How My Parents Met

Ruth Bellamy and Bert Davies, summer 1936

My parents were both born in Edmonton, Alberta and that is where they met and were to spend the first few years of their marriage.

My Mom was about sixteen when she met my Dad, who was five years older.  The small wedding took place at the Norwood United Church Manse, Edmonton, Alberta on December 31, 1938.  They were happily married for over sixty-five years and as my husband, Len would say "that's not counting courting time".  The following is from my Dad's memoirs:

"About 1935 my cousin, Norman bought a Model "T" coupe. We often would pick up girls if one of us knew them and it was on one of these times I met the girl that I was to spend most of the rest of my life with. The next time I saw her was at a Norwood Church young peoples sleigh ride. The sleigh skidded and threw everyone to one side which split and one of the pieces caught my pants just below the pocket and ripped them to the knee. As it happened near a friend's house, we went there and I borrowed a pair of pants and joined the party at the church, so I took the young lady home in a borrowed pair of pants."

Mom and Dad - sixty years later - January 1999

Fearless Females: Grandparents' marriages

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

Both sets of my grandparents were married in Edmonton, Alberta.  I had a few hours to spend at the Alberta Archives the last time I was in Edmonton in 1998 and I found it very difficult to search their records at that time.  I have no pictures of the weddings. The marriages were written up in a large register and I could not take copies.  I did find the following for my paternal grandparents:



Register of Marriages, Edmonton 87.385 510 Wm. D. Davies Lucey M. Crockete 10-11-13 691 - 23rd St. (Manse) Clergy -P. G. Stewart.

The picture is of my grandmother, Lucy Millicent Crockett, with my Dad, William Herbert Davies. My father was born April 11, 1914.  My grandfather was at war in Europe when this photograph was taken.  The first picture of my grandparents together is a family portrait taken about 1921.

William, Evelyn, Herbert (Bert) Lucy Davies

I do have a marriage Certificate for my maternal grandparents, transcribed below:

This is to Certify that on the 29th day of June in the year of our Lord 1912
John Bellamy and Vinetta Tremaine Butchart
were by me united in Marriage at the city of Edmonton according to the laws of Alberta.
Witnesses: W. D. Gardner, M. Moore
J. E. Hughson

 The clipping on the left is from the Edmonton Daily Bulletin dated July 3, 1912.  Granny's parents, Edward Neil Butchart and Maria Moyer, moved with their family from Bruce County, Ontario to Edmonton just about the same time Alberta became a province of the Dominion of Canada in 1905.

Edward Butchart, his brother, Peter E Butchart, and his cousin, Peter T Butchart were principals in The Great West Land Company which held many properties for development in the growing city.

The article states that the couple would be making their home in Vancouver, but to my knowledge they never lived there.  Their oldest child was born in Calgary on February 4, 1913.

Both of my grandparents' weddings were quiet affairs rather hastily planned, probably in view of the fact that the morals of the day required marriage before the birth of the first child.  My Dad came along five months after his parents were married and Uncle Bill was born seven months after the Bellamy wedding.  Both marriages lasted until the death of a spouse.

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

She was known as Nana to the family, my great-grandmother was born in Manchester, England.  I have her registration of birth where she is named Sarah Esther Letitia Brown, daughter of John Brown and Hannah Brown formerly Duckworth.  The name Sarah only appeared on her birth and death certificates, she was always known as Esther Letitia on all other documents including her marriage to John Davies at age seventeen on 16 February 1879.  John was an illiterate widower who had fathered fourteen children with his first wife. John was forty-three when he married Esther and three living children were older than his new bride.


Why did Nana marry a man old enough to be her father?


Why am I drawn to Nana as my favourite ancestor?  Esther Letitia Brown is the only great-grandparent who was still alive when I was born and I do have some memories of her.  I was only seven years old when she passed away on 5 November 1952.  I remember being told to be quiet when we visited my grandparents' house on Oak Bay Avenue in Victoria because we couldn't disturb Nana, who lived with Granny and Grandpa.


Another reason I chose Nana as my favourite ancestor is because she was brave enough to move on and venture forth from England to Toronto to Edmonton and finally to Victoria.


