Family Album: Parker, Chew, Richards (six)

Here we are back in April 1, 1992 in Kingston, Ontario, at the funeral of my Auntie Muriel. That's my son, Jake, on the far left; my mother Hilda Parker Morrissey (and later Nichols) next to him; an unidentified woman, perhaps the minister; my Uncle John Parker whose wife, Muriel Bott, with whom he had been married for almost fifty years has just died; then Erma and John Parker of St. Eustache, QC, the son of my uncle; and on the far right, John's sister, my cousin, Jo-Anne Parker. The two boys in the foreground are John and Erma's sons.

Here is my uncle with his son, John Parker, and daughter, Jo-Anne Parker, on either side of him.

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Grave of Richard Morrissey, Montreal

After my great great grandparents, Laurence Morrissey and Johannah Meany, arrived in Montreal around 1842, they lived at various locations. It is possible other relatives arrived here around the same time, including Richard Morrissey. Not much is known about Richard, he seems to have worked as a gardener and lived on one of the streets that disappeared to make way for the Ville Marie Expressway. That he is related to us is anecdotal. We know that Richard married twice and he doesn't seem to have had children with either wife. His second wife, who died within ten days of his death, is buried in an adjacent grave to Richard's; Richard is buried with his first wife. Richard is listed as working as a gardener in Lovell's Montreal City Directory. Perhaps he was a brother of Laurence--it seems Laurence's sister Catherine also moved to Montreal and, like Richard, not much is known about her. Photos taken at Cote des Neiges Cemetery.

Richard Morrissey's grave stone from behind.

Richard Morrissey, on the left.

More information on Richard Morrissey can be found on the Morrissey Family History website.

More family history photographs

My maternal grandfather, John Richards Parker, came to Montreal with his wife around 1912. Here is a photograph of him, at the Central Fire Station in Old Montreal, where he worked. He is first on the far right.


Here is my maternal grandmother, Bertha Chew Parker, taken when she still lived in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.



Here is my grandfather's mother.


Here is my grandfather at the fire station on Somerled near Cavendish, in the Notre Dame de Grace neighbourhood of Montreal. He is second from the left. Photograph dated July 1940.

Lovell's Montreal City Directory, 1845-1846

Not a photograph, but a copy of a page from Lovell's Montreal City Directory for 1845-1846 (the complete directory is available online from the Bibliotheque Nationale de Quebec). Here is the listing for "L. Morrisy" (Laurence Morrissey), who is my great great grandfather. Just beneath Laurence's name is "R. Morrisy", who may be a relative of Laurence's; I am really not too sure of the relationship, assuming there is one.

Laurence and his wife, Johannah Meany, and one or two of their children arrived in Montreal from Newcastle, New Brunswick, possibly the previous year. Laurence's family (including his parents, Patrick Morrissy and Mary Phelan, and his siblings) had immigrated to New Brunswick around 1834. The first mention of Laurence Morrissey in Montreal was in the previous year's Lovell's Directory--for 1844-1845--a copy of the page on which he appears can be found below.

Lovell's is a great source of information for anyone doing famly history research in Montreal. Go to the Morrissey family history website for a complete listing compiled from Lovell's of all the Morrisseys who have lived in Montreal since around 1844 to the 1970s. .

This is the final page of family album photographs. I hope you have enjoyed them.

St. Matthew's Church, then and now

Here are a few, final, photographs of St. Matthew's Church taken two or three years ago. I suggest matching them with previous photographs of St. Matthews for a "that was then and this is now" comparison.

The Royal Tour, May 1939, Montreal

World War Two had been declared, the Royal Family visited Canada and were in Montreal in May 1939, that's 70 years ago.... These photos were probably taken by my father.

Note: Just recently I realized that bill bissett's poem, "The Canadian", refers to what is probably the same Royal Tour as shown in these photographs, the difference is that he was watching the Royals from his home in Halifax and these pictures were taken in Montreal. I read "The Canadian" when I was a student at university and it is still one of my favourite poems by bissett, it's a terrific evocation of the class system in Canada.
SM; 26 July 2009

4350 Montclair Avenue

My mother (holding our cat Simey) and Graham Nichols (my stepfather), whom she married in May 1963. The playroom at 4350 Montclair Avenue.

Annie Holden, my mother's cousin from Woodstock, Ontario visiting us, probably in 1967 for Expo 67. Photo taken in the backyard at Montclair.

My brother, my mother, and me (holding Simey, our cat), in the living room at Montclair. Around 1967.

Hampton Avenue

Here is my mother's father, my grandfather, John Richards Parker, who came to Canada from Blackburn, England, and worked until his retirement around 1946 as a fire man for the City of Montreal. Above: my grandfather's house at 2217 Hampton (below Sherbrooke Street West). A few years ago the flats next to this, identical to my grandfather's, were for sale and I walked around in them. They had been made into a single home with the upper unit for bedrooms and the lower for a kitchen and living room, dining room. I was most struck by how small they were, perhaps 900 square feet each. I have no memories at all of my maternal grandmother, she had bad health and didn't like to have her photograph taken; I believe she died around 1957. This photo (above) is from the mid-1960s.

My grandfather in his back yard.

My grandfather owned the two units; the lady who rented upstairs (in above photo) and her daughter were my grandfather's last tenants.

My brother and I, on the front stairs outside the Hampton Avenue flats. Around 1954 - 1955. I remember putting lit matches in my Uncle John's mailbox (he lived upstairs from my grandfather) and setting the curtains on fire, and I remember my Aunt Muriel completing a jig saw puzzle which either my brother or I pulled apart, perhaps testing how strong the pieces really were... I've always loved a fire, perhaps appropriate since my grandfather was a fireman.

