The Boardmans and Browns of Winnipeg

Family History Library 2009

My name is Bonnie Jean MacDonald and I have been researching my family for over 13 years now.   

 You can find me at the Association of Professional Genealogists www.apgen.org or at the Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists www.psapg.org.  I recently stepped down as President of the Chapter but am continuing as the Program Coordinator and their Historian. 

I am the Newsletter Editor of the Washington State Genealogical Society http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wasgs/index.htm. 

Much to my surprise, I have made a great deal of progress on my own family starting with my Dad’s side.  On my mother’s side are the Boardmans and Browns.  I really didn’t know much at all.  I had a chart of both sides of the family that I made after I visited my Aunt Aileen, a sister of my mother Marjorie Boardman MacDonald.  I also had very few photos until my cousin came to my rescue and sent me a pile of them. So this side of the family has been a lot of dumb luck and perseverance. Hopefully as I reveal the research I can inspire progress in others’ research. 

Mymother’s parents were Robert Boardman and Ethel Adella Brown.  They lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba and migrated to Vancouver then to the Pacific Northwest.  Grandfather, Robert, was born in Shediac, New Brunswick in 1881, from what I have learned.  Ethel, my grandmother was born in Winnipeg in 1881.  How they managed to get together and get married in 1905 is a little interesting.  The Boardman’s came to Winnipeg because of the Canadian Pacific Railroad.  The Browns came from Ontario.  By the early 1880’s both the Boardman’s and the Browns had made their way to Winnipeg, Manitoba.   That is why I am calling this blog the Boardmans and the Browns of Winnipeg and adding the part of “A Canadian Story,” for they are truly families that helped to build the great nation called Canada. 

My great grandmother Charlotte Boardman was a McMurray a Scottish name.  They settled in New Brunswick in Kent County.  My great grandmother Emma Ward was English and came from Ontario where she met Richard Brown.  Richard was of Irish descent and lived in Lambton County, Ontario. 

This header photo (September 28, 2011) was among the photographs of my Aunt Aileen.  She was my mother’s older sister.  There is nothing written on this photograph on the front or the back.  My grandfather Robert Boardman might be the man who is the fifth man over from the right at a young age.  Difficult to say without further information.  My grandfather eventually became a plumber.  His father Edmund was a coppersmith.  It is possible that one of the men is my great grandfather Edmund?  It is some sort of machine shop?  The men have handlebar mustaches and it might be around the early 1900′s.  This photograph is just another mystery to be further investigated. 

Here is a list of surnames associated with this blog:

• MacDonald/McDonald/McDonell/Macdonell/Macdonnell
• Boardman, Bordman
• Campbell
• Pendergast
• Lee
• McMurray
• Brown
• Ward
• Duncan
• Dalton
• Slater
• Cahan
• Davidson
• Butler
• Colbeck
• Miller
• Williams
• Cuthbert

Locations covered will be:  Minnesota, Washington State, Nevada, California, Michigan. In Canada we have New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatachewan, and British Columbia.

I have other blogs on different lines of my family because it is so big and preserves my sanity.  Check out the “Blogs I Like” section on the right side of this blog and you will find links to my other creations. 

For some reason I lost the “Home” page on this blog or the page that makes it easy to go back to Home.  Just click on the title and that works too. 

Please contact me I would love to hear from you!  Or leave a comment, that would be wonderful!   Just cut and past to your Email:  bjmcdonell@gmail.com

Bonnie