I have many facts and stories about Esther but there are many questions still to be answered, including her trip back to England from November 1910 to June 1911 with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.  Why? During that time the rest of the family moved from Toronto to Edmonton.  At some time Nana had a double mastectomy, was this done while she was back in England and was she an early cancer survivor?  She has been referred to as a nurse and a midwife, did she have any training or was it just life experiences that prepared her for those roles?


I hope to answer some of the un-answered questions about my great-grandmother before too long and finish writing her story.

My Dad was from a long line of Cobblers

Cordwainer, cobbler, shoemaker, shoe repairer, and currier were all occupations involving leather and many of my father's ancestors worked in these trades.

The picture on the left is my Dad, Herbert William Davies, in his shop on Johnson Street in Victoria.

William Duckworth, Dad's third great-grandfather, was born about 1767 in Halifax, Yorkshire.  William's occupation was described as a shoemaker at the trial of his son, George Duckworth, in 1812.  George, another, shoemaker, was tried and sentenced to transportation for an incident related to the Luddite movement in Yorkshire.  William was listed as a cordwainer in the 1841 and 1851 census.

William Duckworth, Dad's second great-grandfather, was born in 1795 in Halifax.  This William moved to Manchester about 1825, where he was listed as a labourer in 1841, a warehouseman in 1851, a shopkeeper in 1857, and finally a currier in 1861.  A currier works with leather in the tanning process.

Dad's father, my grandfather, lost a leg in the first world war and was unable to take up his former occupation of electrician after the war, and after a failed attempt at farming, Grandpa learned the trade of shoe repairing from an army friend.  William Duckworth Davies, born 1891 in Runcorn, Cheshire to John Davies and Hannah Duckworth, owned his own shoe repair shops in Edmonton and Victoria.  Grandpa is pictured on the right in his shop in Edmonton, Alberta.  My Dad, Bert Davies, left school after grade eight to join his father in the business and is pictured in the archway.

William Duckworth Davies and his wife, Lucy Crockett, moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1934 and after failing at farming once more, he opened a shoe repair shop.  His first shop was on Johnson Street, but he had moved to Fort Street before enticing my father to join him in the business in 1941.  I remember Grandpa's shop on Fort Street with its black and white tile front.  The building does not look much different today but the store is occupied by a Sushi restaurant.  The picture was taken about 1950 with Jim Gillespie, an employee, on the left; Dad, Herbert William Davies in the middle; and Grandpa, William Duckworth Davies on the right.

Grandpa continued to operate his shop until her retired in 1961 at age 70.  Dad left Davies and Son Shoe Repair and was employed at other shoe repair shops until he bought out his last employer, Geroge Inrig.  Dad operated Arcadia Shoe Repair at various locations from the mid 50s until he retired in 1979.  His first shop was on Broad Street, near Trounce Alley in Victoria where he had Roy Blevins as a partner.  They moved to a larger shop on Yates Street before Dad had to buy his partner's interest in the business because the lacquers and other chemicals used in the shop were affecting Roy's health.  The picture is of the Broad Street shop with Dad on the left, two employees, Marcel and Tony, in the middle, Dad's sister, Evelyn, behind Roy Blevins on the right.

I remember the Yates Street store because I used to spend time there on Saturdays before and after my piano lessons.  I love the smell of the adhesives and dyes when I enter a shoe shop today because it reminds me of my youth.  Dad became an expert at dying shoes to match any colour and he also covered shoes with fabric.  My bridesmaids wore shoes to match their dresses at my wedding.  He also took a course through Dr. Scholls to learn the anatomy of a foot and he was able to fit arch supports, bunion pads, and other foot-care products.

Dad moved to a one-man shop on Johnson Street about 1970 and moved again to Cook Street in the Fairfield district of Victoria in the mid 1970s.  These small shops were more profitable because he did not have the payroll expenses.

I had the advantage, or disadvantage of having a shoe expert for a father.  Dad always had a say on which shoes I could wear.  They always fitted properly and they had to have leather uppers and insoles.  My shoes were always well soled and well heeled and there is no truth to the saying that "a cobbler's daughter goes barefoot".

