Uncle Buddy

This is Uncle Buddy around 1984. He was living in Montreal in the late 1950s when he disappeared. There were rumours and wild speculations for decades afterwards. It was a mystery for nearly fifty years. Then one day I got an email from someone named Glenn Nosworthy. He had run an internet search using the combination of Nosworthy and Boliver. He found a genealogy site with my contact information. Long story short is that Bud had gone off to Australia and started another life and it turns out another small family and Glenn is his son, and our cousin.

Years later Buddy and his second family did return to Canada and he lived out his life in St. Catherine's, Ontario. So, Glenn went poking around the internet looking to find his roots and stumbled onto this huge family including a half-brother, Brent.

Don Nosworthy 1976

This is easily my favorite photograph of my grandfather. It captures so much of his personality. I did not pose him at all. He was just hamming it up on his own, playing with one of my cameras. This was taken at my mom's old house in Shawnee, Kansas in 1976.

Uncle Roy's House

Another photo from my 1993 trip to Toronto. My wife and I were staying at her sister's house which is only four houses up the hill from this one where Uncle Roy and Aunt Margaret lived for many years. In fact, exactly thirty years earlier I had spent a few nights in this house as well, up in the third floor dormer. This is at 155 Silver Birch Avenue in the Beaches district just up the hill from Queen Street and the lake. It has since been remodeled inside and parking spaces have been added as seen below in the photo from 2011.

Bolivar farmhouse

One of my early contacts in my genealogy search was Vincent Boliver. He is a 4th or 5th cousin. He still owned some property in the area and he sent me this photograph of the old Norman Bolivar (Granny's father) homestead. I believe this was torn down in the late 1970s. This dormer style is prevalent in Lunenburg County and is known as a "Lunenburg Bump". I understand the purpose was to catch the sea breeze and to also in most cases provide a bit of shelter at the house entrance.

The entire town of Lunenburg is designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site and is known for the very colourful architecture. I urge you to visit there. In the meantime you can take a virtual tour.

Aunt Myrtle

The last time I was in Toronto in March of 1993 I made it a point to contact Myrtle. I called here up out of the blue. We had never met and we had never even spoken before. But we made arrangements to meet at her apartment in Burlington, a suburb, and get acquainted. She greeted me very warmly and we spent the morning trading family stories. Before I left I got her to pose for a few photographs among her collections of vases and figurines. Doesn't she look grand here? Sadly she passed away later in November that same year.

Myrtle Leona Nosworthy September 11, 1907, Halifax, NS to November 29, 1993 Burlington, ON. She had one child, Fred, with her first husband, George Turnbull, and five children, Albert, Donald, Joan, Beverly, and John, with second husband, John Reid. She later married Wilf Squiers. I think I got that right.

More Peggy for her birthday

My mother, Margaret Dollina Nosworthy (Peggy Cross), celebrates her 70th birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom.

Here are some more pictures of Mom up to high school.

Peggy Nosworthy returns to Montreal

The top photo is from 1938. It is my mom and grandmother down the street from their flat in Verdun. When Mom and I were in Montreal in 1990 I described the photo to Edward Johnston and he knew exactly what I was talking about and took us straight to the spot for the second photo.

Peggy Cross Birthday (Nosworthy>Lavery)

My mother, Peggy Cross, celebrates her birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom.
Both photos are from Verdun.

Jacob & Catherine Faulkner headstone

This headstone is also at the Chelsea cemetery. Jacob and Catherine were the parents of James Faulkner, great grandparents of Mary Nosworthy. Their youngest daughter, Adelaide, is buried here as well.


Jacob Faulkner born: 1784 in Jeddore, Halifax, Nova Scotia died: February 07, 1860
.. +spouse: Maria Catherina Lohnes born: November 02, 1789 in Dublin, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia married: January 05, 1813 in ,Lunenburg, Nova Scotia died: March 01, 1845

James & Lucy Faulkner headstone

This is the headstone for James Faulkner and Lucy (Vienot) Faulkner, parents of Sarah Leone Boliver, see earlier post, and grandparents of Mary Nosworthy. These are two sides of the same marker. Unfortunately I did not get a good shot of Lucy's side but you can still make it out. He outlived her by more than a decade and had been living his last years with a son in Boston when he died.

James Faulkner born: November 01, 1817 in Chelsea, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia died: March 20, 1914 in Boston, Sufolk, Massachusetts
.. +spouse: Lucy Vienot b: January 14, 1824 in La Have?, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia married: February 12, 1848 in ,Lunenburg, Nova Scotia died: July 19, 1903 in Chelsea, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

This is at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Chelsea.