I would recommend finding out what Chilliwack City Directories exist for the time periods that your aunt and uncle lived in that area. The telephone directories exist, but these would not be very informative, as they would only show your uncle's name and address, nothing about his occupation, and no mention of your aunt or her occupation, which you WOULD get in any city directory. The problem is, they may not have been published, or they may not have survived. You can start by asking the staff at BC Archives, by email for information on what directories they have for Chilliwack in the required years. They could have as much or more than the Chilliwack library. Go to: http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-129E513/services/inquiry/accescom.htm and scroll down to the electronic form, and leave a detailed and specific request for the information. Thenyou would have to find a volunteer to search whatever city or telephone directories are available. The public library in Chilliwack probably has an online-presence too, and you can email them with the same query. To get the dates of their deaths, you can contact the Victoria probate registry of the BC Supreme Court, and they can check the database for any probate/estate files for those two names. They will give you the file numbers and the name of the court registry that has the files, if they find any exist. The database covers 1982 to the present, for all of the province. If there are files, the staff person will give you the dates of death also, and then you can ask for a volunteer to search after those dates in the newspaper for obituaries. There are also voters lists at BC Archives, which give address and occupation, but these are only searchable on-site, and the search can be quite time consuming as you have to check every polling station, one by one. And the voters' lists are no longer accessible until twenty years after. If you applied to BC Vital Statistics Agency for death records, you would have to pay, and you would have to make a guess at the year they died, and they would charge you for every three year period they search, though there is no reason for that...they search the entire database with one query of course. Just a way for the government to make more money. And all you would get is a certificate stating they were born in a place, were so many years old, and died on a date, in a place. Much better to try for a probate/estate file first. Piles of interesting information in a probate file usually. When it is twenty years after their deaths, you will be able to get the full information on the death registration, which even includes cause of death, and the names of parents, but if there was no one available to state the names of their parents, then the information won't be there. The probate file sometimes contains the date and place of birth, but never parent names. Hope this helps. Claudia Claudia Cole Independent Research Agent 304 - 1960 Lee Avenue Victoria BC V8R 4W8 Canada 250 598-7859 [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Gerald Cronkwright [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 1:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [CAN-BC] Garnet "Steve" STEPHENSON Ontario > Chilliwack, BC I am searching for any information (newspaper clippings, vital records sources, obituaries, tombstones inscriptions, etc.) or corespondence with friends and relatives who knew about my uncle Garnet "Steve" Stephenson b. 27 Jul 1927 in Middlesex Cty near Arkona, Watford & Strathroy, Ontario areas. He lived (intermittently between 1960's to 1990's in Ontario & BC but most of this time it was in BC) and died in the Chilliwack, BC area probably in the early to mid 1990's. He was married to my aunt Ella Frances Patience b. 7 Dec 1926 in Thamesford, Oxford Cty, Ontario d. 3 Jan 1986 probably in Chilliwack, BC; on 21 Jan 1949 in Arkona, Middlesex Cty, Ontario. He was an officer in the Royal Canadian Army and they spent most of the 1950's posted somewhere in West Germany. When they returned to Canada in the early 1960's they moved out to Chilliwack, BC for about 5 years and then they returned to live in London, Ontario for a couple of years where he worked at a Beaver Oil Gas Station and Towlands Road Construction as a mechanic and then they farmed for a short time near Watford, Ontario before they returned to BC again. While in BC I think that he worked most of the time as a mechanic servicing heavy road constuction equipment. At some point he suffered from an accident where he had one of his legs amputated and therefore he retired prematurely. My aunt Ella worked as a cook and domestic in the hotel industry for most of her life before dying prematurely of brain cancer. They had no children together. I believe that my uncle Steve\'s father was an OPP or town police constable in the Arkona, Middlesex Cty, ON area and I would like to find out more about his mother and father and siblings ancestry. I would also like to find out and confirm the death dates and places of both my aunt and uncle in the Chilliwack, BC area. I need a volunteer(s) to try and find any information (newspaper clippings, vital records sources, obituaries, tombstones inscriptions, etc.) about Garnet (Steve) & Ella (Patience) Stephenson while they lived in BC from approx. 1960's - 1990's. I was thinking that establishing contact with the chief or head Librarian at the local Chilliwack Public Library to perform a surname or card catalogue search would be a good starting point. Any help with answers to the above matters will be greatly appreciated! ==== CAN-BRITISH-COLUMBIA Mailing List ==== Every two months or so, please repost your interests, telling us what you know and where you've looked and what you still need to find out.