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.

New Ross and Dunbrody Famine Ship

New Ross is in County Wexford and is a port that was used during the time of the Great Famine to send emigrants from Ireland to other parts of the world including Canada and the United States. It is my belief that New Ross may also be the same port that my great-great-great-grandfather, John Jackman, came through to board the ship named Ann to sail to Canada to start a new life. I don’t know why he decided to do this but he did.

New Ross has a tourist site that is not usually seen in most Irish ports, a replica of a famine ship. The original ship had the name of Dunbrody and has been replicated well in most respects. I believe that the replica was built in the same shipyard in Quebec as the original ship.

The original ship was built to bring lumber, furs, and other natural resources from Canada to Ireland. As it was going to be sailing back to Canada with no cargo, the Dunbrody was outfitted with bunks and took famine victims with them. The bunks were removable so that they could continue to carry cargo on their way back to Ireland.

There were two types of passengers, passengers who could pay more and have a cabin and passengers who paid less, or whose landlords paid passage for them and looked after their own needs while onboard ship. Once arriving in Quebec, they often had to wait onboard before disembarking at Gross Iles for medical inspections. Most of the emigrant ships did not prepare well for their passengers, some of them running out of fresh drinking water before their turn to disembark their passengers, but the Dunbrody had a couple of captains who were humane and made sure that there was enough water for consumption as well as cleanliness. They had very little loss of passengers and their passengers wrote back to Ireland praising the two captains.

There were also some actors who helped to bring about the vision of what life was like on the famine ship while enroute to Canada. The people portrayed were real people and the program was an interactive presentation. I am sure that I have a better understanding of what happened to the people of that time. I don’t know if any of my ancestors experienced this as most of my Irish ancestors came to Canada in the early 19^th century.

New Ross is a port that is located on the River Barrow and is near the border with County Kilkenny. It is about 20 miles north east of Waterford which is another port. It is about 23 miles west north west of Wexford, the county seat for County Wexford. New Ross is the third largest community in County Wexford. The day that we were there, there was a cool breeze and it did rain while we were visiting the Dunbrody.

New Ross looks as if it is a clean town. We were at the waterfront and did not have much of a chance to see the rest of the town. Once we were finished at the Dunbrody exhibit, we were on our way back to Waterford, for a walking tour, dinner, and a night’s rest.

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.