Thanks so much for passing the information on, Muriel. I have been able to find quite a few things in the directories. I do have one question that hopefully someone on this list will be able to answer. Quite a few people have an abbreviation after their names. I have figured out drsmkr is dressmaker. Would anyone know what gro means? It is listed after a Spinster great aunt of mine who was living in the house of a family member but considered as Head on the census as relationship, so perhaps there was a separate apartment. Thanks Shirley in British Columbia __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

Hi Shirley: gro = grocer at least, that was the abbreviation for my relative whom I know was a grocer. Marg in Sunny Alberta Shirley MacNutt wrote: >Thanks so much for passing the information on, Muriel. I have been able to find quite a few things in the directories. > >I do have one question that hopefully someone on this list will be able to answer. Quite a few people have an abbreviation after their names. I have figured out drsmkr is dressmaker. Would anyone know what gro means? It is listed after a Spinster great aunt of mine who was living in the house of a family member but considered as Head on the census as relationship, so perhaps there was a separate apartment. > >Thanks > >Shirley in British Columbia > > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >http://mail.yahoo.com > > >==== CAN-ONT-CARLETON Mailing List ==== >Check out other genealogy resources on the net at John Fuller's most helpful site > http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail.html > >============================== >New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and search for your ancestors at the same time. Share your tree with family and friends. Learn more: http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429 > > > >

Thanks Marg Grocer had come to mind but this was a favorite great aunt of my mothers and my mom had never mentioned her being a grocer. Of course my mom wasn't born until 1911 so most likely all she knew of this aunts earlier years would have been what she was told. She always only knew her as running a boarding house. I was surprised to find her living where she was on the 1901 Census. I searched and searched for her in the area of Ottawa where my mother had said the boarding house was and, of course, I never found her. Thanks to the people who transcribed the 1901 Census online I was able to find her. Do you mind if I ramble? I'll try to explain. All I knew about this woman was what my mother had told me about her. She said that she was "contrary". If she went to visit her brother and his wife poured her a cup of tea she'd walk to the sink and pour it out. If her brother poured her tea she would drink it. She either liked someone or she didn't and that was the end of it. She loved my mom for some reason but hated her sister who was 10 months older. Her name was Sadie. She showed up on the 1891 Census in Templeton, Quebec living with her twin brother Alex. Alex married the end of May, 1891. My mother told me that Alex and Sadie had a fight and that Alex had kicked her out with nothing but 10cents to take the ferry across the river to Ottawa. My great grandmother, Rachel, was Sadie's sister and she lived with her husband in Ottawa. Her husband had a brother living only a few blocks from him in Ottawa and that is where Sadie showed up on the 1901 Census. Thanks to the Ottawa directories I see that the first time she appeared in there at that address was the 1895/96 directory. The house must have been rather large because I've met a 3rd cousin who is also related to the wife of the man who owned the house where Sadie lived. This address comes up over and over as being the address where this relative or that relative resided in her study of her family history as well. I noticed in the early directories that there were vacant lots on either side of this house. Then about 1895 or so this changed to a private lot on one side. If Sadie was a grocer perhaps it meant she grew things on that private lot to sell to support herself. This would also explain why the woman of the house was listed at that address one year even though her husband was still living. She wasn't listed with an occupation but I would like to find out if perhaps she and Sadie were in the growing business together. In the Will passing this house on there was also a lot on the next cross street mentioned. It is possible that the private lot next door was in actuality facing a different street. These directories fascinate me. Even though I grew up in Ottawa and know where most of these streets are I find that the directories will list what side of the steet the houses were on and what the cross streets were. In the case of my great grandfather he built his own house on College Avenue which has been gone for many many years because it was expropriated to build Ottawa University. But because of the geographical descriptions of where the streets were exactly I could go there and visualize pretty well exactly where this house stood. Two of the family members that I have found so far lived outside of the city. The directories have given directions on where certain villages were in relation to the city of Ottawa. There is so much information in there to help put flesh on our family histories. Shirley marg mcfarlane <mmcfarla@telusplanet.net> wrote: Hi Shirley: gro = grocer at least, that was the abbreviation for my relative whom I know was a grocer. Marg in Sunny Alberta __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