The Puzzle of Genealogy

Many many years ago a fellow genealogist said that family history is like a huge jigsaw puzzle without any edge pieces. I have always enjoyed puzzles and can't leave them alone until they are finished, yet miss the challenge once they are completed. In genealogy, we start with ourselves in the middle and work out from there.

My puzzle was started for me with the help of John Hopkins on the Butchart side and Vera Becklake on the Crockett side but I had very little to go on with the ancestors of my two grandfathers, William Davies and John Bellamy. I have gradually been able to add ancestors on all sides to the early 1800s but there are many missing pieces of aunts, uncles, and cousins missing near the middle and, of course, the edges will never be completed.

Last night my cousin on the Bellamy side, Hugh Nichols, forwarded an email from Ruairidh Greig in England. His uncle, David Miller, has some letters that were sent from Canada from the Bellamy family and Ruairidh has put the letters (28 pages) on Picasa. The album is called Bellamy Letters and can be found at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/argee07/BellamyLetters#

I have printed, cut, and arranged the pages into seven letters dated from March 4, 1903 until September 26, 1910 and I will deal with letters in detail in separate blogs to follow. The letters were addressed to Gertrude (Gertie) Taylor in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Gertie and her sister, Dorothy, were nieces of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Rason.

From these letters I have been able to add some missing pieces to my family tree, and more importantly to me, I now have some idea of the people behind the letters.

Winter Sports in the Great White North

You can't get a much colder example of a Canadian winter than Edmonton, Alberta.

The picture is of my parents, Bert Davies and Ruth Bellamy, skating on the North Saskatchewan River about 1937. My Dad was wearing speed skates and my Mom was wearing men's tube skates. People in Edmonton were not restricted to skating on the river but when conditions were right it was fun to be able to skate in one direction for a long stretch, especially with the long-bladed speed skates. There were several open-air ice rinks in the city parks with a heated building to change into skates and my father's grandfather and uncles managed many of these rinks. When the first artificial ice plant was installed at the Edmonton arena, my great-grandfather, Amos Crockett, was manager of the arena and had the rights to the concession. My Dad worked there sharpening skates.

My parents also went skiing down the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. Edmonton is situated in the prairies and the only sizable hills were on the riverbank. For every trip down the hill there was the long trek back up carrying the skis because there were no lifts or rope tows.

Although not a sport, another winter activity was the horse-drawn sleigh ride. My parents met on a sleigh ride put on by a young-peoples group of Norwood United Church in 1935. Mom was only sixteen and Dad was twenty-one. Times were simpler then but it sounded like they had a lot of fun in spite of the cold Edmonton winters.

Bellamy family in Edmonton

The clipping on the left is from the Edmonton Journal. My grandmother, Vinetta Tremaine Butchart, a quiet, modest woman, was born in Mildmay, Bruce County, Ontario. Her mother was from a Mennonite family and her father's family originated in Scotland and arrived in Ontario in a very poor state in 1827. The Butcharts managed to become prominent citizens in Bruce County before coming to Edmonton about 1905. By the time my grandparents were married, my great-grandfather, Edward Neil Butchart, and his brothers owned large tracts of land in Edmonton and were principals in the real estate company Great West Land Company. My mother recalled that the Butchart family had their own pew in McDougall United Church in Edmonton.

The wedding announcement tells me that Edward Neil Butchart was a pretentious snob. I can't imagine putting "The many handsome gifts included a substantial cheque from the bride's father" in a wedding announcement. Perhaps Jack Bellamy started the story of coming from a wealthy family in Toronto because it would put him on an equal footing with his inlaws. My grandmother never met Grandpa's parents and my Mom was given the feeling that the Bellamys were "above" the Butcharts.

The wedding announcement stated that the bride and groom left on the midnight train for Vancouver where they would reside, but they were back in Alberta by February, 1913. Uncle Bill was born in Calgary in February 1913 and Aunt Vivian was also born in Calgary in 1914. While in Calgary Grandpa was working as a clerk for Wood, Vallance, and Adams, a company later taken over by Marshall Wells Hardware.

