Showing 64 results

People and organizations
6828 · Family

Charles Alexander (1824-1913) and his wife Nancy were among the first black families to arrive in the Victoria area. They had a total of 12 children, the fourth of whom was Thomas.

5859 · Family

George Bagshaw was a Victoria gardener. His son, Ralph, had a son, Arthur, who married Grace Slater, daughter of Andrew and Jessie Slater.

5867 · Family

John Barnsley came to B.C. in the 1880s. He ran a sporting goods store in Victoria and later went to work for the Union Steamship Company. Barnsley died in 1924 at the age of 63.

3603 · Family

Hubert Weyman Blenkinsop was born in England in the 1890s and came to Canada ca. 1908. After a period spent working on a ranch in the Chilco region of British Columbia, Hubert joined the Military and served overseas in the First World War.

Bossi (family)
6877 · Family

The Bossi family were Victoria merchants, grocers, hotelkeepers. They lost family in the Point Ellice Bridge disaster.

6645 · Family

William Bullen founded the British Columbia Marine Railways Company, expanding into shipbuilding and salvage work in the subsequent decades. The Bullens were related to the Douglas and Helmcken families through marriage.

3719 · Family

Duncan Cameron (d. 1884) and Jessie Anderson (1822-1906), both born in Scotland, met and married in the California goldfields, where their first three children were born. The Camerons brought their family north in 1860 and settled in Victoria. Their daughter, Agnes Deans was born in 1863. Her expedition to the Arctic in 1908 resulted in the popular book, "The New North".

Clay (family)
10928 · Family

William Clay, the son of Jonathan and Mary Clay, married Elizabeth Victoria Donaldson. William and Elizabeth had three children: Donald, Eric, and Leonard Clay.

Donaldson (family)
5846 · Family

Alexander Dawson Donaldson was the son of Alexander and Mary Donaldson. Following his mother's death, he was adopted by his uncle James Dawson. Alexander came to Victoria in 1862 and married Amanda Woolsey in 1879. The marriage produced 4 children, Alexander T. Woolsey, James Douglas, Margaret Dawson and Elizabeth Victoria. Alexander Sr. worked as a carpenter until 1901 when the family moved to a farm in Sooke. He died in 1909 at the age of 70 and his wife Amanda died in 1930 at the age of 75. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth Victoria married William Clay, the son of Jonathan and Mary Clay.

Fatt, Norman B. (family)
6567 · Family

William and Sarah Sutton had six children, William John Jr., Sarah Ellen, James Edward, Richard Keyworth, Fanny Keyworth and Mary Louise. William John Sutton Jr. became a well known geologist who worked on the West Coast before his death in 1914. Sarah Ellen Sutton married the Anglican Minister Frederick Helling Fatt. Together they had four sons, William M., Fred P., Norman B. and Edward John. William M. Fatt died ca. 1917. The Reverend F.H. Fatt died in 1930.

4105 · Family

Alfred Flumerfelt (1856-1930) was a Victoria businessman actively involved in the community. He was married to Ada Kilvington, with whom he had two daughters, Norma and Gertrude.

Grogan, George (family)
10887 · Family

George Edward Grogan (1857-1939) was born in England and came to Canada in 1875. He joined the Northwest Mounted Police in Ottawa and soon after made his way west to Alberta where he met his wife, Kathleen Tascher de la Pagene, originally from Montreal. The two were married in Edmonton on May 25, 1891. In addition to his work with the police, Grogan worked as a newspaper editor first in Alberta and then in Revelstoke, British Columbia, during the Klondike gold rush.

The Grogans had four children, two of whom died in infancy: George (1892-1893), Helen Aimee (b. 1893), Marion Alice (Feb-Aug 1899), and Kathleen Sara (1905-1946), who later married Francis Burgoyne Rattenbury in 1928. After the birth of their fourth child, the Grogans moved to Victoria where George Grogan was partner in a real estate firm. He was also the live-in manager of the Alkazar Apartments on Fairfield Road. Following his wife’s death in Victoria in 1937, George moved back to Calgary where he died in 1939.

4303 · Family

Dennis Harris (1851-1932) was a surveyor who contributed to the Canadian Pacific Railway survey in the 1870s. He settled in Victoria, marrying Martha Douglas, youngest daughter of Sir James and Lady Amelia Douglas.

