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Descendants of John Haggerty

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN1 HAGGERTY (HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) He married ELIZABETH MCGUIRE.

Child of JOHN HAGGERTY and ELIZABETH MCGUIRE is:2. i. PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, b. Londonderry, IRL.

Generation No. 2

2. PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY (JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born in Londonderry, IRL. Hemarried (1) LETTZ MCSPARNON Oct 11, 1832 in Notre Dame, Quebec City, QUE, CAN, daughter of ARCHIBALD

MCSPARNON and ANN GRIFFIN. He married (2) BRIDGET MCGINNIS Nov 26, 1834 in Notre Dame, QuebecCity, QUE, CAN, daughter of OWEN MCGINNIS and MARY DOHERTY.

Children of PATRICK HAGGERTY and BRIDGET MCGINNIS are:3. i. JAMES M.3 HIGGERTY, b. Jul 10, 1833, Quebec City, QUE, CAN; d. Jun 13, 1905, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT,

CAN.ii. MARY HAGGERTY, b. Jun 05, 1836, Quebec City, QUE, CAN; d. Aug 22, 1837, Ste Foy, Quebec City,

QUE, CAN.iii. MARY HAGGERTY, b. Jan 20, 1838, Ste Foy, Quebec City, QUE, CAN; d. Dec 05, 1840, Ste Foy, Quebec

City, QUE, CAN.iv. BRIDGET ELIZABETH HAGGERTY, b. Jun 02, 1839, Quebec City, QUE, CAN; d. Aug 02, 1840, Ste Foy,

Quebec City, QUE, CAN.v. MARY ANN HAGGERTY, b. Oct 29, 1842, Aylmer, QUE, CAN.

vi. JOHN HAGGERTY, b. May 22, 1844, Aylmer, QUE, CAN; d. Apr 26, 1846, Aylmer, QUE, CAN.

Generation No. 3

3. JAMES M.3 HIGGERTY (PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Jul10, 1833 in Quebec City, QUE, CAN, and died Jun 13, 1905 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: DeathCertificate, Reads "James Higgerty died on June 13, 1905 at 622 Somerset. His age was 72. He was born inCanada. The cause of death was Inyocarditis for 6 months as Certified by Dr. O'Brien."). He married MARY

HONAN Jul 28, 1868 in St Patrice, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St Patrice Ottawa Parish Register,Reads "James Haggerty, age 29, residence Ottawa, born Quebec, son of John Haggerty and Bridget McGinnis.Mary Honan, age 26, residence Ottawa, born in Ireland, daughter of Patrick Honan and Margaret Harten.Witnesses Godfrey Morrow and Cath Honan. Married in Ottawa July 28, 1868."), daughter of PATRICK HONAN

and MARGARET HARTEN. She was born Aug 07, 1843 in County Clare, IRL, and died Dec 15, 1921 in Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads "Mary Higgerty died on December 15, 1921. The Placeof death was 622 Somerset St. Her age was 72 years. She was born in Ireland. She was the daughter of PatrickHonan Margaret McMurtney both born in Ireland. The cause of death was Chr. Enio and myo-carditis asCertified by S Evans. The death was registered by Henry Higgerty, her son, 177 1/2 Cambridge St. She wasburied at Notre Dame Cemetery.").

Notes for JAMES M. HIGGERTY:In 1851, James lived at Hull, Ottawa, Quebec. He was a Servant.

In 1881, James and Mary lived at Gloucester with their children Mary, William, Margaret, James Patrick andBridget. James was a Farmer.

In 1891, James and Mary lived at Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario with their children Mary, Henry, Margaret, James,Patrick, Jane, Elizabeth and Rosetta. James was a Labourer in a Saw Mill.

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In 1901, James and Mary lived at Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario with their children William, Mary, Margaret, James,Patrick, Jane and Ella. James was a Lumber Agent.

Obituary. Ottawa Evening Journal. Wednesday June 14 1905.

Higgerty- at his late residence, 622 Somerset St.., June 13 1905, James Higgerty, in the 72nd year of his age.Funeral to leave above address, 16th inst., for St. Patrick's Church, thence to Notre Dame Cemetery.

Ottawa City Directory, 1878.

***Haggerty Henry, Laborer, McDonaldHaggerty Henry, Laborer, SomersetHaggerty John, Laborer, Lewis SS

Ottawa City Directory, 1895Henry Higgerty on McDonald and family where listed as Higgerty's, but his brother James and family on 622Somerset where listed as Haggerty's.

Source for middle initial ("M") is 1921 City of Ottawa Directory, Mary Higgerty (Wid Jas. M.).

Notes for MARY HONAN:Sources: Cemetery listing (C-171 P.108), obituary (Ottawa Evening Journal, Fri Dec. 1921)Went to St. Patrick's Church (when dead)Funeral 7:45 am Sat Dec. 17.

Length of residence:Place of death: 30 yearsIn Ontario: 50 yearsCanada: ----------

Obituary. Ottawa Evening Journal. Friday December 16, 1921.

Higgerty, Thursday Dec. 15, at her late residence, 622 Somerset St., Mary, widow of the late James Higgerty.Funeral from above address at 7:45 am Saturday, December 17, to St. Patrick's Church, thence to Notre DameCemetery.

In 1911, Mary lived at 622 Somerset, Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario with her children Jane and Mary.

Children of JAMES HIGGERTY and MARY HONAN are:i. MARY ANN4 HIGGERTY, b. Jun 09, 1872, Aylmer, QUE, CAN; d. Mar 19, 1931, Nepean, Carleton, ONT,

CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads “Mary Ann Higgerty died on March 20, 1931 at Nepean. She died at216 James St. She was Single. She was born on June 9, 1875. She was born at Aylmer. Her age was 56 years,9 months. She lived at Her place of death for 10 years. She lived 40 years in Ontario. Her father was JamesHiggerty, born in Ireland. Her mother was Mary Honan born in Ireland. The death was registered by HenryHiggerty, 216 James St., brother. She was buried at Notre Dame Cemetery on March 21, 1931. TheUndertaker was McEvoy Brothers, 417 MacLaren St. The primary cause of death was Carcinoma of Larynxfor 1 years and 2 months. The Physician was B W MacDonald, 141 Carling Ave.").

Notes for MARY ANN HIGGERTY:Mary Ann is buried at Notre Dame Cemetery, Ottawa.

4. ii. WILLIAM "HENRY" JAMES HIGGERTY, b. Feb 15, 1874, Aylmer, QUE, CAN; d. 1956, Ottawa, Carleton,ONT, CAN.

5. iii. MARGARET LEVA HIGGERTY, b. May 14, 1875, Aylmer, QUE, CAN.6. iv. JAMES MATTHEW HIGGERTY, b. Jan 09, 1877, Aylmer, QUE, CAN; d. Mar 10, 1925, 622 Somerset St.,

Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

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7. v. BRIDGET "JANE" HIGGERTY, b. Mar 09, 1879, Osgoode Township, ONT, CAN; d. 1979, Ottawa, Carleton,ONT, CAN.

8. vi. PATRICK JOSEPH HIGGERTY, b. Mar 09, 1879, Osgoode Township, ONT, CAN; d. Jul 02, 1961, Montreal,QUE, CAN.

vii. ELIZABETH HIGGERTY, b. Aug 08, 1882, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Birth Certificate, Reads"Elizabeth was born on August 8, 1882. The father was James Hagerty, Laborer. The mother was MaryHonan. The birth was registered by James Hagerty, signed with X."); d. May 08, 1896, 640 Somerset St.,Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads "Elizabeth Higgerty, School Girl died onMay 8, 1896. Her age was 13 years and 9 months. She was born in Ottawa. The cause of death wasInflammation of the Bowels as Certified by Dr Kidd. The death was registered by James Higgerty.").

Notes for ELIZABETH HIGGERTY:Sources: cemetery listing (C-171 p.108), death notice (p. 1 of book for date of death)

Obituary. The Evening Journal. Saturday May 9, 1896.

Higgerty- on the 8th instant, at 640 Somerset St., Elizabeth Higgerty, second youngest daughter of James &Mary Higgerty, aged 13 years & 9 months. Funeral from the above address on Sunday, 10th instant, at 2:00PM, for et. at St. Patrick's Church, thence to Notre Dame Cemetery. Friends and acquaintances will pleaseattend.

9. viii. LOUISA ROSETTA HIGGERTY, b. Jul 19, 1885, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Mar 23, 1964, Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN.

Generation No. 4

4. WILLIAM "HENRY" JAMES4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) was born Feb 15, 1874 in Aylmer, QUE, CAN (Source: Gatineau and St Paul Aylmer ParishRegister.), and died 1956 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN. He married ANN ADA STACKPOLE Oct 20, 1908 inSt. Mary's Church, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On October 20, 1908 atSt Mary's, Ottawa. William Higgerty, Bachelor, Storekeeper; age 36. His usual residence was Ottawa. Hisparents were James Higgerty and Mary Honan. Ann Ada Stockpile, Spinster; age 23. Her usual residence wasOttawa. Her parents were Thos Stockpole and Bridget Higgerty. The witnesses were Patrick Higgerty and JennieHiggerty both of Ottawa. They were both Roman Catholics and were married by George Fitzgerald."), daughterof THOS. STACKPOLE and BRIDGET. She was born May 1885 in Nepean, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: BirthCertificate, Reads " Ann Ada was born on May 17, 1885 at Nepean. The father was Thomas Stackpole, Yeoman.The mother was Bridget Kennedy. The Physician in attendance was Dr Smale, Ottawa. The birth was registeredby Thomas Stackpole, father of child, Nepean."), and died May 09, 1947 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

Notes for WILLIAM "HENRY" JAMES HIGGERTY:Ottawa City Directory, 1902.Pratt W & Co. (Wm Pratt) Boots & Shoes 323-325 Wellington, W.H. Higgerty manager branch 441 Bank.

Ottawa City Directory, 1903.W. Harry, manager W. Pratt & Co., lives 622 Somerset St.

Ottawa City Directory, 1906.Higgerty Wm H, Boots & Shoes 441 Bank, house 622 Somerset St., Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN

Met his son Thomas James and grandson Nov. 26, 1994. They said William H. Higgerty bought out W. Pratt forthe shoe store around 1902. In the 1902 City Directory he is shown as the manager of the branch on Bank St.

Wm Harry as per City Directory., 1903, Wm. Henry as per Cemetery listing.

Notes for ANN ADA STACKPOLE:Name on her marriage certificate is Stockpole but name on cemetery listing is Stackpole.

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Children of WILLIAM HIGGERTY and ANN STACKPOLE are:i. HELEN5 HIGGERTY, m. ARCHIE LALONDE.

ii. MARY HIGGERTY, d. 1995.iii. ANN "MARGARET" HIGGERTY, b. Jun 12, 1916, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St Patrice Ottawa

Parish Register, Reads "B90 Anne Margaret Higgerty - On the fourth day of July nineteen hundred andsixteen, I the undersigned priest have baptized Anne Margaret Higgerty, lawful daughter of William HenryHiggerty (Shoe Merchant) and Anna Ada Stackpole of this parish, born on the twelfth day of June. Thesponsors were Patrick Dodd and Julia Dodd. Signed John J Burke" .); m. LEO DUNLOP.

10. iv. THOMAS JAMES HIGGERTY.

5. MARGARET LEVA4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) was born May 14, 1875 in Aylmer, QUE, CAN. She married WILLIAM JOHN KENNEDY Sep 25, 1907in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On September 25, 1907 at Ottawa.William J Kennedy, Bachelor, Electrician; age 32. His usual residence was Cincinnati, Ohio and he was born inQuebec. His parents were William Kennedy and Bridget McKay. Margaret L Higgerty, Spinster; age 30. Herusual residence was Ottawa and she was born in Ontario. Her parents were James Higgerty and Mary Honan.The witnesses were Napolean Legault of Hull and Mary Higgerty of Ottawa. They were born Roman Catholicsand were married by Rev M J Whelan."), son of WILLIAM KENNEDY and BRIDGET MCKAY. He was born 1875in Quebec, CAN.

Notes for MARGARET LEVA HIGGERTY:In 1910, William and Margaret lived at Norwood, Hamlton, Ohio with their son William. William was aElectrical Foreman.

In 1930, William and Margaret lived at Norwood, Hamlton, Ohio with their children William and Margaret.William was a Electrical Foreman.

Children of MARGARET HIGGERTY and WILLIAM KENNEDY are:11. i. WILLIAM JOHN5 KENNEDY, b. 1907, Ohio, USA; d. Bef. 1995.

ii. MARGARET M KENNEDY, b. 1911, Ohio, USA; d. 1991; m. LARRY WEBER.

6. JAMES MATTHEW4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) was born Jan 09, 1877 in Aylmer, QUE, CAN, and died Mar 10, 1925 in 622 Somerset St., Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads “James Matthew Higgerty died on March 10, 1925 atOttawa. He died at 622 Somerset St. He was Widowed. His age was 47 years, 2 months. He was born on Jan1878. He was born at Aylmer, Quebec. His occupation was Fireman for Dom. Heating Plant. He lived at Hisplace of death for 40 years. He lived 40 years in Ontario. His father was James Higgerty, born in Ireland. Hismother was Mary Honan, born in Ireland. The death was registered by W H Higgerty, 622 Somerset St., brother.He was buried at Notre Dame Cemetery on March 12, 1925. The Undertaker was Brady and Harris, Ottawa. Theprimary cause of death was Chronic Myocarditis. The immediate cause of death was Acute Gastritis for 12hours. The Physician was Jas Seager, Ottawa."). He married MARY LETITIA GORMAN Jun 24, 1908 in Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On June 24, 1908 at Ottawa. James M Higgerty,Bachelor, Rodman; age 31. His usual residence was Ottawa and he was born at Aylmer, Quebec. His parentswere James Higgerty and Mary Honan. Mary L Gorman, Spinster; age 28. Her usual residence was Ottawa andshe was born in Renfrew County. Her parents were Edward Gorman and Ann Connolly. The witnesses wereWilliam H Higgerty and Ann Gorman both of Ottawa. They were both Roman Catholics and were married byRev M J Whelan."), daughter of EDWARD GORMAN and ANN CONNOLLY. She was born Sep 18, 1880 inRenfrew, ONT, CAN, and died Jan 28, 1925 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads“Mary Letitia Higgerty died on January 29, 1925 at Ottawa. She died at Ottawa Civic Hospital. She was Married.Her age was 45 years, 4 months. She was born on September 18, 1879. She was born at Douglas, Ontario. Shelived at Her place of death for 18 years. Her father was Edward Gorman, born at Douglas, Ontario. Her motherwas Ann Connolly, born in Ireland. The death was registered by D C MacDonald, 233 Booth St, brother-in-law.She was buried at Notre Dame Cemetery. The Undertaker was Brady and Harris, Ottawa. The primary cause ofdeath was Cerebral Hemorrhage. The Physician was D B Code, Ottawa Civic Hospital.").

Notes for JAMES MATTHEW HIGGERTY:In 1911, James and Mary lived at Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario. James was a Civil Servant.

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Obituary. Ottawa Evening Journal. March 11, 1925

Higgerty- On Tuesday, March 10, at his late residence, 622 Somerset St., James M. Higgerty. Funeral fromabove address on Thursday March 12 at 7:45 am. Requiem high mass at St. Patrick's Church at 8 O'clock.Interment at Notre Dame Cemetery.

Child of JAMES HIGGERTY and MARY GORMAN is:12. i. RITA MARY CARMEL5 HIGGERTY, b. May 17, 1917, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

7. BRIDGET "JANE"4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) was born Mar 09, 1879 in Osgoode Township, ONT, CAN (Source: Birth Certificate, Reads "BridgetJane was born on March 9, 1879. The father was James Haggerty. The mother was Mary Honan. The birth wasregistered by Rev Dusore Felmon."), and died 1979 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN. She married GEORGE H.

