministers and health officers in government decided to put out as much information as possible. The mass media inundated us with information that at times was incomplete and sometimes contradictory. It oozed through our daily life to a level of confusion not paralleled in the past. As the population looked for clarification that was not coming, they became confused and suspicious of the vaccine. Media showered us in H1N1 and we tuned out. In fact we felt that it was hyped up to the level seen only in a "bunch of hooey".

At this time of confusion and unanswerable questions, our Canadian government had not even rubber stamped the vaccine for use. I could envision the backrooms of the politico playing with semantics trying to put forth this vaccine as safe and yet not wanting to be the one who could be directly blamed. The approval came just a few days before the first vaccinations were rolled out.
At the same time as this the "behind the scenes"; pollsters polled Canada and we found out that less than half of the population would line up for the vaccine. Those in the know, knew that this was not adequate to stem the tide of the pandemic. Health Minister and chief medical officers came forward to urge us to be vaccinated. People with faces pleading to all of us really didn't persuade us to line up for the vaccine. Unfortunately at this time an 13 year old healthy vital hockey player from Ontario came down with H1N1 and died within a few days of it. Parents stood up and took notice. The shock wave was visible. Our chief medical officer jumped onto this shock wave and went in front of the cameras to say something to the effect, that I wouldn't want to be the parent of a child who died of H1N1 when it could have been prevented.
It worked. The mass of un-vaccinated people began to feel the government was not getting the vaccine out fast enough. Fear turned once again to frustration that the vaccine was weeks away and wave two was sweeping the homes, offices and schools of the country now.

Distribution of the vaccine was left to the individual provincial authorities. Most of the provinces decided to start with the high risk group. However Alberta would be different. In all of it's cockiness or maybe ineptitude it opened the doors to all Albertans because after all we had enough for all and we will not turn away anyone.

In Calgary four "Fast Flow" sites were set up in the city. In past we called them mass venues, but in all of their preparedness they wanted to put a positive name to these places. And looking back,it has been anything but fast flowing.

Monday, Day One of the H1N1 vaccination program rolled out. There was much hope in all of us. People were ready. They came and they lined up. They wound themselves around the buildings to wait for 7 hours to get the shot. It was unthinkable. It was unprecedented. It was a mess and people were vocal. In a knee jerk reaction the clinics were left open longer to deal with the first day blues.

On Tuesday,Day Two of the pandemic vaccination preparedness plan, people lined up earlier and stayed longer yet. The Calgarians were angry and for the most part it was directed at the government of the day. Words like "mishandled" and "unprepared" snuck into the crowd's vernacular. Meanwhile in some unknown back room an emergency meeting was put together to come up with the next best plan. Down from the top oozed the newly inspired plan that would get the job done. Seasonal flu vaccines were no longer available because H1N1 was the priority. Further all the well child vaccinations centers were to cancel the next week of appointments and stop making any new ones. These nurses were being deployed to the Fast Flow sites. Also they did decide to open one more site for Calgarians in the high risk group. The new preparedness vision was implemented and it felt good.

Wednesday, Day Three, came and people lined up earlier and stayed longer and unbelievably or is it ironically, the new vaccine site which was set up for those who could not tolerate the long lineups had the longest lineups. Media reporters gleefully reported the agony and anger in the line up. People wanted to put blame and there was no one there to accept it.

Meanwhile in the background the pharmaceutical company assured the government that they were on track and able to deliver their vaccines. That was until the whole adjuvented vs unadjuvented vaccines for the pregnant ladies was debated. At any rate the government advised the pharmaceuticals to stop production of the regular and get the unadjuvented out by the next week. They complied and in its fallout a shortage of regular vaccine sprang forth.

Thursday, Day Four, the media reported the possibility of a shortage of regular H1N1 vaccine. Health officials begged for calm and patience and continued to assure all Albertans who wanted it would get it, maybe not in the first week, but surely by Christmas! Wave two continued to ravage the city as 10% or more of the school population were home ill.

And on Friday,Day Five the lineups lengthened and the tears flowed with anger. The mobs were ready for a lynching and by god they wanted someones head on an H1N1 laden stick.

Saturday, Day six, the lineups began at 3 am or earlier. They came by the busload full. By 0815 they cut the lines to all vaccine sites and that was even before they had opened the doors to start vaccinating for the day.
At the end of that day Alberta's chief medical officer announced that the H1N1 vaccine program was shut down until further notice. I was gobsmacked to say the least. Also the medical officer said that when it did restart it would definitely be only for the high risk individuals and admitted they had not figured out how to implement that.

Six days and six plans. Unbelievable to those of us who were prepared.

Here it is the first day of week two and what do I see? No one is being vaccinated in this province. I surmise that somewhere in the backrooms of the Alberta government the blame game has begun. Blame is useless defence against the H1N1. I really don't care who is to blame, I just want the vaccine. Their ineptitude at delivering the vaccine for this program is appalling. The Albertan government has failed its population.
The Alberta government was NOT prepared for H1N1. It showed in its inability to come up with a sustainable and viable plan to vaccinate their population that lasted longer than 6 days.

Hopefully these past few days has helped them to come up with a working plan to vaccinate the rest of us. And if not, all I can say, may God have mercy on its soul.


WKH


 Wendy