Haynes, George W. (family)
4343 · Family

George W. Haynes was a native of Trenton, Maine. He was born on August 7, 1833 and died December 30, 1897.

6756 · Family

Reginald Hayward was born in Victoria in 1880, the son of Charles and Sarah Hayward. In 1908, he took over the family business, the B.C. Funeral Company. Hayward also served in public life, and gave his time to a number of private organizations including the Native Sons of British Columbia.

8324 · Family

Henry Jones came to Victoria in 1898, later opening his own brokerage, real estate, mining and timber business. In the 1920s to 1940s worked a gold mining claim in the Lillooet district. He died in 1954.

5832 · Family

Frederick Kroeger, a Victoria upholsterer, and his wife Louise were involved in the Spiritualist movement.

6938 · Family

Bishop Edward Cridge organized a Reformed Episcopal Church in Victoria in 1874. Besides his work for the Church, which continued until 1902, Cridge was instrumental in the establishment of the City's first hospital, the Female Infirmary, and the Protestant Orphan's Home.

Ellen Laundy, the daughter of Bishop Cridge, married the Reverend Thomas Laundy, whose fourth child was Helen Forbes.

Lewis, John (family)
4618 · Family

John Lewis was a cabinetmaker and amateur photographer.

7163 · Family

Lim Bang was a Victoria merchant, bank manager, and developer involved in variety of public activities.

4661 · Family · 1888-1978

George Lowe worked in construction. While with the Federal Department of Transport from 1935-1951, he visited many remote locations on the B.C. coast.

4774 · Family

John McConnell was president of Sweeney-McConnell Printers and Stationers. In his youth he played baseball and later was a member of a number of fraternal organizations and Victoria Typographical Union No. 201.

McDonald, Michael (family)
8339 · Family · 1884-1968

Michael McDonald was a Victoria blacksmith married to Helen McDonald. The McDonalds had three daughters: Patricia (Pat), Helen, and Myrna; and three sons: John (Jack), Bill, and Gerald.

Meed, William (family)
4851 · Family

William Meed was a Victoria fruit grower and shipbuilder.

Parfitt, James (family)
7309 · Family

Parfitt Brothers was a Victoria construction firm established in 1907 by James, Aaron, Fred, Mark and Albert Parfitt.

7319 · Family · 1831-1918

Frederick Pauline, born in England in 1831, came to B.C. in 1888 and went into business as an advertising, financial and real estate agent. He died in 1918.

8389 · Family

The Payne brothers began sheep farming in the Gulf Islands in 1886. A sister married into the Bradley-Dyne family, which began farming in Saanich some years after. Later on the Payne brothers also moved to Saanich.

5155 · Family

Hon. James Douglas Prentice was born on September 3, 1860 and died October 24, 1911. He was J.P. and M.P.P. of Victoria.

5189 · Family

Francis Mawson Rattenbury was born in Leeds, England, in 1867. He began training as an architect in 1885 in his uncles' firm Mawson and Mawson. He immigrated to British Columbia in 1892, settling first in Vancouver, then moving to Victoria the next year when he won the competition for the design of the new Parliament Buildings. This coup launched a two-decades-long string of successes which included Government House, court houses, banks, hotels, and residences. He also pursued business careers in inland shipping and land speculation. In 1898 he married Florence Eleanor Nunn (1870-1929) and had two children, Francis Burgoyne and Mary. Rattenbury's fortunes began to flag with the beginning of World War I. After 1914 commissions were infrequent, and his land ventures in central British Columbia were unsuccessful. In 1925 Rattenbury and his wife divorced, and he married Alma Victoria Pakenham. They had one son, John. In 1930 he moved to England with his new family and settled in Bournemouth, where he was effectively retired. On March 23, 1935, Francis Rattenbury was murdered by his wife's paramour George Percy Stoner, which led to one of Britain's most sensational murder trials of the century.

Francis Burgoyne Rattenbury was born in Victoria on January 14, 1899. He married Sarah Kathleen Grogan (1905-1946) on July 10, 1928. They had one son, Edward (Ted) Rattenbury and later divorced.

Mary Rattenbury was born in Victoria on May 11, 1904. She married Eric Audley Burton (1897-1971) on April 2, 1930 and they had one daughter, Susan Audley Burton, born March 1, 1933. The Burtons resided in Victoria for many years before retiring to Duncan, B.C., where Mary lived until her death on October 25, 1982.