Manitoba

 Manitoba, our first day started out quite sunny but soon the storm they have been predicting started to show.

DeSalaberry, is the first place I can place William Caddens family(Rons great grandfather) after immigration into Canada in 1882, here in the rural municipality of DeSalaberry their third child Jennie was born in 1883.

The countryside is lovely and great for farming, the 1891 census shows the Williams wife and family living here again with her parents James and Catherine Kelly.

The next day rain or no rain we headed out to Whitemouth which is where Rons grandfather John Edward Cadden was born, we saw some wild life on our way out.

 The Caddens lived in Whitemouth from approx 1886 to 1890.  Whitemouth was known back in the day for its railway and logging camps and mosquitos.  The famous Dr. Charlotte Ross, first female doctor in Manitoba practiced here from 1881 to 1916 so a good chance she helped bring John and his brother James into the world.

1.  And from Whitemouth on it just started to pour but we did a little sight seeing before heading back to Winnipeg.  This is the Seven Sisters Falls dam, you can see the lake was really rough.

 We followed the Winnipeg River up to Lake Winnipeg.

 We tried to find some beaches but that was difficult, not much access to the lake in this area. It is sure a big lake you could not see the other side.

 Just a little house we saw in Grand Beach and liked its fence.

It poured and poured all the way back into Winnipeg and the streets were just full of water.  Went over to the Hendersons for dinner tonight was a lovely night meeting everyone.

North Dakota and southern Manitoba

 We have had the most interesting and fun day today.  We spent the night in Williston, North Dakota which is in the middle of an oil boom, the growth of the city was amazing but the mud from all the rain was also amazing, on everything.

This morning we headed north toward McGregor, North Dakota, here Rons great grandparents Herman and Vinetta Collins homesteaded for a couple years after leaving Minnesota.  These little prairie towns are just so sad and everything is falling apart.

The grain elevators stand alone, looking like ghosts.

 Vinetta Collins, parents Sandford and Martha Orr had also come out from Iowa and Minnesota but they did not venture into Canada but remained behind in Powers Lake.  We were very lucky to find the cemetery that they rest.

 Powers Lake was a nice little town/

 When we left Powers Lake we zig zagged along back country roads heading toward the Canadian border and had to go thru a little town called Bowbells, welllll, it was under construction and with all the rain Main street was six inches deep in the gooiest mud.  Here were are with Tanyas brand new Jetta, ugh it was not pretty but we did not get stuck, however we did not stay around for lunch.

 Instead we went down the road 20 miles to another very small town called Morall and stopped in at their only restaurant.  Our waiter was a little crippled up old man in his late 80s, he was so cute. He brought our menus it was like taking a trip down memory lane, ice cream 75 cents, grilled cheese sandwich 2 dollars.  The special was listed just like this Polish sausage on bun with caramelized onions, served with baked beans, potato salad, soup and desert 5.75.  The soup was delicious, the polish sausage turned out to be a hot dog but we had such fun.

Leaving here we crossed the Canadian border where the custom agent asked us where we were going and when we said Tilston she gave us all the right directions.

Tilston is where Elaines grandparents and grandparents came to from Illinois in 1919, not much left but more run down elevators.

 The school was interesting, the little model school to the right of the cairn was a replica of the school that was used on this spot from 1910 to 1945, which would have meant Uncle Ed and perhaps Auntie Ede would have attended.  We looked for the cemetery to see if we could find Aunt Ruth but the two we found were to new with the earliest graves being 1930 and she passed 1925.

We had a good look around the area before heading out toward Winkler Manitoba for the night.

Lafleche, Fir Mountain and Wood Mountain

We had a wonderful day researching Fiset and Collins genealogy.

Our first stop was Lafleche where we went to the cemetery and had a visit with Pierre and Celine Fiset which are Rons great grandparents.  They brought their family of eleven from Quebec to Saskatchewan by train in approx. 1913.

We visited inside the church that Poppa Johnnie told us about, it was beautiful but under construction for the 100th celebrations happening in late June.

 Stood as close as we could to the steps to the old school

 Onward we went to Fir Mountain which is very close to Wood Mountain where Grannie Leona was as a very young girl.

Here is a picture of the school there.

 The sign into Fir Mountain says Welcome to the town of the town pump, the pump is on the main street right in the middle of the street.

 An old homestead

 Over to Wood Mountain where the elevator still stands.

 This is the barn that Grampa Ernest Fiset was to have built.

After Wood Mountain we drove south to Canopus where the Collins family homesteaded from 1916 to 1933 when the prairies were in such a drought that they had to move on.

We made our way into the US and are in Williston North Dakota tonight, tomorrow we are headed to McGregor where Herman Collins once lived and Powers Lake where Rons great great grandparents the Orrs are buried.