View Single Post
  #53  
Old 30-12-07, 22:49
David_Hayward (RIP)'s Avatar
David_Hayward (RIP) David_Hayward (RIP) is offline
former Resident Historian
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The New Forest, England
Posts: 3,841
Default Just found this thread!

Sorry, just found this thread and I am empathic about the circumstances. My aunt was enaged to a Canadian serviceman, and I think several others during the war! However, my late father-in-law made an American girl pregnant wheilst he was in the RAF in Canada, and she was on holiday from the States: Fred came back to England and refused all treaties from the girl's father to marry his daughter. I believe he had no choice as he had made my late mother-in-law pregnant so had to have a quickie wedding in '44! So my wife has a half-brother somewhere and presumably nieces and nephews as well as a myriad of Canadian cousins by her father's brother and his then wife who emigrated to Canada post-war.

I would suggest a trawl through birth records would be helpful..for Mr Donaldson and any children that he had in Canada. I wonder if copies are available on CD? In the UK companies can buy digital records of births, deaths and marriages which they then use for genalogical searches. After many years of undertaking this sort of work in England, I would automatically suggest trying to access the records that exist for Kingston..would they be provincial? Locally Southampton Council have all local records going back to 1835, plus they can I think provide a feed into national records that are now anyway online. I only have very limited knowledge of the Canadian system but when we had a case of a British woman who died in BC, a certificate was obtained locally.

I would also mention that records of Probates and Intestacies are very helpful. If the assumption that somebody has died recently is made, then checking the alphabetical listings by year back can reap benefits. The details of any grants to the Estate will throw up next of kin, and of course last addresses. This worked for me trying to trace the family of a British GM man that played a major role during the war. He was also a member of the SOE. I was amazed that he had lived to over 90, and his daughter was still living at the address in the Estate papers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As a matter of interest I have details of MD HQs from 1938:

MD No. 1: Elizabeth Street, London, Ontario
MD No. 2: 174 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
MD No. 3: District Headquarters, Kingston, Ontario.
MD No. 4: 3 Hillside Avenue, Westmount, P. Quebec.
MD No. 5: Post Office Building, Fort Street, Quebec, P. Quebec.
MD No. 6: Gunwharf, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
MD No. 10: Fort Osborne Barracks, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
MD No. 11: Signal Hill, Esquimalt, British Columbia.
MD No. 13: Calgary Public Building, Calgary, Alberta.

The recipients of trucks that year in the Kingston district were "B Battery", presumably RCA, and "3.MED." .
Reply With Quote