It was 1988 and Elizabeth (Bess) Blaney Welch was 90 years old when asked by her niece, Patricia Blaney Koretchuk as to why she and Harry decided to come to Canada. Bess hotly declared in her still British accent “I didn’t decide it” and then told the following story:
Bess’s older brother Bill
had sent her the funds to go south to Hertfordshire with the children for a two
week rest following an illness. On the Tuesday night of the second week she had
a telephone call from Harry telling her she had better pack up her things and get
home because they were leaving for Canada on Saturday morning. He had sold
their belongings and the tickets were bought. “He just made up his mind and
that’s it. I was mad! He had sold everything” including some valuable gifts
from an aunt.
Likely there had been
some prior discussion between them because I found that ten Blaney relatives (aunts,
uncles, cousins and brothers) had gone to Canada in the preceding ten years
including Bess’s younger brother Stan, about a month before. My mother though, said she
was not surprised to hear the story as my grandfather did occasionally behave that
way.
I have stretched the
Miriam-Webster definition of a pioneer: “someone who is
one of the first people to move to and live in a new area” to
include these family members who came to Canada first and led the way for other
Blaney relatives to follow.
These adventurous men and women were all Elcocks, Blaney or Cheffins ancestors and most of them remained in Canada. One of my Great-Great Grandfather William Elcock's daughters, Ellen (Nellie) Beatrice Elcocks married Harold Wm. Joshua Cheffins Sr.
and her sister Martha Jane Elcocks married my great grandfather, Harry Blaney.
All of them merit their
own full length stories be told. For today here is a brief synopsis for each of
them with more to follow.
1913
1913
Albert (Abbe)
Robert Cheffins (1892-1978)
The earliest ancestor that I found to have come to
Canada was Albert (Abbe) Robert Cheffins. He arrived in Quebec on June 18, 1913
aboard the ship S.S. Megantic, about a year before WWI. He was twenty-one and listed
as an engineer heading for Montreal intending to work as an engineer in Canada.
.jpg) |
| Abbe Cheffins - Photo from S. Dyer |
.
Abbe was the son of Ellen (Nellie) Beatrice Elcocks and Harold William Joshua
Cheffins. According to the 1901 census, he
was born in Holland on May 22, 1892 and by the time of the 1911 England Census he
was 18, boarding in London and employed as a junior secretary to a
consulting engineer. He was from a family of engineers including his father and
his grandfather Cheffins. He had two brothers and a sister, Bill, Stan and
Ethel.
A year and a half later, which included belonging to
the Victoria Rifles Militia for four months, he was attested to the Canadian
Army on November 16th, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec. Shortly afterwards, Abbe married a Quebec girl, Mona
Beatrice Denovan and in 1921 they were living in Montreal. They adopted a son
Ronald who still lives in British Columbia.
1914
1914
Harold
William (Bill) Joshua Cheffins Jr. (1895-1963)
Abbe’s brother Bill arrived in Canada on April
5, 1914 aboard the S.S. Andania, landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was
nineteen and headed by rail to Leamington, Ontario to work as a farm labourer.
Born June 4th 1895, in Lambeth,
London, England, by 1911 Bill was living with his parents and his brother Stan,
in Seaford, Sussex, England. His sister, Ethel, was away at school.
Less than six months after arriving in
Canada, Bill enlisted in Canadian Army on September 22nd, 1914 at
Valcartier, Quebec. He returned to England after the war where he married Daisy
A. Baker in 1917. They had a daughter, Barbara who married Ronald Hawkins in 1950.
1919
1919
Clara Elcocks (1868-1956) and Ada Elcocks
(1873-1960)
.jpg) |
| Clara & Ada or Ada & Clara |
French polishing was a
lengthy, repetitive wood finishing technique that resulted in a high gloss
finish with a deep colour. Many thin coats of shellac dissolved in alcohol were
applied with an oil lubricated cotton or wool cloth pad. Between coats of the
shellac, super fine pumice was applied with considerable waiting time between.
The process was finished with a buffing of wax. The finish was beautiful and
fragile but it was simpler to repair than a varnish finish. It was
prominent in their time and used on expensive woods and furniture such as
pianos.
Their older sister Florence was also a French polisher. Being very
labour intensive, the technique was abandoned around 1930 for quicker and
cheaper methods.
Clara Elcocks Murphy
Clara Elcocks was baptized in the spring of 1868 in Walsall, Staffordshsire, England.
On May 3, 1891 at age
23, she married Oswald Bush in what I thought, from the indexes might be a double wedding, along
with her four year older sister Florence Phyllis who married Constant Mertens. However, on receipt of copies of their marriage entries it
turns out that Florence was married April
26th one week before Clara’s wedding. Banns for both couples were read in church and the marriages were performed by Rev. W.E. Ivens, Vicar of St. James Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham
26th one week before Clara’s wedding. Banns for both couples were read in church and the marriages were performed by Rev. W.E. Ivens, Vicar of St. James Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham
Sadly Clara was widowed three times, firstly with the death of Oswald shortly after they married. She married
Charles Henry Hall, December 16th, 1906, in Birmingham and she was widowed again
just before she emigrated to Canada in 1919. Her marriage record states that at the age of forty-seven she was working
as a chamber maid when she married Michael Murphy age fifty, on January 20,
1921 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Based on other documents it is likely that her age is understated.
Mike Murphy arrived
in Canada in 1899 and was building a logging railroad in Rock Bay, British
Columbia in 1920. He also had substantial land holdings. Clara did not have any
children but they were close to Clara’s nephews, Albert and Stan Blaney and her
niece, Bess.
