Time Travel(1)

Many. many people can trace their roots back to Newfoundland. It doesn't make it any less powerful to do so. At the urging of two of my sisters, I specifically started this trip near Conception Bay. It turns out that the museum I visited had a whole floor of Newfoundland and Labradorean archives. I started with the knowledge that our Grandmother, Ella Stevenson Hall, Mother of Anson Louis Hall, was born in Harbor Grace, an outport of Conception Bay.
The archivist was really helpful and pointed me to the baptismal records. Not knowing Ella's religion relegated me to pouring through a few books but I eventually found her record! It is the last one on the page pictured below.
Ella(as in sister, Marcy ELLA Hall) Stevenson was born to Mark and Hannah Stevenson. (This was who Shannah was named after). Ella's birthday was October 5th 1886. She was baptized, in St Paul's Anglican Church, on November 7th, 1886. They lived in a neighborhood called "The Hill". Mark, ironically, was a listed as a fisherman despite some family folklore that has him as a mail boat captain. I looked five years in either direction of Ella's birth for siblings but found none.
According to dna testing that Shannah has done, there is also an Inuit influence in our genes from Dad's side. This museum was filled nods to the impact of the native tribes that inhabited this place of extreme, though austere, natural abundance.
A little silly story is that almost everyone I've run into is enthusiastic and warm. Traits I love about the Halls! When a woman selling me tea referred to me as "sweetie", "love" and honey-dear" in the span of two sentences, I said. "I've been wondering... How do you all elevate these freely flowing endearments for someone that you actually love?" We had a good giggle.Read more