Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 8, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A8 Winnipeg Pree july Len lost letters from another age Hudson Bay archives a treasure Chest of stories about the North american Frontier by Catherine Mitchell the stained Black Border on the letter sent from England was a sign of a death in the it was a message from Home Seaman William Ridler never the letter to dated May was among hundreds of letters returned to the rotary at the Londo based Headquarters of the Hudson Bay undelivered and unopened until recently in written on no yellowed rag cloth paper in the heavily leaded Ink of the the letter informed Ridler of the death of his Mother in december after months of her every wish was every wish was gratified except seeing of the Short letter what the family didst know was that they had suffered not one but two the Young Seaman didst get the letter because he had drowned months earlier in the Columbia River near fort Vancouver in what is now the state of established by the Hudson Bay com Pany As a Post for its ships of com Merce and the Young mans Bil let is one of 200 letters written Between the 1830s and the after sitting in storage for More than a Century at Hudson Bay they were packed in a Box and shipped to Manitoba in 1974 four years after the closure of the company London they Are a rare collection of touch ing and intriguing vignettes of British Home in Judy Hudson began working for the Manitoba provincial where she was Given charge of Section e of the hic the personal records that included employees private letters while most of the letters were written from a few came from Wales and and a Quarter of them were written by with the largest number from Orkney where the great men1 history has been but social history personalizes the people of the making it live about a third of the abcs employees originated in the Beattie these documents of a life Long gone penned by sweethearts and wives Are As valuable in some ways As the logbooks kept by the explorers and captains of the great vessels that sailed into the Arctic or around South americas Cape Horn to Chart the new its very unusual to find letters from Semi literate or almost literate explains who is called keeper of the Hudson Bay company the great men his tory has been she but social history is based on very general Indica tors and this really personalizes the people of that various aspects of it makes it come As her White loved fingers delicately flip through file folders holding the beat tie says her work Over the years of deciphering and transcribing the old sometimes Semi literate writings has become a labour of some of them had been there were still some that had not been opened when i got says who plans to turn the raw tales into a some of the men some had already gone i guess some had sad tales of unrequited painful news of death Back Home and a kid Brothers bravado of his time in a whales belly All Small snapshots from the Humble Homes of the seamen who signed on As labourers and to open North americas fron while most asked after their loved ones health and the letters sometimes included news of the such As the recent fire in the Tower of London and the fact the Queen had been confined with a Beattie said she has found locks of pressed a Feather and other sentimental enclosures when opening the personal Docu from the perspective of the rapid fire delivery of today email it seems remarkable the letters even made it to the important notice to those affected by flooding red Cross suspends deadline for flood assistance applications Many Manitoban affect immediate suspend until further those who cannot meet during this extended consult with Community agencies to determine struggling to meet n red Cross will or assistance to red Cross will and social service Essing longer term in phase applicants a loss of income that i if they have incurred heir Basic mortgage or loan closed Satur Community apr they Are deter be announced a the red Cross assistance from to Reapp the red Cross Independent adv Golf Canadian red in in Manitoba is made posse for More please Call Tolfree who have received unable to meet Basic 1888 and is administered by an sent natives from affected assistance those affected by flooding generosity of Mac Gallant of Fife ph6ss local historian Judy Hudson Beattie is writing a Book based on the hic Cross was done by turning the Sheet a Quarter rotation and writing on with a Fine stylus making a Grid like the technique was used to save Money on largely unmapped let alone Back to England Many were optimistically addressed to the recipient and a specific such As James Seaman on Board the Rowletts like letters addressed to irishman Jonathan to the backside of the such labels Are telling reminders that euro peans knew Little about North America prior to the when substantial settler migration began revealing the nature of the unknown Ter she Beattie said the letters were simply sent out with the next ship going to the new she has also found a handful of letters writ ten in the Early 1800s and addressed to whose quebecois families would address their writings to the Young men in the pays Den Haut the High country that loomed beyond the headwaters of the Lawrence these letters were handed Over in the care of a Voyageur heading out on the next Convoy of canoes to the Beattie while written closer to the Voyageur letters have presented their own set of Chal Lenges for who has a working knowl Edge of i puzzling language like their British the voyageurs were of Humble backgrounds and the literacy level of their family members is written in an archaic farm of frequently the letters Are grammatical puzzles that tax the historians trained i think even a French speaking person would not find it easy to Tell what these beyond the old forms of the there Are added twists that complicate to save Money on some would write across the turn the Sheet a Quarter rotation and write across the Page forming a Grid like design with the overlapping of the Fine stylus Point i scrip such Cross writing Nuri Iber of letters she x Beattie has been working own time with the letters for on the face of the individual messages to commoners barely recognized in the annals of Canadian history Are than titbits of life from families Long they Are engrossing slices of life from a Defin ing Era of the country Early you do get emotionally involved in says she has used the worldwide genealogical records compiled the mormon Church and found Kindred souls Scotland and England to help Trace ancestors in addition to culling through the exhaustive hic you get these desperate letters from these sweethearts and you want to find out if they got Back it is unknown How Long riders sister had to wait to learn of her Brothers his Story and the lives of other Young who joined the governor and company of adventurers of await their full telling As Beattie pieces together her history the new rules every two minutes a business starts marketing on 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