Update On My Life

Some of you realize that I have had weeks where I missed posting an entry. There were days when I was so busy with other things that I would forget to post. And then there were other days when the energy had just disappeared.

This week was a little bit different. It goes without being said that having a long weekend can sometimes throw your daily schedule off for part of the following week. Well, that happened to me this week. I have not been sleeping well lately, but I am hoping that over the next week or two, it will be rectified.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Orofacial Clinic in St John’s. I had been to my dentist in early July as I was having some pain in my gum and it was also swollen. After an x-ray and some poking around, I was informed that it looked like one of my teeth had a fractured root. I was going to be sent to a specialist in St John’s who deals with root canals. It was going to be a six- to eight-month wait to get in to see him.

About a week or two later, I noticed something strange. After the antibiotics were completed, the swelling was gone but there seemed to be a white line in my gum. I didn’t do anything about it then, but within a week, it was starting to break through the gum. I did a quick visit to the dentist and, it turned out that the fractured root had decided that it didn’t want to stay in place and wanted to see the world. It had actually cut through the gum. The visit to the previous specialist was no longer the option. Instead, I was sent to the Orofacial Clinic to have the tooth and root fragments extracted.

This visit happened on Thursday of this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to go and still forgot to take some of the paperwork with me. My husband had to go with me as I was in no condition to be doing any driving on Thursday. We left to arrive in St John’s early enough to go see the Star Trek movie that is currently playing at the show. Then we checked into the Comfort Inn on Airport Drive. I chose this one because it is very close to the clinic. Unfortunately, I did not set my alarm properly and woke up about twenty minutes late. We still made it in time and we got lost along the way.

I was put right under because I made sure that I didn’t get enough sleep so that I would have no problem going to sleep. Apparently, the procedure only took about ten minutes. I was woken up about 9:16. My appointment started at 8:00 am after I filled out the prerequisite paperwork. We were sent on our way by 10 am.

I had a couple of places that I wanted to go to since we were in St John’s. One of them was the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University. I had sent them a list of ships’ records that I wanted to get a copy of. This was our first stop. We had the work done by 11:45. From there, we went to the library of the Newfoundland Family History Society. I asked some pertinent questions regarding cemeteries and found that my best option would be to join the society and I would be able to do what I needed to do to start that particular research at home in comfort.

From there, I had wanted to make a stop at the Family History Library and the St John’s Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see what records they have and a quick trip to Avalon Mall to get the hand soap that I like. I decided that I had done enough and needed to start for home instead. I still hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before and the freezing was coming out and the pain was starting.

We decided to see about filling the prescription for the pain killer and the mouth rinse that were prescribed. We went into a branch of the pharmacy that I deal with in Gander, but I would have had to fill out the paperwork again and didn’t have the insurance information with me, so I decided that I could wait until we got back to Gander.

We tried a restaurant in Paradise but they didn’t have anything that I could eat. We then tried a pub about five minutes away, but they didn’t serve any food. So we drove down the highway about an hour, when I told Gordon that I needed a stop. Within five minutes we came across a gas station with a restaurant called Monty’s Restaurant. They were quite happy to give me what I wanted. I needed soft food and asked for scrambled eggs, with soft toast, and a bowl of seafood chowder. The chowder was fantastic.

I slept most of the way home, but the road is under construction right now and my sleep was not very good. I honestly thought that I didn’t sleep very much, that it was more of a doze. When I went to bed last night, I had trouble going to sleep. The first stop that we did when we reached Gander was to fill my prescriptions, of which I took the first dosage of painkiller when we arrived at home.

Today, I was able to function more normally, and did some of the things that I needed to accomplish today. I am at a point that I think that I will be getting a better night’s sleep tonight.

In a sense, I am happy that I have been able to complete the entries for the trip to Ireland, but now I am betwixt and between what I want to write about now. I will find something soon as soon as my head clears a bit more. I know. I want to rant about having to fill out more forms for the chain of stores where I already frequent one. More of this next time.

Have a good weekend.

Family History Fireside Chat – 7 May 2016

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a Family History Fireside Chat which was sponsored by the Family History Centers of Newfoundland. This was originally planned as a one-day conference but because of lack of preregistrations, it was considered to be unfeasible to continue on as a conference.

As Lesley Anderson was scheduled to fly into St John’s from Ottawa and already had her ticket booked, there was a certain cost that had to be covered whether Lesley came or not. So, the decision was made to have her come and change the venue into a fireside chat. It gave Lesley a chance to tour St John’s and to visit places that she hadn’t been to before.

The committee decided to also ask Yvonne Sorenson from FamilySearch.org to also speak. Yvonne was invited to Skype in from Salt Lake City which is what she did.

There were four locations where you could go to attend the fireside chat. They were the chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook as well as the meeting place for the members in Grand Falls-Windsor/Gander area. Those attending in St John’s, Bay Roberts, and Corner Brook were treated to a potluck dinner. Those attending in Grand Falls-Windsor had light refreshments during the fireside chat. This was because the facility in Grand Falls-Windsor is not big enough to be able to have a meal like the others and then immediately go into the other room for the program.

