The Hunt Continues

Today, more hunting for more treasure.

This time at the office of the Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. We had to take a taxi to get to the address I got from the website. 

"There" turned out to be a small office on an industrial estate off the highway.

Thank goodness for the warm welcome of Linda Crocker! Three hours went by in a flash as Linda gave us boxes to look through, copied and emailed documents and files as we sat, and beavered away at her own computer on my behalf. She even gave us coffee.

For a small annual fee, one can access, in person or online, this small room-sized box worth of shelves neatly piled floor to ceiling with file upon file, as well as boxes and books. Two or three amateur historians volunteer a few times a week, turning their own family tree research into a haven for other like-minded slaves to the past. 

I found and joined the Society a month or so ago, and went through as much online as I had time to, but nothing beats being here in person, talking to a real live Linda. Who even brought us coffee! 

Well, today was much the same result as yesterday, very little actual information.

But also as before, there were a few nuggets of virtual gold.

For example, I think I have found my great-great-grandfather's grave. In Topsail, where the family lived for a few years between their centuries in Port de Grave and their future generations in BC. 

Two dates had kept coming up on my radar for Charles Butler - 1796 and 1888 - but I couldn't quite believe that a ship's captain, fisher and sealer working the hard scrabble life of coastal Newfoundland actually lived for 91 years, but it appears pretty incontrovertibly that he did. 

I don't know if I was happier to have found him or to have found out I arise from some such hearty, long-lived genes.    

After three hours, we were a bit squirelly, so we headed back to the Rooms, this time to visit the museum and art galleries, which were wonderful. Then a dinner of cod tongue and beer to fortify us for the road ahead tomorrow. 

The Rooms Museum, up there on the hill near the Catholic Basilica