HIGGERTY Nov 24, 1915 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On November24, 1915 at Ottawa. George Higgerty, age 44, Bachelor, Salesman. His residence was Ottawa. His birthplace wasCanada. His parents were Henry Higgerty and Jane McCormick. Bridget Jane Higgerty, age 36, Spinster. Herresidence was Ottawa. Her birthplace was Canada. Her parents were James Higgerty & Mary Honan. Hisreligious domination was Roman Catholic. Her religious domination was Roman Catholic. The marriagewitnesses were Patrick Higgerty, Ottawa and Patrick J Higgerty, Ottawa. They were married by W Whalen,Ottawa by License."), son of HENRY HIGGERTY and JANE MCCORMICK. He was born Jul 14, 1871 in Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St Patrice Ottawa Parish Register, Reads "George son of Henry Haggerty andJane McCormick; born 14 April 1871; baptized 16 April 1871; Sponsors were Patrick Mullin and AnnMcCormick; Priese J J Collins."), and died 1944 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

Notes for BRIDGET "JANE" HIGGERTY:Ontario Vital Statistics Birth Record Number 003536When I met the Higgerty's of Higgerty Shoe Store on Nov. 26, 1994 Thomas James (Bud) Higgerty told mesomething about George Higgerty. He said that during the second world war George went over to Ireland to visit(family). On the way back the ship he was on was hit by a torpedo boat and he sank with the ship.

Notes for GEORGE H. HIGGERTY:When I talked to the owner of Higgerty Shoe Store on around Nov. 27, 1994, he told me a story regardingGeorge. It was when I was showing him the big Higgerty family picture with Henry Higgerty as father. ThomasJames Higgerty, the owner of the shoe store, said that George was killed on his way back from a trip to Irelandafter or during the war. The boat he was on was hit by a torpedo boat and he went down with the ship. I thinkhe also said he was visiting family in Ireland.

Children of BRIDGET HIGGERTY and GEORGE HIGGERTY are:13. i. MARY ELIZABETH5 HIGGERTY, b. Aug 26, 1917, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.14. ii. FRANCIS EDWARD HIGGERTY, b. May 26, 1919, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Jul 12, 1970, Lachine,

QUE, CAN.

8. PATRICK JOSEPH4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) was born Mar 09, 1879 in Osgoode Township, ONT, CAN (Source: Birth Certificate, Reads "PatrickJoseph was born on March 9, 1879. The father was James Haggerty. The mother was Mary Honan. The birth wasregistered by Rev Dusore Felmon."), and died Jul 02, 1961 in Montreal, QUE, CAN. He married (1) MARGARET

HARRIS Jun 22, 1910 in St Patrice, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On June22, 1910 at Ottawa. Patrick Joseph Higgerty, Bachelor, C.S.; age 31. His usual residence was Ottawa. Hisparents were James Higgerty, Laborer and Mary Honan. Margaret Harris, Spinster; age 27. Her usual residencewas Ottawa. Her parents were Thomas Harris, Machinists and Elizabeth O'Keefe. The witnesses were EdwardTimmins and Latitia Harris both of Ottawa. They were both Roman Catholics and were married by A Newmanof Ottawa."), daughter of THOMAS HARRIS and ELIZABETH O'KEEFE. She was born Dec 11, 1882 in Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St Patrice Ottawa Parish Register, Reads "The seventeenth of December one

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thousand eight hundred and eighty two, the undersigned priest have baptized Margaret, born then eleventh of thepresent of the lawful marriage of Thomas Harris and ELizabeth O'Keef. The Sponsors were John Harris andCatherine O Mally who have signed. Signed John Harris, Catherine O'Malley and Thos Cole."), and died Mar31, 1916 in 129 Spadina Ave., Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Death Certificate, Reads "MargaretHiggerty died on March 31, 1916. The Place of death was 129 Spadina Ave.. Her age was 32 years. She wasborn in Ottawa. She was the daughter of Thomas Harris and Elizabeth O'Keefe. The cause of death wasEndocarditis and Paralysis as Certified by Dr. A L Foster. The death was registered by Mr. P Higgerty, 129Spadina Ave."). He married (2) SARAH "LETITIA" HARRIS Feb 03, 1920 in Notre Dame du Bon Conseil, Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads “On February 5, 1920 at Ottawa. Patrick JosephHiggerty, age 40, Widower, Manager. His residence was Ottawa. His birthplace was Ottawa. His parents were JHiggerty and M Honan. Sarah Letitia Harris, age 34, Spinster. Her residence was Ottawa. Her birthplace wasOttawa. Her parents were T Harris and E O'Keefe. His religious domination was Roman Catholic. Her religiousdomination was Roman Catholic. The marriage witnesses were John Finn, Ottawa and Thomas Harris, Ottawa.They were married by Geo E Fitzgerald, St Mary's Church, Ottawa by License."), daughter of THOMAS HARRIS

and ELIZABETH O'KEEFE. She was born May 08, 1885 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: BirthCertificate, Reads "Sarah was born on May 8, 1885. The father was Thomas Harris. The mother was ElizaO'Keefe. The birth was registered by Rev M J Whelan."), and died Jul 27, 1968 in Montreal, QUE, CAN.

Notes for PATRICK JOSEPH HIGGERTY:Text of a letter from the RCMP

The service file of Patrick Joseph Higgerty is quite brief. Constable Patrick Higgerty, Regimental Number 3529,engaged in the North-West Mounted Police March31,1900 at Regina. He listed his previous occupation asblacksmith and boilermaker; his previous residence as Ottawa. He had a letter of recommendation fromPowers&Co, Boilermakers and Blacksmiths, located at 432 Wellington Street in Ottawa. His next-of-kin is listedas his mother, Mrs. J. Haggerty, of 622 Somerset Street. The spelling may be just a mistake by the person whotook down the information. Constable Higgerty served at Regina for a short period and then he was transferred tothe Yukon. He served at Tagish and Caribou Detachments and he left the Force September 4,1901. He wasdischarged at Whitehorse. There is nothing on the file after this point. At the time of engagement he was 5'10"and 169 pounds.

In 1911, Patrick and Margaret lived at Ottawa, Carleton, Ontario with their son Harris. Patrick worked for theCivil Service.

Children of PATRICK HIGGERTY and MARGARET HARRIS are:15. i. PATRICK HARRIS5 HIGGERTY, b. Apr 06, 1911, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Mar 1969, Surrey, ENG.16. ii. JAMES CLAIRE HIGGERTY, b. Jun 20, 1912, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. May 1984, Brampton, ONT,

CAN.17. iii. ELIZABETH DORIS GERTRUDE HIGGERTY, b. Mar 16, 1914, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Jul 20, 1983,

4 Cedar Circle, Dollard des Ormeaux, QUE, CAN.

Child of PATRICK HIGGERTY and SARAH HARRIS is:18. iv. "PEGGY" MARGARET NOREEN5 HIGGERTY, b. Jan 25, 1925, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Oct 19, 1982,

Dollard des Ormeaux, QUE, CAN.

9. LOUISA ROSETTA4 HIGGERTY (JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO,ONTARIOB) (Source: St Patrice Ottawa Parish Register, Reads "The second day of August, eighteen hundred andeighty five, I the undersigned priest have baptized Louisa Rose born the nineteenth of July lastof the lawfulmarriage of James Haggerty and Mary Honan of this parish. The sponsors were Florence Velleman andDelermon Velleman who have signed. Signed Florence Velleman and Delermon Velleman." .) was born Jul 19,1885 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Birth Certificate, Reads "Louisa Rose was born on July 19, 1885.The father was James Haggerty. The mother was Mary Honan. The birth was registered by Rev M J Whelan."),and died Mar 23, 1964 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St Therese de l'Enfant Jesus Ottawa ParishRegister, Reads "Mrs Louise Rosetta Byrne, nee Higgerty, age 78, widow of Jeremiah Peter Byrne of 283MacLaren St died March 23, 1964. The attend priest was George J Larose. She was buried on March 25, 1964.Signed Ralph Stewart and Michael Shields."). She married JEREMIAH PETER BYRNE May 18, 1909 in Ottawa,

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Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Marriage Certificate, Reads "On May 18, 1909 at Ottawa. Jeremiah Byrne,Bachelor, Manager; age 24. His usual residence was Ottawa. His parents were Edward Byrne, Laborer andHonorah Connelly. Rosetta Higgerty, Spinster; age 24. Her usual residence was Ottawa. Her parents were JamesHiggerty, Foreman and Mary Honan. The witnesses were John Byrne and Jennie Higgerty both of Ottawa. Theywere both Roman Catholics. They were married by Rev M J Whelan of 281 Nepean St."), son of EDWARD

BYRNE and HONORAH CONNOLLY. He was born Apr 30, 1885 in Nepean, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: BirthCertificate, Reads " Jeremiah was born on April 30, 1885 at Nepean. The father was Edward Byrne, TenantFarmer. The mother was Honora Connolly. The birth was registered by Edward Byrne, father of child, Lot 25,Con 5, Nepean."), and died 1940.

Notes for LOUISA ROSETTA HIGGERTY:Birth Record shows name as Louisa Rose Haggerty

Children of LOUISA HIGGERTY and JEREMIAH BYRNE are:i. MARY5 BYRNE.

ii. MALE BYRNE, b. Jan 26, 1910, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: Birth Certificate, Reads “Stillbornwas born on January 26, 1910 at Ottawa. The father was Jeremiah Byrne, Manager. The mother was RosettaHiggerty. They were married May 18, 1909 at Ottawa. The Physician in attendance was Dr Kirby. The birthwas registered by Jeremiah Byrne, Father."); d. Jan 26, 1910, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

19. iii. JOSEPH LAWRENCE HOWARD BYRNE, b. Jan 27, 1911, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; d. Jan 10, 1991.20. iv. GEORGE MICHAEL BYRNE, b. Dec 22, 1922; d. Sep 27, 1980.

Generation No. 5

10. THOMAS JAMES5 HIGGERTY (WILLIAM "HENRY" JAMES4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) He married MARIE TAP.

Notes for THOMAS JAMES HIGGERTY:Met with him and his son William (Jim) Nov. 26, 1994. He had some interesting information. Referred to theEast Higgerty clan and the west Higgerty clan. This is because half the Higgerty's lived at 54 Somerset and theother half lived at 622 Somerset. Said we have a relative in Alberta, John P. Higgerty, who is the crownprosecutor for the province. He is of the other clan than me. Said Frank was killed by a torpedo ship on his wasback to Canada after visiting family in Ireland after WWI

Children of THOMAS HIGGERTY and MARIE TAP are:i. PATRICIA6 HIGGERTY, m. DOUG SHEARER.

ii. JANE HIGGERTY.iii. PEGGY HIGGERTY.iv. WILLIAM JAMES HIGGERTY.

Notes for WILLIAM JAMES HIGGERTY:I met Jim Nov. 26, 1994 at Higgerty Shoe Store. Spoke with him and his father. Showed him the two oldestphotos we have.

11. WILLIAM JOHN5 KENNEDY (MARGARET LEVA4 HIGGERTY, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born 1907 in Ohio, USA, and died Bef. 1995. He married MARY F.

O'CONNELL.

Children of WILLIAM KENNEDY and MARY O'CONNELL are:i. WILLIAM6 KENNEDY.

ii. JERRY KENNEDY.iii. KEVIN KENNEDY.iv. MARY FRANCIS KENNEDY, m. JOHN CHAPMAN.v. JOHN KENNEDY.

vi. BRIAN KENNEDY.vii. MARGARET KENNEDY.

viii. PATRICIA KENNEDY.

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ix. NOREEN KENNEDY.x. RITA KENNEDY.

12. RITA MARY CARMEL5 HIGGERTY (JAMES MATTHEW4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born May 17, 1917 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN. She marriedCARMEL.

Children of RITA HIGGERTY and CARMEL are:i. TOM6 CARMEL.

ii. SISTER CARMEL.iii. BROTHER CARMEL.

13. MARY ELIZABETH5 HIGGERTY (BRIDGET "JANE"4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Aug 26, 1917 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN. She marriedVINCENT BRADLEY Jun 15, 1942 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN. He was born Jan 27, 1919 in Ottawa,Carleton, ONT, CAN.

Children of MARY HIGGERTY and VINCENT BRADLEY are:i. SUSAN JANE6 BRADLEY, b. Apr 04, 1945, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; m. WILLIAM BERNARD COKER,

Aug 29, 1970, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; b. May 01, 1946.ii. GEORGE BRADLEY, b. Jan 23, 1947, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

iii. PATRICK BRADLEY, b. Mar 13, 1949, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.iv. MARY ELIZABETH BRADLEY, b. Nov 28, 1952, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; m. MAURICE TAYLOR, Jul

11, 1981, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; b. Nov 29, 1952, Sault Ste Marie, ONT, CAN.v. ANNE BRADLEY, b. Oct 12, 1956, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; m. STEPHEN DUNNIGAN, Aug 01, 1981,

Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; b. May 29, 1955.vi. ELIZABETH BRADLEY, b. Jan 06, 1958, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; m. PATRICK GORMAN, Jun 24,

1983, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; b. Jun 02, 1955.

14. FRANCIS EDWARD5 HIGGERTY (BRIDGET "JANE"4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born May 26, 1919 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: St PatriceOttawa Parish Register, Reads "On the 7th day of June, 1919, I the undersigned priest have baptized FrancisEdward lawful son of George Higgerty, Salesman and Bridget Jane Higgerty of this parish, born on the 26th dayof May last. The sponsors were Thomas Francis Higgerty and Mary Elizabeth Higgerty. Signed A EArmstrong."), and died Jul 12, 1970 in Lachine, QUE, CAN. He married DORIS ETHEL CLARKE Jan 19, 1943 inSt. Patrick's Church, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN, daughter of CHARLES CLARKE and ETHEL. She was bornAbt. Mar 24, 1920 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN.

Children of FRANCIS HIGGERTY and DORIS CLARKE are:i. DELL6 HIGGERTY.

ii. SUSAN HIGGERTY, m. TIM BOYD.iii. PHYLLIS HIGGERTY, m. GARY BENISON.iv. GEORGE HIGGERTY, b. Nov 15, 1948, Kingston, ON, CAN; m. HEATHER MCDONALD, Nov 17, 1973,

Oakville, ON, CAN (Source: Elizabeth & Vince Bradley 20/1/1996); b. Oct 05, 1950, Truro, NS, CAN.v. JOHN PETER HIGGERTY, b. Nov 01, 1952, Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN; m. MARY CANN; b. Jan 01, 1957.

15. PATRICK HARRIS5 HIGGERTY (PATRICK JOSEPH4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Apr 06, 1911 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: BirthCertificate, Reads “Patrick Harris was born on April 6, 1911 at Ottawa. The father was Patrick Jos Higgerty, CS.The mother was Margaret Harris. They were married June 22, 1910 at Ottawa. The Physician in attendance wasDr Bourque. The birth was registered by P J Higgerty, 16 Balsam St, Father."), and died Mar 1969 in Surrey,ENG. He married (1) FLORENCE EMMA ELIZABETH TRUPP Nov 21, 1933 in St Augustine of Canterbury,Montreal, QUE, CAN (Source: St Augustine of Canterbury, Montreal Parish Register, Reads "No 38 P HHiggerty and Flor Ttupp = This twenty first day of November nineteen hundred and thirty three, considering thedispesuation of the three banns of marriage granted by his Excellency Rev George Gauthier ApostolicAdministrator of the Archdisoces to Patrick Harris Higgerty of St Augustine, son of age of Patrick JosephHiggerty and deceased Margaret Harris of this part and Florence Trupp, daughter minor of WIlliam Henry Trupp

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and Rebecca Ogilivie of St Augustine of this other part. No opposition having been made known to theundersigned parish priest have recieved these mutual conscent to marriage in the presence of Rev Michael Healyand Annie Berryman undersigned witness the contracting parties and us act read. Two words eraned null.Signed Patrick Harris Higgerty Florence Emma Elizabeth Trupp Michael J Healy Annie Berryman Thos FHiffeman, Pastor."), daughter of WILLIAM TRUPP and REBECCA OGILVIE. He married (2) MARY MARGARET

MORGAN 1955 in Surrey, ENG (Source: Peter Smeaton). She was born 1913 in England, and died 1983 inSurrey, ENG.

Children of PATRICK HIGGERTY and FLORENCE TRUPP are:i. BELLA6 HIGGERTY, b. Bef. 1940.

ii. BARBARA ANN HIGGERTY (Source: St Augustine of Canterbury, Montreal Parish Register, Reads "Thiseighth day of April, nineteen hundred and thrity four, the undersigned priest have baptized Barbara Ann, bornthe seventh, lawful daughter of Harris Patrick Higgerty and Florence Elizabeth Jupp of this parish. Thesponsors were Alexander Ogolvie and Doris Higgerty of this parish undersigned with the father and us. ), b.Jan 07, 1934, Montreal, QUE, CAN.

