Coronation Chicken Sandwiches

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

June 1, 2023

“Coronation Chicken. . . Sandwiches”

 

This photo made me smile this week. This is Kaylen, my grand-niece, daughter of Joseph and Christa Booth, swinging with her chicken. Chicken will not be part of coronation sandwiches.

 

 

It’s been a nerve-wracking week with Erin, cousin Cindy, and her daughter, Sarah, and their families, living relatively close to forest fires and being ever on the alert for evacuation notices. Many hectares burned in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

 

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New this week are Byron Holmes and Alecia Wellman.

 

I met Byron Holmes personally at the Holmes Reunion 2016 but before that, I talked to him about our ancestors. He likes to research the civil war era. Not sure if he’s still researching in his retirement or not. Perhaps he will tell. He is in the William N Holmes line, and son of Cliff and Viola (Freeman) Holmes. He and his wife, Annmarie, have two children, Lois and Jonathan, and three grandchildren. They used to host the “last annual gathering of the clan” if I got that right, or was it “annual last gathering of the clan,” but I guess they had their last gathering for the time being – that darned ol’ pandemic. Annmarie is deep into genealogy since the reunion, and often helps me out.

 

I don’t know Alecia Wellman but I know she’s one of the Wellman “kids” so she must be lots of fun. Alecia is the youngest daughter of Mark and Sandra (Bannister) Wellman of the Charles R Holmes line, and visiting her Facebook, I see that she is in the insurance business.

 

My genealogy goals for this week were:

 

·         Chronicle several times, and publish on Thursday morning.

·         Keep researching and writing about Daniel Holmes for the “Where There’s a Will” article.

·         Complete the William Holmes line for the Lincoln Historical Society when FTM is fixed.

·         Continue indexing old New Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS website project.

·         Get ready to scan Uncle Billy’s guest book for the NBGS website.

·         Get ready for the AGM for NBGS and for our branch, both in May.

·         Revisit “Fairfield” of CCC.

·         Spend a bit of time on Moore family research.

·         *NEW - Plan a genealogy outing to Portage Vale for a Saturday in June, which won’t take any work except for sending out some emails and finding out which is the best day with a rain day just in case, as we will be traipsing through cemeteries. Local folks will be invited to visit the newly cleared out pioneer cemetery of our ancestors.

The Annual General Meeting of the New Brunswick Genealogy Society Inc. went off without a hitch except for something that had nothing to do with me. Everybody showed up who was supposed to, and nobody showed up who wasn’t supposed to. Lunch was awesome, served on china and teacups: a choice of seafood chowder and minestrone; sandwiches – salmon, coronation chicken (recipe of sandwiches served at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation with variations by chef Donald), and egg salad; pies – a choice of blueberry, apple, chocolate and lemon; and juice, water, tea and coffee. Lots of raves for Donald and Heather, members of the group and caterers. Miriam of Lady Smith Manor gave a talk about the previous occupants of the manor. I crawled into bed shortly after 9 that evening and slept like a baby.

I started off my research week on Friday morning by watching the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra concert of last week in its entirety. What an amazing performance, and a New Brunswick history lesson in vignettes to complement it. Time well spent! If you wish to watch it, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU736-dRyb8  Best watched full screen, with volume up to listen to Princess Anne’s closing remarks, which give a brief history of the orchestra and the 175^th anniversary of the 8^th New Brunswick’s hussars. The MC, Marshall Button, does a great example of a Loyalist with an Acadian accent. Pipers piped near the beginning for the enjoyment of several of you. A couple of my acquaintances are excited to travel to New York in the near future, to play at Carnagie Hall.

 

I pulled out an old purse this week, and in a pocket I found two USB drives that I had no memory of. One had one thing on it which I erased; the other had stuff on it from 2005 and 2006, which I partially erased. Had fun going through my stuff; it also contained Julie’s thesis notes on it which brought back some memories of all the time she spent with trees and writing in her room with Elsa the cat, who made her way into the acknowledgements of said thesis. I think Elsa and Ms. Penny, her advisor, kept her sane that year.

 

I also found some Holmes stuff – really early research. From “The Colpitts family in America:” some fun snippets.

 

Home remedy, Marg (Mum): Take the hot griddle outside. It must have come directly from the stove. Pour hot tea on it. Use a cloth to shine shoes with what you get.

