12 Days of Christmas Ancestors - Day 7

"The seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me
seven swans a swimming..."

On the 24^th of April, a beautiful spring day in Bath in 1901, Alice Vivian Tait and her brother Andrew Eli Tait went boating on the Avon River with six other friends, starting in the morning at Maynard’s Boating Station and going upriver past Bathampton and around to Warleigh. 

They spent the day there and headed back to the Boating Station around 6:40 in the evening. Alice Vivian was in a boat with Mr Roberts and Mr and Mrs Pope, who got off the boat at Bathampton and walked home. They waited for the other boat holding Mary Davidson and her sister Connie, Mr Percival Cottle and Andrew Eli Tait. They passed under the bridge and Andrew’s boat got too close to the weirs and tipped over, the misses Davidson screaming for help. 

Bathampton Weirs

Mr Robert jumped out of his boat to help the girls, and Alice Vivian also jumped out and ran for help, then returned and jumped back in the river to help her brother Andrew, who was having trouble against the unusually strong currents. Mary Jane Kerr Davidson, the fiancée of Andrew Eli Tait, drowned in the water. 

There was a coroner’s inquest the next day at which Alice Vivian had to testify. Andrew was seriously ill for a while but slowly recovered. The entire Coroner's Inquest as reported in the Bath Chronicle, Thursday May 2, 1901 can be accessed here. 

When you search "boating accident bathampton" at FMP or British newspapers, there seemed to be a death at the weirs every couple of years. 

12 Days of Christmas Ancestors - Day 6

"The sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
six geese a laying..."


When my 2x great grandfather, Alexander Mavor, first came to Canada he was a farm servant on Ile aux Reaux, a small island in the St Lawrence River of Quebec. The island and farm were owned by Dr George Mellis Douglas, a doctor at neighbouring Grosse Isle. The island was a breeding ground for pheasant, ducks and geese. At Christmas a goose was a traditional dinner in Ellon, so I wonder if Alexander shot a goose for his family for the holidays?! 

After Dr Douglas died, Ile-aux-Reaux was sold at auction. It was purchased by Mr Arthur Michaud, a lawyer in Kamouraska for $3900. My 2x grandfather Alexander, after twenty plus years living on Ile aux Reaux, moved on to establish his own farm in Compton.

Le Canadien, lundi 2 mai 1870, pg.2

In the November 11, 1899 issue of Field and Stream there was an article written about the island by J. Bruce Payne, after he stopped there the previous October to do some hunting with a couple of friends. He mentions that the island is for sale (again) and can be bought for $5500. 

Field and Stream, Vol 53, 11 Nov 1899, pg 386

During the Queen's visit to Quebec in the fall of 1964, Prince Philip went goose hunting on Ile aux Reaux

I wonder what will now become of this island that my immigrant 2x great grandparents and their family called home for many years. 

12 Days of Christmas Ancestors - Day 5

"The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
five gold rings..."

I have written about my paternal 6th great grandfather James Tait who was a goldsmith in 1700s Edinburgh, and his son Adam Tait who made a ring with the likeness of Prince Charles engraved on it. 

Lately I discovered that there is also a jeweler on my maternal side. 

James Thompson Mavor, Jeweler, and George Leslie Mavor, watchmaker (brothers and my 2nd cousins 2x removed) formed Mavor Bros Ltd, Jewelers and Watchmakers in Fredricton, New Brunswick after their service in the First World War. 


In 1931 the Department of Lands and Mines, Game Warden Service, asked Mavor Bros to make badges for hunting, game, guides and fishing.

In 1932 the Department of Lands and Mines, Game Warden Service, asked Mavor Bros to make 34,450 hunting badges and 7000 game license badges, for a total of $2531.08

Public Accounts of the Province of New Brunswick, 1930, pg 103

I couldn't find any for those years, but this is what the Warden badges looked like...

Their sister Olga Catherine Mavor married a watchmaker from Port Colborne, Niagara.