RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Canada => Topic started by: LMChapman on Tuesday 23 March 21 16:50 GMT (UK)
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Hi,
I'm researching someone who emigrated to Canada from Perthshire, Scotland in 1912 and lived in Cupar, Saskatchewan. He was a ploughman/farmer. I just wonder if anyone with more Canadian knowledge could tell me anything about the history of this town? Any ideas why he might have ended up there?
Thanks :)
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Have you used Mr Google ? If you can give us a name we can have a look for you, if that helps.
Wikipedia - Cupar, Saskatchewan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupar,_Saskatchewan
Sandra
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His name is Duncan McCallum Taylor. He arrived in 1912 I believe. He enlisted in the army in March 1916 and then left for Liverpool/France in November. He was killed in 1917.
So he would only have been there for a few years. I'm more just interested in the context of the place and why he might have specifically ended up there? Just wondered if there was some kind of company/project that advertised for Scottish workers or something like that.
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Have you looked through his military digital file -
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=272491
digital file can be slow to load - 38 pages can be interesting read
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B9520-S057
Sandra
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Yes.
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1916 census was 1 June 1916 - if he hadn't sailed back to UK - have you searched that census ?
Just a chance he could have been on it.
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1916/Pages/1916.aspx
Sandra
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Thanks, I had just found that myself, but I don't think he's on it. I imagine he might have been somewhere else at an army training camp at that time.
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Sadly there wouldn't be any other documentation -
He is on the Canada, Virtual War Memorial Index, 1900-2014 and Braco Churchyard (whoich you will be aware of)
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2753520?Duncan%20Mccallum%20Taylor
Sandra
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Yes, I did think I'd reached the end of the sources for him personally. That's why I'm asking for more contextual stuff about Cupar.
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The original passenger list gave his destination as Maplehurst Sask so he may have stayed there for a short time prior to Cupar.
Sandra
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Maplehurst was a destination for many single lads before moving on the to their jobs. It is now part of Regina. But then it was about a mile or so east of the city. Jobs were normally arranged by the agency who facilitated the immigration assistance program in Scotland.
Cupar...nothing like Fife and its pronounced "cup" not "coop." Its flat as in you can see the curvature of the earth flat. Winter, you put the items you want to freeze along the outside wall of your home 2 feet on the inside. Milk is kept in the middle of the living room and butter on top of the stove. Summers that have mosquitoes and flies that bite for the entire 3 months but you can BBQ a your beef on the spit without a fire. Walk 10 feet and you have passed 10 Gopher holes. Be visual, many twisted and broken ankles by man and his beast. Twenty Gopher tails = 1 shinny penny.
https://cuparmuseum.blogspot.com/ email under contact info and ask about if Duncan is mentioned in "Taking Root and Growing" which was published in the 1980's but includes the families and people form 1905. His death might be in the local paper which would tie to whom he worked for. If you get that information the I can find the farm for you from RM maps that go back too to that era.
Don
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That's fantastic, thank you!
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The original passenger list gave his destination as Maplehurst Sask so he may have stayed there for a short time prior to Cupar.
Sandra
Are you able to send me a link to that? The image I've found that I think is him says Cupar.
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Arrival 25 Feb 1912
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Thank you very much, what's your source for that?
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Ancestry. Didn't see it on the free Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922 but it might be there misspelt or hidden.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1823240
Sandra
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Here it is the full passenger lists
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6PKS-THM?i=22&cc=1823240
Sandra
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Hi,
Canada aggressively advertised/recruited to settle it's West with agricultural workers.
http://digital.scaa.sk.ca/gallery/persuasion/themes/immigration.html
https://www.saskarchives.com/collections/land-records/history-and-background-administration-land-saskatchewan/homesteading
I thought that perhaps Duncan may have been part of the Dominion Lands Act/Canadian Homestead Act.
I checked for a grant for Duncan, but no record.
http://www.saskhomesteads.com/home.asp
This Cupar website has some photos, but if you scroll down to "Part1YouTube" and "Part2YouTube", it is videos done by life long resident Brock Turner. I think the visuals are excellent.
http://cuparsaskatchewan.blogspot.com/
Sask. Archives has the Cupar Herald newspaper, 1914 and onwards, it is not searchable by name, but you can browse. It is slow to load,
http://sabnewspapers.usask.ca/islandora/search/dc.title%3A%28cupar%29
DB
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All really useful thanks!
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Great background Don and Dbree - Noticed from the attestation papers that Duncan was at Camp Hughes 4/10/1916 discharged to unit the following day 5/10/1916 (page 13)
Wikipedia - Camp Hughes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hughes
http://www.mhsm.ca/Z341/index.php/camp-hughes
Probably much more on Mr Google.
Sandra
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29/4/1917 - No 3 Canadian Gen Hosp (Mcgill) where Duncan was described as seriously ill. - sw. frac. skull before being transferred to Edinburgh War Hospital on 17/5/1917
No 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) 1915-1918 (page 15 of the attestation papers)
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01qga/
Sandra
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Bangour War Hospital - Edinburgh 16/5/1917 to 26/5/1917
Gun shot wound to parietal bone
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/military-hospitals-in-the-british-isles-1914-1918/bangour-war-hospital-1914-1918/
Sandra
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Was that a brother Robert Malloch Taylor born 1882 who died 20 August 1922 Braco - probate 29 Novenber 1922 ?
Sandra
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Yes Robert is buried with him.
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Saw the family listed on the headstone - so the parents both died before they knew about there sons.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178737009/robert-taylor
Sandra
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Hi,
A possible in the Cupar newspaper July 5, 1917, war death of 3 Cupar boys.....Pte. Mac Taylor,
formerly employed by Jas. Murray.......
Page 1, and oh so slow to load
http://sabnewspapers.usask.ca/islandora/object/sab%3A14579
DB
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Hi,
From the Cupar newspaper March 16, 1916 "Recruiting Notes" ....the following have enlisted...
D.M. Taylor
Page 1
http://sabnewspapers.usask.ca/islandora/object/sab%3A6994
DB
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Fantastic finds dbree - poster should be well pleased with those :) :)
Cheers
Sandra :)
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Thanks Sandra :)
The load speed of that newspaper from the Sask. archives could make a person crazy. ;D
Another small tidbit, March 30, 1916, page 1 "Cupar Soldier boys guests of honor at grand banquet"
Shamrock Hall taxed to capacity to honor the brave lads......about 30, including D.M. Taylor
http://sabnewspapers.usask.ca/islandora/object/sab%3A6995
DB
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Remarkable you found those pieces, it takes a lot of time trawling thru newspapers. Great results once again dbree. :)
Another query raised on Handwriting, Deciphering and Recognition................
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=846528.msg7135904
Sandra
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Thanks Sandra. :) I only trawled around his enlistment and death dates. It is a weekly paper and only
5 or so pages, so not too bad.
Things I learned..
The black collie with white markings named Poodle was found
The panama hat lost on Ashland St., sadly I think that was gone for good
You could buy a pure linen skirt for 99 cents
You could buy Robertson's Pure English Jams 90 cents a tin. Seems pricey, I could add 9 cents
and get a skirt.
;D ;D