Absolutely Literate

Friday, February 19, 2010

Announcement: New Editor for British Columbia History

The BC Historical Federation Council and the Publications Committee are pleased to announce Andrea Lister as the new editor of British Columbia History. she brings to the job a B.A. in History from the University of B.C. (1994) complemented by a Certificate in Technical Communications (2003) from Simon Fraser University. Andrea worked for many years as the Communications Manager for a national software and services firm before returning to the world of history. She has just completed the layout and design for the book Seams and Dreams: A History of Plowing in the Fraser Valley by David B. Reid to be published in March 2010.

Andrea has worked on publications, on web sites, in museums, and in retail. She is already involved assisting Barrie Sanford, the guest editor, in preparation of the special transportation issue, vol. 43:1 March 2010 issue.

If you would like to contact Andrea Lister about British Columbia History you can reach her at bcheditor(at)bchistory.ca

website: www.bchistory.ca


Jacqueline Gresko
B.C. Historical Federation
Publications Chair

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Let Maple Ridge council know you want a new Museum

The municipality is engaged in a process to create a new Master Plan for the Parks & Leisure Services department which will set the course for the next 10 years. This is an opportunity for us to let Council and senior staff know that we hold the creation of a modern museum & archives facility as a priority for this district.

There are public meetings at 7 pm tonight and Thursday night.

Tuesday, February 9 - Whonnock Elementary, 27471 - 112 Avenue Thursday,
February 11 - Maple Ridge City Hall Council Chambers, 11995 Haney Place

The more museum supporters who attend those meetings, the stronger our message will be on getting the new museum facility into the top rank of priorities for Parks & Leisure services.

If you are unable to attend, please have a look at the draft master plan.

particularly pages 94 to 102 and send your comments and recommendations to the council.

Thank you.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Pirates or Pilots?

as published in the January 2010 MRHS Family History Newsletter

My grandma always claimed that her ancestors, the DeWolfs, were French pirates. My research thus far has traced them back to the Netherlands but not to France. However, As I have tracked the DeWolf family and their in-laws I started to come across the following occupations: ship owner, ship broker and ship chandler.

My second great-grand father, John ROUNSEFELL was a ship chandler. A ship chandler is a retail dealer in special supplies or equipment for ships, who may also be responsible for the berthing and docking of the vessel before it arrives into port and is usually considered the liaison officer for the vessel's needs and demands in a foreign port. Apparently, they were also called ship pilots – hmm, maybe my grandma heard pirate instead of pilot?

To continue my research into the ship owning side of my family, much to my excitement, I received the Ships and Seafarers of Atlantic Canada CD for Christmas. This CD is a fully searchable CD containing data on the vessels, captains and crews of Great Britain and Atlantic Canada, 1787-1936 produced by the Maritime History Archive at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

You can check the list of surnames included on the CD before ordering it from their website. I checked it and found ROUNSEFELL, DEWOLF, DE WOLFE and MAHON.

The part of the CD that I have explored thus far is the owner database. The first database is compiled from the Certificates of Registry for 10 major ports of Atlantic Canada. It contains information on the vessels registered at each port and on their owners. John ROUNSEFELL co-owned two schooners, two barques, and three brigantines from a period of 1865 to 1874. Most of the vessels were lost at sea. Some time before 1871 he leaves Nova Scotia and moves to Liverpool, Lancashire, England. The interesting thing is that he co-owns many of these ships with his brother-in laws and cousins of his wife, Margaret, nee DeWolf. The database is full of DeWolfs who were ship owners so I have only just cracked the surface of this part of my family’s history.

I also did a search on the Google news Advanced News Archive Search and found some Marine Intelligence notices from the New York Times that mention the arrival of the Schooner Grand Pre., one of John Rounsefell’s vessels.



New York Times – October 26, 1867




Next stop – the book store. As part of the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project that produced the CD, they have also produced a book Maritime Capital: The Shipping Industry in Atlantic Canada, 1820-1914 by Eric W. Sager and Gerald E. Panting. Perhaps this book will answer some of my questions as to why they moved to England, with some of the same business partner-relations and why they moved back to Canada.

My Blog List