Monday 20 April 2020

A to Z Challenge 2020 - Q




The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2020 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. My theme is...
Ancestor Occupations 





QUARANTINE WORKER



Dr George Mellis Douglas was a medical volunteer, and later superintendent, at the Quarantine station of Grosse-Île, Quebec during the earlier cholera and typhus epidemics. The Quarantine station closed in March 1861, but reopened in May 1863 with a new typhus epidemic and George Douglas resumed his post as medical superintendent on the Island. 

He owned the neighbouring Ile-au-Reaux (Ruau), where he had a summer house, a farm and farm servant accommodations. 





Sometime before Oct 1859 George had a farm servant, and that was my 2x great grandfather Alexander Mavor. He came from Ellon, Scotland with his wife and daughter. 

The farm on the island catered to the needs of the islanders, including Grosse Ile. Doctor Douglas had been rebuked for making a profit with his produce and milk. 

I like the thought of my 2x great grandfather being a "front line worker" during the 1863 epidemic. 

Alexander worked the farm on Ile-aux-Reaux until about 1874, when he got a land grant and moved the family to Compton, Qc. 





8 comments:

  1. You write some of the most interesting factual stories about your ancestors :D

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    1. Thanks. When I started I thought my ancestors were boring farmers haha! Little did I know!

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  2. That's not a big island to live on! I wonder what life was like...

    The Multicolored Diary

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    1. Probably ok in summer, but not in the harsh Quebec winters!

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  3. The very words Grosse-Îsle make my blood chill. He wasn’t there at the time of the Irish Famine emigration but I’ll bet he still saw some horrendous sights. I’m intrigued by him owning an island...was it isolated or readily accessible to the mainland? I’m should go and search.

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    1. The Island was later sold and used as a private hunting lodge, accessible by boat or sea plane. My 2x ggf was there when the Queen and family visited Canada by boat and Prince Philip was friends with the owner and went there to hunt. The Island is for sale again.

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    2. That’s an interesting history Dianne.

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    3. If I could only find how my ancestor came to go there!!

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