#52 Ancestors Week 37 - "Closest To Your Birthday

Sooke, BC, Canada

Very late posting for week 37. I went to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada for a few days visiting an old friend her husband. They have two little ones under the age of 2, which is a big change! Her son is three months old and they named him Clarke which is her maiden name. That got my vote because it's a strong boy's name and will make future genealogists very happy. After that I drove to Sooke on the south western tip of the island. It was stunningly beautiful and peaceful. Gotta soak up these last few days of summer! ☀

It took two clicks to find my birthday mate. I remembered a couple of people had the same birthday, and one was Eunice Maria Treleaven. This kind of useless information I remember. Other more important things, not so much some times.

Eunice and I were born exactly 110 years apart. She was my 3rd great aunt. She was part of the extremely close knit Treleaven family. Her father John Treleaven immigrated from Lanlivery, Cornwall, UK.  to Amherst Island, Ontario with his parents and six siblings in 1834. He married Eunice Willard on January 1, 1844. John and Eunice had 10 children and she was the 3rd oldest. She married  Charles Secord in Lucknow,  Ontario on February 27, 1871. In 1882 they moved, with other family members, to homestead near Crystal City, Manitoba. Later they moved to Pilot Mound where Charles was a pioneer merchant. They had one daughter named Maud Hildreth Secord. Eunice Maria  passed away on February 4, 1902 in Pilot Mound. 

Two years after Eunice passed her parents had a big 60 wedding anniversary party on New Years Eve 1904 in Manitoba. Her widower and daughter Maud attended along with grand child Frances Buckland. Here are her family members at that celebration.

Her birth, marriage and death all happened in freezing cold February. I can only imagine what life was like on the prairies of Manitoba in the days of Louis Riel. They certainly had an adventurous spirit to up sticks from their established lives in Ontario and move to the wild west.