16. JAMES CLAIRE5 HIGGERTY (PATRICK JOSEPH4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA

ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Jun 20, 1912 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN, and died May 1984 in Brampton,ONT, CAN. He married DOROTHY HIGGINS. She was born Oct 31, 1919 in Winnnpeg, MAN, CAN.

Children of JAMES HIGGERTY and DOROTHY HIGGINS are:i. BRIAN MICHAEL6 HIGGERTY, b. Jan 21, 1944, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. NORAH QUINN-MORRIS, Sep 13,

1975, Surrey, ENG; b. Aug 07, 1952, Surrey, ENG.ii. WAYNE P. HIGGERTY, b. Nov 16, 1946, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. SHELLY CROCKART, Jul 11, 1970, Saint-

Thomas-D'aquin, Hudson, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, QUE, CAN; b. Hudson, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, QUE, CAN.

17. ELIZABETH DORIS GERTRUDE5 HIGGERTY (PATRICK JOSEPH4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY,JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Mar 16, 1914 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: StPatrice Ottawa Parish Register, Reads "The twenty ninth day of March, nineteen hundred and fourteen, I theundersigned priest have baptized Elizabeth Doris Gertrude lawful daughter of Patrick J Higgerty (Manager) andMargaret Harris of this parish born the sixteenth. The sponsors were James Higgerty and Mary Harris. Signed PWhelan."), and died Jul 20, 1983 in 4 Cedar Circle, Dollard des Ormeaux, QUE, CAN. She married JOHN

JOSEPH MCLEAN SMEATON Oct 25, 1941 in St Augustine of Canterbury, Montreal, QUE, CAN (Source: StAugustine of Canterbury, Montreal Parish Register, No 84 John J M Smeaton & E Doris Higgerty – This twentyfifth day of October nineteen hundred and forty one, considering the desperation for the banns, mixed religionand ad cantelian disparitatis cultus, granted by the Most Reverend Ordinary of the Archdiocese the forms havingbeen signed: no opposition nor impediment being discovered we the undersigned parish priest, have received themutual consent to marriage of John Jas McLean Smeaton, non-Catholic of Montreal, son of age of William J RSmeaton and Margaret McLean of the one part and Elizabeth Doris G Higgerty of At Augustine’s daughter ofage of Patrick J Higgerty and Margaret Harris other the other part, in the presence of Noreen Higgerty, sister ofthe bride and Norman Stanley, a friend of the contracting parties who have undersigned witness. A marriagecontract was sworn up at the offices of J N Labelle, Notaries Banns. This act was real. Signed E Doris HiggertyJohn J M Smeaton Noreen Higgerty Norman Stanley .), son of WILLIAM SMEATON and MAGGIE MCLEAN. Hewas born May 28, 1915 in Montreal, QUE, CAN (Source: Montreal First Presbyterian Church Parish Register,Reads "John Joseph McLean Smeaton, William James Robertson Smeaton of Montreal, Photoengraver and hiswife Margaret Whitelaw McLean had a son both to them on the twenty eighth day of May One thousand ninehundred and fifteen and baptized on the third of January one thousand nine hundred and sixteen in the presenceof the following; W J R Smeaton; Margaret W M Smeaton; M J Smeaton amd Mildred Thomson."), and diedApr 03, 1985 in Lakeshore Hosiptal, Pointe Claire, QUE, CAN.

Notes for ELIZABETH DORIS GERTRUDE HIGGERTY:Birth and Baptism Record God Father James Higgerty God Mother Mary Harris Priest A. Newman

Notes for JOHN JOSEPH MCLEAN SMEATON:

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Baptism Record God Parents M.J. Smeaton and Mathilda Johnson Rev Robert Campbell

Montreal StarMarch 18, 1972By Dan Rosenburg

HE HAS THE BEST seat in the house, and gets to hob-nob with the elite of the National Hockey League. Forthat, he is probably the envy of the Forum faithful.But John Smeaton, the penalty time-keeper at all Canadiens' home games, is not so sure he is to be envied. Thereare, you see, the hazards of his chosen profession to contend with."It's not really a profession," clarifies Smeaton, "it's more of a hobby. The salary is not that great. You do itbecause you like it. But there are dangers involved."Number one on the list is injuries. Naturally, when one sits as close to the ice surface as Smeaton does (In thepenalty box), one becomes more vulnerable than somebody seated, say, several light years away in the press box."I had six stitches in my right eye once on a ,shot from Jean-Pierre Bordeleau (now with Chicago Black Hawks)in a junior' game," recalls Smeaton. "And I've been hit with sticks crashing in front of me. Generally, I manage toget my arm up in time for protection, but sometimes I react too late."When that happens, they stitch me up quickly (in the Forum clinic), and I'm back at my post in five minutes orso. These incidents are seldom serious. It's all part of the game."Smeaton's son, Allen, however, has been involved in more disastrous episodes than that. Allen, presently theofficial scorer at Canadiens' games, has some unpleasant memories of occasions on which he served as penaltytime-keeper in the days of the single-bench penalty box."Until they split the benches, we (the minor officials) would have to sitbetween two players after a fight," recalls Smeaton. "I personally never had any trouble, but Allen got beaten tothe floor once when two players fell on top of him."It was a game between Peterborough and Junior Canadiens," continued Smeaton, "and there were only twoflimsy pipes separating the two sections of the penalty box. The players ignored Allen lying on the ground andresumed their fight over the pipes."Then, of course, there is the peril of flying objects."We don't get too much of that anymore," chuckles Smeaton, "but it used to present a real problem. Especially inthe Junior Canadiens' games four or five years ago. Once, someone heaved a pig's head at the referee. I guessthey were trying to tell him something. Anyway, it missed the target and hit a spectator near the penalty box,cutting his head open."Another time, somebody threw a frozen northern pike that would have done some damage if it had madecontact. And, one night, some guy tossed a live white hen on the ice. Nobody was hurt, but the hen waspetrified!"Smeaton finds maintaining neutrality the toughest part of his time-keeping assignment: "It's a challenge," hesays."You've got to force yourself to be neutral. After you get to know the players personally, you find yourselfrooting one minute for Bobby Orr to score and the next minute for Frank Mahovlich to put one in the net. Thelast time I had to stifle excessively partial feelings was when the Junior Canadiens' Memorial Cup team beat theRussians 8-3. Perreault (Gilbert) had a big night. and it was all I could do to hold myself back."Smeaton admits deriving much personal satisfaction from his work, and does not look forward to the day whenhe will be inevitably required to make the transition from neutral minor official to plain old Joe fan again."I often wonder if I'd pay to watch these guys play," says Smeaton. "The only fault I can find with this job is thatyou're no longer a spectator. I've trained myself to be so neutral it would be hard to enjoy the game as a fanagain."It would be difficult to work up enough enthusiasm to want to see a particular team win. Many times, I canwatch a game and not even realize what the score is."Smeaton is also quick to point out that his job requires promptness, accuracy and punctuality."I haven't made any major blunders to speak of," he says. "Touch wood. At least, not in the NHL, at any rate.Oh, I might have made a boo-boo or two in junior hockey, but everybody has to make some mistakes in order tolearn. The key is not to make the same mistake twice. Hockey is too big an operation. There's just no room formistakes by minor officials."Smeaton, who is in charge of the Forum's crew of minor officials, acknowledges that one of the most flagranterrors on the amateur hockey' level is the tendency of goal-judges to flick on the red light too soon.

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"They're trying to outguess the puck," analyzes Smeaton. "I tell my men that it's better to be two seconds latethan a quarter-of-a-second early. You've just got to get used to the angle from behind the net. Often, you'll swearthe puck will go in, but many things can happen to alter its route at the,, last possible split-second."Smeaton, whose full-time occupation is photo engraving, is kept hopping. He works in the downtown area, butlives in Dollard des Ormeaux."I still go home for supper 90 per cent of the time on game days," he says. "My own personal rule is to get to theForum at least an hour before game time," which must be pressing it close. "Allen has to be there early to getthe lineups, and I have to find out who the referees are. We always take separate cars, just in case one of usdoesn't make it.Has that ever happened?"Yes, during the recent snow storm (when Philadelphia was in town). Allen didn't get there. And he left homeonly a half-hour after I did. You see, we can work one man short, because there is always a spare handy. But twoguys missing would present a real problem. I'm responsible for lining up emergency replacements."Smeaton is not adverse to giving readers a little peek at what NHL stars are REALLY like when caught withtheir misdemeanors down in the penalty box."I think hockey players are the best fellows alive," he enthuses. "They may be terrors on the ice, but I've seldommet a bad one. There are no real mean guys. Even the wild ones who go crazy on the ice are warm and subduedon the penalty bench. You could say it's because they are dedicated during a game. But off the ice, they aredifferent people altogether. Maybe they have split personalities."Among Smeaton's best 'friends' in the sin bin are Boston's Phil Esposito, Bryan Watson of Pittsburgh Penguins,and Norm Ferguson, of California Golden Seals."Guys like Watson and Ferguson, I got to know because they were reared in the Canadiens' organization," saysSmeaton, "but Esposito is just a naturally friendly type.""During the playoffs we minor officials are sent to work games in other arenas, and I remember one time whenEspo came into the box in Toronto. Orr was killing the penalty, and Espo kept nudging me and saying, 'Look atthat guygo, willya!""And, of course, the most common type of comment I get is from a player in the penalty box whose team has justscored a short-handed goal. 'Do I get an assist on that?' they invariably ask."Despite the drawbacks and disadvantages of the job already enumerated by Smeaton, his number one 'pet hate' isthe ticket-hunter."People seem to think that just because I work in the Forum, I can get tickets anytime I want," he protests. "Well,I have news for them. It's just as hard for me as anyone else. For games against the expansion teams, they can dojust as well as! can by lining up at the wicket. But the trouble is that they all want to see Boston or New York.It's a nuisance."Has Smeaton ever been yelled at during the course of his duties?"Barry MacDonald is my boss, but he normally leaves me alone," says Smeaton. "If he has a complaint, he letsme know about it quietly. But these are just minor things. Oh, there have been a few incidents whererepresentatives of teams come around and make disparaging remarks. But if this is handled properly, no feelingsare hurt."The NHL will question you on occasion, with Brian O'Neill, Ron Andrews, or even Clarence Campbell. Butthis is to be expected. After all, Montreal is the hub of the NHL!"

Children of ELIZABETH HIGGERTY and JOHN SMEATON are:i. ALLEN PETER6 SMEATON, b. Oct 19, 1942, Montreal, QUE, CAN.

ii. PATRICIA ANN SMEATON, b. Oct 04, 1945, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. PATRICK O'HALLORAN, Aug 16,1969, Mary Queen of Peace, Roxboro, QUE, CAN; b. Dec 01, 1939, North Bay , ONT, CAN.

Notes for PATRICIA ANN SMEATON:Birth NoticeSMEATON., On Oct. 4th, 1945, at the Homeopathic Hospital, to Mr. and Mrs. J. J. M. Smeaton, a daughter, asister for Allen. Both well.

iii. PETER JOHN SMEATON, b. Nov 02, 1951, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. MAUREEN CATHARINE GRAHAM, Jul30, 1983, Church of Our Lady, Moose Jaw, SK, CAN; b. Oct 18, 1949, Moose Jaw, SK, CAN.

Notes for PETER JOHN SMEATON:Birth Notice

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SMEATON. At the Homeopathic Hospital,on November 2nd, 1951, to Mr. and Mrs. John M. Smeaton (neeDoris Higgerty), a son. Brother to Allen and Patricia. Both well.

Christmas Letter 1994

Dear Allen

It is hard to believe that a year has past since we were in Australia. The girls still talk a lot about you andAustralia and when we are going to go back to Australia. A lot has happened here since we got back. I am notquite sure where to begin.

At work, I am no longer with Eaton’s. When we got back, I finished up the two projects that I was working onand sat doing nothing for two months. In the middle of June there was a major downsizing and I was let go onJune 15. Financially, I think that they are in a lot of trouble and about 150 middle management types were letgo. They gave me a package that would pay me until the end of February if I was out of work or 1/2 of theremainder when I got a new job. In addition, they also paid for an outplacement agency for me.

We decided that I was going to take the summer off and become a house husband. From the middle of Juneuntil the girls were finished with school, I played a lot of golf and did some things around the house. The girlsand myself went to Bird Lake for 10 days in July. A week after getting back from Bird Lake, the three of usdrove out west for 4 weeks. Maureen flew out for the middle week and joined us in Moose Jaw. While inMoose Jaw, I played golf every day except one. We arrived in Moose Jaw at 4pm on the Monday and Donand I were at the golf course by 4:15. After a drive of 1000km that day I did not have a very good game butas time went on my game got better.

Maureen’s father had a great idea while I was there. “If I had trouble finding the right job, Maureen wouldjust have to find a second job”. I don’t think Maureen was too impressed with this. By the end of our stay inMoose Jaw, Maureen’s sisters were happy that I was leaving. I was trying to talk Don, Albert and Lyle intoquitting their jobs and coming to Arizona with me to play golf all winter. They thought that that would be agreat idea but Rita, Cel and Eileen were ready to kill me.

On the way back, we stopped in Detroit and spend a few days with Joan and Tom. Maureen drove to Detroitwith Liz for the weekend.

After getting back we stayed close to home and did a lot on camping. We sure got good use out of our camperthis year. At the end June, when it got very hot, I would take the camper up to Lake Simcoe on Fridaymorning and set it up. Later in the day, I would return home and pick up Maureen and the girls. The girls andI did the same thing in August.

Once the girls got back to school, I went back to playing golf for a couple of weeks. This year I had tworounds in the 80’s and a lot in the low 90’s. Once things started cooling off in September, I decided to paintthe house. I went through 10 gallons of white ceiling paint and 6 gallons of wall paint for the living room,dinning room and upstairs hall ways.

At the end of September, I started to send out my resume around town. I used the computer to draft“Marketing Letters” and I would send out 25-30 letters every week to different head hunters and companies. Ialso started responding to a lot of advertisements in the papers. By mid-October, I started going forinterviews. One company, FlavorCoffee, had me in for a 1/2 hour interview with their president.

Well, the interview lasted 2 1/2 hours and the next week they offered me a job as their MIS Director. Theyare located about 15 minutes from the house and don’t have much in the way of computers today. But, theyare growing at a rate of 35% a year over the past 3 years and could double in the next year. It is a groundfloor opportunity, I don’t have any staff yet, but will look at hiring some help next year once I figure out thedirection that I want to go.

It is very much a different type of company from those that I have worked for. I have only been there a weekbut it seems that only myself and the VP of Marketing wear suits. I had gone to Eaton’s the week before Istarted and bought a bunch of shirts and ties. Now, I have to go back next week and buy some more causalclothes. I still have my contacts at the local Eaton’s store, and they let me know when the sales are on andwon’t let me buy anything that is about to go on sale.

FlavorCoffee manufactures and distributes coffee to retail stores across North America. Their major clientsare Kmart, Price Club, Provigo and Krogers. They are also looking at opening a string of coffee stores. I have

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a lot of knowledge about retail, so I hope that I can help them. I figure that there is 2 years worth of hands onwork for me there. After concentrating so much on management over the last 10 years, the hands onexperience will help me. This, and the fact that they are 15 minutes from the house and are paying me morethan Eaton’s was, made me decide to accept the job.

So much for the employment news.

In sports, (or the lack there of) things are really messed up. The Baseball players went on-strike in the middleof the summer. The Montreal Expo’s had the best team in baseball at the time of the strike and were beingpicked as the number one contender for the World Series. This strike may end up killing that team. The BlueJays were not very good this year so Toronto fans weren’t as affected. For the first 2 months of the strike thetwo sides did very little talking. Only in the last two weeks, once the US government appointed a mediatordid they even start to seriously negotiate. The negotiations have gone slow and now it looks like the ownerswill impose a contract under their terms for next year. They will invite to training camp anyone who wants toplay. They can get away with this everywhere except Toronto where the labor laws won’t allow it. The talk isthat if the laws are not changed that the Blue Jays will play out of Buffalo until the government is changedand the law changed.

On the hockey front, we had training camp and the exhibition games. Prior to the start of the training campthe league changed the rules as far as the players were concerned. All contracts were two way, the playershad to pay their own way to training camp and all their expenses. On top of that, the league said that theywere going to impose a salary cap and/or have a luxury tax to support the small market teams. Well this gotall the players up in arms.

