Dear List I have just joined this list to try and find something about my ancestor Capt. George RUDLIN who I believed arrived in British Columbia in 1859. I have found him on the 1881 Census, 1901 Census, Voters Lists and that he and his wife Sophie are buried in the Ross Bay Cemetry. Just through surfing I have found reference to a RUDLIN Bay in the area, how would I find out whether this bay was named after my George? There is also a RUDLIN St in Victoria. I am working on the premise that they married before they moved to Canada, as both were born in England. Has any one any suggestions as to how to find out what boat he travelled to Canada on, I would expect that George was one of the Ships Crew if not the Captain. All suggestions gratefully received, I think I may have reached a dead end with internet resources. You are very lucky to have your archives on line. If anyone would like a look up in England, please let me know as I have a week at the end of the month when I am visiting the Family Records Centre in London and other regional record offices. I may be able to help. Kind Regards Imogen Edmunds One Name Study Number 3529 RUDLIN/RUDLAND/RUDLING and its variants

Hello Imogen, PLACE NAME ORIGIN I can give Janet Mason a call on Monday, at the BC government's place names office, to ask about the origin of the name Rudlin Bay. She may have some information on computer, instantly accessible, or she may have to go back to the paper files, which would take a couple of weeks. They keep track of naming of places in B.C. Janet says the place names office is getting more and more queries from people doing their family history. She would appreciate it if people who find solid proof of place names origins in their own family research, would write and tell her about it. She needs real documentation, to justify adding data to the official files, and thinks it's a shame more people won't take the time to call her back when they do find information that could go in the permanent files. STREET NAME ORIGIN As for the origin of the street name, the Archives of the City of Victoria MAY be able to help you there. They are online at http://www.city.victoria.bc.ca/depts/archives/ There is an email address on that page. Also, if you haven't searched their photo subject index yet, there is a listing for a photograph of Captain Rudlin there. Another way to check out Rudlin Street would be to trace the Rudlin family in the very earliest BC City Directories, (first one was 1868) and see if the family home was in that area; if so, you can be pretty sure the street was named after them. Also, I will ask my friend Jack when I see him this morning. He once worked in the place names office and seems to know a lot about street names origins too. Rudlin is not a street most people in Victoria would know. It's an odd little street, lost in time between two fairly major arteries for east-west travel, close to the downtown core. I enjoy meandering in my car through out-of-the-way little streets in Victoria, looking for such missed places. This street has many old houses, though I doubt there is anything dating back anywhere near the time your Rudlins arrived in B.C. An early hospital was located near here, gone for about a hundred years now. OTHER POSSIBILITIES FOR HOME INFORMATION If you get the address or addresses they lived at in Victoria (I see the captain died in Vancouver) there is another quite interesting source of information in the City of Victoria's archives. If the house they lived in was in the city of Victoria, and has been demolished, you can see the old lot plan, with outlines of the house, and odd bits of information such as when it was plumbed or wired. Additionally, there may be photos of the street that show the house, or, if a house they lived in is still standing, you can probably find a volunteer to take a photo for you. INFORMATION ON CAPTAIN RUDLIN BC Archives has an INQUIRIES page, at http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/services/inquiry/accescom.htm and there is an electronic form for you to leave a query in, at the bottom of that page. The staff will answer quick research questions without charge, if they can expect to find the answer within their half hour time limit. You must think of one very specific question, or they just refer you to the professional researchers. Their other restriction is they will not do ANY research in the Vital Statistics microfilms. I think Captain Rudlin might be listed in the police census of Victoria, if he arrived in 1859. When the city was incorporated in 1861, the police department did a house to house survey of residents in what is now the downtown area. Not the sort of thing citizens would appreciate today! But it's there, at