Vacations, mid-1950s

That's my brother with his dog Buddy, on the road to Alburg or wherever in Vermont it was that we were going for a few weeks vacation. That must be Lake Champlain on the left.

Here is my brother and I posing, I think this must be at Fort Ticonderoga (spelling?) in Vermont. Is this the summer of 1957? It might be.

(Note: I've been informed that this isn't Fort Ticonderoga but Fort Chambly in Quebec on the way to Vermont. This seems accurate and I stand corrected.)

The road to North Hero, Vermont.

Maybe we went for a long drive one day, or down to Old Orchard Beach in Maine (I think that's where we got those American Civil War hats, one of which I am wearing in this photograph). That's my grandmother on the left and Auntie Mable on the right, and I'm standing between them.

It looks like a cool fall or spring day beside Lake Champlain.


(Below) This must have been taken on the same day as photo two above, my grandmother is wearing the same dress in it. That's my mother standing beside me.

Woodstock, Ontario, December 1956

We often visited my mother's cousins who lived in Woodstock, Ontario. They had emigrated here from England in the late teens or early 1920s. This is a photograph of their family home. When most of the daughters, and one son, had married and moved away, and the elderly parents (Alice and Bill Holden) had died, there was only the one daughter left at home, that was Annie Holden, and she never married, so it became her home. Annie died the year she retired, I believe in her lawyer's office, of a stroke. My mother was with her at the time. Annie was always very nice to us, a truly kind person who attended a Baptist church, sang in the choir, and worked much of her life at Harvey Woods in Woodstock.



This is December 1956, just after our father died. Two boys, age ten and six, who have lost their father.

Here is my brother, my mother, and I, at Annie's.

Woodstock, December 1956.

The two photos above and the photo below, probably taken at Bud Karn's farm. Bud's wife was Bertha Karn, one of Annie's sisters, their daughters Katherine and Patty. That's my brother, Bertha's daughter Kathryn Karn (KK), myself in the hood, and Michael or Billy Davis (the sons of Jennie and Arnold Davis, another sister of Annie's).

Here is Annie's house, in Woodstock, perhaps spring 1957.

A few years pass and we're still visiting Woodstock, now it's 1962-1963.

Woodstock, Ontario

Here is my brother with our mother's uncle, Bill Holden; Uncle Bill is the father of Annie Holden, Gertie Brown, Bertha Karn, Hartley Holden, and Jennie Davis (all are now deceased). Bill Holden married Alice Chew who was Bertha Chew's (my maternal grandmother's) sister. In the late teens or early 1920s Uncle Bill came to Canada, accompanied (I believe) by his daughter Gertie to find a new home for the family; they were moving from Blackburn, Lancashire, England to Canada. I think all Alice and Bill Holden's children were born by then and Gertie was possibly already married to Fred Brown, who had served in World War One and then, in Canada, he worked for the post office. They decided to settle in Woodstock, Ontario, perhaps because it had factories, like Harvey Woods, which cobined both a small town setting and factory work they were used to doing. When I was young, to my early twenties, we visited them in Woodstock quite often during the different holidays. When the Holdens all arrived in Montreal, en route to Woodstock, they stayed at my mother's parents' home on, I believe, Irene Avenue in Montreal's St. Henry neighbourhood. However, later, when they arrived in Woodstock, I believe they learned that the factory where they had planed to work had closed. I don't think Uncle Bill worked again, but he gardened, he was a property owner (they must have had eight acres of land) and he did things like grafting different types of apples onto the same tree. I also remember a big pear tree near their house that he probably planted. My mother was very close to her cousins who were like sisters and a brother to her. This photo was taken around 1947. It is one of the earliest photographs of my brother.

St. Eustache summer cottage, mid-1950s

Above: One of the only photographs of the children we knew in St. Eustache. In fact, I can't really identify any of them but Nicky Coppens, front row, first on the far left and myself standing to our right beside him. If, in fact, this is a photograph of what I think it is, and I think it is... taken maybe around 1958 or 1959? Curiously, I met Nicky again around 1981 at the founding convention of Alliance Quebec, held at the Loyola Campus of Concordia University. I was the Chateauguay Valley English-Speaking Persons Association (CVESPA) representative; I suppose they asked me to go because they couldn't find anyone; I am the last person anyone should ask to do committee work and I am not, for the most part, a team player. And there, by chance, was my old friend from the summers in St. Eustache, Nicky Coppens. At the time he was living part-time (?) in Holland and making movies and his older sister was teaching at the University of Sherbrooke. This is what I remember him saying, but I don't really know how accurate any of it is.

Below: One of the few photographs of St. Eustache taken in the winter. Here is my brother and Buddy, around 1957. My father bought Buddy for my brother; I remember driving to Howick where he was bought . I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong about any of this:


Here I am at the cottage my mother rented across the street from my grandmother's on 11th Avenue. I remember getting those new glasses I'm wearing. I wanted horned-rim glasses just like my Uncle Alex's...

My mother and I.

Buddy and me.

My mother and Buddy.

We rented a cottage from the Goodyear's, which was located directly behind their home, and which was across the street from my grandmother's cottage on 11th Avenue. I think this is where we got our Siamese cat, Simey, who I believe jumped out of someone's car, and somehow we knew they were from Baltimore. Anyhow, we kept the cat and loved him, he was a part of the family. I was with him in the late seventies when he died, he was around eighteen.Back in the country in the late 50s and early 60s, when my mother was at work, my brother and I were looked after by our grandmother and Auntie Ivy.

Here I am in someone's rowboat, left anchored at the bottom of 11th Avenue where we went for the summers to around 1962.