The family moved back to Edmonton about 1916 and resided for a time with Vinetta's parents until they found a home of their own. Jack worked for Revillon Wholesale as a clerk and then as a buyer and their address from 1922 until 1943 was at 11437 - 95th Street. Three more children were born in Edmonton: Margaret in 1916, Ruth in 1919, and James Roy in 1920. The Bellamy children are pictured on the left, with Vivian and Bill in the back row, Margaret in the middle, James Roy and Ruth in the front.

On March 8, 1926 a tragic event took the life of young James Roy Bellamy. He died from his injuries after being struck by a streetcar in front of their home on 95th Street. Things were never the same for the Bellamy family after that. My grandmother became withdrawn and my grandfather took to drink. Granny was a very talented pianist and she used the piano as an outlet for her feelings. My Mom could recall the music becoming louder and louder when Grandpa was late coming home. It was after the death of Jimmy that my grandfather went against religion and would not go to church, even for my mother's wedding.

The 1930s brought the Great Depression to Canada and the prairie provinces were hit especially hard. Revillon Wholesale ceased business and sold their hardware division to Ashdowns. There was no room at Ashdowns for Jack in Edmonton and he was asked to move to Winnipeg. He did not like it in Winnipeg and finally got a job at Northern Hardware, where he worked as a clerk from 1933 to 1937. The job did not pay well and my grandmother managed to scrimp to make ends meet.

Grandpa was not employed from 1938 to 1941. My mother, Ruth, married Bert Davies on December 31, 1938 and they lived with Granny and Grandpa. My Dad explained that Grandpa did not work at that time because he had suffered a breakdown. Mom and Dad moved to Victoria in 1941 and my grandparents stayed in Edmonton for two more years, Grandpa worked for W W Arcade as a clerk in 1942 and 1943. This was a time of change for the Bellamy family. War had broken out in 1939, Aunt Vivian joined the Air Force, Aunt Marg married Ab Walker, and Uncle Bill, after riding the rails to Toronto to unsuccessfully find work, returned to Edmonton and married Ona Innes.

Vinetta and Jack Bellamy left Edmonton in 1943 and moved to a cottage in Saanich at 751 Middleton Street. Grandpa may have been in poor health when he moved to Victoria because he started seeing Dr. Scott in January 1944. Dr. Scott reported that he treated my grandfather for cancer of the rectum for three years before he died of that disease on May 15, 1947. He was only sixty-two years old.

I heard a family story that one of grandpa's sisters, I think it was Edith, heard that he was terminally ill and came out from Ontario so see him before he died. After traveling all the way to the coast she decided she wanted to remember him as a healthy young man and returned home without seeing him.

Grandpa was buried at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria on May 17, 1947 and my grandmother was laid to rest beside him thirty-five years later in 1982.

Royal Tour of Canada, 1939

This is a picture of my grandparents and other family members waiting on Oak Bay Avenue in Victoria on May 30, 1939.

This royal tour of the parents of our reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II was a historic event because it was the first time a king or queen of the British Commonwealth set foot on North America.

The royal couple disembarked from the Empress of Australia and were greeted with cheering crowds in Quebec City on May 17, 1939. They traveled by train across Canada and charmed the population by being visible and accessible in large cities and small towns throughout the land. They left Vancouver on May 29 aboard the CPR ship, Princess Marguerete and were greeted that evening in Victoria by Premier Pattullo. Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, was the most western point of the tour. The royal couple stayed two nights at Government House, the residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

May 30 was the only full day spent in Victoria with a visit to the provincial legislature in the morning, followed by a drive though the streets of Victoria and Oak Bay culminating at the Empress Hotel where King George gave an address which was heard throughout Canada and around the world. The next day the king and queen returned to Vancouver and resumed their train trip across Canada on the royal train. Afterward the CPR trains of that class were known as the Royal Hudsons. King George and Queen Elizabeth returned to England aboard the Empress of Britain on June 15.

William Duckworth Davies in World War I

This is about my grandfather, William Duckworth Davies, who lost a leg in World War I.

Grandpa volunteered in January 1916 and joined the 138th Battalion in Canadian Expeditionary Force on Monday, July 24, 1916.