BC Archhives, and there were so few residents it doesn't take long to search. So that might be a way of narrowing down the date of his arrival. Of course he might have been in the area, but living on a ship, along with his wife, in those days. Some captains' wives did go along on board. BIRTH RECORDS If you know there were births in British Columbia, but they were too early to be recorded by BC Vital Statistics Agency, (pre 1872) then you need to know the church affiliation, so you can have the records searched. If they were Church of England, any births in Victoria might be found now at the Diocesan Archives on Vancouver Street in Victoria. This archives charges for certificates, I think about fifteen Canadian dollars. They don't have an email address. Anglican Diocese of British Columbia Archives 912 Vancouver Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8V 3V7 Contact Person: Mrs. Mary Barlow Phone Number: (604) 386-7781 Fax Number: (604) 386-4013 Hours: Monday, 9:30 - 15:00; Wednesday, 9:30 - 12:00; and by appointment. MARITIME RECORDS You're fortunate to be researching a sea captain. They tend to leave a lot of information behind. Specifically maritime resources at BC Archives and other repositories might contain details of his life. If you have the names of his ships, from the Censuses, then it's worth looking into the history of these ships, and even perhaps the companies. The newspapers used to have columns devoted to ship movements and ship news, which were in port, or expected in port, and articles on ships encountering dangers and disasters were common. Once Captain Rudlin was living here, that is, based in BC, he would have to be licenced here, and there are records for this too, at BC Archives. There are Maritime Museums in both Victoria and Vancouver. An email to either of these might give you some quick information. BC Maritime Museum in Victoria http://mmbc.bc.ca/ Vancouver Maritime Museum http://www.vmm.bc.ca/index.htm VERTICAL FILES AT BC ARCHIVES - May be Best Source for Ship Name, Arrival Date. One thing worth asking about at BC Archives is their Vertical Files, a collection of newspaper clippings and notes, now microfilmed for easy access. It takes only a moment for staff to see if there is a Captain Rudlin in the Index, and if there is, only a few minutes to spin through the microfilm reel and photocopy what's there. You would only have to pay for the photocopied pages. You can hope to find a newspaper ran a feature article on him, as a "pioneer" or "old timer," or that it printed a long obituary. These can be GREAT for finding out the date of arrival in the country, though they sometimes round off the numbers too much ("40 years" for 43 actually) making it hard to pinpoint the time you should be searching for a ship. However, it is possible that the name of his ship would be included in an article, because he was a seafaring man. If nothing is found in the Vertical Files, it would be very worthwhile to search the Colonist for an obituary. I would say the Colonist, though the captain died in Vancouver, because they were buried in Victoria. Claudia Claudia Cole Independent Research Agent 304 - 1960 Lee Avenue Victoria BC V8R 4W8 Tel: 1 250 598-7859 claudialc@home.com -----Original Message----- From: Imogen Edmunds [mailto:imo@blueyonder.co.uk] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 1:57 AM To: CAN-BRITISH-COLUMBIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [CAN-BC] My RUDLIN Ancestors in British Columbia Dear List I have just joined this list to try and find something about my ancestor Capt. George RUDLIN who I believed arrived in British Columbia in 1859. I have found him on the 1881 Census, 1901 Census, Voters Lists and that he and his wife Sophie are buried in the Ross Bay Cemetry. Just through surfing I have found reference to a RUDLIN Bay in the area, how would I find out whether this bay was named after my George? There is also a RUDLIN St in Victoria. I am working on the premise that they married before they moved to Canada, as both were born in England. Has any one any suggestions as to how to find out what boat he travelled to Canada on, I would expect that George was one of the Ships Crew if not the Captain. All suggestions gratefully received, I think I may have reached a dead end with internet resources. You are very lucky to have your archives on line. If anyone would like a look up in England, please let me know as I have a week at the end of the month when I am visiting the Family Records Centre in London and other regional record offices. I may be able to help. Kind Regards Imogen Edmunds One Name Study Number 3529 RUDLIN/RUDLAND/RUDLING and its variants ==== 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.

