52 Ancestors 2025

 ARTISTIC I have made mention before of the needlework crafts done by my mother, Eveleen "Sis" Allen (nee Schell).  As a young girl she learned the usual knitting and crotchet as well as tatting from relatives.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember if it was her paternal grandmother, Mary Schell (nee Deadman), who lived with them (the woman was quite ill her last few years of life) or one of her many aunts that frequently visited.  Some of the lessons may have come from her mother, Irene Schell (nee Bates) but for most of my mother's childhood her mother was busy helping on the family farm as well as providing room and board for one of the local teachers.  Mom used to say that she and her sister Lena were rarely given cooking lessons by their mother as the woman would be rushing to get the meal done and did not have time to teach her daughters.  So I suspect there was similar limited time for teaching needlework. Growing up, I would see my mother knitting and c...

 Wedding Bells The Brentwood United Church bells rang on June 11, 1949 when two local families were united in marriage with the wedding of William John Allen married Pearl Mary Eveleen Schell (my parents).  The groom was known as Jack and the bride Sis by family and friends.  Both families had lived in Brentwood for generations and there are still family members, on both sides, living in that small hamlet in Simcoe County, Ontario.    George & Irene (nee Bates) Schell, Sis (nee Schell) & Jack Allen, Gertie (nee Cooper) & Harry Allen   The bride was only 19 and the groom was 26 and had dated for a few years before getting engaged in 1948.  Being from the same small community, they had known each other all their lives.  The wedding party included the groom's brothers Les (as Best Man), Ivan (as an Usher) and sister Mary as flower girl.  The bride's sister Lena was Maid of Honour and their brother Bud was an usher.   The recepti...