How we came to meet Richard and Marlus.

Jims Granddad outside his shoe repair shop in Wimbledon, London, England.



As some of you know, Jim's dad was born in Canada in 1909, but his parents came back to England with there 5 children in 1914.
So when Jim and I started this journey of ours, one of the things we wanted to do was try and find out as much as we could about any family left in Canada. So in the summer of 2004 we visited the Church in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where Albert(Jim's dad) was baptised. We found the church easy enough, as we had his baptism certificate, this was the only paper we had, he never had a birth certificate. We were told it was too cold (never) to go out in January, the month he was born. Also he was born in a small town called Francis, about 1 hour away by car today, from Moose Jaw, where he would have to have been registered. Goodness knows how long it would have taken in January 1909, with no cars and no roads to speak of. The vicar at the church was very helpful and we spent some time there going through the very old books. Here we found out that his dads godmother named on the baptism certificate (Amelia Russell) was Jim's grandmothers sister. She stayed on in Canada and married a John James, and had two daughters, Jenny and Ruby. Ruby will be 90 years young next Febuary and she is a wounderful lady and dear friend. Are you keeping up?????? Jenny sadly passed away a year or so before our arrival. Ruby had 5 children, one of whome is Marlus who, along with her husband Rihard, drove all the way from Alberta to the Atlantic Coast and back, to see us for their 3 weeks annual holiday this year. They are also the same family who we stay with on their farm in Alberta. We were made so welcome by Ruby's and Jenny's family in Irma, Alberta.
Hope to see you all next year. Thank you again for making us FAMILY.