Acting Corporal. W. D. Davies embarked from Halifax on August 21, 1916 aboard the S.E. Olympic, arrived in Liverpool nine days later on the 30th. The Olympic was a sister ship to the Titanic and was converted to a troop ship for the war effort.

The next year was spent in England where the raw recruits were turned into soldiers. He finally arrived in France with the 50th Battalion Alberta Regiment on September 11, 1917 and joined the unit in the field on September 20.

Grandpa sent a letter to my father from England before he was sent to the front in WWI. The letter was written before my Dad's third birthday which was on April 11, 1917. It is transcribed as follows:

My dear little Bertie,I am awfully sorry that I have not got you anything for your birthday yet, but it is hard to get anything for you in these little places. Never mind sonny, I will get you something just as soon as I see something that I think you will like. You must be getting quite a big boy now. Three years old. You are making mamma and me feel old.. I must ring off now as I have to write to mamma & nana. Good bye and lots of kisses to the best little 3 year old boy on earth ; lot of love from your Soldier Daddy. x x x x x x

Grandpa landed in France on September 11, 1917, just before the deadliest battle for the Canadian forces in the war. After weeks of losses for the allies, it was decided by the British generals to launch an assault in the area of Ypres, near the border of France and Belgium. The Canadian Corps under a reluctant General Currie, carried on this assault, known as the Battle of Paaschendaele, from October 12, to November 10, 1917. Conditions were horrible for the Canadian troops fighting in soupy mud against the Germans who overlooked the morass from concrete bunkers. The Canadian Corps achieved its objective at a cost only fractionally less than General Currie's pre-battle estimate of 16,000 casualties. It was all for naught, within six months, the ground they had won was retaken by the Germans. From Grandpa's service records, I have concluded that he lost his leg at the Battle of Paaschendaele.

Grandpa said very little about experiences at the front in Europe, and in an interview by his great-grandchildren when he was eighty-eight years old, he said the following:

"How did I lose my leg? You'll have to ask Fritzie that. He knew I'd gone to France and he thought I was going to cause him some trouble so he sent over a 9.2 and I got part of it and that was it and that had to come about eleven miles to get me."

Perhaps Grandpa was lucky to be wounded at Ypres on October 12, 1917, after just a month on the front, because it took him off the battlefield where so many of his comrades lost their lives. The injury was caused by shrapnel entering the right knee, badly shattering it, and fracturing the femur. The leg was amputated through the thigh at C.C.S. (Casualty Clearing Station) the same day. Two days later he was admitted to No. 1 South African Gen. Hospital, Abbeville, France where he would start his long recovery. On November 10 he was considered fit enough to return to England and was admitted to General Military Hospital in Colchester, England, also known as Whipps Cross War Hospital. He stayed at Whipps Cross Hospital for 102 days, then he was admitted to Granville Canadian Special Hospital, Buxton, Derbyshire on February 21, 1918. On April 23 he was admitted to Military Hospital Kirkdale, Liverpool where he would stay another month before finally being transferred back to Canada.

He boarded the hospital ship Araguaya on May 25, 1918. It had been thirteen years since he taken the same route from Liverpool across the Atlantic to the Gulf of St. Laurence, then on to Montreal before taking the train to Toronto. He was eager to return to Alberta and resume life as a civilian, but he had one more hospital to visit first. He was admitted to Military Orthopedic Hospital, Toronto where he continued to recuperate from June 10 to August 6, 1918. Finally declared unfit for further service, Grandpa was able to return to Busby, Alberta where he had applied for a homestead before the war.

When asked about his experiences while overseas in the war, Grandpa had very little to say and was reluctant to talk about the horrors of the battlefield.

"Well there wasn't very much to tell except of course once in a while when Fritzie decided to come over and give us an air raid that made very exciting times because we didn't know just when a bomb was going to drop right on us; and in fact after I went to France and was wounded and came back to hospital in England why there I was in the hospital in London, at Whipps Cross Hospital and he came over one night and blew 60 feet of the hospital fence away of the hospital I was in, so he wasn't very particular. We often had experiences like that and whenever there was an air raid we used to get up and go out and watch the flack in the sky where the anti-aircraft guns were happening. But it was very exciting, very exciting."