Tag Archives: Hill family

My cousin Anita

The History of Me, , , , ,

My cousin Anita is amazing.

Born in 1939, on oxygen, but still smiling and willing to send me copies of all her family history details.

Anita is the youngest child to my grandfather’s slightly younger sister Lilian. She is the last of her immediate family still with us and until I started doing family history research, I never realized how much of a treasure she was.

Every year at the Hill family reunion, she and her family sit at the very first table by the front door. This could be due to her need for oxygen, or it could be just where they’ve always sat. As a child, I don’t believe I even gave it a second glance.

All that changed a couple years ago when I went to the family reunion and my Dad announced to everyone about my new passion. Many family members came to talk to me to give me details on their family and to make sure I had them on the tree – but everyone told me I needed to talk to Anita.

Short in stature, she told me she wasn’t really up to talking that day but if I gave her my address she would send me some things she had written down.

I had no idea what I’d get but was happy when a few months later I received a Christmas card and an envelope filled with yet more names, dates and details. Sure it isn’t as detailed with locations, but it has the names and birthdates for her siblings and for many of their spouses. She has written down all of the children they have had and in some cases grandchildren. She’s put in death information where she could, even the very sad details about one of her nieces committing suicide and her husband dying a few years later in a car accident – both leaving an 11 year old orphan behind.

She sent me a poem written by one of my other cousins and as many older people are wont to do, a story about the bible compared to a deck of cards.

Her kindness and thoughtfulness was very unexpected and yet so very welcomed. I’m currently going through it all again, trying to put all the pieces into the family tree so that another reunion won’t go by with much of her family missing.

So thank you Anita June (Jennings-Grimwood) Hardy. You sure know how to brighten this family historians day!

Hill Family Descendants

The History of Me, , , , ,

On Sunday August 17, 2014 all of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar met for the 54th Hill Family reunion.

The reunion held at the Rockmosa Community Centre in Rockwood, Ontario brought members of the Hill family together from all across Ontario to share stories, learn about our history and to create some new memories.

At the gentle urging of my father, Howie Hill, I put some of my genealogy work to good use. I put together a descendant chart for Charles Edmonds Hill and Ada Elizabeth Woolgar. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I knew that it was possible.

Utilizing Family Tree Maker, which links to my account with www.ancestry.ca, it was fairly easy to pull together all of the information. By playing with all the settings and getting all the names on the chart I was astounded to see the number of pages needed to lay out the chart. 102 pages! All laid out hit was asking for 102 horizontal 8 1/2 x 11 pages. I played around with the settings, changed the orientation to vertical and I was able to fit it all onto 43 pages.

43 pages of family. My family.

All the names of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar took up a lot of space at the Hill family reunion in 2014
All the names of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar took up a lot of space at the Hill family reunion in 2014

At the top were my great-grandparents Charles and Ada followed by their 13 children:

  1. Kate Gertrude Hill (1901-1972)
  2. Albert William Hill (my grandfather) (1903-1960)
  3. Charles Edmond Hill (1905-1923)
  4. Lillian Gladys Hill (1907-1996)
  5. Minnie Mary Hill (1909-1985)
  6. Frank George Hill (1910-1998)
  7. Jane Maria Hill (1912-1999)
  8. Ada May Hill (1914-2007)
  9. James Stewart Hill (1916-2008)
  10. Amy Elizabeth Hill (1918-2005)
  11. Stanley Roland Hill (1920-2009)
  12. Donald Richard Hill (1925-2004)
  13. Edward Alexander Hill (1927-2006)

Each of those children had children of their own save one, Charles Edmond Hill, who passed away at a young age due to scarlet fever. Those children had children and even those children had children. The Hill family has grown exponentially since arriving in Canada back in 1908 and nothing proved it more than rolling out the pages across the room for everyone to see.

The chart seemed to keep going and going and as members of the Hill family walked along to find their name it made one thing clear: this wasn’t everyone. Pencils and pens were brought out and the new names of the next generation were added. Issues with spelling and further details were added and the tree continue to grow. In all, 47 extra names were added to the tree.

Looking back over the chart, it is astounding to think of all the names and relationships in the Hill family. 604 names. 604 descendants. I knew the Hill family was big, but I had no idea it was that big. I wonder how many more names will be added next year at the 65th Hill Family reunion, 3rd weekend in August, Sunday in the same location and at the same time. Our family hasn’t been in Canada long but we have sure helped to populate it!