Happy Thanksgiving 2010

© 2010 Janet Iles

Smile for the Camera - Give Their Face a Place

 Ivy was my dad's second oldest sister. I think my father had a special affection for her as they were both short. She always had a twinkle in her eye. She almost made her 102nd birthday.

We didn't see her often as she did not live in our area.

She had 8 children and was grandma to 22 and great-grandma to 25. My sister and I attended her 100th birthday party. It was a wonderful party with lots of well wishers.


© 2010 Janet Iles

Advent Calendar of Memories & Smile for the Camera - Gifts

for December 10

   Christmas 1963

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give?
Well, when I think about this I honestly can't name a favourite gift that I received. It is not that I haven't received many great gifts because I have. My mother kept a note pad listing the Christmas gifts she was going to purchase. Even if you read the list before Christmas, you wouldn't know what you were going to receive because it was written in shorthand. 

Janet - Christmas 1973

One gift that I received a few days before Christmas 2000 did not come wrapped in paper to be  placed under the Christmas tree, nor did it come by parcel post. It came from a stranger via email. It was the helpful piece of information that took me back another generation in my Iles family. I wrote about it in A Gift of Genealogy.


My favourite gift that I gave was in Christmas 2000. I made three copies of a brief family history. I gave a copy to my sister and my brother. The book was printed on my computer printer and put into a binder. Our parents were the focus of the book. I talked about them, their families and traced only their direct lines as I knew it at that time. A couple of years ago, I did an updated version for four of my nephews.


One year, around 1993, my mother and I gave each other the same sweater. When we exchanged the gifts, only the two of us were there. She opened hers up first. At first, she thought something had happened to the gift tags. Then, I opened mine. We had a good laugh about how we both had chosen the same gift for the other. Has that every happened to you? Sometimes without consulting the other, we would both chose to wear this same sweater and the same coloured slacks to an event. 

When I was younger, our family custom was one person to act as "Santa". This was usually my dad. He would dig under the tree to pass a gift to each person as it came their turn. Only one person opened a gift at a time. Everyone would ooh and ah! It didn't matter whether it was a pair of socks or a new toy or book. The giver would be thanked if they were present. My dad's big gift for my mom would always be given last. Often, it would placed somewhere other than under the tree. Someone would grab a camera to capture mom's expression when she opened her gift. 

After all the gifts were opened, each person was assigned a spot to display their gifts. A list was made of what a person received. This helped when you did your thank you letters. 

After my brother got married, we adopted his wife's family's tradition of passing out the gifts to each person at the start. Still, only one person could open a gift at a time. If it was your turn and your pile was getting a little short, you might pass until it came your turn again.

I enjoy taking my time to open the gifts and to see what each person received. I do not like to be rushed.

updated from 2007
© 2009 Janet Iles

My bag is packed and I am ready to go - Smile for the Camera

 My bag is packed and I am ready to go. Where am I? I am at Union Station in  Toronto. Where am I going?

I am off for an adventure. I am travelling by train, first to Montreal via the Rapido and then I will transfer to a train for my overnight trip to Trois-Pistoles, Quebec.

During the summers of 1968 and 1969, I travelled  by train to Trois-Pistoles to spend six weeks studying French. Are you wondering if I was only travelling with only one suitcase? No, I had a trunk that I shipped with my clothes and books. I had been on a train once before when I went with my siblings from Owen Sound to Toronto to visit my great aunt and uncle for a couple of days.

When I went in 1968, I was leaving the familiarity of home and friends to travel by train to a place unknown to me. Would I make my connection okay in Montreal? What would it be like to speak only French for six weeks? What kind of home would I be in? Would I make any friends? What course would I take? How would I do?  Lots of questions as I headed out on my adventure.

When I returned in 1969, I travelled again by train but this time, I was excited to see who would be there and what teachers would be returning.

I wonder what our ancestors were thinking as they left their homeland to cross the ocean to new places and new adventures.

Did you notice that in the photo that I am a wearing a skirt suit? In the sixties a young lady would not think of travelling in casual attire.

