June
2002
Three
years has elapsed since my last newsletter and this comes from me again in the
absence of any other volunteers. I am grateful for all the information supplied
by various correspondents over this period. Please keep it up. I am gradually
incorporating it into the Saga and one day the second revised edition will be
available. In the meantime I remind you
that the first revised edition is available on disk from myself or Ian Roberts
or it can be downloaded from Ian's website. Our email, postal and web addresses
are below.
This letter is being circulated to all those
who have expressed an interest in receiving it and to every member of the
family for whom I have an e-mail address whether they have asked for it or not!
If anyone does not want to receive it please let me know. Also, if anyone receiving this by post is
now on e-mail please let me know - it is so much easier circulating that way.
The references for family members in this
newsletter are the revised ones as explained in the newsletter of Jan 1998.
When referring to the original printed version of the Saga the first two
letters "ab" are replaced by "c" and "ac" by
"d".
Thanks to the Ian's website many new contacts
have been made and new information has been incorporated into the Saga. Some of these are as follows:-
Tony
Hays (baak dkb) of Georgia, U.S.A, descended from Alice
Sanders, sister of Edward Wates, founder of the building company (Chapter XIV)
Tina
Stevens (dbc ahbab) of London, England, descended from
James Wates, b.1830, son of James 1807 (Chapter VI)
Norman
Wates (dbe idd) of Albany, Oregon, U.S.A, descended from
Robert Loveday Wates, son of Benjamin 1811 (Chapter VII)
Nigel
Metcalfe (dbe pbaa), England, descended from Fred Wain
Wates, son of Benjamin 1811
John
Edward Wates (dbf afcbb) of Sussex, England, descended from
John William Wates, son of John 1812 (Chap. VIII)
Carrie
Hawkins (dbhb ncca) of Ontario, Canada, descended from
Geoffrey Hughes, son of Martha Hughes, daughter of William Wates 1816 (Chap IX)
Tanya Dillon (dbhb oaba) of Vancouver Island, Canada, descended from
Hilda Baylis, daughter of Martha Hughes
Mike Evans (caa bdib) of Kent, England and Almeria, Spain, descended from George Wates 1811 (Chap IV). He has provided information on a branch of the family of which Margaret Pitt had little information and which had always lived where the family originated in Erith, Kent
OBITUARIES
Many relations have passed away recently, I
have been able to obtain brief obituaries for some. Four of these relate to the
grandchildren of Martha Hughes of which there were at least 57!
Charles Hugh Cleary (dbhb ja) died on the 9th May 2001, aged 90 in Carleton Place, Ontario.
He was the son of Martha Hughes' daughter Annie who emigrated to Canada as a
nurse in 1893. His father was a Canadian farmer. Charlie was a dedicated
organic farmer. His wife Ann (dbhb ra), was the daughter of Annie's sister
Christine Duffy. She was a very keen gardener and together they played a major
role in introducing organic gardening to Canada.
Martha Nydegger Thomson Chambers, widow of Hugh Eversfield Thomson (dbhb ba) (son of Martha Hughes'
daughter Edith) died 30 June 2001 at 95. After Hugh's death in 1986 she married
Dudley Chambers, an old family friend and continued to live in Schnectady, New
York. Active in civic affairs, she took a leading role in the local Republican
Party. Hugh wrote "Forever True", a book about the family and gave
much encouragement to Margaret Pitt as she wrote the Saga.
Alva Moore Thomson, widow of Hugh Thomson's brother Arthur (dbhb be) whose death was
reported in the Jan 1998 newsletter, died on 6th Jan 2001 aged 99. She was very hospitable and interested in
the family and kept up correspondence until only a year or two before her
death.
Percy George Roberts (dbh aha), Ian Roberts’ grandfather, died on 21st July 2000 aged 93. He
was the grandson of Matilda Roberts, eldest daughter of William Wates 1816
(Chap IX). He emigrated to Ontario, Canada in 1924 towards the end of the
period when "Home Children" were sent to Canada from England. He
worked on farms in Antrim, Hainesville and Iroquois, and then at Phillips
Cables in Brockville from 1928 to 1942. From then until his retirement in 1972
he worked for the Canadian National Railways as a fireman and then an engineer.
He married twice; Cora Eleanor Crowder (d. 1967) in 1932 and Isabelle Throop, who survives him, in
1968.
Gertrude Clara Pym (dbhb nc), daughter of Martha Hughes son Geoffrey Ambrose Hughes, died
on the 7th May 2000. She married Frederick James Pym, whom she met at Lake
Shore Mines, Kirkland Lake, Ontario where she was working as a cook in 1935.
She became a homemaker, devoted wife and loving mother, who loved sewing and
cooking. They moved to Belleville, Ontario in 1970 where her husband died in
1972. She was survived by five of her six children, 19 grandchildren and 34
great-grandchildren
Helen Mary Grant (dbl ebc), descended from Joseph Wates 1823 (Chap XII), niece of Margaret Pitt, died the 18th July 2000. She lived in Kent most of her life, moving to Devon in 1994. Her husband Jim had died in 1969. She was deeply involved in the Girl Guides movement throughout her life, being instrumental in the conversion of old stables on her father Leslie Wates' land at Wilmington, Kent into Paxwood for the Kent Guides which was opened in 1957 by Lady Baden-Powell, and becoming a District Commissioner for Sevenoaks. She was always very active and hospitable and interested in and concerned for others.
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Brian
Wates (dbl ebba), 48 Miskin Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 2LS, England; tel:(0)1322
221620; office fax:(0)20 7831 7454; e-mail: bawates@globalnet.co.uk
Ian
Roberts (dbh ahaaa), 84 Moresby Drive, Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2M 2J6; tel:
613 599 4395; e-mail: ianroberts@sympatico.ca
; website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/ianroberts/