Obituary: John Ritchie, 1932

From the Ottawa Citizen, Tuesday October 25, 1932, p. 2:

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Famous Riverman

John Ritchie, Dies

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Was Outstanding in Valley For Half Century.  Ottawa Sister Survives.

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Special to The Evening Citizen.

      ARNPRIOR. Oct. 25. -- Word was received her today of the death in Temiskaming, Que., on Monday of John J. Ritchie, aged 78, widely known and vetern Ottawa Valley riverman.  He had been ill in a Temiskaming hospital for about five weeks previous to his demise.
      The late Mr. Ritchie was one of the best known men in the river phases of Ottawa Valley lumbering operations.  In the summer of 1929 he accepted superannuation after being for 52 years in the service of the Upper Ottawa Improvement Company and the Old Union Forwarding Company.
      For 49 of those years he was boom master at the Schneaux and his efficient overseeing of the major operations there made of him an invaluable employe [sic].  On his superannuation in 1928, he could not leave the river and went to Temiskaming to live with a son, Minor Ritchie, who held the post of boom master in that northern town.
      The body will be brought to his late home in Pakenham township and the funeral will be on Thursday afternoon.
      The late Mr. Ritchie was born in Fitzroy township.  He was married to Miss. Margaret Story who survives, as do two sons and two daughters, Ira Ritchie, Pakenham; Minor S. Ritchie, Temiskaming, Que.; Miss. Leata Ritchie, Pakenham; and Mrs. Dr. Busby, London, Ont.  Surviving also are one brother and two sisters, James Ritchie, Mrs. Joseph McQuade, of Almonte, and Mrs. H. S. Dowd, of Ottawa.

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John's wife Margaret A. Story (1856-1938) was the daughter of Robert Story (who was, in turn, the son of John Story and Margaret Latimer) and Margaret Johnston, and thus, Margaret was the niece of my gggg-grandfather, David Story.  Both she and John are buried in Pakenham Union Cemetery, Pakenham twp., Lanark co., Ontario, Canada.

Obituary: Catherine (Cameron) Stevenson

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From the Ottawa Citizen, Monday March 14, 1927, p. 5:

MRS. C. CAMERON
(Special to The Citizen.)
SAND POINT, March 14 - There passed away on Wednesday a life-long resident of McNab in the person of Catherine Cameron, widow of the late George Stevenson.  The late Mrs. Stevenson was born on July 7th, 1849, the eldest daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Cameron of White Lake.  She was married on December 31st, 1868, to George Stevenson, who pre-deceased her in February, 1923.  Their entire married life was spent on their farm three miles from Sand Point, known as Stevenson's Corners.  About six years ago they sold their farm, and lived a retired life.  In 1918 they celebrated the 50th anniversary of their marriage.  The late Mrs. Stevenson was the eldest daughter of a family of three girls and six boys, of whom four are living.  Duncan Cameron, of Providence Bay, Manitoulin Islands; Agnes Cameron, of McNab; Rev. John Cameron, of Massachusetts, and N. M. Cameron, of Cargill, Ont.  To the late Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson were born three children, Mrs. James Storie, of McNab; Miss. Katie Stevenson, Arnprior, and Mr. John C. Stevenson, of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The funeral on Thursday afternoon was largely attended.  The funeral service at the home and grave were conducted by the Rev. E. P. H. King, of the Baptist church, Arnprior.

Obituary: Maude (Raycroft) Saunders

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From the Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 1976, p. 22:

SAUNDERS, Maude
Suddenly at her residence, 2129 Knightsbridge on Saturday, July 10, 1976, Maude Raycroft, age 74 years; beloved wife of Lemuel Saunders and dear sister of Mrs. Christina Evans of Pakenham; Mrs. Orville Peever (Elizabeth) Arnprior and Mrs. Theresa Manary, Braeside.  Also survived by several nieces and nephews.  Resting the Tubman Funeral Home, 403 Richmond Rd. at Roosevelt.  Service in the Chapel Tuesday 2.30 p.m.  Interment Pinecrest Cemetery.

Maude's sister Christina was married to Richard Evans, who was an older brother of my great-grandmother, Lavina (Evans) Cameron.

Blogger reader = Google = Ottawa Citizen = genealogical happy dance!!

While browsing my blogger reading list (I'm not a fan of the Google Reader), I happened to come across the most recent entry (February 2nd) from the "Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees" blog: "Google makes Historical Ottawa Citizen available online"  Wow!

The short entry barely gives anything away, merely excerpting a small clip from a (current) Ottawa Citizen article by Kelly Egan and stating digitalized copies begin (roughly) in 1890.

Deciding to give it a go (though my ancestors lived throughout the western reaches of the Ottawa valley, they rarely strayed (in official records, anyway) towards the city itself), I clicked on the Google link.  Typing in a few keywords ("barber" and "pakenham") and entering "Ottawa Citizen" in the source box, I hit the enter key.  Little did I expect one of the first entries to jump right off the page...

From the Ottawa Citizen, May 2, 1955, p. 4:

Michael Barber
KINBURN (Special) - Funeral service for Michael James Barber, a resident of Kinburn all his life, was held in St. John's Anglican Church, Antrim, Sunday afternoon.  Mr. Barber died at his home Friday after an illness of several weeks.  He was 82.  Rev. P. Caiger Watson conducted the service.  Burial was in St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery.  Mr. Barber leaves his wife, the former Linda Grainger; three daughters, Mrs. Beattie Timmins, of Pakenham, Mrs. Amy Cameron of Arnprior, and Miss. Pearl Barber of Ottawa; and a son, Norman, at home.

http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=uc0wAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-dwFAAAAIBAJ&dq=barber%20pakenham&pg=4291%2C25754

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(Did I do my genealogy happy dance?  You bet your bottom I did - and startled the dog and the cat in the process! ;-)

This is my great-grandfather!!! 

This (the Ottawa Citizen), is a resource I wouldn't have thought to check.  Arnprior (where my grandmother lived and is closer than Ottawa), had it's own newspaper (Arnprior Chronicle) which I have earmarked for further study (I've previously went over a few surviving issues that the Archives of Ontario had).  I can't wait to explore further...