the genealogy book

, on my great aunt, Belle McLennan (1895-1978), and our lost ancestor, Norman McLennan, (who may or may not have gone to the Klondike,

It was my great aunt, Belle McLennan (1895-1978) [above, with my sister and myself, summer 1976], my grandfather’s elder sister, who originally put together our particular McLennan family genealogy, somewhere before my attentions, whether the late 1960s or early 70s. Born next door to where I was raised, she lived around the farm her whole life, although I don’t really know that much about her. She was one of the first residents of the Maxville Manor, the seniors residence in the village, and I remember our visits to see her with my mother, father and infant sister. A few years after she died, once I’d entered my teens, I started moving through her family document, realizing it riddled with omissions and errors, including my birth year. It was she who prompted me, I suppose, on this genealogical trajectory. Within a decade of working through her document, I had corrected a third, and tripled what she had, including discovering a further generation back not only in the same graveyard, but on the same family stone.

I was always fascinated by this entry she made on her uncle, Norman McLennan, brother of my great grandfather, Finley John: “Left home for the Klondike about 1892. Never returned – whereabouts unknown.” Not even a birthdate, although the siblings around him were born in a range from 1853 to 1876. How old was he when he left? Why the Klondike? The first strains of gold that prompted the infamous rush weren’t garnered until August 1896, a discovery that brought some one hundred thousand potential prospectors into the Klondike between 1896 and 1899, but he wouldn’t have known this in 1892. What, specifically, drove Norman to potentially head that far north, that far west? Back when it was still possible to disappear.

Norman McLennan, who headed west, never to be heard from again. That isn’t much to go on, although the Silverton, British Columbia paper The Silvertonian offered on January 12, 1901 that “John Buckley, of Sandon, has turned over his hotel to Pat Murphy and Norman McLennan and will devote his time this season to mining in the Boundary.” The census that year described a man of that name forty years old in Kootenay East – South Riding, “Single: Born May 2, 1866 (40) in Ontario; Presbyterian; Carpenter.” Is this the same man? The dates and geographic origins suggest it might be. The possibility of this man who headed west, certainly, but not into the Klondike, falling into the dust of the British Columbia interior. My great-grandfather’s brother, who went west and disappeared. I wonder if they ever heard from him, handwritten letters that may have appeared on the farm, ephemeral and disappeared too through the decades.

A year after the census listing, the Sandon, British Columbia journal The Paystreak offers an entry from December 20, 1902, a listing of names from the annual meeting of the Independent Order of Foresters, including Norman McLennan, their newly elected vice chief ranger. By June 6, 1907, the Trout Lake City, British Columbia paper, Lardeau Mining Review, wrote of the “A. & K. Branch C.P.R.,” writing that “Arriving at Poplar we visited the property now being operated upon by Norman McLennan and Jack Chism. The boys have a good showing and will undoubtedly make some money out of it.”

He disappears from what I can find after that. Oh great great uncle Norman, where did you go?