Williams Family Tree

This is the only photo our family has of Nellie (or Nelly) Williams, John Griffith Williams first wife.

No one knows anything about her, except she had two sons, Harry and Wallace.

Harry died at age 5 in 1925 according to a note written by John's second wife. (the mother of my Dad) Nellie also died, apparently of a broken heart because of her son's death.

Wallace was sent to live with someone else when John Williams married Alma May in 1928.

I felt awful when I discovered this when I was older. Wallace refused to stay in touch with the family and who can blame him? So my Dad, Jack Williams, was actually the 3rd born, not the first born. My Dad was born on July 1st, 1929, in Spalding Saskatchewan.

According to the copy of a 1920 "Dominion of Canada" income tax paper my Dad has, John G Williams lived in Three Hills Alberta during 1918, working out for Hugh Parry.

I know he immigrated to Canada in 1910, so he lived in Alberta for approximately 8 or 9 years, as on the 1920 income tax document he lists Spalding SK as his place of residence for 1920, and he didn't fill out an income tax form for 1918. His total income for 1920 was $1092.20 and his total deductions were $1588.45 so he certainly wasn't making a profit!

If his son, Harry died in 1925 at the age of 5, he would have been born in 1920, and supposedly John and Nellie would have been married in 1919 or 1918. Of course they could have been married earlier, so I need to search the 1911 Canadian census to see if I can locate John Griffith to see if he was married or single.

Here is handsome yet serious John Griffith Williams.

(date unknown)

And this is the picture which haunts me, as I still don't know Bob's uniform or what ship he worked on.

(That's my Grandpa on the left; John Griffith, with his brothers)

I bought a magazine from Chapter's on Wednesday evening because of an interesting article on page 28;

"Maritime Photo Detective". The name of the magazine is "Tracing Family History", August 2012 edition. It's from the UK and well written. Following "clues" I searched on Google and came upon a fantastic website:

Naval History

I contacted the webmaster, Gordon Smith, with a few questions.

He confirmed what another friend of mine had: Bob's cap says HMS and the name of his ship, but unfortunately it's too blurred to read, and the badge on his sleeve (propeller insignia) means he was a stoker in the boiler room. Gordon said if I know his full name and date of birth, I could apply for his naval service record, and from that, I could learn what ships he served on.

Isn't that COOL? So I'm off on another hunt for a different side of the family.