Flash Family History - Johnston and Love

The following is a flash family history for my maternal grandparents. I didn't get this completed in time for the Carnival of Genealogy. The histories are each less than 300 words. I found these more difficult to write as I know less about my maternal grandparents. I had been raised across the road from my paternal grandparents up to the age of seven and then since we lived in the same city we saw them regularly. I attended my paternal grandparents' funerals but not those of my maternal grandparents.


Janet Johnston (for whom I am named) was born in 1 May 1883 in Sandfield Township, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Her parents were Josiah Hemingway Johnston and Agnes Chambers. She was the middle child with four siblings older than her and four younger than her. They were Isaac Maurice, Mary Elizabeth, James Earnest, Gordon Rudman, David Augustus, Amy Isabel, Charles and Walter Lloyd.


On 11 May 1909, she married John Thomas Love of Carnarvon Township at the home of her parents’ in Silver Bay. Janet who often went by Gertrude (her middle name) or Gertie moved to the Love family farm near Mindemoya where they raised five children: Agnes Elizabeth, Winifred Eleanor, James Everett, Ross Augustus and Marion Gertrude. Across the lane lived her husband’s parents and his siblings.

My mother in a journal wrote: "I remember my mother as always rushing around doing things & waiting on us." Isn't it interesting that is my picture of her too? In latter years, Janet was very stooped over. During her life, she never had an electric refrigerator. I can picture her running around to the side of the house to go to the basement to get things that had been put in the cold cellar to cool. Electricity came first to the barn. I can't recall if they had indoor plumping during her lifetime. There was a large wood stove in the kitchen and a door at the bottom of the stairs going up to the bedrooms.



Allied family names from the marriages of her siblings are Smith and Wilson. Allied family names from the marriages of her children are Cox and Iles.

Janet died in 14 June 1958 in Carnarvon Township. She is buried in the Mindemoya Cemetery, Lot 16, Concesssion 3 Carnarvon Township.

John Thomas Love was born in 25 August 1884 to James Love and Elizabeth Fields Robinson in Carnarvon Township, Manitoulin Island. The majority of his life was spent on the family farm. His siblings were Jane, Agnes Hamilton, Cora, Norman Luther, Laura Jane, Ethel Mae, James Lorne, Margaret Isabel and Grace Elizabeth. Jane, Agnes, Norman and James died at a very young age. John’s father died tragically in a farm accident in 1914.

John’s home where he raised his family was across the lane from where he had lived until his marriage. He married Janet Gertrude Johnston of Sandfield Township at the home of her parents’ in Silver Bay on 11 May 1909. John and Janet had five children: Agnes Elizabeth, Winifred Eleanor, James Everett, Ross Augustus and Marion Gertrude (my mother).



John was according to my mother a very strict person. He ate potatoes at every meal. John died 7 March 1961 in Little Current at the home of his eldest sister. He is buried in the Mindemoya Cemetery, Lot 16, Concession 3, Carnarvon Township.



Allied family names from the marriages of his sisters are: McGill, Hopkins, Miller, Wilson and Boyd. Allied family names from the marriages of his children are Cox and Iles.© 2011 Janet Iles