Tracing Olive Gibbons Home Child

[cosmac]

The RR part of your address would be Rural Route and then the number of that Rural Route so your choice of 1 would be appropriate.  That indicates they were living outside of an urban centre.

Canadian postal codes are letter, number, letter, space, number, letter, number per susano's example.

Your can use these links to try and narrow down your interpretations of handwriting.  Since postal codes beginning with H are found in Quebec that eliminates that choice.  For example if Greater Ontario was actually Granton, Ontario the corresponding postal code is N0M 1V0.  Since this is a rural postal code it might be a possibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N_postal_codes_of_Canada  Postal Codes
http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/canada/ON/Granton-ON.html  Another Postal Code source
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0cg0/   Place names on Ontario

Debbie

[Jacquie in Canada]

Shoot - Ancestry's Canadian Phone and Address Directories database had an L.P. Stephenson in Granton up to 2002. I just checked Canada 411 and there are no longer any Stephenson entries for Granton. I did a reverse look-up of the phone number listed in the Ancestry entries and it is listed to another person now.

Jacquie

[RunKitty]

Hi,

I was at the Toronto Library today and I looked for Olive Gibbons in the Toronto Directories. 

There is no Olive listed from 1924-1928.  Perhaps she is with a family outside of the city - or if she happens to be in the City, she might not be listed individually.  Sorry I can't help with her first years in Canada.

But, there is an Olive Gibbons, maid, who turns up in the 1929 and 1930 directories.  In 1929, she is living at 76 Douglas Drive.  I found her in the aphabetical listings.  Then I looked up the Street listings to see who else might have lived there.  The home belonged to Mr. Edwin B. Raymond.   I guess she lived with that family. 

In 1930, she is living at 61 Alvin Avenue.  The Street search shows that this is the home of Mr. Walter L. Rawlinson. 

I checked the 1931, 1932 and 1933 directories, but she wasn't there.  I wonder if this is when she got married?   She would have been 22 in 1931. 

RK     

[KAberdein]

Wow! Thanks for thinking of me and having a look RK, thats very helpful.

Since I last posted I have found a possible address for William Stephenson up to 2002 which is as far as our ancestry online goes. 

I also spent some time with my nans (much) younger brother Tom to look at a giant box of family photographs that came out of my nans house when she went into care.  My immediate family haven't been able to identify anyone in the pictures and hoped that Tom might remember some of the faces.

Imagine my shock when he pulled out about 8 photos and said "These are from Canada, and thats Auntie Olive!"

So I now have a face to put to her name, which is very exiting!  There are photos from a family wedding which I think is Barbara and William Stephenson in the mid to late 60's.  There are also some photos of the bride and groom with a tiny baby and on the back is written Nov 6th 1966, 2 Weeks old.  I think the baby might be Debby Stephenson which would make her younger than I had originally guestimated.  Theres another of the groom holding a toddler that says May 1967 on the back so could be the grown baby from the other picture?

The other interesting thing that Tom said was that Olive had a best friend called Ivy that went over to Canada with her on the same boat and they remained lifelong friends.  How could I identify Ivy without knowing her surname?

Is there any way I can check the BMD for Canada online or do I need a researcher in the area?

Thank You for all your help and ideas

Kate

[cosmac]

On the Canada departing June 1924 was Ivy Beryl Stimpson, age 14 1/2 years, b. Paddington.  She was part of the Waif and Strays Society going to 661 Huron St. Toronto, Church Hostel for Girls.

An online ancestry tree gives her birth as 6 May 1909 Paddington with  a death in 1992 in Toronto.  She didn't seem to have married and had a brother Albert George in Rochford Essex (1905-1989).  Mother was Jessie Stimpson (1872-1918).

There is no central registry for BMDs in Canada.  Each province handles this responsibility separately.  Therefore what information is available varies from province to province.  What is consistent are the privacy laws in Canada and current information as to BMDs is not publically available to anyone.   

Debbie 

[valeriec]

If you look at the first post by Jacquie, you will see there isn't a central registry in Canada for bmd's and there are strict privacy laws. Jacquie gave you a site for Pages of the Past which is through the Toronto Star. It may be possible to find births, marriages and obituaries through this site.

It appears that Ivy B. Stimpson would be the name of Olive's friend. If you go to the Home children site at LAC and put in Olive Gibbons, it will bring up her information and at the bottom of the page you can access the group of children traveling together. There is an Ivy B. Stimpson, age 15 traveling in the same group.

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/index-e.html

[RunKitty]

Hi,

I just had a quick look for Ivy Stimpson's death notice in the Toronto Star.  It mentions "possible surviving relatives in England" - and that is all for relatives!  It mentions a surviving friend - Eileen Bigley of Toronto (who may have been the person to place the obit).  Ivy is buried in Mount Pleasant cemetery.

The notice is in the Tuesday Sept 8 1992 paper.  Ivy died in Toronto on the 7th. 

RK

[KAberdein]

Thanks for all the looking up you are doing for me!

Ivy does indeed have surviving relatives in the UK.  There is a tree on GenesReunited and ancestry so have emailed both tree owners.  If Ivy and Olive were lifelong friends then Ivy would have mentioned Olive in a letter maybe?  Someone might know what her married name is/was!  We shall see

Kate

[Ancestrykim]

I've been reading this thread with massive interest................my husband is Ivy Stimpson's great nephew!!!!  Kate (or her Mum) have been in touch, unfortunately I wasn't able to offer any information, but it was lovely to see the photo (Barbara's wedding) of Ivy and Olive together.

I notice that RK has been able to do a little lookup in the Toronto directories for Olive.........so.........RK, would it be at all possible to do the same for Ivy Stimpson?  My husband's family did keep in touch with Ivy to a degree (she came to visit in the 70s and my husband's sister went to Toronto to say with her also in the late 70s) but that communication was only sporadic in her later life.  The family were informed of her death (I don't know by whom - maybe Eileen Bigley?) but have no idea what happened to her effects.  It was thought that Ivy was a companion to someone who worked for the Canadian Red Cross but have no proof.  If you could shed any light on her life in Canada we would be so grateful.  By the way, I appreciate I have totally hi-jacked Olive's thread, should I repost this as a new subject?

Many thanks for any help in advance, and good luck with your search for Olive's family Kate.
Regards,
Kim