Clara was widowed for
the third time when Mike Murphy died July 1, 1943.
Ada Elcocks Williamson
Clara's sister, Ada Elcocks was born in the summer of 1873 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England.
She married George
Francis Tack in the spring of 1901. George died in Birmingham in the autumn of
1917. Two years later Ada then emigrated to Canada with Clara. Ada married a Scotsman,
Wm. Williamson in Vancouver British Columbia on October 19th 1920. At
the time Ada was a waitress. They had no children. She was again widowed May
13, 1949 when William died in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Family lore has it
that Ada’s husband left town with Clara’s inheritance from Michael, forcing the
sisters to live on Vancouver’s “skid row” in their eighties – certainly more
research is needed on this story.
1920
Ellen (Nellie) Beatrice Elcocks (1870-1966) and Harold
William Joshua Cheffins (1869-1942)
After WWI the rest of the Cheffins family arrived in Montreal. Abbe & Bill’s parents along with their other
brother Stanley and their sister Ethel landed in
Montreal Quebec June 29, 1920.
Nellie was born in 1870 and was the seventh of eleven Elcocks children.
Nellie was born in 1870 and was the seventh of eleven Elcocks children.
.jpg) |
| Nellie & Harold |
On May 22, 1895 Nellie married Harold Cheffins
who was born January 12th 1869, in Hampstead, Middlesex, England.
He was the fourth born child in a well-to-do family of seven children. It was a large household including four servants.
She and Harold had four children, three sons and one daughter.
He was the fourth born child in a well-to-do family of seven children. It was a large household including four servants.
She and Harold had four children, three sons and one daughter.
They both returned to England in
1932 when they were in their early sixties. The passenger list states they
intended a permanent return to England with their future address being in Essex.
Harold died in 1942 in Sussex at the age of
seventy-three. Nellie travelled back and forth to North America to visit her children
in Canada and California USA. She died in 1966 in Welland, Ontario, Canada at the
age of ninety-six.
Eric
Eustace Stanley Cheffins (1898-1962)
Stan was born 1898 in Dartford, Kent, England
(near London). In 1909 at the age of 11, he is shown on a list of students
attending the Varndean Boys’ School, a well known grammar school in Brighton,
Sussex, England.
At the age of about 17, Stan joined the Royal Field Artillery
and he fought in WWI serving in France from December 1915.
Stan emigrated to Canada with his parents,
at the age of 22 and he married Louise Cherrington in Montreal in 1922. They
lived in the Fort Erie area of Ontario. Stan & Louise had two sons, Eric
Charles Allan and Albert W.H. who were both born in Canada. Stan also served with the Canadian Army for fifteen years.
Martha
Mary Ethel Cheffins (1900-1988)
 |
| Ethel Cheffins |
Harold
and Ellen’s daughter Ethel was born in 1900 also at Dartford. The 1911 census shows her to be a student living about 100 miles away from home
at the Ursuline Convent, Westgate on Sea, Kent.
The
passenger list of her arrival in Canada states that she was 19 years old and
willing to work in Canada as a farm labourer.
Ethel married Maynard DuBois and lived most of her adult life in
California USA, dying there in 1988. Ethel did not have any children.
1922
Albert James Blaney (1904-2001)
Bess’s brother, Albert
was born September 4, 1904 in Birmingham, England. He came alone to Canada at
the age of 17, leaving England June 22, 1922 on the S.S. Montrose.
.jpg) |
| Albert & Nell with friend's goat |
There is so much more of their story yet to be published.
Stanley Eric Blaney (1906-1978)
 |
| Albert & Stan Blaney |
Stanley Eric Blaney was Albert and Bess’s younger brother, born in Birmingham, England on January 12, 1906
At the age of
eighteen, Albert was making much more income in the logging camp than even his
father did in Birmingham, so about a year after he arrived in Canada, Albert
sent some of his savings home to pay his younger brother Stan’s way out to
Canada. Stan arrived in July 1923 aboard the S.S. Montrose. He was seventeen
years of age and travelling alone.
He married Margaret Kelly Thompson in 1930 in Vancouver. After “riding the
rails” and hitch-hiking across the country to Toronto, Ontario. They found work
there and lived with Bess for a while. They stayed for some years in Toronto where
in 1934 they had a daughter, Patricia. In 1945 they returned to their beloved
British Columbia.
During the depression
if someone heard of work being available somewhere else in the country, and Canada was a huge
country, often the only way to get there was “riding the rails” (illegally hopping
on freight trains). It was dangerous; there were many accidents as the men and
women tried to hop on or off moving trains and there were brutal guards hired
by the railroads to make sure there were no non-paying riders.
The two brothers and
their families suffered many challenges but they also led very adventurous and often
rewarding lives in several areas of Canada with many memories and tales to tell.
Both were small in stature but big in heart and courage.
Stan died in Vancouver
May 25, 1978 and Margaret died about a year previously, August 5, 1977. Their daughter Patricia
has lived most of her life in the Vancouver area.
1923
1923
Elizabeth (Bess) Blaney and Harry Welch
So, Aunt Clara helped
Albert; Albert helped Stan get established and when Harry & Bess arrived in
Canada in August 1923, they were able to stay with Harold and Ellen Elcocks Cheffins
in Montreal, Quebec for a few weeks until they could get employment and a tiny
place of their own.
This pattern would continue as Albert, Bess and Harry assisted
other family members to come to Canada over the following years.
The Blaney and
Cheffins cousins as well as the Elcocks aunts continued to visit and stay in touch with each other throughout
their lifetimes, including the next generation. My mother still has fond memories of
her Cheffins cousins.
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