Okay, so I’ve been playing around with Ancestry.ca for a few days.
Came across some interesting information.
My stepmother’s parents were Mr. Teunis Zwolle and Mrs. Willemina Zwolle.
Zwolle houshold
And due to the voters roll, I now know the address for Richard’s father, and his stepmother Aldean. When I tracked down my mother in 2013 I asked her what the name of Arthur Gill’s second wife was. Marie said that her name was Ladean. Wasn’t. Her name was Aldeen.
258 Drew Street, Oshawa, Ontario
Oshawa, Ontario
In 1982, when Richard flew us out to Ontario for the Christmas holidays, we stayed at Arthur’s and Ladeen’s house. I remember walking back and forth between the Gill house and the Zwolle house.
A quick check of google maps shows that they are well within walking distance of each other.
And as kids we walked a lot, so this walk wouldn’t have been too much at all.
After the initial stay with Arthur over xmas ’82, we never did go see Arthur again.
My father was posted to CFB Downsview in April of ’83 to avoid my apprehension by Alberta Social Services.
When we lived on Canadian Forces Base Downsview in North York, we’d go visit Sue’s parents frequently. Almost every second weekend. For sure once a month as Sue liked to shop at Knob Hill Farms.
to
133 Gibb Street in Oshawa, Ontario
No matter how many times we went to see the Zwolle’s, we never once ever went to see the Gill’s again.
According to my social service records, Richard was trying to pawn me off on to his father. I guess by that time Arthur had moved on with his new family and he didn’t want to look after the kids of his son from a previous marriage.
All I remember about Arthur and Ladeen is that they liked my brother and I but Arthur was really dismissive of Richard and really didn’t want anything to do with him.
The physical closeness of these two families in Oshawa also lends a bit of credence to another issue that may have caused the estrangement between Richard and his father.
Both Arthur’s and Ladeen’s daughters went to school with Susan. Apparently Arthur and Ladeen were none too impressed with Richard having used his stepsisters, their daughters, to hook up with Sue on one of his visits to Oshawa after we moved to CFB Namao in the summer of 1978.
So it really wasn’t a coincidence that a girl from Oshawa ended up living in Edmonton with a man with relatives from the girl’s hometown.
Through my DNA test I have found a few members of the Dagenais clan in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes that appear to be on the order of 2nd or 3rd cousins.
One unexpected blast that I discovered is my paternal great grandmother was born in 1899 and married in 1913 at the age of 13.
My paternal grandmother, Margaret, was born in 1923 when Caroline was 22.
I wonder if grandma was some older siblings that haven’t been found yet.
I haven’t yet found Norman, the older brother of both Richard and Doug.
Richard was born in 1946 when Margaret was 23. What I remember about uncle Norman is that he was about 6 years older than Richard.
So, I’ll keep shaking the family tree to see what else falls to the ground.
Beeshive 