JimP
LostCousins Member
Several years ago, I discovered a first cousin of my great-grandfather who popped up in the 1911 Canadian census in Carrot River, Saskatchewan. He was one of four in that generation to cross the Atlantic (my great-grandfather emigrated to Vermont in 1903, his older brother to New Brunswick in 1912, and a third cousin went to Ontario, and later migrated down in to New York).
Recently, I read A Place Called Winter, by Patrick Gale. The author's great-grandfather had, as a result of some scandal which was never again talked about in the family, emigrated to Canada in 1910, leaving behind his wife and infant daughter. He received a grant of land in Winter, Saskatchewan, settled there, and lived out his life as a "bachelor" farmer, leaving little record beyond census records and a sentence in a local history. Gale, with a great deal of historical research, imagines his great-grandfather's journey and hardships, with a host of colourful characters.
I found the novel particularly interesting for its depiction of how emigration to the Canadian Prairies was promoted in England, the variety of men who were recruited, and how the reality that these adventurers found was very different from what was pitched to them in England.
It gave me new insights into my relative. Leonard James Pratt. He was born in 1869 in Norfolk, son of a draper, but his father went bankrupt, found employment as an assistant, and was twice convicted of theft from his employers. He died soon after his release from Wandsworth Prison in 1882. He bounced around living with various relatives. Without land or any chance of an inheritance, he probably found the lure of Canada and promise of free land enticing. In 1903 he sailed to Canada, intending to travel to Fort Albert. He settled in Carrot River (now Flett's Springs), Saskatchewan and married Mary Painter, the daughter of his neighbour. They had 5 children, but Mary died in 1921. Leonard must have found homesteading too difficult, and the same year he moved to British Columbia, then crossed the border into the US in 1923, finally settling in California, though his eldest son remained in BC (except for a time studying at the Memorial University of Newfoundland).
Recently, I read A Place Called Winter, by Patrick Gale. The author's great-grandfather had, as a result of some scandal which was never again talked about in the family, emigrated to Canada in 1910, leaving behind his wife and infant daughter. He received a grant of land in Winter, Saskatchewan, settled there, and lived out his life as a "bachelor" farmer, leaving little record beyond census records and a sentence in a local history. Gale, with a great deal of historical research, imagines his great-grandfather's journey and hardships, with a host of colourful characters.
I found the novel particularly interesting for its depiction of how emigration to the Canadian Prairies was promoted in England, the variety of men who were recruited, and how the reality that these adventurers found was very different from what was pitched to them in England.
It gave me new insights into my relative. Leonard James Pratt. He was born in 1869 in Norfolk, son of a draper, but his father went bankrupt, found employment as an assistant, and was twice convicted of theft from his employers. He died soon after his release from Wandsworth Prison in 1882. He bounced around living with various relatives. Without land or any chance of an inheritance, he probably found the lure of Canada and promise of free land enticing. In 1903 he sailed to Canada, intending to travel to Fort Albert. He settled in Carrot River (now Flett's Springs), Saskatchewan and married Mary Painter, the daughter of his neighbour. They had 5 children, but Mary died in 1921. Leonard must have found homesteading too difficult, and the same year he moved to British Columbia, then crossed the border into the US in 1923, finally settling in California, though his eldest son remained in BC (except for a time studying at the Memorial University of Newfoundland).
