Elsie's Home in England

When Elsie Norah Bushby left her home in New Milton on the south coast of England in 1913, I wonder if she thought she would ever see it again.  I can't imagine her feelings leaving everything she knew to come to the Canadian prairies where her brothers had moved to 5 years earlier.  Maybe she was just planning a visit but as fate would have it, she met Thomas Boulton and the two were married the next year.  She didn't return for a visit but letters and postcards went back and forth to stay in touch with the two sisters and the other family that remained in England.

Randy's Aunt Mary, Elsie's daughter, made a trip to England to see for herself some of the places her Mother had talked about.  Aunt Mary's family has shared some of her mementos with me and I've included them in this blog post.  The first is at Mary Magdalene Churchyard Cemetery in New Milton.

Written on the back of the above picture -

No need to tell you what this is.  The heather you planted at the foot of Mother's tombstone had grown into a huge bush.  I cut a lot of it away and did the grave up.     Dorrie

On the back of this one, Aunt Mary wrote -

Original church (south side) but walls had been reconstructed with bricks.  Same picture our Mother had from Aunt Dorothy showing their Mother's grave

  This is what is written on the back of the photo above.  Google Streetview shows this location today here.  Wikipedia defines a priory as " a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress."  I wonder if that is the history of this buildng?

 

 

Caption on the back - Original stone entrance of St. Mary Magdalan Church in New Milton

 

Thanks to Aunt Mary's family for sharing these pictures with me. 

Boultons and the Model T Ford

This is a wonderful picture of Thomas and Elsie Boulton posing with their family and the Model T Ford in front of their home in about 1924.  Edwin, Randy's dad is the little boy of about 4 years old on his dad's knee.  Edna is sitting in front of them and Annie is sitting to the right.  Violet is standing beside Elsie.

The lack of trees in the background reminds me that when the Boultons first came to Manitoba, there were no trees anywhere around the area.  This was due to prairie fires that would sweep through the dead grass in the spring and burn for miles. In the twenties, small areas of trees were beginning to grow but in the coming decade, they would need to survive the drought years, the Dirty Thirties.

Thomas Edwin Boulton (1875 - 1961)

Thomas Edwin Boulton

Thomas Edwin Boulton was born at New Dublin, Ontario on January 26, 1876.  On the 1891 Canadian census he was living near Elizabethtown in the Brockville district of Ontario.  Thomas was 15 years old and living with his parents Benjamin (age 55), Ann (45), two brothers James (16) and Anthony (10) and two sisters Abigail (13) and Susan (9).  Also in the household is 81 year old widow Ann Boulton, Thomas' maternal grandmother.  Their surname is spelled "Bolton" on this document and throughout the years it switches with and without the "u".

In  March of 1892, when Thomas was 16 years old, the family left Ontario and moved west to a wooden building on SE 10-7-27 W1.  In the summer of 1892, they took up hometead five miles southeast of Reston, Manitoba on SE 24-6-28. 

On the Municipal Assessment Roll for 1893, Benjamin was assessed at $450 for the NE quarter and his son James H. for the NW quarter at the same assessed value.  There is also a column on the form called Statute Labor where the number "2" is filled in along with a $1.00 amount for each quarter. This would likely refer to 2 days of labor on roads or other public areas that was a requirement for the land owners in those days.

Once Thomas was old enough to have his own quarter, more land was aquired and they would have worked together to farm it.    

Thomas Boulton bought the land directly east of them in 1901, the SW quarter of 19-6-27 and in 1906 the NW quarter of the same section.  In 1913, Thomas aquired the SE and SW quarters of the home section 24-6-28. 

On May 4, 1914, Thomas married Elsie Norah Bushby who had immigrated from Sussex, England the year before.    

Local history books say that Thomas served on the Kinloss School Board for several years and that he was a member of the Reston Pool elevators.  Both Thomas and Elsie were members of the St. John's Anglican Church in Reston. The picture above is from the late forties or early fifites with their grandson, Richard Edwin, between them.

 

Thomas and Elsie - this photo was perhaps taken while celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in 1954.

Thomas and Elsie's gravestone in the Reston Cemetery is pictured above.  Notice that Thomas' year of birth is 1875, as it is in some family records. 

His birth record, found online and pictured above, indicates he was born on January 26, 1876 and the birth was registered on February 1, 1876.  He was delivered by a Dr. Moore and the name at the bottom is who filled in the registration.   

Obituary notice from the Reston Recorder

 

James William and Patience Emily Bushby

James William Bushby and Patience Emily Wooler 

Randy's great grandparents on his maternal grandmother's side were the Bushby's from Sussex, England.  This area is on the south sea coast of England on the English Channel.

James William Bushby was born in Goring, Sussex, England on the 15th of June in 1852. In the 1861 English census, he was 8 years old and lived with his father Henry (1819 - 1877) and mother Eleanor nee Moore (1819 - 1903) and 5 siblings.  Henry's occupation is a Railway Inspector. 

On October 12, 1878 at age 26, he married 18 year old Patience Emily Wooler at Hove Church in West Brighton, Sussex.

The census documents of 1881, 1891 and 1901 show the growing family living in the area with James listed as a carpenter.  Their address in 1901 was Priory Cottage on Christchurch Road, Barton on Sea, New Milton, Hampshire.  

On the 29th of December in 1908, 49 year old Patience died and was buried on the St. Mary Magdalene Church grounds in New Milton.

Three years later when the English Census is taken, James is noted to work at being a carpenter and undertaker. Two of his daughters live with hims, 26 year old Elsie as the housekeeper and 14 year old Gertrude as an apprentice dressmaker. It states that they lived in a 4 room house with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room.

James and these two daughter left Southampton on September 11, 1913. Two sons, Walter and Arthur had previously made the overseas journey and no doubt encouraged their family to join them.  They arrived at Port of Quebec aboard the ship S/S Ausonia on September 21, 1913.

James had daughters remaining in England and his son Walter lived in Westfield, New Jersey where he spent several years in the teens.  He was with Walter and his wife and three young children in Westfield according to the 1920 US Census.  He returned to England in June of 1920. 

After his return, he lived on his own until eyesight trouble forced him to live with his daughter Dorothy.  He died there on August 8, 1931 in the County of Leicester.

My best guesses at the family of James and Patience Bushby:

• Arthur Henry (1879 - 1933) - married Eliza Louisa Wardell - Reston, MB and Dollarton, BC
• Eleanor Frances "Lena" (1881 - 1950) - married Jim Carpenter - Middlesex, England
• Walter Edward (1882 - 1961) - married Ethel Elizabeth May Houre in Pipestone and later Martha Florence Sparkman - Reston and Westfield, New Jersey
• Elsie Norah (1884 - 1968) married Thomas Boulton - Reston
• Myra Elfrida "Queenie" (1887 - 1968) - never married - had a clothing business in Seattle, Washington
• George John (1889 - 1890)
• Dorothy "Dorrie" (1892 - 1967) - married Ewart Pickett - Leicester, England
• Gertrude Mary (1896 - 1929) married Charles McIntyre - Vancouver, La Jolle, California
• Lucilla Maude (1898 - 1898)

Thanks to Aunt Mary's family for sharing some of this family history from her notes.