Many thanks, Shirley -- we all have family stories to tell. This has been very interesting and I hope you are able to add the printer's symbol of "-30-" at the end in time. Some day I will shock all subscribers -- the ones who do not know me -- about what one can pack into 80 1/2 years!!! The latest achievement was release of Bill S-18 and granting us the 1911 to 2001 census records -- it was a pleasure to get back to some genealogy today -- updating several of the books I have written. Any more great family stories -- it makes family history live! Muriel M. Davidson muriel_davidson@sympatico.ca Brampton, ON -- formerly Nova Scotia ----- Original Message ----- "Shirley MacNutt" <shirleymacnutt@yahoo.ca> wrote > Thanks Marg > > Grocer had come to mind but this was a favorite great aunt of my mothers and my mom had never mentioned her being a grocer. Of course my mom wasn't born until 1911 so most likely all she knew of this aunts earlier years would have been what she was told. She always only knew her as running a boarding house. I was surprised to find her living where she was on the 1901 Census. I searched and searched for her in the area of Ottawa where my mother had said the boarding house was and, of course, I never found her. Thanks to the people who transcribed the 1901 Census online I was able to find her. > > Do you mind if I ramble? I'll try to explain. > > All I knew about this woman was what my mother had told me about her. She said that she was "contrary". If she went to visit her brother and his wife poured her a cup of tea she'd walk to the sink and pour it out. If her brother poured her tea she would drink it. She either liked someone or she didn't and that was the end of it. She loved my mom for some reason but hated her sister who was 10 months older. > > Her name was Sadie. She showed up on the 1891 Census in Templeton, Quebec living with her twin brother Alex. Alex married the end of May, 1891. My mother told me that Alex and Sadie had a fight and that Alex had kicked her out with nothing but 10cents to take the ferry across the river to Ottawa. My great grandmother, Rachel, was Sadie's sister and she lived with her husband in Ottawa. Her husband had a brother living only a few blocks from him in Ottawa and that is where Sadie showed up on the 1901 Census. Thanks to the Ottawa directories I see that the first time she appeared in there at that address was the 1895/96 directory. The house must have been rather large because I've met a 3rd cousin who is also related to the wife of the man who owned the house where Sadie lived. This address comes up over and over as being the address where this relative or that relative resided in her study of her family history as well. > > I noticed in the early directories that there were vacant lots on either side of this house. Then about 1895 or so this changed to a private lot on one side. If Sadie was a grocer perhaps it meant she grew things on that private lot to sell to support herself. This would also explain why the woman of the house was listed at that address one year even though her husband was still living. She wasn't listed with an occupation but I would like to find out if perhaps she and Sadie were in the growing business together. In the Will passing this house on there was also a lot on the next cross street mentioned. It is possible that the private lot next door was in actuality facing a different street. > > These directories fascinate me. Even though I grew up in Ottawa and know where most of these streets are I find that the directories will list what side of the steet the houses were on and what the cross streets were. In the case of my great grandfather he built his own house on College Avenue which has been gone for many many years because it was expropriated to build Ottawa University. But because of the geographical descriptions of where the streets were exactly I could go there and visualize pretty well exactly where this house stood. > > Two of the family members that I have found so far lived outside of the city. The directories have given directions on where certain villages were in relation to the city of Ottawa. There is so much information in there to help put flesh on our family histories. > > Shirley > > > > > > > > marg mcfarlane <mmcfarla@telusplanet.net> wrote: > Hi Shirley: > > gro = grocer > > at least, that was the abbreviation for my relative whom I know was a > grocer. > > Marg in Sunny Alberta > >

Hello Shirley and many others:- I have pored over zillion miles of microfilm -- checking census records but have never, as far as I can recall, ever seen the abbreviation "gro". If anyone knows of this abbreviation or OTHERS, please post to the list for all of us. As list administrator, genealogy is not only names and dates, but little things like "dressmaker", history of the area of that period -- makes it all come alive! Should any subscriber also have area history stories, please post them -- and if the area name has changed, please include the past and present name. Let's all be members of the RAOGK Society -- it is fun! Muriel -- List Administrator, Brampton, ON ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shirley MacNutt" <shirleymacnutt@yahoo.ca> To: <CAN-ONT-CARLETON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 7:39 PM Subject: [Can-Ont-Carleton] Canadian Directories - question > Thanks so much for passing the information on, Muriel. I have been able to find quite a few things in the directories. > > I do have one question that hopefully someone on this list will be able to answer. Quite a few people have an abbreviation after their names. I have figured out drsmkr is dressmaker. Would anyone know what gro means? It is listed after a Spinster great aunt of mine who was living in the house of a family member but considered as Head on the census as relationship, so perhaps there was a separate apartment. > > Thanks > > Shirley in British Columbia