Great luck, with Imogen's Captain Rudlin! Just as I hoped, my friend Jack recognized Captain George Rudlin's name immediately. Jack did a research project on the history of Discovery Island, and still has a binder on of notes and clippings on it's early development, Captain Rudlin being prominent for a time. A lot of research time saved for you! Isn't this a great example of what internet email groups can do? At our regular Saturday morning breakfast today, Jack's immediate response to my question about Captain Rudlin was, oh yes, I think he was in lumbering, at Discovery Island, and of course the Bay is named for him. (The Bay is on Discovery Island) Then he said Whoa! Don't quote me, it's some time since I did the research. So off we went to get the binder from his home, after breakfast. I haven't had time to read much, but I can tell you that the captain and Sophie were married in Canada! She was the sister of a hotel owner's wife, and was brought over here to Victoria on her own, when her sister was well established. She met the captain at her family's hotel, by serving him in the dining room. The captain sent money to the newspaper staff, to allow them to toast their marriage, a custom at the time. One of the titles of the newspaper feature articles is "In Vancouver a scoundrel, but in Victoria, Captain was a Hero." That title relates to an incident of rivalry between the two cities. Some of the feature articles have quotations, so you can hear his actual phrases -- or as close as the reporter came to remembering his actual words. Lots of details of his career, from youth onwards. There are lists of exact names of ships, where they stopped, what work they were doing, etc. One later article has conflicting dates, but analyzing the articles together will allow you to figure out what's likely correct, and then get confirmation from ship lists, contemporary newspapers, etc. In just a quick glance at one of the articles, I was struck by a couple of ship names I recognize. Charmer, a well known ship, and Princess Victoria. This last boat was his final one, according to one article. I've recently worked on a ship project for a client, and I recall that the first Princess Victoria was a specially built and well loved ship of the Canadian Pacific Railway's new BC Coastal Steamship Service. Captain Rudlin died soon after the beginnings of this company. You will surely find out more about this, and you might be well advised to ask at BC Archives about the Earl Marsh collection of BC Coastal Steamship history. It may not be in their online catalogue yet, but it is accessible, (they have a box list) and there is probably one binder entirely on that ship alone. I believe the CPR purchased the Charmer too. This collection would cover the very end of his career. By the way, it turns out my friend Jack's first childhood home in Victoria, in the 1940's, was on Rudlin Street! So of course we all had to take a drive around to see the streetscape this morning. Though there are lots of older homes there, Jack is sure that if the Rudlins did live right there, they would have been on that site before any of those houses were built. Imogen, you should email me privately, and we'll decide what to do about getting the pertinent information out to you, from Jack's binder. Even without this handy binder of information, you would have found lots by the usual methods, just a lot more slowly. The items I think you want to know most: Where He Was Married: Daily Colonist article dated 3 Nov 1957 page 4 refers to: marriage announcement December 1868, Daily Colonist "In this city, Captain Rudlin to Miss Sophia Hill, daughter of John Hill, Warwickshire" How he reached British Columbia: same Colonist article says: ..signed on the Red Gauntlet from Valparaiso to San Francisco, and from there in the Columbia to Esquimalt (which is the best harbour in the Victoria area) Lewis and Dryden's "Marine History of the Pacific Northwest" is the source of this information. BC Archives has this book, and the staff could look him up and copy the page for you. Anyone with sea captains in their family history in early British Columbia should check this book for their names! And cross check under the names of ships their ancestors commanded, for possible information on incidents in their lives. The internet is just amazing sometimes. Of course the mass of information available is because of this man being a prominent sea captain, in an area with a small population at the time, and in the era where ocean travel was the only way to go. Claudia Claudia Cole Independent Research Agent 304 - 1960 Lee Avenue Victoria BC V8R 4W8 Tel: 1 250 598-7859 claudialc@home.com -----Original Message----- From: Imogen Edmunds [mailto:imo@blueyonder.co.uk] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 1:57 AM To: CAN-BRITISH-COLUMBIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [CAN-BC] My RUDLIN Ancestors in British Columbia Dear List I have just joined this list to try and find something about my ancestor Capt. George RUDLIN who I believed arrived in British Columbia in 1859. I have found him on the 1881 Census, 1901 Census, Voters Lists and that he and his wife Sophie are buried in the Ross Bay Cemetry. Just through surfing I have found reference to a RUDLIN Bay in the area, how would I find out whether this bay was named after my George? There is also a RUDLIN St in Victoria. I am working on the premise that they married before they moved to Canada, as both were born in England. Has any one any suggestions as to how to find out what boat he travelled to Canada on, I would expect that George was one of the Ships Crew if not the Captain. All suggestions gratefully received, I think I may have reached a dead end with internet resources. You are very lucky to have your archives on line. If anyone would like a look up in England, please let me know as I have a week at the end of the month when I am visiting the Family Records Centre in London and other regional record offices. I may be able to help. Kind Regards Imogen Edmunds One Name Study Number 3529 RUDLIN/RUDLAND/RUDLING and its variants ==== 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.