Drat this working for a living all to heck.

... is getting very sleuthy.

So. We've seen ships' manifests with passengers lists.

William (father of my grandfather) comes out early to Montreal. His brother Arthur also comes out early, but by a different ship. Annie, Arthur's wife, comes later, 1903, bringing her children and William's children. William's second wife arrives by the same ship as the children, but under her maiden name, and she is a domestic servant. We can't tell from the lists whether she was their servant, or a servant hoping to find work in Canada.

Both families settle in the Verdun area of Montreal. We haven't found the marriage certificate yet, but William's second family starts in 1912. They live in the same house in Verdun forever, and, in fact, the daughter, who was blinded at birth, lives there all her life until 1976.

My grandfather never mentioned his uncle Arthur. My mom has now been in contact with a grand daughter of Arthur's, and she says that although she used to visit her grandmother in Verdun, for years and years and years, no one ever mentioned the William family.

So. What the hell were my relatives up to? Good grief and stuff.

One of my multitude of cousins works for the DNA place, Ancestry Dot Sea Eh and that cousin sent their parents kits, which led to other family members (and inlaws of inlaws) to also pursue the DNA investigation, which has led to some surprises. So, my Mom wanted to do it, and I got her a kit for Christmas. She has recently received her results, and it has led to a happy finding.

My Mom's Dad was born in Sheffield England in 1899. He was the fifth or sixth child. When his father returned from the Boer War, there was a complete breakdown of the family. Family lore says that he felt that my grandfather could not be his child, so he divorced his wife for adultery and then moved to Canada, taking all the children. He and his second wife were very harsh to my grandfather.[1] In 1917, my grandfather lied about his age and went to fight in WWI. He was gassed and required extensive facial reconstruction surgery, including surgery to restore his sight. He also lost his memory, and needed to be taught to speak and read and write again. He was taught knitting during this lengthy process. His recovery took place in England. When he returned to Canada, his half-sisters, who did love him, attempted to give him back his memories of his family. He didn't stay long, and one of the places he went was Penticton BC, where he worked on the SS Sicamous.

During all this time, he always wondered what had happened to his mother, the wife who was divorced and who lost all her children. He knew her maiden name was Gertrude Webster, but this wasn't enough to help him locate her.

Through Mom's DNA in Ancestry Dot Sea Eh, she has connected to other Hodkins (of which there appear to be bazillions in Sheffield) - and also to Gertrude Elizabeth Webster. After Gertrude's family was taken from her, she later remarried and had one more son: Samuel Tom Barton. In the early documents, she is listed as Gertrude Barton, but in a later census she is listed as Elizabeth Barton, so while at first we thought she died in 1910 - there she is on a census in 1911. Who knows where she may appear next?

What is very exciting is that one of her Barton granddaughters posted a picture of Gertrude Elizabeth aged about 30. There is my Mom and my Hodkin cousin. There are those gorgeous brown eyes, with the deep shaddows under them. A very appealing face.

My Mom is very excited about this connection. She never met any of her grandparents because travel was not common, but this grandparent was a very sad mystery, and it is wonderful that she went on to have happy times again. One wonders whether any of the older children, who would remember who and where their mother was, were ever able to see her again.

There is a picture of my grandfather about age 12, and you can definitely see that he is Gertrude Elizabeth's son.

[1] - she would lock him in a closet and leave him there all day. He could never bear to be in a room with the door closed. When speaking of her to us, he never called her anything but "that woman".