Genealogy Chat

My Dad's half sister Violet White married a Canadian serviceman in Hastings, Sussex UK in 1918. named Arthur Ouellette

The whole extended family went to Canada, Ontario in 1920 and when the rest of the family came back to England in 1925, Violet, and her husband stayed in Canada along with her sister Margaret.. I know she had a couple of children and wondered if there was anyway I can search for them.

Her other sister Margaret White who stayed. I have been lucky enough to find her marriage to Walter James Empey. He was 50 and she was 19. This was 19th June 1922. I wondered if any children from this marriage could be found? I found this on Ancestry

Thank you

Linda

Linda, my husband has a Walter James Empey in his tree who was born 24 Sep. 1873 in Quebec. His age matches Margaret's husband. Unfortunately we have no wife for him but we do have a daughter Dorothy Helen Empey.
The family lived in Moulinette, Ontario which is one of our "Lost Villages", flooded when the St. Lawrence Seaway went through in the 50's.
We'll start digging and see if we can find anything about his wife.
Margaret

Do you have this?

019306-22 (Glengarry Co) Walter James EMPEY, 50, Carpenter, Chevail Quebec, Lancaster, s/o Alexander EMPEY (b. NY State) & Cascinda? BROWN; married Margaret Alice WHITE, 19, Sussex - District of St Mary Magdeline - Co of Hastings England, Lancaster, d/o Ernest William WHITE (b. England) & Anne HAMMOND; witn Anne GLASSPOOL & C.A. GLASSPOOL, both Lancaster, 19 Jun 1922, Lancastser

WL1166. EMPEY
Walter James Empey died 19 Nov 1960 age 88 yrs
[Editor's note: obit - Walter James Empey of Long Sault, buried St. Andrew's, Wmsbg. Wife Margaret E White (1904-1986)]

Thanks so much Margaret.

Fancy finding all that info in such a short time.

Seeing my Gran and Grandads names Annie and C.A (Charles Albert) Glasspool is so lovely. As you can see Margaret was a child of my Grans previous marriage William White died aged 33 of TB. It was my Grandads first marriage.

I remember my Dad mentioning Long Sault and can remember as a child seeing an airmail envelope with Long Sault, Ontario, Canada on it.

My Dad lived there for 3 years 1920/23 he was 5 when he went. He told me he could remember the ship and used to go to school on a horse drawn sledge, he also mentioned being 'on the banks of the St. Lawrence River' would that be right? Excuse my ignorance of Canadian geography

They only came back because my Grandad was in bad health and couldn't stand the cold winters.

Mind you lived till he was 86

Hope to hear from you soon

Linda

So it is the right family, Linda. How wonderful!
I think your dad's memories might be of Lancaster, Ontario which is a little village to the east of where I live in Cornwall. It's also on the banks of the St. Lawrence and that's where the Glasspools were living at the time of Margaret's marriage.
The Empeys must have moved to Moulinette, the lost village, later. I know they were living there in 1929.
Long Sault was a new townsite created in the 50's for the families who were moved because of the flooding. A lot of the houses were moved there from the Lost Villages.
I'm hoping to dig up some more so don't remove your thread or I'll never find you.
Margaret

No fears Margaret I'll leave my thread right here. I am just going to phone my Dad's sister who was a Glasspool and is still going strong at 91.

Unfortunately she is a little past giving info. but I know she will be very pleased to hear all this and you never know it might nudge her into remembering a bit more

Linda

Do you know anything about Arthur Ouellette? Was he from this area too? There are a lot of Ouellettes around here.
Margaret

Don't know anything about him at all.

I know he married Violet in Hastings and then ended up starting a business in Canada with Grandad when they all went over. I expect he was instrumental in the move. Although I have never found Violet or Arthur on any ships passenger lists. Found Gran and Grandad with the children but not them.

Was thinking of getting their marriage cert, then hopefully I would have his fathers name and his age.

Linda

I went to the library today to look through the newspaper archives. Not much there. I found this:

Cornwall Standard, Jan. 29, 1922
Lancaster, Ontario
Marriages.
On Wedneday evening of last week, Mr. Walter Empey and Miss Margaret White, both of this place, were united in marriage at Knox Manse by the Reverand Dr. Sutherland. Their wedding trip took the form of a motor tour.

And I found the obit for Walter where it says he was the father of Mrs. Albert Sayeau (Dorothy) of Cornwall. Does that name ring a bell?
Margaret

Sayeau was a name in my Mum's address book. I found it after she had died I thought it must be Margarets daughter. I did write but got no reply.

Sorry I had forgotten that till you asked,

I wonder why Walter suddenly decided to marry at 50 years old it says he is a batchelor on the wedding cert.

I was researching a Canadian serviceman who married in England in 1918 while convalescing. I didn't find them on any shipping lists, but I did find his repatriation (with ship named) in his service record. This cost about $30, and also contained a travel expenses claim for his wife's passage - they travelled on the same ship in 1919.

I don't know if any of you have come across the site where you can try and trace the attestation papers of Canadian men who signed up for the First World War? I found my Grandfathers papers that had been scanned and were available on line.
Linda, I did a search for you of the name Arthur Ouellette
and came up with several. The link for it is:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/cef/001042-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=th7igt9qgoo4fc9l6sh5r3mb04&q1=Ouellette&q2=Arthur+&q3=&interval=20

Thanks mgnv and Sally,

I shall follow up both those leads

Linda

Hi Margaret,

I can't believe that you've gone to all this trouble for me,

It's very kind of you, Thanks so much

Linda