© 2009 Janet Iles

They worked hard for their money - Smile for the Camera

Photo taken in 1937 at Turner's Meat Market in Owen Sound on 2nd Avenue East
In the photo are Charlie Boorman, Roy Turner, Bob Iles and Gord Waghorn. My father was 21 in this photo. Original in the possesion of Janet Iles.

In 1934, Turner Brothers who were cattle drovers opened a meat store. Charlie Boorman had already agreed to be manager and they asked my dad to go also. Both had been working at Dominion. At first, my dad did everything, including some delivering. His duties included ordering, cutting meat, making sausage, cleaning fowl and counter selling.

What he liked doing was Friday afternoon dressing the window in large marble slab and hanging quarters of beef, lambs, and turkeys on the rail for backstop. Roy Turner, Charles Boorman, Gordon Waghorn, Bill McDonough, his brothers Wilf and Cliff, Mark Nicholson and others worked at Turners. They were paid about $12.00 a week.

My dad left Turner's Meat Market when he joined the Perth Regiment in September 1939 where pay was $10.00 a day with room and board.

The above information was found on a piece of paper found amongst the photographs.

Update: The Turners were Roy and William and the market according to the city directories was called Turner Brothers.

Wedding Belles - Smile for the Camera

The following are photographs of the wedding of my great aunt Lillian Ruth Iles when she married Victor Brooks in Owen Sound, Ontario on 25 August 1926. It was an outdoor wedding most likely at the home of her father George Iles and step-mother.






They are all, except for the little girls wearing their Salvation Army uniforms.
Right to left - William James, best man - Victor Brooks, groom; Lily Iles, bride and May Iles, maid of honour. In front are two flower girls, names not known.


Of all my paternal great aunts and uncles, it was this couple that I was closest too so I am pleased the family photograph album includes their wedding photographs. We visited them in Toronto and at their cottage at Sauble Beach.

Smile for the Camera - A Noble Life - William G Iles

William George Iles, photo above taken during World War I, place and date unknown from the photograph album "Army Pictures" of Harold B. Iles, in the possession of Janet Iles

I haven chosen my paternal grandfather for a portrait of a noble life. I was very fortunate that in the early years of my life, my family lived right across the road from my grandparents.

Born in Naunton, Gloucestershire, England on 1 February 1885, he was the eldest son of George Iles and Emily Pugh. Because of the nature of his father's work as a bone and rag man, hawker and later a grocery carter, the family moved many times as found in the birth registrations of William's siblings and the census records. By 1900, the family was living in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, where William's baby sister Lily was born.

William was employed with the railways in England. In 1903, he married Emily Lily Dudley. He emigrated in 1905 from Birmingham England, with his wife and young daughter, May, his mother and siblings. It is believed that his father had come to Canada the previous year.

In World War I, William served his country with the 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion in France as a bandsman and a stretcher bearer. He left his young family to go overseas.

William was employed as a nickle-plater with the Empire Stove and Furniture company in Owen Sound for 45 years. Last year, I was talking to someone who had worked with my grandfather. My grandfather became a foreman and he was remembered as being a kind person

William began playing cornet as a boy of 14 in England and he soon joined a Salvation Army Band. When he came to Canada, he reorganized the Salvation Army Band in Owen Sound. He was its leader. He also took over leadership of the Legion Band that eventually became the Owen Sound City band. It is through his work with the brass bands in the city, he became best known. He taught many young people how to play a brass instrument.

Two brothers

Emmanuel Kenneth Iles & Clifford Harvey Iles

I love this photo of two of my father's younger brothers. What happy faces! Don't they look like that they would like to get into mischief? Cliff is two years older than Manny as he was called by the family. Later in business, he would either go by E.K. or Kenneth. Note that neither are wearing shoes.

Work took Manny to western Canada but he returned to this area for the latter years of his work in the banking industry. Manny died at the age of 60.

I worked with Cliff in the produce department when I was a teenager. We always had lots of fun.

