Greetings from Canada !!!
My Great Grandfather was Gipsy Simon Smith .. My mother Dianne's ,Grandfather .. My Grandmother Madge's ,Father .. He was married to Blanche Louise Mackenzie they had 9 children that lived.. sadly twins ,one boy and one girl died of pneumonia at the approximate age of 2 yrs.. on the farm in Ontario, I do not know the DOB or the DOD or their names .. I will look further into that .
These are the 9
William * He died in his 60's of cancer
Ada *
May *
Violet *
Lily *
Ruby * she was youngest of siblings to die .. and it was from cancer
Ivy * she was the last living sibling ,she lived into her nineties she passed 5 yrs ago.. I attended her 90th Party with all the family it was an Elvis themed event, based on her favorite movie BLUE HAWAII .
Madge ( Marguerite) *
Donald (Hague) Smith *
His mother Susan Smith passed away in 1926 at the age of 86
I have a copy of his book The Adventures of a Gipsy Boy and other stories.. it is filled with his life story,poetry and lots of family history . I also have an original book of hymns and some original sheet music that he wrote..
Bartholomew father of Gypsy Simon and Cornelius, father to Gypsy Rodney Smith .
Bartholomew died when Simon was 11 ,he had a strained heart .Life was very tough for them. Simon heard there was was a man who would help poor boys and girls the place was in Stepney Causeway called Dr. Barnardo's Home . Simon pleaded his case that he was a gipsy boy ,his father was dead ,that he wanted to go to Canada to work on a farm so he could send his wages home to his mother .. and it happened . Across the Atlantic he went .. it was hard grueling work at the hands of an abusive man .. After 2 yrs in Canada he returned to England ... and was employed by a horse dealer he ended up traveling to the USA ,Holland,Mexican Boarder,Guatemala,Honduras,he went all over the world , he crossed the ocean 43 times , He never slept in a house til he was 12 yrs old.. He became a missionary in the slums of London ,and then an Evangelist ..He had most of his children in England before coming to Toronto that is where my Grandmother was born..they first landed in Nova Scotia , they ended up settling in London ,Ontario ,Canada because it reminded him of England with the Thames River, that is where they lived out the rest of their lives .. That is where they are buried ..at Woodland Cemetery
Look forward to hearing from you..
Heather
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