By the end of the training camp the owners said take it or leave it. The players offered to play the seasonunder last year’s terms, with a guarantee not to strike this year (both regular season and playoffs) The owner’ssaid no thanks, and one day prior to the start of the season they locked out the players. For the first 45 days ofthe lockout the two sides met less than 6 times. In the middle of November, they started talking but things aremoving very slowly. As it stands now, if we have a season it will probably be around 50-60 games, and theplayoffs won’t end until the beginning of July. What a zoo.

Some of the big name players have gone to Europe to play. Gilmour from the leafs is playing in Switzerland.With the lockout, we are getting to know a lot about European hockey. The news papers, all sports radiostation and newspaper are dying for something to cover.

On the computer front, I still have my 386/dx33 but I hope to upgrade it shortly. I have 2x130mb IDE drivesand 1x540mb SCSI. All the drives are double spaced and I have about 100mb left. I will be getting Stacker4.0 from a friend shortly and that should add some capacity. I am attaching the latest listing of the softwarethat I have, if you need anything, let me know and I will mail it to you. Also at work, I am getting MS Office4.3, Lotus for Windows R5.0, Visual Basic 3.0 Pro, Visual C++ 2 Pro and etc. So if there is anything that youneed let me know.

At home, I am shopping for a new machine. With the new software the 386 is just too slow. I am thinkingabout either an Itel 486/dx2/66 or a Pentium 66 with 540mb harddrive and a 15” SVGA Flat screen. Theprices of these systems have dropped a lot over the past two months and I think that I can get a good deal.When I get the new machine, I also want to get a new printer. I have been looking at an EPSON 800 or HPLaser Jet 540. The girls what a printer that prints in color and the HP can be upgraded to color for $60. Theyare priced at under $400 and would add a lot of quality to what we have now. I would keep my sound card,CDROM, 540mb and 130mb drives from the 386. We are then thinking of giving Liz (Maureen’s niece) theold machine until she finishes University. Then when we get it back we would put it into Jessica’s room forthe girls to use. I will also LAN the two PC’s together.

I signed up for the FreeNet here. Also, at work I am going to get access to the Internet. Do you have access tothe Internet yet. It so let me know, as I will have 2 id’s and Al is also on the Internet.

On the political front here, the more things change the more they stay the same. In Ottawa, Chretien has beendoing a half decent job. It has not been so much what he has done as the approach that he has taken. Theirstyle is to do a lot of consulting with the people and they seem to want to get input from the people beforedoing anything. After the 9 years of the Conservatives that is refreshing. Next spring’s budget will be a toughone. the conservative’s had run the deficit up to $46 billion and the

liberals want to bring it down to $26 billion over the next 3 years. So there’s a lot of cutting to be done. Theyare looking at everything from RRSP’s to working for welfare and unemployment insurance. They areholding the discussions on where and what to cut public. The only thing that is government policy is that they

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will cut. So, next spring’s budget will be interesting.

Quebec elected the PQ in September and we will have another referendum next year. Current opinion pollsindicate that they won’t win the referendum. We can expect that they will try and create incidents over thenext near with the rest of the country. What’s new? Ottawa and the provinces have adopted a stance ofignoring the PQ and not getting drawn into the stupidity. It seems to be working so far. In some way, I wishthe idiots would just separate and let the rest of us get on with our lives. (Don’t tell Patty this).

In Ontario, we just had our local election last week. A lot of politicians got the boot.(Mayor’s of Toronto,Markham etc.) The voters are still not in a good mood. In Toronto where the school board trustee’s had votedthemselves raises to $50,000/year, most of them did not get reelected. To a lesser extent the same thinghappened in the suburbs. We will have a provincial election in the spring. The NDP won’t win 12 seats andthey know it. Unfortunately neither the liberals or conservatives impress me so I’m not sure who’s going towin. All I know is that the NDP will come in 3rd or 4th. After taking the deficit from 0 to $12 billion a yearover the last 4 years, they deserve it.

Getting back to Australia, all of our pictures turned out great. I have two full albums of them. The girls stilllove to look at them. The movie’s that we took also turned out great. I hope you enjoy them and let me knowhow well they converted them for you.

My new office phone number is (905) 738-0103 and the Fax is (905) 738-6986.

Peter

Hi Allen,Peter seems to have covered the year pretty well , so I will just add my two cents worth. I have to tell youhow much we have all enjoyed the Australian cassettes. The girls know the words much better than me fromtheir travels in the car. You must remember how much better they travel when they have something good tolisten to.

It is quite a shock to my system to have Peter back at work. It was really great to come home to dinner allready. Now the girls are back at their old baby-sitters after school, with Peter picking them up on his wayhome from work.

They are both doing well in school. Remember how we kept trying to get Jessica to read last Christmas?She now reads on her own without any prompting and is zooming through the “Sweet Valley Twin”collection. Her cousin Jackie, who owns a book store in Moose Jaw set her up with quite a few andsomeone from my office gave me another pile of them, so I think that she has the complete series. Jessicawent to camp for a week in the summer. It was in the Georgian Bay area and the weather was beautiful.Actually the whole summer was beautiful weather this year. The camp was quite an experience for her andshe would like to start going every year.

Alison is busy improving her skating this year. We have being going to the Community Center rink everySat or Sun afternoon for the past few weeks.

Christmas is a busy time for us this year. Last weekend we had my office’s Children’s Christmas party andadults dinner/dance and tonight is Peter’s office’s dinner-dance. Up to this week it has been a pretty mild fall, but we did get some snow this week and it is quite cold out there today.

Well I should get busy with some more letters so I will say good-bye for now. Hope that you decide to plan avisit sometime soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Maureen

dear uncle Allen Nov. 1 , 1994

I hope you enjoy are film especially the parts that dad put in .In school I ‘m doing speech’s my to pick is theNHL I found it rely interesting looking in books and seeing names of Smeatons. I heard one speech that Ithought would win first prize it was by JAMES PALERA .I really liked he’s and I think it was wellmemorized too I really think he desires to win I don’t wont to win LOVE JESSICA

Dear uncle Allen Nov. 14, 1994 About the speeches Daniel[gordanel] + James where the top two the backups where Diane and Michael I got

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75 witch is good to me Well got to go right soon love Jessica

Dear uncle DEC 5 ,94The are on strike still , my dad got a new job what nest? The school I just got to many things on my mind andwhy now. Well I wish I was going, away this year. Love Jessica

Christmas Letter 1995

Hi Everyone

We hope that this letter finds you all well. Another year has past and it is time for our Christmas letter. For us,it is hard to believe that Christmas is only a few weeks away. It is also hard to believe that it has been twoyears since we spent Christmas in Australia with Allen.

We have had a busy year. There never seems to be enough time to do all the things that you want to do.

The girls played soccer this year. Alison played last year but this was Jessica’s first year. When we sent in theregistration forms this year, I checked off that I was willing to help by being an assistant coach. Well, a shorttime later I got a call telling me that Alison and my team was the Thornhill Paints. When I asked who thecoach was, I was told that I was the coach. On top of that they talked me into being the convenor for that agegroup. They arranged for me to go to school to learn about coaching and soccer. I now have my level 1coaching certificate.

As a result of this, I had a busy time with soccer this year. Alison improved 100% this year, must have beenthe coaching. Alison played defense most of the time. At the end of the year, I tried her in goal and she did anexcellent job. Next year, I think I will play her more often in goal. Alison did score one goal this year and wasexcited about that. Our season started off slowly. Besides myself most of my players had not played soccerbefore. By the end of the season we were the third best team in the league and came close to upsetting theleague champions in the playoffs.

Jessica also seemed to enjoy playing soccer. I only got to see her play once, as they both played on the samenights and at different parks. Maureen would take Jessica while Alison and I went off together.

At the end of the season we had a team BBQ in the back yard for the players and families of our team. Wewent through 36 hamburgers and 48 hot dogs. Luckily the weather was OK. Maureen would have killed me ifit rained and we all had to move indoors.

Last Christmas Santa got the girls hamsters. Boy was Maureen upset about having rodents in the house. Boydid Santa ever goof! It turned out that one was a boy and one was a girl. Their names are Patches andSplothes. By mid January we had 8 hamsters, with Spot, Puny, Ellen, Gus, Fluffy and Gondy joining thefamily. One of Jessica’s friends got Gondy for her birthday. One of Alison’s friends took Fluffy. One of thegirls at the sitters took Ellen. One of the girls in the office took Gus. That left us with 4 hamsters and 4 cagesin the house. Giving them away was expensive as we had to supply a cage with each one. I hope Santa doesnot do something like this again this year. Maureen will kill him if he does.

Jessica still takes piano once a week. In the spring there was a recital and I was impressed with how well sheplayed before all those people. Right now, Jessica is taking drama at lunch time at the school. We can hardlywait to see her premier performance.

Alison is in brownies. Most of the players on our soccer team are in the same group so she knows a lot of thekids.

In the spring, I got a new car or should I say truck. I got a GMC Safari Van. Boy have we put it to a lot of use.It is now 6 months old and I have 21,000km on it. We missed going to Moose Jaw this year. Instead we didour part for National Unity and spent our time in Quebec. We started at the cottage for a few days. Boy do thegirls enjoy going to the cottage.

Alison made a pile of money this year. Last year she had trouble swimming a few yards. This year she startedoff by swimming to the raft for .50. Next she swam to the neighbors wharf for $2.00. Next it was to the beachfor $5.00. Then she swam across the lake for $10. Finally she swam the length of the lake for $20. On top ofthe money that I had to pay her, Patty had to match it, so she turned out to be a very rich girl.

After spending a few days at the cottage we took the Van and Tent Trailer and set off. Our first stop was

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Patty’s house in Pierrefonds to drop off Kelly (the cat). When we got there, I noticed that the trailer waslisting to one side. One of the springs was broken. Luckily, Canadian Tire had the part and we were onlydelayed for a few hours while I fixed it. We then drove to Quebec City where we camped for a few days.

We could not have picked a busier time to go, as it was their summer festival. The girls seemed to reallyenjoy Quebec City. They had heard me talking about it, but to actually see it was something else. They had ahard time believing that there were buildings dating back to 1700.

We did a lot of walking and it also seemed to tire them out.

After Quebec City we went to Montmercy Falls and Ste Anne de Beaupre which are just north east of QuebecCity. From Quebec City, we then drove to Trois Pistiolles. The girl at the check-in for the campground wasvery impressed that someone from Toronto could speak French as well as I did. I was even impressed withmy French. The camp ground there was very nice, but unfortunately we were only spending one night. Thenext day it rained, so we drove to Perce Rock. The rain stopped about the time we arrived and the weathercleared up. In the morning, it was a nice day and we went out to the rock at low tide. After that it was time forlunch and my favorite Hot Dogs. After Jessica had finished her first Hot Dog, she decided that she wantedanother. She went up to the window and ordered another Hot Dog and a Chocolate Milk in French. She wasvery impressed with herself.

From Perce, we drove to Forlin National Park at the tip of the Gaspe. I had been there years ago andremembered being impressed with the park. If anything, the park was even better. They have many restoredbuildings from the old Cod Fishery. From the shore you could see whales in the bay. At the tip of the park,when you looked out you could see 20 whales out in the Gulf. Along the shore, the girls were impressed bythe seals playing in the water.

I tried to get us on a whale watching cruise while we were there but they were all booked up. We decided thatwe would try when we got back to Trois Pistiolles. After spending three days at the park it was time to startheading back. As we drove along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, something caught the corner ofmy eye. There were whales swimming about 100 yards out in the river. Several times during the trip we sawwhales.

When we arrived back at the camp ground at Trois Pistiolles, I got the information for a whale watchingcruise the next morning. As luck would have it, when we got up the next morning, the fog was so thick thatyou could not see two feet. So we packed up and started back to Montreal.

We picked up Kelly from Patty’s and went back to the cottage for the rest of our vacation.

While we were at the cottage, we went to see my Uncle Billy Smeaton, who has a cottage about 30 minutesfrom ours. Uncle Billy has been building the family tree. I have been interested in this and this time he reallygot me hooked on it. I now have a new hobby, Genealogy. I spend every Saturday morning at the libraryresearching the family tree. I have been using tools like:

• An index of births and marriages for Scotland.

• The 1851/1861/1871/1881/1891/1901 Canadian Census Returns

• The Ontario Index of Births, Deaths and Marriages

• Old City Directories

• The Internet

On my father’s side, we are now back to 1700 and an Alexander Honeyman in Dron, Perthshire, Scotland.The earliest Smeaton ancestor that I have found is my GreatGreatGreatGreatGrandfather James Smeaton whomarried Jean Marshall in 1763. In my search, I have written to Scotland for a death certificate of a Smeatonuncle who died in 1878. From that I found his address and occupation (Confectioner) and that of his father(Shoe Maker). The Smeaton family came to Quebec City in 1842. From the census returns and old citydirectories, I know the address in Quebec City where they lived and what they did for a living. All thisresearch is going to make the next trip to Quebec City interesting. My GreatGreatGrandfather AlexanderSmeaton was a Tailor in Quebec City. I have found an advertisement from the 1850’s for his store.

On my mother’s side, I have traced the family back to the 1850’s and a James Higgerty in Ottawa. In theprocess of tracing the Higgerty side of the family, I have met a cousin on the internet who is doing the samething. We trade electronic mail on a daily basis as we try and sort out the family. Although we have never met

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in person, I have come to know him very well and think of him as a member of the family. The Higgerty’soriginally came from Co. Clare in Ireland. One of the problems we have tracing them is that they keptchanging the spelling of their name. They also don’t seem to have stayed in any place very long prior to 1901.I have found records with it spelt Haggerty then Hagerty then Higgerty. We suspect that it was O’Hagertyprior to that. On top of this, they had a tendency to lie about their ages. I wonder what they were trying tohide.

I have not done much work yet on the Graham side. Searching for records in Ireland is more difficult thanCanada and Scotland. Most of the Census records before 1901 have been destroyed. Once I have completedthe Higgerty’s and off shoots in Canada, I will start on Ireland.

I am attaching the current direct ancestor family tree. In total, I have over 500 names in the tree and it growsweekly. Next summer when we go to Moose Jaw I will want to get all the details on that side of the tree.

I am still doing the hockey here in Toronto. The Leafs have a middle of the pack team. They are getting oldand I don’t expect that they will do much this year. I wonder how Lyle is doing. His Canadiens are goingdownhill quickly. I hope no one is picking on him about the Canadiens and the fact that they will miss theplayoffs for the second year in a row.

The weather here in Toronto has been very cold this December. Last weekend, with the wind chill it got downto -40c. On top of that we have snow on the ground. Last year, we did not get snow that stayed on the grounduntil Christmas and then it only stayed for a few days. In fact, last year we had such a mild winter that I didnot attempt a rink in the back yard as there was no snow and it never got cold enough. I guess we are going topay for it this year. So much for the Global Warming!

Last week we went to the local Conservation Park for a Christmas evening. We did crafts, walked in thewoods and roasted chestnuts over an open fire. Last year Alison and I went to this evening. This yearMaureen and Jessica wanted to go. On top of that, Brenda, Al and Brian came along too.

I have not started my Christmas shopping yet. The girls don’t seem to want anything big this year. They havementioned a dog but with 5 animals already that is out of the question.

I have not talked to Patty for a few weeks, but Brenda says that she will be coming after Christmas for a fewdays. We will be having Christmas dinner at our place with Brenda, Al and Brian coming over.

Well, I guess that’s all the news from Toronto. We hope everyone has a good Christmas.

Christmas Letter 1997

Well, it is Christmas again. Boy time does fly.

We have had a busy time over the last year. To bring you up to date, here is the news from Thornhill.

We have had an addition to the family. Her name is Lucinda Biscuit. She is a 4 month old Boxer. Maureenand the girls had been on my case to get them a dog for a couple of years and I finally broke down and weadded Lucinda to the family. The girls had wanted to call her Biscuit because of her coloring but Maureensaid that no dog of her’s would be called Biscuit. She thought Lucinda would be a good name, Lucy for short.The girls, feeling that they were not going to win the argument, gave in and agreed. Maureen said that sheliked the name and “Was it not someone in your family that was named Lucinda”. She was a littleembarrassed when I informed her that your GreatGrandMother’s name was Lucinda.

In the few weeks that we have had Lucy, she has grown a lot. We have her trained to sit now on commandand I am working on “Come”. She must have Graham blood as she is very good at ignoring you when shewants to. I guess I will have to have her hearing checked out in the new year.

She is just about trained to do her business outside. She just has to learn a way to tell us that she wants out.The girls and Maureen like taking her on walks. She does not like the rain and cold weather. We bought her asweater to wear on cold and wet days to help out.