Home remedy. Ask Mom. Goose grease on the chest. Was it really goose grease from a goose? Yes. (Used for chest colds. As the neighbour Blakeney family didn’t keep geese, the Holmes family kept them supplied as well. I remember Mum telling me that.)

Matthew Moore (my nephew): recently (fall 2004) joined the staff of a grocery store - started as a cart boy (sorry, that is probably incorrect these days) but has since moved up to a stocker. In a grocery cart, he found a bank night deposit bag from a company. It contained a substantial amount of money. He tucked it into his vest and went into the store. They found a lady wandering the aisles and crying. He returned the bag to her and got himself a big unwanted hug.

Minnie (Mum’s mother): said to Mom, not sure when, (paraphrased), “I wish I could go to sleep and when I wake up I would be with my mother.”

Minnie (ditto): fell and broke her hip right after she came to stay at Aunt Nan’s for the winter. Here they had been worrying about Gram and Gramp staying all alone at the farm. ( I don’t remember this, even though I wrote it down.)

Dad used to take his Louis L’Amour books into the hospital to read and Dr. Paris used to borrow them; actually, I don’t think they ever found their way back, which was okay with Dad for he really liked Dr. Paris and the books were a dime a dozen. Dr. Paris had a very professional perspective of Louis L’Amour and his novels. He liked the way the poor cowboy was thrown from his horse, impaled on a fence, left alone to die in the hot sun, and the next day he got up, jumped on his horse, and galloped away into the sunset. (Of all the doctors Dad ever saw, Dr. Paris was a favourite. Dad was sad when he left Moncton. He was a heart specialist.)

Dad’s favorite book: Tom Sawyer.

Mom’s most despised book: A Tale of Two Cities

Uncle John Colpitts, son of William S Colpitts: Brother of Great-grandfather Benjamin Colpitts (my great-grandfather on my mother’s maternal side). He used to spend quite a bit of time at the farm. Gram and Gramp had a big old radio, and neighbours used to come and listen to the talk shows. He was senile when Mom remembers this happening. He’d call out, “Minnie, those people are fighting again.” He was listening to the soap operas. He couldn’t figure out how those people got into the radio, and why they kept fighting. Minnie would go in and turn the radio off and he’d be happy. He thought Minnie was pretty smart to make them stop fighting.

Gramp Holmes: according to Bob, he acquired the bees as a remedy for his rheumatism. Someone told him that the bee stings would keep his arthritic pain at bay so every ten days or so he’d go out to his bees and allow them to sting him. Then he had to remove the stingers very carefully, but after that he would feel better for ten days or so.

Charles Holmes: his teeth were all molars, even the front ones. Mom doesn’t remember seeing him with molars where they shouldn’t be, because he wore false teeth. Did any of my cousins know this?

Christmas at the farm: Mom remembers waiting expectantly for the tree, which they only put up the day before Christmas. They put tiny candle holders which clamped onto the branch, with candles in them. They only lit them for a few minutes. It must have been magical.

This is a story that must be kept secret, for fear of embarrassing the protagonist. (As the protagonist and his wife have passed on, I am telling the secret.) Lesley Holmes was almost finished knitting a coat sweater and needed to knit a belt to go around the waist. One thing Lesley does not enjoy knitting is the ribbing part, so she asked Robbie to knit it for her. She showed him how and he picked it right up, and knit her belt. Proud of his accomplishment and rather enjoying the craft, he picked up four needles and knit himself a pair of socks, needing only a smidgeon of help turning the heels. Lesley told me that his tension was perfect and his socks were beautiful. However, sad to say, the socks heralded his retirement from his knitting career. He built a workshop and made canoes and furniture instead. (My grandfather, Floyd Holmes, won awards at the Westmorland County Fair for knitting, crocheting, and embroidery. He learned from his mother, and taught my mother how to knit, but not how to crochet. She could do basic embroidery.)

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An easy page of my transcription project of Daniel Holmes’ probate.

Too bad the lawyers didn’t take cursive writing lessons from Daniel.

Last Will

Of

Daniel Holmes

Salisbury

 

 

10  30

 

(For comparison purposes: Daniel Holmes' signature on this document match the signatures

on the 1971 census. He was the enumerator.)

 

 

 

 

We’re not out of the woods yet. Stay safe, folks.