The Matzke's Incredible Journey - Part Two

(please read part one of the post below)

The ship the Matzkes sailed on was the Cassandra. In a 1980 letter to me my aunt Caroline told me the ship was beautiful and it sank during the First World War. Here is a picture of the Cassandra:

From the Library and Archives Canada website

The family sailed from Glasgow on July 4th 1914, bound for Quebec and Montreal. Here is the boarding list:

From the National Archives London website www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Their last name was misspelled and they are listed as citizens of Austria. The boarding list tells me they sailed from Antwerp, Belgium to Leith, Scotland via the Gibson Steamship Line. I wasn't able to identify a ship they may have boarded in Antwerp but this was a common route.

The journey took 9 days, ending in Quebec city on July 13th 1914

From ancestry.ca, Library and Archives Canada

They are correctly listed as Romanian on this list. What strikes me as odd is the fact that their destination is listed as MacNutt Saskatchewan. How in the world out of all the places in Canada did they choose that tiny town? Only 80 people live there now, not many more in it's heyday. Wish I'd thought to ask my grandmother about her family's journey to Canada when she was still here.

The Matzke's Incredible Journey - Part One

In July 1914, 102 years ago, Franz and Josephine Matzke, along with their three daughters, landed in Quebec City. Franz and Josephine were my great-grandparents and their eldest daughter Jacobena was my grandmother.  This picture of the Matzke family was taken in 1914 in Tulcea Romania.

Caroline, Josephine, Christina, Jacobena and Franz (from the writer's family collection)

The Matzke's incredible journey began in April 1914 when they received their passport from the Romanian government.

From the writer's family collection

All four family members were named on the passport and the document features French and Romanian text. Interesting, I would have thought German would have been the second language.

Somehow, on the verge of World War One the family made their way across Europe to travel to Canada. The current driving distance between Tulcea Romania and Glasgow Scotland is 3513 kilometers. That's quite a distance, particularly in that time period. I presume they took a train, but I can only imagine the hardship of the journey and the length of time the trip took.

To be continued...

This blog is dedicated to my dad - Part one

From the writer's collection - Baby Russ c. 1923

Tomorrow is Father's Day and I've been thinking about my Dad - Gordon Russell Brooks. When I was a kid I seem to remember him talking about writing a column under the title Babbling Brooks. So I'm using that name for my blog. There are a few other blogs under that name out there but the name means something to me so I'm using it anyway. So there.

From the writer's collection - my Dad the musician c. 1966

So where did my dad write his column? He attended the University of Toronto and completed a Mus Bac (bachelor of music) degree in 1950. He was lucky enough to study under Sir Ernest MacMillan and had talented classmates like Elmer Iseler (Mendelssohn Choir) According to the Torontonensis (U of T year book)he wrote a column for the Varsity, the university's newspaper.

Ancestry.ca - Canada, Selected School Yearbooks, 1908-2010, Torontonensis, 1950, page 179

Two weeks ago I attended the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference: Genealogy on the Cutting Edge. I sat in on an excellent session on how to use Evernote by Thomas MacEntee. I used my new skills to find the Varsity on line and clip and save my dad's columns. I found two from 1949:

The Varsity, September 22, 1949 - March 24, 1950 - November 7th 1949, page 4 Archive.org

SaveSave

This blog is dedicated to my dad - Part two

And here's the second article (please read the post below first):

The Varsity, November 18 1949, page 5

The Arts - Music - Drama column was buried at the back of the paper after the sports, clearly the most important topic in the paper. Much like how music was prioritized at high school! The paper was printed in blue ink when there was a Varsity Blues football game in the works.

It was interesting to see that there was also a writer by the name of Gordon G.L. Brooks, quite the coincidence. The Varsity had famous columnist such as Northrop Frye.

And great ads!

Archive.org has a great selection of periodicals. The Varsity papers are a great slice of university life though not indexed. 
Never did find "Babbling Brooks" but enjoyed finding the A-M-D columns.