Kelly, the cat, is not too impressed with Lucy. Lucy would like it if Kelly would play with her. Unfortunately,Kelly is now 17 and likes to eat and sleep and do very little else. She does not like it when Lucy sticks hercold nose into her face. Kelly has been very paticent with Lucy, but by the end of the day, she will starthitting her whenever she comes close.

Just after we got Lucy, Patches , one of the Hamsters died. The girls were very upset about it but Maureen

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took it very well. This leaves me with 1 cat, 1 dog, 3 hamsters, 1 wife and 2 daughters.

On the employment side of things, FlavorCoffee and myself parted company in November. There wasn’t anywork left for me to do. I was able to negotiate a good severance package with them. Right now, while I amlooking for a job, I am doing some consulting. FlavorCoffee is my client and in a way, I guess I found a wayfor them to pay me twice. The job market seems to be hot here, so I hope to have no problems findingsomething once the holidays are over. If not, I can just stay home and let Maureen support me.

Alison is in Guides this year. They were short of leaders and Maureen is one of the Leaders. Jessica is stilltaking Piano She seems to be very good but she never practices. Jessica is also taking drama both at schooland one evening a week. For a girl that is as shy as Jessica, she really impresses me with her talent. Herteacher even gets her to perform before the school on a regular basis. Maybe some day we will see her in themovies.

I am still working at hockey. The Leafs don’t have a very good team this year. During training camp when Ipredicted that they would come in last in their conference, every one made fun of me and said that I just didnot like the Leafs. Well it looks like I was right and it is going to be a long winter..again.

The girls took Horse Back riding for a month in the fall and they seemed to enjoy it. I think that if they hadthere way they would take it all year.

Both of the girls played soccer again this year. I coached Alison’s team again this year. Jessica played for ateam coached by one of my players father. Our team would both the League and Playoff Championship. Thegirls played really well this year. We had the same bunch of girls from last year and I really enjoyed workingwith them. This year I managed to draft 5 assistant coaches and that really helped out. Alison was one of mygoalies until she broke her nose in a game. That was the last time in nets for her. She really impressed me byplaying the rest of the season with a hockey helmet and mask on.

I have been busy on my Genealogy Hobby. On the Graham side of the family, I have discovered that theGrahams came from County Derry in Ireland. I have not found any records of them in Ireland yet but it is onmy to do list. On my mother’s Higgerty’s, I have not made any progress since last year.

I have spent most the last year working on the Smeaton side of the family. I now have about 5000descendants of my GreatGreatGreatGreatGreatGrandfather John Smeaton listed. I am in correspondence withdistant cousins in Tasmania, Australia; London, Ontario and Eugene, Oregon who are also working on thisline. I just started working on my grandmother’s McLean family in Scotland. I have been able to trace themback to the 1770’s so far and this line could prove to be interesting and they seemed to have been well off.My GreatGreatGreatGreatGrandfather Peter McLean was a Sawyer. This could make is easier to findadditional information about him.

This past summer we went to the cottage, north of Montreal, for a week. The girls really enjoy going to thecottage. The weather was not very good but we still had a good time. We managed to made one side trip toOttawa for a day to see Andrew who was part of the Changing of the Guards on Parliament Hill. Jessica andAlison were very impressed with this. I also got to see my cousin Will Lockhart for an hour before wereturned to the cottage. I felt bad that we could not visit with my other relatives in Ottawa but we ran out oftime. Maybe we can make a trip up to Ottawa some time in the spring. I know that the girls would love tomeet some of their cousins that they have never seen.

After we returned from the cottage, Tim and Cathy and family visited us for a week. I guess the highlight ofthis visit was the day Tim and I took all the kids to WonderLand for a day. You talk about Above and Beyondthe Call of Duty. Cathy and Maureen owe us for this one. We arrived at WonderLand at 10am and left at10pm at night. Jessica and Laera got stuck at the top of TOP GUN for 20 minutes. Jessica now likes to telleveryone about her adventure and how brave she was to have survived the ride.

In August, we went to Moose Jaw for 10 days. I managed to get in the only 11 rounds of golf that I played allyear. On our last day we went to the Hot Springs and don’t tell anyone (especially Albert) this but I was veryimpressed with the facilities. I am certain that we will be going there more often in the future.

I have left this letter to the last minute so I must cut it off now. We hope that you all have a great Christmasand that 1997 is the best year yet.

Christmas Letter 1999

Another year has come and gone and as we prepare for the new Millennium Maureen, Jessica, Alison, Lucy,Cody, Fox and Peter hope that you are all well.

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We have had another busy year and all are well here.

We had some bad news in September when Kelly, our 20 year old cat died. She got sick on a Monday nightand was gone on Wednesday. Being older than the girls, they were really upset about her passing. Thankfullyshe was not sick for a long period and was active right up until the Monday when she got sick. I miss heryelling at me to be fed in the morning when I get up.

In October, we added two new members to the family, Cody and Fox. They are black and white kittens thatare forever on the go. Jessica’s kitten is Cody and Alison’s is Fox. They keep Lucy on her toes, as they seemto think that she is their mother. They like to cuddle up to Lucy or rub their faces in Lucy’s when she isasleep. Lucy used to like to eat Kelly’s food whenever she could, now she has to put up with the kitten’strying to eat hers. I have been really surprised with the patience that she has shown with them.

Alison is very active in TaeKwonDo. She just received her BlueStripe Belt and came close to getting a BlueBelt. (This means she is in the top 1/3 of the Belts) Out of respect (fear) we all call her Sir now. Her instructorseems to be very impressed with her progress even if his face is a little sore from where she kicked him lastweek.

Alison is doing well in school again this year and still reads 3 or 4 books a week between TaeKwonDo andmothering her kitten Fox.

During the summer, Alison played on my Soccer teams again. We did not do very well in the regular seasonbut played well in the playoffs, winning 2 games and losing 2 games in shootouts. In the playoffs, I changedmy strategy and used some hockey strategy like killing the clock when we were ahead by making lots ofplayer changes and pulling our goalie and putting Alison in nets when we were down. In the final playoffgame of the year, Alison scored the goal in the shootout that got us back into the game that we ended upwinning.

Jessica is now in her first year of High School and seems to be adjusting very well to High School. Besidesher old friends from grade school she has made a number of new friends. They seem to go to all the newMovies as they are released. She has also attended two Concerts downtown this fall.

During the summer she played soccer on my friend’s team and they ended up 2nd in a very tough age group(Under 17 Girls). Her team was very young when compared to the other teams in the division, so they didvery well. She played mid field and some forward and scored an important goal in one of her games.

Maureen has been working hard this year. She is involved in all that Y2K stuff you hear about on the newsand will have to work on New Years Day. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Why would anyonewant to take all that whiteout and change all the Y’s to K’s in all those computer programs is beyond me.

I still work at Purolator doing Computer Planning. Right now I am architecting their new Web Site that theyhope to launch early in the New Year.

I am also still working at hockey. This is my 30th season and I figured that I have worked 1100 regularseason NHL games and at least another 200 playoff games. I had thought of not going back this year, but thegirls insisted upon it. I don’t think they could stand the thought of be being around all the time if I stoppedworking hockey. This and the fact that Jessica is a real Maple Leaf fan and wants tickets to as many games asshe can get made me reconsider.

At a recent game that she attended with one of her friends she wanted to get some autographs. Luckily for me,I saw Don Cherry in the hallway and when I signaled to him, he came over and signed their Maple Leafsweaters.

For our vacation this year, we went to Ireland and Scotland. I had been talking for some time about going toScotland to try and find all the places where my ancestors came from. In April we decided to make the tripthis year.

We email Cathy Kelly (Maureen’s cousin) in Dublin and asked for some travel advice and before you knewit, we were also planning on Ireland. We booked a Flight for July 1st to Dublin and a return flight fromGlasgow for July 24th. Cathy booked us a flight from Dublin to Glasgow over there as they had special pricesfor short trips to Scotland.

When we arrived in Dublin, Cathy met us at the airport and I picked up our rental car. Luckily for me, I hadreserved a larger car as we had enough luggage to move to Ireland. When we got the car organized and were

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ready to leave the parking lot to follow Cathy to her house, the fun started. I had not driven a standard sincethe Calgary Olympics when Rose let me use her car. The rental was face in to it’s parking spot and backingout was comical. I think Maureen was ready to catch the next flight out by the time we got out of the parkinglot.

Cathy planned a route to her house that kept us off of the main roads so to avoid traffic. This sounded goodexcept for the fact that their roads are much narrower than ours are and have high stone fences on both sides.On the hour trip to Cathy’s, I learned to close my eyes and pray in tight spots.

A few times on the trip, I would stall the car, have trouble getting it going again and have traffic backupbehind me. To my great surprise, no one ever honked their horn or yelled at me from outside the car. (I cannotsay the same thing for inside the car). This will always remind me of the friendliness of the Irish people thatwe found on our trip.

We spent the next three days at Cathy’s in Brae, south of Dublin. On the weekend we went on a great hike inthe mountains. By this point in the trip, the girls were rating me on a daily basis on my driving skills. On ascale of 1 to 10, I was averaging 2s and 3s. In my defense, Maureen was navigating and I found it hard todrive a standard on the wrong side of the road and still be able to point out on Maureen’s map that we werenowhere near Belfast. On Sunday evening, Maureen started calling around to see if she could find anautomatic car for me to drive out of kindness to me. (She really meant for her safety) None could be had.

On Monday morning, we set out to explore the West Coast of Ireland. Cathy led us to the highway to thesouthwest, made a sign of the cross, wished us luck and we were off. We drove that day to Cloghane in Kerry.Halfway there, I made a change in the lineup in the car and had Jessica moved to the front seat to act asnavigator. It was at this point that my driving started to improve. That day, I received my first 5 on the scaleand things were looking up.

Cloghane is a town near Ballnalaken where Maureen’s Kane ancestors came from. There are about a dozenhouses in the town and 4 pubs. This it turns out is typical of Ireland. We arranged for a room in the Pub and Isettled into what became another tradition on the trip of having a good pint of beer in the pub after a day ofdriving to calm my nerves. That evening we drove up Brandon Mountain for a great view of Kerry’s DinglePeninsula. Before setting off, no one warned me that the road was what we would call a one-lane countrypath. Luckily, because of the time of day, there were no buses coming the other way.

That evening in the Pub we meet many of the local people who were extremely friendly and welcomed us tothe area. We spent a great deal of time talking to a man who said that he remembered Maureen’s grandfatherfrom his youth.

In the morning, we explored the local area, including the ruins of the old church and the area wereBallnalaken use to be. The girls seem to enjoy seeing where their ancestors came from.

From Cloghane we drove to County Clare and visited with Maureen’s Aunt, Sister Johanna. What a nice ladySister Johanna is. I remember her from meeting her at the airport in Toronto years ago when Jessica was ababy. After a visit, a great lunch at the convent and a nice visit, Sister Johanna gave us a special religious cardfor the car to make sure we had a safe trip..

The scenery and roads in Clare are straight out of an Irish Postcard. When driving along the coast andespecially in some of the towns, the narrow roads, with cars parked on both sides, left room for only one carto pass. If it was up hill, I just prayed that everyone coming the other way would get out of my way. I still hadnot mastered starting the car in gear on an up slope. If I had to stop, I might never get going again.

We found a B&B with a good Pub a few doors away for the night. After eating at the Pub, we took the girlsback to the B&B and returned to the Pub for an evening of Irish traditional music. NO PATTY, we did notabandon the girls for a night of drinking with only a bag of Smarties for their dinner as Jessica suggested inher Postcard.

The next morning, the fog was so thick that when we got to the Cliffs of Moher that you could see only a fewfeet in front of yourself. The cliffs were one of the places that I was looking forward to seeing but had tosettle on a postcard.

We headed inland to avoid the fog. We stopped in some nice towns and visited some churches that dated fromthe 11th century. In Burren of Clare we say a tomb site that was 2,000 years old. Later in the day Alison and Iwent through some caves in Clare. That night we made it to a Pub on the coast past Galway. We had plannedon calling in on Maureen’s cousin in Galway but by the time we got there, Jessica was not felling well and wedrove up the coast a bit before stopping for the night.

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The next day we continued up the coast to the Monastery. It is a girl’s school now and I suggested that maybethe girls go there for school but they did not think that that was a good idea. From there we started southwestto Ballyhaunis, were Maureen’s Kilkenny ancestors came from.

After spending the night at a B&B in Ballayhaunis, we telephoned Ed and Mary Grourke, Maureen’s cousin.With their directions we found their house and they took us over to the Kilkenny house up the road. It’s hardto believe that the house is 150+ years old by the shape that it is in. We spent several hours visiting with Edand Mary before setting off for our drive back to Dublin.

We arrived back safely in Dublin and even with getting lost in Dublin managed to find Brae and Cathy’shouse. I think this impressed Cathy as she was probably expecting to hear about us on the News. By this pointin time, my driving rating was up to the 7 and 8s and the girls were no longer white when I stopped the car.

We spent the Saturday resting in Brae and I got to play golf with Paddy. He managed to borrow a left-handedwood and an iron and he had a 2-sided putter for me to use. It was not one of my better rounds of Golf but atleast I can say that I have played golf in Ireland.

On Sunday morning we boarded our flight from Dublin to Glasgow after a great time in Ireland. Cathy andPaddy were so kind to all of us that I will always be grateful to them.

In Glasgow, we picked up our rental, which turned out to be the same car as Ireland. This made me happy, asI knew that the luggage would all fit. We drove from the airport to Edinburgh where I had booked a B&B for3 nights.

We spent the next few days sightseeing in Edinburgh and looking for the Beannie Baby “Britannia” forJessica’s collection. We must have checked out 15 stores that sold Beannie Babies but saw only one Britanniathat was a way too expensive. Edinburgh with it’s Castle and other historic buildings is a great place to visit.Jessica was still not feeling well so one rainy day we left her at the B&B and went to the Royal Museum.

From Edinburgh, we went to Dunfermline where there is an old Abbey where Robert The Bruce is buried. Iwas also able to find the house where my GG-Grandfather’s sister lived.

After a short visit in Dunfermline we drove to Fossoway, Dron, Dunbarney and Forteviot, where my Smeatonancestors lived. We found the old churches and several of the buildings where they lived in during the late1700 and 1800’s. In Fossoway, we found the houses where my GGG-Grandmother lived in the 1850’s(Gartwhinzean Feus and Bridgeend Cottage). In Dron, we found Burnside, the house of my GGGG-Grandfather. And in Forteviot, we found the place where my GG-Grandfather was born. When we arrived inPerth that evening, we found out that all accommodations in Perth and to the east were booked for the BritishOpen Golf Championship that was just starting. This forced a quick change in our plans and we headed westto Stirling Castle. By this time, I was had caught the cold and had to spend the day in bed.

This turned out to be a good thing for Jessica. While she, Alison and Maureen were out in Stirling, they cameupon a store that had Britannia at a very good price. Jessica bought it and this made her trip. It was onlyafterwards that we realized that she had bought 2 as she could have sold the second one a home for enough topay for both of them.

We spend the next morning at Stirling Castle. Alison, at a historic show that they put on, gave the 2 actorssuch a rough time that they threatened to through her in the dungeon for a 100 years. It was all in good humorand they encourage the audience to participate.

From Stirling we drove to Oban on the West Coast of Scotland. Oban is a very picturiest seaside town. Wespent sometime there shopping. From there the drive took us through the Highlands of Scotland which arevery much like our Rockies only condensed in a very small area. At the top of one Glen we found a Piperplaying the pipes to the background of the valley below.

At Loch Carron, we visited with Jessica’s soccer coach’s cousins for awhile and then headed inland forInverness.

The next day we saw the Loch Ness Monster. For those of you that don’t believe us, I have enclosed thepicture to prove it. It tried to eat Alison but found her to be too tough and went on it’s way.

From Loch Ness our travels took us to Blair Athol were we spent the night is an old Country Estate. The roomwe had was by a large margin the largest of the trip. We spent the next morning at Blair Castle and thenheaded to Dundee.

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We spent 2 days in Dundee. I tried to find where my GG-Grandparents were buried but had no luck. Thepeople at the archives were very nice but I could not find any information on them. We did find the tombstonein Longforgan for my GGGG-Grandparents (James Galloway (1763-1820 and Catherine Galloway 1774-1851) who are buried there.

In Leetown and St. Madoes , we were able to find the places where my Brough ancestor lived in the 1700sand 1800s.