Smile for the Camera - 1905 wedding photograph

Thomas Wagg and Jane Hodgson pose for the camera on their wedding day. I thought her dress was beautiful. (They are not relatives but are part of the collection of photographs that belonged to my great Aunt Margaret. )

Thomas Maxwell Wagg, age 27 born in Mindemoya, Ontario and resident in Mindemoya, Ontario and son of Francis Wagg and Elizabeth Ann Cook married Jane Hodson, age 25 born and resident in Mindemoya, Ontario. and daughter of George Hodgson and Jane Williamson.

The date of marriage was either the 15 or 18 of June 1905 (I think it is 15 and the indexer says 18). It was not registered until 18 July 1905.

The photograph was taken by a Gore Bay photographer.

Thomas Wagg - Jane Hodgson Ontario marriage registration #004151 (18 July 1905) Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca/ ; accessed 8 February 2009); citing Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 932 reel 117, Toronto.

Thomas Wagg's father Francis Wagg - 5th marriage married my great great aunt Sarah Hillborn nee Vincer 1 November 1921. So although not related there is a family connection. My great uncle Isaac Maurice Johnston married Thomas' sister Frances Margaret Wagg.

For more about the Wagg and Hodgson families check Manitoulin Roots This site led me to the following information.

1906 was a very sad year for the Wagg family on the Manitoulin. This beautiful couple both met an early death. On 21 May Jane's baby boy was still born. Six days later Jane died of confinement. On about 24 November Thomas drowned on the Steamer Jones.

Information on the sinking of the J.H. Jones

When I chose this photograph, I didn't know the story was going to have a sad ending.

Jane Wagg Ontario death registration #005059 (5 June 1906) Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca/ ; accessed 8 February 2009); citing Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 935 Reel 124, Toronto

Stillborn Wagg Ontario birth registration #unknown page not digitized (date death 21

May 1906); citing Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 929 Reel 177, Toronto

Thomas Wagg Ontario death registration #005052 (25 December 1906) Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca/ ; accessed 8 February 2009); citing Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 935 Reel 124, Toronto

Who are you? I really want to know who came to the Quilting Bee.

This photo was taken on 8 August 1908 at R. R. #1 Mindemoya, Manitoulin, Ontario at the home of James Love. These women had come for the quilting bee.

Who are all in the photo? Which ones were relatives, if any. This photo is part of the collection of photos that were once owned by Margaret Love, my great aunt. I imagine she is the photographer (shadow at the right front of the photo) as I do not see her in the photo. There are several younger ones also in the photo. It is unusual for her not to identify some of the people in the photo.

Stocking Stuffer

The photo is a picture of my grandmother, Janet Gertrude Johnston. I would put this photo in the stockings of my siblings.

The photo was taken in Toronto at the Perkins Studio on Yonge St. by Alexis Alexander, year unknown.

I am sure that it is my grandmother but I find confusing that on the back of the cardboard frame, it says Aunt Gertie. I know my grandmother went by Gertie and not Janet. Honestly, why wouldn't she go by Janet? I think it is a very fine name. Her siblings also went by their middle names.

I don't know who would have written Aunt Gertie on the back. This photo came in the batch of photographs that once belonged to my great Aunt Margaret. They would have been sister in laws. I know of no other Gertie in that family line.

My first cousin, Valerie, I think looks very much like her grandmother.

Here is a photo of my grandmother from her wedding picture. Unfortunately, it is not that clear but it certainly looks like the same person.

Smile - Janet is happy to be outside getting some fresh air

My sister, Nancy and I are set for some fresh winter air.

Photo taken winter 1951.

Crowning Glory - Two youg women with flowery hats

I chose this photograph for the lovely hats the two girls were wearing. This is another photo from the collection of my great Aunt Margaret Love. As far as I know, they are not related to us. According to the back of the photograph mounting, in the photo are Mr. and Mrs. Billy King and Lizzie and May. Also on the back is the name R ? Conley. The photo was taken about 1908. I believe the family moved to Western Canada. Unfortunately, I can not read the photographer information on the photo frame.

The original photo is in my possesion.

This is a submission for Smile for the Camera 5th edition over at Shades of the Departed hosted by footnoteMave