the genealogy book

, on George William Page (1910-1972), Annie Fairman Friend (1884-1960) and Frederick John Friend (1891-1984),

Born in Cobourg, Ontario, the first of their family not born in England, my grandfather, George William Page (1910-1972) [above, left], was a newspaper man. Over the years, there were tales of my toddler-self on his knee amusing him with my stories, although I’ve no recollection of these, or of him. My grandfather, who worked the large rollers of the printing presses at the Ottawa Citizen, and his twenty-six years when the newspaper building still sat on Queen Street, and the printing on Bronson Avenue. Twenty-six years, as his heart failed in the Page family’s snow-shovelled driveway on Ridgemont Avenue, but three blocks south of our current Alta Vista doorstep. He died just shy of the paper relocating to Baxter Road, in Ottawa’s west end, behind where now the IKEA, the Pinecrest Chapters. Baxter Road sits a stone’s throw from the Pinecrest Cemetery, where my grandparents lay alongside three of my mother’s six siblings. As the Ottawa Citizen rollers still turn, but the newsrooms long emptied, repurposed. How Covid-19 lockdowns sent everyone home, amid the changing fortunes of print media, print news. The empty newsrooms sold in a single offering.

Family lore had my grandfather learning the newspaper business from his maternal uncle, Frederick John Friend (1891-1984), my second great uncle, who was editor and publisher of The Weekly Advance in Kemptville for over thirty years (a newspaper that ended its printed run in September 2023). Kemptville, an hour’s contemporary drive west and south of the capital, where my mother’s parents would wed and have the first three of their eventual seven children before relocating, eventually, into Ottawa. Fred was born in Ramsgate, Kent, England, the same location where generations of the Page family had been prior to my great grandparents arriving in Cobourg. Fred and his sisters May Maria Friend (1888-1918) and Annie Fairman Friend (1884-1960) [below], my great grandmother: whether travelling together or separately I have no idea. This lone trio that left Ramsgate behind emerged from a combined gathering of somewhere between nine and fifteen born to their parents, although at least a few of their siblings barely made it past a few years of age. Robert was two, Alice Maud not a year, Moddy was three. Was there something in the water? Was this simply the normal mortality rate? No wonder they left. It wasn’t much better for their father, William John Friend (1841-1933), a man who seems to have lived his whole life in one place. Of his own siblings, lost far too soon: Alfred Charles was two, Robert was nine, Harriet Croucher was nine, Walter was ten. And so, it was three of William John’s children—Annie, May and Fred—who chose to leave generations’-worth of geography, birthright and history to arrive fresh on the Loyalist shores of Lake Ontario.

My second great grandfather, William John Friend, who, at least at the birth of his daughter Annie, was listed as a cordwainer, “a shoemaker who makes new shoes from new leather,” at 4 Hardres Street, in the village of Ramsgate. One of a row of houses now set just beside a United Church, according to maps. The same address where they lived, where his children were born. Not far from the Falstaff Hotel, as the crow flies. Is everything connected? Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night’s body be called thieves of the day’s beauty.

My second cousin Amanda, the Page genealogist, lists Fred Friend as a rifleman during the First World War, and later, a sailor, with details including the fact that he “sailed around Cape Horn,” “brought back silk for wife’s wedding dress folded into the size of a matchbook” and “brought back [a] china doll.” On January 1, 1920 in Cobourg, Ontario, Fred, known by then as a printer, married Dundee, Scotland-born Alexanderina Peters Scott (1890-1982), namesake daughter of one Alexander Peters Scott. Apparently she was known to everyone as Ina. Oh, what a lovely name. Is there anything I can find on her? She would have carried a wonderful accent, I’m sure.

I discover in my emails a series of responses from Dr. David Shanahan of the History of North Grenville website, who responded to my queries by sending along a series of articles on Fred Friend back in 2012. He offered that Fred [above] “arrived in Kemptville around 1929 and was owner of the Advance from about that time. The first masthead with his name appeared in October, 1930. He remained owner, though another editor took his place in later years, until the early 1960s.” His obituary, which Dr. Shanahan included, provides that “Mr. Friend was very well known and respected in the Kemptville community not only because of his thirty year association with the newspaper from 1929-59 but because he was very active in many organizations in the area. He was a long-time member and chairman of the local school board, a singer in the St. John’s United Church Choir, member of the Lawn Bowling Club and was well known as an ardent fisherman.”

My grandfather George, who participated in amateur theatre productions in Kemptville at the onset of the 1930s, before the family moved into Ottawa. I’d love to know more about this part of his history, and whether or not my grandmother was also part of this, somehow. The tales of her piano accompaniment during silent film screenings. Two separate cast photos in my grandmother’s archive that my grandfather in the only evidence I’ve found, so far. Since then, my mother’s remaining sibling, Pam, and her years of musical theatre across Southwestern Ontario, including acting, singing and piano. Out of the seven, Pam their sole offspring to continue that thread of performance. To this day, the wellspring of joy from her every gesture.