From Dundee we went down the road to Perth. In Perth we found the Smeaton Bridge, built by John Smeatonin 1769. South of Perth we went to Dunning and found the farm Middle Third of Pitcairns where my Smeatonancestors lived in the 1700’s. To the west, we also found Coul, a farm in Auchterarder where I believe thefamily lived prior to Dunning.

Our last stop on the trip was Glasgow. When we arrived near the airport, the hotel was all booked so we hadto go to Greenock to find a place for our last 2 nights.

I had not had a good impression of Glasgow and was not that interested in spend a lot of time there. Now thatI have been there, I would definitely go back. We drove into Glasgow in the morning and I found a subwaystation with a parking lot into which to park the car.

When we went into the station to get some directions, the ticket taker was great. He went searching for a mapof Glasgow and then spent a long time pointing out places on the map for us. He circled a number of placeson the map that we should visit and worked out a circular route for us to take that would bring us back to thestation where we were parked.

We then got on the Subway for 2 stops and got off. While I was looking at a map on the wall to get mybearings, a man that had gotten on the subway with us offered to take us to where we wanted to go. Thisfriendliness of the people was only one of many examples how nice people had been to us on our trip.

We took a Bus Tour of Glasgow that was great. After that we went to do the last of our shopping. When wegot to the station to take the subway to our car we stopped into a small shop. The man was so nice andinterested in where we had been on our trip that a 5 minutes stopped turned into a 2-hour talk on Scotland andit’s history.

At closing time, we caught the subway back to out car and from there to the hotel for one last night inScotland. All in all it was a great trip.

Yes, I am still researching the family history. For the first part of the year, I worked mostly on myGrandmother Margaret McLean’s family. I had a lot of success with her Brough ancestors in Scotland and inthe process have made contact with 4 cousins from this side of the family in Australia.

On the Smeaton side of the family, the number of 4th and 5th cousins that I am in contact with continues togrow. While we were in Scotland, I was amazed how close the various place were where I suspected that thefamily lived. This has provided me with new leads to be checked out. Currently, I am awaiting the detail of aWill from 1663 that a friend in Ottawa found reference to. It is for a David Smeaton the Younger of theMiddle Third of Pitcairns the place where I have traced the family to in the early 1700’s. This Will couldprovide with the information to trace the family back 3 more generations.

I have also started some serious work on Maureen’s family. From the information that I picked up in Irelandon our trip, I have many leads that need to be checked out.

Well, If I don’t stop soon, I will never get this letter printed and mailed off to you. Once again, from all of ushere, we wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and an even better New Year.

Maureen, Peter, Jessica, Alison, Lucy, Cody and Fox

Christmas 2002 in Venezuela

A diary of a Christmas Away From Home

Background

The story of how we can to spend Christmas in Venezuela begins in June when Andrew makes the shockingcall from Montreal that he is engaged. This comes to us and his mother completely out of nowhere. Clarissa, a

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girl he met while attend University, and Andrew where engaged on his most recent trip to Venezuela. Hecalled us to tell us shortly after telling his mother of his plans.

The initial plans are for the wedding to be held in Peru at Christmas. Andrew asks if we are going to be ableto attend and I immediately say “Yes” and start thinking of how I can get Maureen to buy into this trip.

Over the next few days, I spend some time on the Internet checking out Peru as a travel destination. The moretime I spend looking the more excited I get about making the trip. After a few more weeks, I give Patty a calland she tells me that it looks like the wedding will be help in Caracas, Venezuela and not Peru. So it’s back tothe drawing board with a new destination to research.

Over the next couple on months, there are numerous conversations with Patty and Brenda on possible travelplans for Christmas. By the end of August, the date is set for the wedding to occur on the 28th of December inCaracas. I make a trip to the Venezuelan Consulate in Toronto, and they give advice me on several places tovisit while in Venezuela.

Brenda and I have cornered the market on travel books on Venezuela and there are so many interesting placesthat are worth visiting. We decide on starting the trip at the main tourist location of Margarita Island for thetime period leading up to the wedding. Also under consideration is a 2-day side trip to Angel Falls. The onlyproblem with Angel Falls is that it’s the trip involves a small plane and sleeping in hammocks. Maureen doesnot seem too excited about the small plane and Jessica is worried about the hammocks and no electricity.Meanwhile, Alison is ok for anything.

After the wedding, it is decided that we will go to Henri Pitter National Park. This is Venezuela’s oldestNational Park and is on the migration path for Birds from both North and South America. The only majorconcern I have now is our lack of Spanish and will the girls be able to eat the food.

Now the problem is how do we go about booking the trip and how much is it going to cost. The first place Icheck are the charter companies. They seem to fly to Margarita Island during the winter months from Torontobut don’t have any flights yet scheduled. Air Canada does not fly to Venezuela. A friend of mine works forExpedia.ca, so I decide to give his web site a check and find that Delta flies from Toronto to Atlanta toCaracas on a daily basis.

The next problem is to find out how we get around the country and where are we going to stay. The Internethas sure changed the way of planning a trip. By putting “Venezuela” into a Search Engine many travel sitesare immediately identified that would have been impossible to find in the past.

On Margarita Island we are able to identify 6 places that seem to be nice destinations. We start sending emailsto all of them as to their available, rates and recommendations on things to do. Over a few weeks we havenarrowed down our choice to Villa Cabo Blanco at Playa Parquito.

For the Henri Pitter part of the trip, I found a tour company in Venezuela that recommends a convertedHacienda at Choroni that seems very nice.

By the beginning of September, a phone call to Andrew confirms that the wedding is still on and Brenda and Idecide that we better start booking flights and accommodations so not to end up disappointed. Since we aredoing this over the Internet, I get Brenda on the phone and we both go to the Expedia.ca site. At the sametime we both start the booking process for the flights to Venezuela. When we get to the final confirmationpage, Brenda gets an error and has to start over. Meanwhile, my tickets are now booked. Our first challenge tothe trip occurs when Brenda gets back to booking their tickets and finds that there are none available. A fewhours’ later things get sorted out with Brenda having to fly to Venezuela a day earlier than us.

Next step in the booking process is booking Villa Cabo Blanco on Margarita Island. This is painless as aquick email is answered immediately with instructions on where to wire the deposit. The same occurs withbooking the Hacienda in Choroni. Brenda does some shopping for the Airfare between Caracas and MargaritaIsland and finds a local airline that is very reasonable. When I check out their website, I notice that the planesare very small but decide that it’s in everyone best interest that we keep this information from Maureen until alater date.

By the 15th of September, everything is booked that has to be done ahead of time and the only thing to donow is wait for December.

December – Civil Unrest Throughout Venezuela

By the beginning of December, everything for the trip seemed to be under control. All the plane tickets were

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booked and paid for. The hotel on Margarita Island is booked and ½ paid for. Brenda and I have decided to goScuba Diving with Jessica, Alison and Gary. Maureen and Al will have a day at the beach with Patty whilewe are diving. The side trip to Angel Falls is still under consideration but we will leave that until we get toMargarita Island. The Hacienda at Choroni is booked and paid for. The Hotels in Caracas are organized. Theneighbour’s girls will be looking after the cats and Maureen’s friend is taking Lucy while we are away. All Ineed to do is get some Venezuelan money and get to the airport.

Then I start reading news reports about a General Strike in Venezuela. While a little concerned, I am notworried. How long can something like this last? By the middle of December, the General Strike is making theNational News and Maureen is reading about it in the newspapers. It is be portrayed in Canada as a CivilWar.

Maureen talks to some people at work who gets her upset about the situation that is developing in Venezuelaand she starts preparing me for not going. I make a phone call to Andrew who emails back that the unrest ismore like a party that a Civil War. This seems to calm Maureen down for a while.

With 2 weeks to go before departure, Maureen has some anxious moments. The latest reports that we havegotten from Caracas is that there are mass demonstrations in Caracas, up to 1 million people but that theatmosphere is almost party like.

Todd (Lyz’s husband) talks to a friend who goes to Venezuela all the time. This friend’s comments promptLyz to call Maureen. Lyz asks Maureen if she had been following the news on Venezuela and points her tothe External Affairs website. Words cannot describe what happened next. Maureen calls Brenda and the nextthing you knew was that the world was ending.

I end up spending the entire weekend trying to calm everyone down. I had to read the riot act to Lyz, Toddand anyone else who dared bring up the trip with Maureen. Jessica and Alison talked about seeing a doctor toget her some pills to calm her down but by Sunday she seemed much better.

Jessica takes on responsibility for screening all incoming phone calls until we leave to ensure that no one getsher upset again. Lyz has been told that if she calls then Maureen will be spending Christmas with her.

In the week leading up to departure, I am watching the news from Caracas hourly. The Charter Flights toMargarita have been all canceled but the Delta flights are on time every day. Our flights between Caracas andMargarita Island seem to be changing on a daily basis but they respond to our emails that we will be OK.Brenda leaves for Caracas the day before us, so if things are real bad then she can calls us when she arrives.

Toronto to Caracas

No phone call from Brenda on Thursday night so no last minute panic. We get up early on Friday morningand do a last minute check that all is packed. Maureen takes Lucy for a walk and leaves her with her sitters.Lucy is a little confused but is not too upset when Maureen leaves her. The Limo Driver arrives on time andwe load everything into the Limo for the trip to the airport.

When we get to the airport, it is very quiet, no long lineups. We check in at Delta and proceed through USImmigration and Customs. The guy at Customs seems more interested in having a conversation with Jessicathan in anything we are bring into the country. Once through Customs, a friend of mine who works for USCustoms comes over and has a coffee with us. He makes a few jokes about this size of the plane to Atlantaand the service on the flight but backs off when Maureen seems a little nervous. The flight to Atlanta isuneventful. The girls joke a little with Maureen that it’s too late to back out now but that is it. We have a 2-hour lay over in Atlanta before our flight to Caracas. After a lunch in the airport we head to our gate and waitfor the flight.

We arrive in Caracas

Our flight from Atlanta to Caracas is only half full and once again uneventful. At 9:30 we arrive in Caracasand the adventure in Venezuela begins. Andrew fiancée Clarissa is going to meet us at the airport to makesure we get to our Hotel ok. I am a little nervous with having to go through Immigration and Customs and notbeing able to speak Spanish. I have my Spanish-English dictionary ready as we head to Immigration. I putdown the 4 passports and visa papers and the Immigration Officer starts going through them veryyyyy slowlybut never asks us anything. With our passports stamped, we collect our baggage and head to customs.

To decide who’s baggage gets check, they have a system in place where you push a button and if you get ared light then your baggage is checked. I push first and get a green light and head out. Jessica is next and shegets a Red Light. As I watch with all the passports the Custom Official spends 5 minutes trying to tell Jessica

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where she has to go before giving up and letting her, Maureen and Alison to pass.

Once outside the Customs area in the Terminal Building, I am greeting by a hundreds of people yelling“Taxi”. The first thing that goes through my head is “I guess the gas shortage is not affecting the Taxi’s”.After a couple of minutes Clarissa finds us. I guess that was not too hard as we were the only NorthAmericans on the flight and the pale colour of our skin gave us away. After introducing ourselves, shenegotiates a Taxi for us, tells us how much it will be and helps us get our bags to the Taxi.

Once outside the terminal building, the temperature and humidity hits us. When we left Toronto thetemperature was about 0 and it was snowing. On arriving in Caracas it is 30 and humid and this is 10:30pm.What a difference!

It turns out that our Taxi Driver speaks some English. On the way to the Hotel he explains to us how he has tolineup for gasoline for 9 hours each time he has to fill up. The gasoline station at the airport has a lineup over2 miles long. This is our first glimpse of the impact of the General Strike.

After a 15-minute drive we arrive at our Hotel. I had read that their traffic laws are based on the biggest carhaving the right away. The Taxi driver proves this as he cuts off several smaller cars and motorcycles on thetrip. By 11:00pm “Mission Accomplished” – I have us checked into a Hotel in Venezuela without having ourpictures broadcast on the Canadian National News.

Venezuela – Day 1 – December 21

We are up early on day 1 in Venezuela. Today’s agenda is to get from Caracas to Margarita Island. Ourflights were originally scheduled for 11am but the day before we left, I noticed that the flight had beenchanged to 2:30pm. When we were checking in on Friday night, I noticed that they Internet Access in thehotel. After breakfast, a quick check shows we are still on the 2:30pm flight. We spend the morning in thehotel and by the pool outside. At 11:30 we checkout and wait for our Taxi driver from the previous night totake us back to the airport at 12:00. When he does not arrive by 12:15, I arrange with the Hotel’s driver forthe transfer to the Airport. Arriving at Avior checking, I quickly discover that no one speaks English. - NoProblem – as hand signs and gestures get us checked in with a few laughs from the Check in Clerk. There isnot much to do in the Domestic Terminal at Caracas Airport, so we make our way to where our gate shouldbe.

Looking out the window, I see some planes with Avior on them. I start hoping Maureen does not look out thewindow too! Those planes look veryyyy small. “We may have trouble here!" I tell Jessica as she sees what Iam looking at. Jessica tells me not to worry, she will keep Maureen occupied until we have to get on theplane.

30 minutes prior to departure, I move the girls to the waiting room where the flights for Avior seem to bedeparting from. There is no flight information for our flight so we just sit and wait. 15 minutes prior todeparture, just as I am getting worried there is an announcement in Spanish from which I pick out the wordPorlamar – the main city on Margarita Island. When I go to the Check in desk the girl takes my ticket andpoint me out the door. I yell back to the girls that that announcement was for us. Out the door we go and geton a bus that takes us to a small plane. On exiting the bus Maureen says “We are not flying on that are we?" Ilead the girls over to the pilot who tells us we are in the right place and to get on the plane. On the planebehind the pilot there are 2 rows of 9 seats on each side of the plane. We get settled into our seats and Jessicapoints out the look on Maureen’s face.

We are no sooner seated and the door closes and the pilot starts taxing for takeoff. There's nothing Maureencan do now. It’s a clear day and the flight to Porlamar Airport is smooth and 45 minutes later we are back onland. Maureen even says she enjoyed the flight!

Our luggage seems to take forever to come out but when it does; we load up and go looking for a Taxi. At theTaxi stand, I negotiate a Taxi with the help of the Spanish-English dictionary and we are off to Villa CaboBlanco on Playa Parquito beach. On the way there are no lineups for Gas and the driver tells us there are veryfew problems on the island. We also notice the gasoline costs about 6 cents a liter here in Venezuela. Maybeit’s time for civil unrest back in Canada. After a 40-minute ride we turn off the road at the Villa Cabo Blancosign to see Brenda, Al and Brian returning from the beach.

We quickly find Michel and Carman, the owners of Villa Cabo Blanco, get checked in, changed and off to thebeach. Brenda quickly introduces Maureen, Jessica and Alison to all the beach vendors that she hasestablished a business relationship so far. I quickly see that this is going to be a costly beach to be on. Alquickly points out that there are no silly restrictions on drinking in Venezuela and beer cost 1,000bs ($1) abottle on the beach. I give Jessica 5,000bs and send her off. Back she comes with my beer and a fancy drink

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for herself that costs 4,000bs.

After an hour at the beach, it’s back to Villa Cabo Blanco where Michel arranges a Taxi and sends us off tothe first on many great restaurants.

Venezuela – Day 2 – December 22

Everyone except Jessica is up early on Sunday morning. Brenda bought coffee before we arrived and deliversmy morning coffee to me. After getting Jessica up and everyone eating some food that Brenda had, we headoff for our first full day at the beach.

As we arrive at the beach, all of Brenda’s Vendor Friends come over to say good morning and introducethemselves to us. Since all the tour companies have cancelled their flights to Venezuela, we are the onlyNorth American/European people on the beach. No Americans! Just some local people and us!

By 9:15, the girls are looking at Pearl Necklaces. By 9:30, we are negotiating for 6 beach towels ($10 USeach). By 9:45, it’s back to Villa Cabo Blanco for more money! While I am gone Brenda leave the girlsunattended and I get back to Alison and Jessica having their hair braided. Maureen did not negotiate the priceso we end up paying 45,000bs for something we would see later costing 8,000bs. What the heck it’s onlymoney!

While the hair is being done, Brenda is negotiating for some pearl necklaces for herself and Jessica. Once shesettles on a price, she turns to me for the funding. I try and get the vendor to take 45,000bs instead of $45US.He quickly gives Brenda the nickname of Mafia and calls me the Capitalists.