I am not sure of the attendance in the other locations, but in Grand Falls-Windsor, we had eight people in attendance. It looked like the other locations had approximately 20 to 30 people each. I personally think that, for this area and the fact that this is the first time that we have done this, the fireside chat was a success.

Lesley Anderson was the first speaker and spoke about Ancestry.ca. She explained how to get started on your family history as well as how Ancestry can help you with it. Ancestry has come out with some new initiatives and Lesley explained how they worked.

Yvonne Sorenson then spoke, giving a quick history of Newfoundland, the Atlantic provinces, and the northeastern states and how they related to each other. She then demonstrated what kind of records that are available online with FamilySearch.org and also mentioned some of the records that are available through Ancestry, Find My Past, and My Heritage. Yvonne also touched on the Indexing program and how anyone could index the records through this program. She mentioned that the Indexing program is about to make available some additional options that will be offered.

As we know, there are many records that are not available online as of yet. There are some in archives that may never be online. However, all of the records held in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City will eventually be online. In the meantime, these records are on microfilm that can still be ordered into Family History Centers for viewing. Personally, this is the case that I have, some of my records may be the last records to be digitized and put online. Living in Gander, we are hours away from the closest Family History Center, but, at least there are two here on the island.

This Family History Fireside Chat was an initiative that may have been a way of making the best of things for the conference, but I can see that it can produce good things. We are hoping that we will be able to continue with them, highlighting various organizations here in Newfoundland that hold records and explain how they can help us find and understand our ancestors.

My direct ancestors did not settle here in Newfoundland. My mother’s ancestors went to what is now Lanark County and Huron County in Ontario, and my father’s parents and grandparents left Liverpool and moved to Toronto.

However, there are records pertaining to my great-grandfather here in Newfoundland. This is part of the reason why my husband and I are here. These records are the ships logs for the British Merchant Marines for all the years except those ending in 5. These also have the crews’ lists. I am also thinking that I might be able to find some passenger lists in them as well. I have already made one trip to St John’s but I have more than just my great-grandfather who was a sailor in the Merchant Marine. I have a number of indirect ancestors who were sailors and I want to find their records and be able to tell their stories to my children, my grandchildren, and possibly even my great-grandchildren.

May we work towards finding the records of our ancestors to tell our descendants about these people who came before us. May Heavenly Father help us to find the records, the people and the stories to become the family historians that we need to be. May our ancestors help us by prompting us about where to look for this vital information. May our love for our families, past, present, and future grow to encompass every member from the babies that died so young to the parents and grandparents who guided their children, to the black sheep and the white sheep, the adventurers, the tree-huggers, those that stayed at home, and those that trusted that the future would be all that it could. These are they that come before us and come after us. Let us remember them all as we find them. Everyone deserves to be remembered no matter what they have or have not done.

The Maritime History Archives

One day in early December, I started poking around the internet to see what was available in the way of family history here. There are 2 Family History Centers but they are 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours away from Gander. I started poking around the online holdings for Memorial University and found that they may be holding more that I may be interested in than I originally thought. I managed to find the page that the ships’ logs and crew lists information is on. Unfortunately, they are not digitized. They are also not in the same location as some of the other maritime records. Memorial University has more than 1 archive for storing these records.

Upon finding the page that I need and realizing that if I was to study these records, I would have to go to St John’s and visit the archives. I found the contact information and saw that they were not open on weekends, but have excellent hours the rest of the week excluding holidays. I then called the archive and talked with one of the archivists. We had a delightful chat and I found that I would be able to use my camera to photograph the records that I am interested. At that point, I still thought that it would be spring before I would be going.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we decided to drive to St John’s, spend the night, and drive back the next day. This meant that I could visit the archives as well as doing a couple of other things. I emailed the list of ships that I knew that my great-grandfather, Richard Fielder, had sailed in. I have other ancestors to get information for as well but I thought that I would start with him. They found almost all of the crews lists the next day. They explained that the ship’s logs are normally stored with the crews lists, but all of the ones that I wanted were not there. I just hoped that I would be able to find the information that I was looking for.

We were a little late in starting out. Consequently, we did not arrive at the archives until about 1:30 pm.

When we were arrived, we were treated very well. We were shown to a table where the crews lists were waiting for me. I set up my equipment and started photographing the records. Because of being late, I decided to photograph first and examine them later. I did take a quick look at a couple and found that my great-grandmother’s brother, John Armstrong Peterson, was on a couple of these ships. I also found that the information that I was looking for would be on these records as they also include any discipline that was administered.

My husband was a great help for me. He looked after the records as I completed each set so that I could concentrate on photographing. We managed to complete the “project within a project” before they closed and actually left with time to spare.

I am looking forward to my next trip to the Maritime History Archive. I don’t anticipate this until spring because I have a couple of other trips planned.