Can anyone help me with some BC lookups?

[J.J.]

I love the tadpole/strawberry story...Made me giggle... Sorry, but...If any of those people you mentioned are still living, their forenames need to be replaced with an initial, please...
Nice of you, John, as usual, to do those lookups! 
My mom's cousins were a generation older, so you never know. Our family likes to marry old...hehe...
Speaking of which...Percy must have been a catch for his age, but hard luck with another wife dying so young....
J.J.

[IgorStrav]

Very very many thanks to John for the really helpful lookups.
You are such a star.  It would be great to see the details of the Hilda Robinson Walsh, which does sound like the second wife. 

Percy was indeed very unfortunate.  He was born in 1903, and so if Hilda was only 35 in 1955, she was 17 years younger than he was.  He cannot have expected to be widowed again.  How sad.  As my Canadian contact says, Percy and his first wife were a lovely couple.

Re living people in my story, apart from the "Jackie" I mentioned, which isn't his real name anyway, all parties are no longer living........except I can't speak for the girl with the strawberries/tadpoles 

Oh, PS, Fred is still living, but you can't identify him, can you, because I haven't given his surname?

Apologies if I've broken any conventions.

[nickgc]

Interesting thread, and after the train trip story I had to post this:

http://www.kettlevalleyrail.org/   in case you haven't seen it.

I was interested in where exactly this was since I live about 200 miles directly south in Washington State.  I cannot imagine it being anywhere near a 12 hour trip though.

Your Canadian contact who sent the story might also be interested.

Nick

[IgorStrav]

Nick, I think my contact is remembering some 70 odd years ago, and evidently the train journey seems to her to have lasted an aeon!

I, too, googled West Summerland - it is certainly about 4 hours drive from Vancouver - my map shows it's 401 km by road, so not sure how long the rail journey would have lasted then.

Thank you very much for the link!  It's all fascinating stuff.  When I read my correspondent's story, I was transported back to a sunny train....I imagine her, sitting with her legs dangling, all the day.

 

[dpetch]

My mother is the daughter of Percy William Walsh and Violet Ellen Fairhurst. There were 5 other children and one is still living here in BC. :-)

[dpetch]

Violet was his first wife and they had three children together. Hilda was his second wife and she brought a son with her into the marriage. They also had three children together. The stepson is still alive in BC as is one from the second set of children. My mother just passed away in January this year.

[IgorStrav]

Hello dpetch and welcome to Rootschat!

I am very pleased to hear of another Fairhurst descendant.  At the time of writing this thread, I was in touch with my contact who was then in Kamloops but now, sadly after the death of her husband, has moved to Victoria to be closer to her son on Vancouver Island.

I have tried to keep in touch with her via email, but I think now she finds that too difficult to do.  It is a shame as we really enjoyed being in correspondence.

I believe I can still get in touch with her daughter, who is the granddaughter of Ellen Fairhurst, the aunt of Violet Ellen Fairhurst.

If you will reply once more on this thread, I will be able to send you a personal message, especially if you are interested in seeing the family tree I built for my contact.

Whilst the Fairhursts are not directly connected to me, I got fascinated with their history.  As you do

[dpetch]

It would be interesting to see the Fairhurst family tree you built. My husband and daughter have just been working on that for his side of the family on ancestry.ca :-)

[IgorStrav]

Hi again dpetch

I have PMd you.

best regards

And whilst I have the attention of the other contributors to this thread, who will have been alerted to look at it again, many thanks to you all once more for your interest and help. 

It is very much appreciated.  Long Live Rootschat and its members