Later in the morning while I am practicing my first Spanish word “Polar” (the local beer), Maureen, Jessica,Alison and Brian have worked there way down to the end of the beach. The sea is quite rough and Maureengets caught up in the waves, loses her glasses and has to be rescued by one of the locals who gives her hell inSpanish for being out too far and too close to the rocks at then end of the beach.

Just after noon we head back to Villa Cabo Blanco were we leave Jessica, Alison and Brian while we walk tothe local grocery store to pick up some things for snacks and breakfast. While in the store, I notice that a 26ozbottle of Barcardi cost 2,800bs ($2.80) and beer is 6,500bs for a case of 24 bottles. I think I have died andgone to heaven!

We spend the rest of the afternoon waiting for Patty and Gary to arrive. Once they arrive it’s off to the beachwith some fresh dollars for the Beach Vendors. That evening the people from Atlantis Diving drop by to goover our desires to go diving. Jessica has an ear infection so it is decided that Jessica and Brenda will gosnorkeling while Gary, Alison, Brian and my self do 2 dives on December 24. This means that we will bespending the afternoon of December 23 taking a ½ course in diving. At the time this seems excessive but asthings turned out, I was happy we did it. Later it’s off to a great Thai Restaurant that Michel hasrecommended to us. Boy is the food great here. Even Alison is able to get her Vegetarian Meals without anytroubles.

Venezuela – Day 3 – December 23

The Roosters have me up at 4am with their squawking back and forth to each other. There seems to be moreroosters here than people! By 7am everyone is up except Jessica. Brenda has my coffee ready and Maureen ismaking toast for everyone. After getting Jessica up it is off to the beach for the morning. We need tointroduce Patty to all the Beach Vendors! Looks like another expensive morning!

As we get to the beach at 9am all our friends come by to say good morning and introduce themselves to Patty.More necklaces are bought. Our favorite vendor calls Patty Mafia #2. Maureen and the girls end up withbeach dresses to go along with their necklaces. I am going to have to stop bring money to the beach with me.

At 11:30 it’s back to Villa Cabo Blanco where our dive master (Anna) is picking us up to go see a one-hourvideo on diving. After the video and some classroom talks, it’s back to Villa Cabo Blanco for some practicetime in the pool. Anna has us taking our masks off and on, taking off each other’s masks, removing thebreathing regulator, sharing regulators, etc. The course is quite extensive and is suppose to prepare you foranything. It seems after this course, a second course and 4 dives you can get your certification to diveanywhere.

By the end of the course, I am exhausted and need a couple of Polar’s before we head out to the beach foranother great meal. This time Jessica, Alison and Brian discover that they are developing a taste for Alcoholand Wine and think that Venezuela has great drinking rules. (That is none)

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Venezuela – Day 4 – December 24

Dive Day Arrives.

The Roosters have had me up since 4am again. I had talked to Michel last night about buying the Rooster thatkeeps waking me up but he tells me there are dozens of them and if I bought one, it would only be replacedby 12 more by the end of the day.

Michel drives us to the small port where we meet Anna and the other people going on the dive trip. The seasare very rough and Brenda and I are concerned about Jessica, Alison and Brian becoming seasick. The tripfrom Margarita to Los Frailes takes 45 minutes. By the time we arrive, Jessica is very green. Alison and Brainare only slightly better off. Alison and Brian say they are ready to go diving. Since Jessica and Brenda arejust snorkeling, everything seems to be a go. Gary, Alison, Brian and myself start getting into our wet suitesand diving equipment. Gary and Brian are to go with Anna’s husband while Alison and I will be with Anna.

Once in the water, the first thing that we are to do is go to the bottom which is 15 feet and go through takingthe mask off and putting is back on and exchanging breathing regulators and few times to get use to doing itin salt water. With the in water test passed we head out. The rough seas have made the water clouded but it islike be in another world. As we move along, there are fish and coral everywhere. We become so interested inour new surroundings that we quickly lose track of time. Anna, the dive master comes over to me and checksmy air regulator. She quickly shows it to me. I am almost out of air. She gives me the sign that I am to buddybreathe on her air supply until we can get back to the boat.

Using her air supply, we turn and start back to the boat. We start to slowly go from 55 feet depth up towardsthe surface. After a few minutes we surface to get our bearings. My weights that have been giving meproblems the whole dive come loose. Anna goes back to the bottom to find them. They are too heavy for herto swim with, so she tells Alison and me to go to the boat and send the boat back to get her and the weights.

All the training and practice from the previous day have paid off. I ran out of air on my first dive.

After lunch and a break we head further down the coast of the island for the second dive. This time Anna isgoing to take all four of us. She reminds us to keep a close watch on our air supply after the incident with me.With our equipment back on it’s into the water again. Our first dive was in a small bay. This time we are onthe coast near a point between 2 big islands.

Down we go and start heading towards the point. We come upon a large boulder with a big ell like fish livingat it base. Anna points it out to Brian and myself and we move in for a closer look. She then motions for us toback up and let Gary and Alison have a look. Brian and I turn to back off and by the time we turn backeveryone is gone. Just off of the boulder there is a strong current and it’s taking all our strength just tomaintain our position. After 10 minutes of waiting for the rest of the group to return I check my air supply.Not only am I getting tired maintain our position, we are 45 feet down and I only have ½ a tank left. Usingwhat we had learned, I single to Brian that I am getting exhausted, running low on air and we should head forthe surface. As we start up, I have to remind Brian what we learnt. Not to go up too fast or else we will get thebends. Brian shows me that he still has lots air so if I run out, I can share his. Slowly we make our way to thesurface, taking 10 minutes to do this. Once on the surface, we see the boat off in the distance. The seas arerough where we are and even at the surface there is a current coming around the point. I send Brian off forhelp, as I am too tired to fight the current. Anna, Alison and Gary when they realized that they lost us hadheaded back to the boat. When they see us surface, Anna and her husband swam out to rescue me and tow meback to the boat.

With us all tired now, we packed up the equipment and started the 45-minute trip back to Margarita.

It’s Christmas Eve and Michel and Carman have planned a large Christmas Eve Party for us and the otherpeople staying with them. They have also invited some of their local friends including our Dive Masters.Once again the food, wine and Polaris are great. There is great music and everyone is having a great time. By11:30 pm, still exhausted from the days diving I sneak off to bed.

Venezuela – Day 5 – December 25

It’s Christmas Day and the temperature our side to 30 degrees. Celsius.

Christmas day starts off like every other day so far only we all sleep in a little. At 8:00, Brenda brings me myusual coffee. By 9:00, we start trying to get Jessica up. There are no presents under the tree in Venezuela.They are on the beach. By 9:30 we head off to the beach to see what Santa brought the girls. As usual all our

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Vendor Friends are there to greet us and delivery all the presents that my wallet can afford.

Santa has a new hat for Jessica along with some necklaces. Both Maureen and Alison get some necklaces alsofrom Santa. Boy is Santa Generous in Venezuela, what with all those necklaces.

We spend most of the entire morning on the beach. At about 1pm we decide that we are going to walk downto the next beach where there is a flea market and several stores. So off we go. At the flea market moreshopping for bargains. As we head down the road off of the beach we stop for a late lunch and a Polar. Byabout 5pm, it is time to head back to Villa Cabo Blanco. We have made arrangements with Michel andCarman for dinner in Porlamar. We have hired a large Van to pick us up just at dark to take all of us(Maureen, Jessica, Alison, Brenda, Al, Patty, Gary, Julien (the best man), Elizabeth (his girl friend), Micheland Carman) on a tour of all the Christmas lights on the Island, ending at what Michel tells us to be the bestrestaurant on the Island.

Boy Michel was not wrong about either the Christmas Lights or the Food. Many of the small towns betweenPlaya Parquito and Porlamar have a contest to see who can decorate their houses with the best lighting. I havenever seen so many Christmas lights and Santa Clauses in my whole life. Then the food in Porlamar is justgreat. I ended having 8 shrimp that must have been 6 inches long each…what a feast…not Turkey but then Idid not have to cook it either. After dinner we make our way back to Villa Cabo Blanco, passing more townsand their light show. The driver of the van will be back on the 26th to take us on a tour of the Island so it’s offto bed.

Venezuela – Day 6 – December 26

The 26th starts the same as every other day so far. Brenda has my coffee ready by 7am. Today Jessica has toget up early as the Van, Driver and Tour Guide are picking us up at 8:30 for our daylong tour of the Island.From Villa Cabo Blanco we head off along the north coast of Margarita. After 15 minutes we get to the top ahill over looking a bay on the north shore where we make our first stop. Our guide point out the large resort,with a golf course and large beach down in the bay. She then tells us that it has been empty since thebeginning of December because of all the troubles and the charter airlines canceling all the flights. She tellsus that all the large resorts on the Island are shut down and how this is their high season.

Further along the coast we come to a number of beaches that are completely empty because it seems we arethe only tourists in the country. We drive to La Restinga National Park where we go a boat ride in theMangroves. There are Pelicans and Cranes on the shore. We stop at one place to look at the clams and theirpotential future pearls. We also see a number of starfish that feed off of the clams and our boat driver catchesa Seahorse for us. Just as our luck would have it, the boat that Maureen, Alison, Brian and myself are on runsout of gas and Brenda, Patty, Al and Jessica’s boat has to come rescue us.

After the boat tour I have an Empadis that I had been told about and they were great eating. I tried to get therecipe for Maureen but since I did not have my Spanish-English dictionary with me no luck.

From La Restinga we headed towards Porlamar and stopped at the islands religious shrine of SantoarioVirgen de la Valle. The tour guide had heard of Maureen collection of holy water from around the world andwanted to make sure she got some from here. From here we went to La Asuncion, the capital of Isla deMargarita where there was some time for shopping. At the store we stopped at they had Internet Access andthey let me send off a quick email to everyone. Next on the agenda was an old fort and then onto the PearlFactory. The Pearl Factory, which is geared to American Tourists with prices in US$ that only the rich couldafford. Luckily for me, the girls had already locked up the Pearl Market at Playa Parquito and did not want toexpand their market penetration.

Our last stop was Playa El Agua, the next beach down from where we were staying; we had dinner beforereturning to Villa Cabo Blanco and an early night.

Venezuela – Day 7 – December 27

December 27th started the same way for me. After being awakened by the Roosters at 4am again, I managedto get some sleep until 7am when it was time to get up. Once again Brenda had my coffee ready. I wonder ifMaureen was noticing how Brenda made coffee for me every day. Back home I would be on my own! Pattyand Gary leave today for Caracas while we will be spending our last day on Margarita.

After Patty and Gary leave for the Airport with Julien and Elizabeth, we make our way to the beach from onelast day of shopping. We are a little later than usual and as we get to the beach there is much relief from allour friends. They all knew this was our last day and wanted to make sure they made that last sale before weleft. Our friend who called Brenda the Mafia and me the Capitalist came over to say hello and show us what

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specials he had for us today. Since it was our last day, he had very special discounts for us. By the time themerchandise was looked over and the selections made, there were 8 necklaces selected for purchase. Brendadid her usual job of getting his price down in $US and then I started in on him in Bolivars. Things got soconfusing, that in the end he throw up his arms and agreed to our price…even if it meant that his 3 childrenwould not eat that night.

In the afternoon we made the long walk to Playa El Agua for some more shopping at the flea market. Therewas also a store there that had promised Brenda that they would have earrings to match her necklaces for hertoday. It turned out that the earrings cost more than the necklaces that they matched.

Exhausted from all the shopping we returned to Villa Cabo Blanco for some rest before venturing out to PlayaEl Agua later that evening via taxi for another great shrimp dinner.

Venezuela – Day 8 – December 28

It’s Wedding. I wonder if our flights are still on. The people we took the tour with called the airline andconfirmed our flights for us. They are picking us up at 8am to take us to the airport and make sure we getchecked in ok. It will be nice not to have to use hand signs to check in again. Maureen seems resigned toflying on a small plane again and is not making too much of a fuss over us trying to kill her.

We are picked up on time and get to the airport and checked in without any trouble. Our flight leaves on timeand once again it’s a beautiful day, so a smooth flight for Maureen. Upon arrival in Caracas we collect ourluggage and find a Taxi to the hotel without any problem.

On the 45-minute drive into the city we pass many lineups for gasoline that are miles long. They even haveice cream vendors out selling their wares to the people in line. We see numerous cars being pushed, as theymust have run out of gas already. At the gas stations, there are soldiers with guns keeping all in order.

The hotel in Caracas is the Tamanco, which we have heard is the best hotel in the city. On arrival it looksvery nice. Patty is in the lobby when we arrive and Andrew shows up a few minutes after our arrival. We getchecked in and it’s off for lunch in the Hotel. What a difference in prices! On Margarita dinner for 4 withseveral Polars was costing us 40,000bs ($40), here at the Tamanco lunch with a coke is 75,000bs or $75. It’smy first coke of the trip as with the shortages on Margarita there was no coke.

The wedding is scheduled for 7pm at a church in the city. We meet in the lobby at 6pm. Andrew is supposedto be picked up in a limo and we are going to take taxis. At 6:30pm, we start to get worried when Andrewslimo does not arrive. December 28th is the Venezuelan equivalent of April Fools day. I start teasing Andrew,asking him if this is all a joke to encourage tourism to Venezuela. Andrew’s limo arrives at 7:15pm. Wearrange with the hotel for 2 of their limos to take us to the church.

Caracas is a city built in a narrow valley with high mountains on either side. Our ride to the church takes usover and around several hills. Brenda’s limo get lost on the way to the church and ends up having to go thewrong way down several winding streets to get caught up.

At the church, our driver asks if we want him to pick us up in an hour. Sounds great to me and we make thearrangements for both limos to pick us up. The one thing I have learnt so far about the people in Venezuela istheir willingness to got out of their way to make you feel very welcomed and to assist in any way they can.

There is something going on in the church when we arrive so we wait outside. Andrew does not seem toonervous but Julien his best man is sweating. That’s all the encouragement I need and I have a few words of“Encouragement” for Julien.

Inside the church we find our places. When the service starts, the priest stops everything and in Spanish asksfor someone who speaks both Spanish and English. He then instructs this person to sit with us and translateeverything that he says. Another example of how nice and considerate the people are here.

After the service, a number of Clarissa relatives come up to us to tell us how many of us they can take in eachof their cars. Patty, Julien and Elizabeth are the only ones needing transportation so that is easily handled.

We were warned ahead of time that wedding receptions/dances last all night in Venezuela. On arriving backat the hotel were the reception is being held we head to the banquet hall. One of Clarissa cousins helps get ussettles. After the usual wedding pictures everyone settles in. At our table a bottle of whiskey is placed in fronton me. The waiter at our table seems to take a liking to me and spend the night constantly refilling my glass.If he feels I am drink too slowly he gives me hell.

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The dancing starts almost immediately. The music is all Spanish. With a little encouragement we haveJessica, Alison and Brian up dancing also. In the case of Alison, I don’t think she ever sat down. Severalpeople come over and get each of us up and give us lessons in dancing to their music. Alison seems to begetting the most attention.

After a few dances, I am very hot and Maureen encourages me to take off my jacket. Everyone else is stillwearing their jackets but I decide to introduce a Canadian Tradition to the wedding and off goes the jacket.

After over an hour of fast paced dancing it’s time for a great buffet dinner. Clarissa family makes sure that weare first in line. The food is just great. I am not sure what everything is but enjoy everything. My waiter friendputs a bottle of good wine in front of me and makes sure I drink the whole bottle while we eat.

Time again for another Canadian Tradition. I get Brian, Al, Jessica and Alison organized and we startclanging the glasses every time Andrew or Clarissa takes a bite. It seems they don’t do this in Venezuela. Infact, clanging glasses means that there are federalies in the room in Venezuela.

Clarissa cousins catch on very quickly to what’s happening and start leading the charge. Later, Gary, Brianand myself start going from table to table showing everyone how to do it.

After dinner it’s dancing again. By 3am, all my fellow Canadians are exhausted and go off to bed leavingAlison and myself to uphold the Canadian tradition. By 5:30am, things die down when Alison runs out ofpeople to dance with and we go to bed.

Venezuela – Day 9 – December 29

Today day is a day of recovery for everyone. Alison and I are up relatively early and go downstairs to thepool area while Maureen and Jessica recover. Since it was Alison and I that were up to the very end, this doesnot make a lot of sense. While downstairs, Al point out a demonstration on the highway outside the hotel. Theentire highway is full of people marching against the government. Our first live encounter with ademonstration in Caracas!

Brenda and I are concerned about our plans for December 30th. We have arranged for Car Rentals to take usto Choroni. We decide to call out Tour Operator to see what the gas situation is like in Choroni. All we needis to get there and not have enough gasoline to get back!

No answer at the Tour Company so we leave messages and hope for the best. We spend the rest of the dayhang out at the Hotel with a short walk into the neighborhood around the Hotel.

Venezuela – Day 10 – December 30

Maureen, Alison and myself are up early. Jessica won’t move so we decide to go for a walk in theneighborhood around the Hotel to see if we can get a coffee for less than 5,000bs. We come upon a restaurantthat seems to make freshly squeezed drinks and has food so inside we go. A nice girl points us to a table andasks us what we want in Spanish. I try some English on her and it’s time for sign language. The owner comesover and points towards the kitchen. Up we get and he leads us over where he points out items on the menuand then points to them being prepared.

After some consideration, I order a coffee that turns out to be the best coffee of the trip. Maureen gets a teaand Alison gets an oversized pancake filled with local fruits that is very tasty. After second coffees and teas, Itry to find out ho late he is opened as this looks like a good candidate to come back to. No luck. I should havebrought the dictionary with me!

Once back at the Hotel, Brenda and I ask the people in the Hotel for advise. They tell us that the gas situationwest of the city is not very good. We try to call to the Tour Company and get through Jose Luis who says hewill make come calls and for us to call back in 45 minutes. We call back he say that there was some gas inChoroni but that it will not last very long. We ask about other modes of transportation and he tells us he willmake some phone calls.

Back downstairs in the lobby, the entire Hotel Staff are now trying to find a way to help us. They fell rentinga car will not be the right thing to do. A conversation with 2 of the Hotel Limo Drivers gives us an alternative.They will take us to Choroni today and come and pick us up on January 2nd. The trip is 3 ½ hours each way.The cost for the return trip will be less than renting 2 cars. Sound like a plan to me. A quick call to the TourOperator and it’s time to pack.

Our driver Miguel speaks some English and helps to get us organized. We leave 3 suitcases with the hotel, as

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we will not need the contents on the trip. With the 2 cars loaded, the people at the Hotel gives us somenumbers to call if we have any troubles and see us off.

As we drive through Caracas, Miguel points out all the line-ups for gas. He tells us that he spent 12 hoursyesterday filling up. Once outside of the city and on the highway to Maracay, there is little traffic. The roadsigns say its 80km to Maracay, which is 2/3 of the way. This puzzles me as they said that it was a 3-½ hourtrip. Is there something wrong with my math?

As we near Maracay, Miguel points to the mountains to the north. He tells me that we have to go over themountains to get to Choroni. He says the road is real dangerous but hopeful with the gas shortage there won’tbe much traffic to deal with. Maureen asks from the back seat what we are talking about and I tell her it’sabout the beautiful weather we are having for the drive.

At Maracay, we turn off the highway and Miguel navigates through the city. We slowly start climbing up themountain and the road slowly starts to narrow. The next 2 hours are spent going 20kmh on the switchbackmain road to the coast. We get behind a bus that has to stop and backup to go around the many turns on theroad. On the driver’s side of the car it is straight up and on the passenger side it is straight down. I hang on fordear life. Maureen is making comments along the lines of “What have you done to me now!"

Several times we round a corner only to have to jam on the breaks to avoid hitting a car coming from theopposite way. On coming cars are not bad, they try and stop to avoid you. It was the on coming buses thatnearly killed us several times. They would not stop. It’s get out of the way or be hit. The buses travel withboth a driver and a lookout. The lookout hangs out of the passenger door to keep a lookout for oncomingtraffic.

After making it to the top of the mountain, Miguel tells me, he does this drive about once a year and swearsthat he will never do it again. Once half way down the coast side of the mountain, the 2 cars pull over. Migueltells me it is to let the brakes cool down before making the rest of the trip.

10 minutes later we are off and slowly make our way to Choroni where we ask for directions to Hacienda ELPortete. On arrival we all get out of the cars and I get down and kiss the ground. Maureen is glaring at me fornot telling her about this ahead of time.

We walk into the Hacienda and find the bar where a Polar is promptly opened for me. Once unloaded andorganized Miguel says take they will meet us here between 1pm and 3pm on January 2nd for the return trip.

After another Polar we decide to go for a walk to get over the trip, so off we go. We find a small residentialarea we come upon a Tour Truck with Bird Watching on the side. Veevee, the owner comes out to introducehimself and welcome us to Choroni. Like Margarita, there are no foreigners here so we kind of stick out like asore thumb. We tell Veevee where we are staying and he says that if we want a tour to give him a call.

Back to the Hacienda El Portete we go where we decide to have dinner. Another excellent meal! Richard ourhost comes by to welcome us and tells us to let him you if there is anything he can do to help out. He gives usdirections to the beach and says the first time we go to let him know and he will drive us. We ask aboutVeevee and he highly recommends him to us. If we want he will arrange Veevee to come by and discussvarious things to be seen in the area.

Venezuela – Day 11 – December 31

New Years Eve!

We are all up early for breakfast and what a feast it is. Scrambled Eggs – Venezuelan Style, Pancakes withMaple Syrup, many different fruits, toast and more local things. After eating we talk to Richard who tells usthat he is putting on a Venezuelan New Years Eve dinner tonight if we are interested. We agree immediately.We then ask about Veevee. Richard tells us to wait a few minutes and he will have Veevee come right over todiscuss things with us.

After another coffee Veevee arrives. After some discussion it is agreed that tomorrow, Veevee will take usbeach hopping up the coast for the day and on January 2nd we will go for a hike and bird watching in themorning. When I ask how much, Veevee suggests $15US a head for the 2 days. When I suggest $20USeveryone is happy.

When we tell Veevee that we plan on spend the day at the beach and in the town, he tells us that he will driveus down to the beach and give us a tour of the town. We all get changed and loaded into Veevee’s tour truckand head off. Ask we drive down the road towards the Port, Veevee point out the various sites. At one point

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he stops to talk to someone who seems excited that some tourists have come to visit. It seems like we arecelebrities here for being the only foreigners again.

As we walk from the town towards the beach we pass a large number of restaurants. The owners all come outto greet us and offer us menus. Maureen promises each that we will come back later in the day, making manynew friends. We spend the next several hours on the beach. They are some vendors here and Maureen ends upwith several bottles of Coconut Oil.

Late in the afternoon, we start to head back. Through the row of restaurants Maureen explains that we are justgoing for a walk and will be back shortly. In the town, we find a restaurant were I can get a Polar or 2 and thegirls some food. After being refreshed we take the 15-minute walk back to the Hacienda and a nap in theHammocks.

Around 8pm we head into the pool/restaurant area for a couple of Polars before dinner. When the food comesout for dinner it looks great, roast pork, turkey and several Venezuelan dishes. Richard comes over andexplains each dish to us. He also has the kitchen prepare special meals for Alison and Jessica. After stuffingourselves, Richard and his wife sit down with us and start telling us about the surrounding area, it’s historyand the history of the Hacienda that has been in his mother’s family hands for 100s of years.

He use to work for a Canadian Company and has been to Toronto several times. We make a comment abouthow bright the stars are in the sky and he volunteers to shut off the lights for a better view. As he is about toshut off the lights there is a general power failure in the Choroni area that affords us of even better view.Richard tries to explain how he did not arrange for the complete power failure and we have a few laughs overit.

10 minutes later, with power restored we celebrate New Years sitting by the pool drinking wine and Polars.

Venezuela – Day 12 – January 1

We are up early again. Veevee is coming by to pick us up at 9:00 for our day of beach hopping. As we headoff towards the Port Veevee tells us more stories about the local area and where we are going. When wearrive at the Port the first thing I notice is that the sea is very rough today. Poor Maureen! What am I doing toher! Veevee gets all of us loaded into an 18-foot boat for our trip. The owner of the boat has to time the 4-footswales in order to get out of the landing for the boats. After this 10-minute exercise is completed we startmaking our way along the coast. We are going against the waves and are getting bounced around a fair bit. Ionly hope Maureen can survive the trip.

We pass the beach we spent yesterday on and round a point towards a second smaller beach. 20 minutes laterwe round another point and come to Playa Chauo. We make a 1-hour stop here to go visit a Cocoa Plantation.Being New Years day there is no activity but Veevee explains that the plantation is run as a Co-op. He cutsdown one Cocoa and opens it for us. This Cocoa from here is shipped to Europe to make high end chocolatesin Belgium and Germany.

Back in the boat we make another ½ hour trip to Playa Cepe where we will spend most of the day. We startoff by going for a walk in the local area where we see many fruit and bananas trees. There is a baseballdiamond and a lawn bowling area. The only way into the area is via boat and once again we are the onlytourists here. After several swims at the beach and a walk from end to end we sit down at the restaurant for alunch of fried bananas, the local favorite.

After another swim and some time on the beach, we see our boat round the point to come pick us up. I alsohave noticed that the waves are much higher now with swells up to 10 feet. Maureen is going to kill me if shecatches on. Into the boat we get for the trip back to Choroni. Maureen is sitting beside me with one hand onthe side of the boat and one hand on my knee hanging on. By the time we reach Choroni there are deep markson my knee from Maureen’s hand but she has not complained at all.

The owner of the boat has to wait about 10 minutes off the point where we are to land for the seas to settle todo in safely. Once on shore we head to Veevee Truck from the ride back to the Hacienda.

Because of the sun and the air conditioner at night in the room, I have come down with a fever and thebeginnings of a cold. Rather than going into the town for dinner, we decide to eat at the Hacienda againtonight.

Venezuela – Day 13 – January 2

My cold is not much better in the morning and I still have a little fever so it is decided that I won’t go on the

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hike and bird watching trip. At 8:30 everyone deserts me and heads out with Veevee. Just as they are leavingour 2 drivers from Caracas arrive. They tell us they are going to the beach for the day and will be back at2pm.

I ate breakfast and spent the morning in my hammock resting.

Shortly after 1pm everyone returns from the trip and we pack up for the long trip back to Caracas. Our routeback to Maracay is the reverse route of the trip to Choroni. This time we are prepared for what we are to face.Also this time the traffic is much heaver. After several close calls we make Maracay and get caught up in atraffic jam cause by a lineup at the gas station. As Miguel makes his way around the city, I can only think ofhow lucky we are that we did not rent cars. With Maureen navigating we would have got lost for sure.

After Maracay the highway ride to Caracas is non descript. As we enter Caracas, the road is blocked by ademonstration and TV Cameramen. Following the directions from the Army we eventually make our way bythe demonstration and arrive safely at the hotel.

Miguel asks when we are leaving for the airport in the morning and agrees to pick us up at 7am.

We check in and decide to go to a Pizza Restaurant that we saw on our walks. On arriving and getting seated,I saw my favorite Spanish word “Polar” The waiter quickly responds “No Polar”. The owner seeing that weonly speak English sends over his English Speaking waiter who explains to me that they have no beer leftbecause of the strike. He also tells us they have no flower so no Pizza. Someone on Margarita told me thatwhen they ran out of beer because of the strike then the violence would start. May be its time to go home.

Venezuela – Day 14 – January 3

We forced Jessica to get up early on January 3rd. After I get dressed, I start taking the luggage downstairs andget us checked out. Miguel is at the front door on time and gets us loaded in the limos for the drive to theairport.

We arrived real early for the flight but there were long lineups at Delta. When it came time to check in, theymade the girls check in separately from us, which caused a lot of confusion since I had the ticket and all thepassports. It turns out that I was picked for a complete search of our luggage for security purposes. Thisturned comical when the girl do the checking could not pronounce Peter and the guy working with her spentthe whole time teasing her.

Once through the process we made our way through Venezuelan Exist Immigration without incident. After acoffee, we went to the gate where once again it was my turn to be searched again. Off with my shoes, jacketand carry on luggage and a lot more joking because we had to us hand signs to communicate.

On the plane, we left Caracas for Atlanta. On arriving in Atlanta, it took us 15 minutes to get through USImmigration. The Officer we had was being transferred to Vancouver in a month’s time and we spent 15minutes talking about Vancouver. It did not seem to bother her that there was a long lineup behind us as shewas looking for pointers on Vancouver.

The first thing we noticed in Atlanta was that it was very cold. (55F) Jessica started suggesting that we returnto Caracas, I could only think of what she was going to say when we got into Toronto later that night. Ourflight was delayed for a ½ hour to Toronto and we could hear the people next to us on the phone to Torontoand talk of 15cm of snow. At this point, I join Jessica in suggesting we return to Caracas.

We arrive home in Toronto to blowing snow and veryyyyy cold temperatures without incident ending a greattrip to Venezuela.

iv. BRENDA ELIZABETH SMEATON, b. Nov 08, 1953, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. JOHN ALBERT ALFREDPUTRE, May 27, 1978, St. Ignatius Loyola, Montreal, QUE, CAN; b. Aug 14, 1956, Verdun, QUE, CAN.

Notes for BRENDA ELIZABETH SMEATON:Birth NoticeSMEATON. To Mr. and Mrs. J. J. M. Smeaton (nee Doris Higgerty), a daughter, on November 8th, 1953, atQueen Elizabeth Hospital. Both well.

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18. "PEGGY" MARGARET NOREEN5 HIGGERTY (PATRICK JOSEPH4, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY,JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Jan 25, 1925 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN (Source: StPatrice Ottawa Parish Register, Reads "Margaret Noreen, Parents P J Higgerty and Letitia Harris; Date of BirthJan 25; Date of Baptism Feb 8; Sponsors Harris Higgerty and Leona Gorman; Minister J Edgar Brennan."), anddied Oct 19, 1982 in Dollard des Ormeaux, QUE, CAN. She married JOSEPH "GEORGES" HENRI THOMASSIN inMontreal, QUE, CAN (Source: Peter Smeaton), son of ALBERT THOMASSIN and JOSEPHINE LAINDON. He wasborn Jul 01, 1923 in Quebec City, QUE, CAN, and died Nov 06, 1999 in Dollard des Ormeaux, QUE, CAN.

Children of "PEGGY" HIGGERTY and JOSEPH THOMASSIN are:i. MICHAEL6 THOMASSIN, b. Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. THERESSA, Montreal, QUE, CAN (Source: Peter

Smeaton).ii. BRUCE THOMASSIN, b. Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. LAURIE MCKEOWN, May 01, 1983, Montreal, QUE,

CAN (Source: Peter Smeaton).iii. GREG THOMASSIN, b. Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. KELLEY O'ROURKE, Montreal, QUE, CAN (Source: Peter

Smeaton).iv. LINDA THOMASSIN, b. Nov 1951, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. PATRICK PELLEGRINO, Montreal, QUE, CAN

(Source: Peter Smeaton).v. PAUL JOSEPH THOMASSIN, b. Nov 02, 1956, St. Mary's, Montreal, QUE, CAN; m. PATRICIA MARIE

O'ROURKE, Mar 23, 1885, Notre Dame de L'Esperanc Bigras, Laval, QUE, CAN; b. Oct 24, 1960, CatherineBooth, Montreal, QUE, CAN.

19. JOSEPH LAWRENCE HOWARD5 BYRNE (LOUISA ROSETTA4 HIGGERTY, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2

HAGGERTY, JOHN1, HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Jan 27, 1911 in Ottawa, Carleton, ONT, CAN(Source: Birth Certificate, Reads “Joseph Lawrence Howard was born on January 27, 1911 at Ottawa. The fatherwas Jeremiah Peter Byrne, Manager Mortimer Co. The mother was Rosetta Higgerty. They were married May18, 1909 at Ottawa. The Physician in attendance was Dr D t Smith. The birth was registered by J P Byrne,Manon Ave, Rockliffe."), and died Jan 10, 1991. He married EILEEN FRENCH Aug 1942.

Children of JOSEPH BYRNE and EILEEN FRENCH are:i. LAURIE ANNE6 BYRNE, m. WAYNE GRUBER.

ii. GERRY BYRNE, m. JUDY ?.

20. GEORGE MICHAEL5 BYRNE (LOUISA ROSETTA4 HIGGERTY, JAMES M.3, PATRICK "HENRY"2 HAGGERTY, JOHN1,HIGGERTYA ONTARIO, ONTARIOB) was born Dec 22, 1922, and died Sep 27, 1980. He married EVI ?.

Children of GEORGE BYRNE and EVI ? are:i. ANNA LISA6 BYRNE.

ii. MICHAEL BYRNE, m. BARBARA ?.