Day 6 - Orillia, Simcoe, Ontario. Gateway to Cottage Country.

We got up about 6:30 and Kirsten went to McCabe’s next door to get us some coffee while I began doing some Brennan homework.

I wrote up some family group sheets and made a list of the people I was hoping to find in the St. Andrews and St. James Cemetery.

We left about 10:00 a.m. and drove across the very busy 4 lane highway to the cemetery.  We stopped at the office and met Jan who was busily working on the Leef Family list I had sent her.  “You are here too early!” she cried after I introduced myself. “I’m still working on the list.”

We hung out with her and met her boss Nicole who I had sent my email to a month ago, while she finished up the Leef listing and gave us a copy of the Leef family plot.

Since she still had the Brennan family to check, we left the office and headed over to Section C.  We quickly found the stone monument and then found there were several smaller stones on the ground that the grass was covering. 

Now Kirsten enjoys digging out these kind of things, so she pulled out my japanese gardening knife to cut grass and sod away from the stones and clear them up so I could write the information and take photographs.  The spot light worked admirably on some of the stones and as soon as I get a chance, I will be putting copies of these stones into the Find-a-Grave site.

We had a black squirrel who was checking us out and apparently wondering what we were doing in his yard.

We found a stone that I don’t think the cemetery has listed for Burkitt Alexander (Alex’r) McDonald, so I’m going to chat with them about it tomorrow when we stop by for a business card and to check that we got all the Brennan family members.  However, at this time I don’t know who that is other than his mother or grandmother might be Susanna Burkitt.  So, now I’ve given myself more homework to do.  LOL!

As we were leaving the Leef plot, Jan drove over and gave us the list of Brennan family members, a map of the cemetery and approximately where they are and a couple plot listings.  Apparently, they don’t have any very old records as they have been lost or misplaced, Jan was pretty apologetic.  We thanked her for all her hard work and the help she had given us, said goodby and took off to find James M Brennan, brother to Elizabeth (Betsy) Brennan.

We continued through the list of about 30 Brennan family members and found their stones to write up, list in the Find-a-Grave and put in photos that I took.

Close to 4:00 p.m. we were headed for the last Brennan daughter, we passed Nicole and some workmen who were finishing up a grave that there had been a funeral for today, a lady passed us in van that we waved to.  Nicole spoke to the woman and the next thing we knew the van was following us around the cemetery.  We finally stopped and the lady  jumped out of the car to find out who was looking for Brennan’s.

I introduced myself to Arlene S. Brennan.  Her husband Wayne, is my 4th cousin.  She looked at the list of Brennan’s I had and told me about another one we had missed and where the stones was on our map.

We finished with the Armson stone we were heading for, then back down into the cemetery where we met up with Arlene again.  Her business is called, “Gardens of Endearment” she prepares, plants and maintains little cemetery gardens at the cemetery. She was driving around watering plants and keeping her 3 year old grandson with her.

She also suggested that I contact one of her sister-in-laws who had done some research on the Brennan family.

We came back to the motel, I downloaded photos of all the stones I took and some that Kirsten had taken, we made supper and then I called Shirley Cole.

I introduced myself and told her how we were related, she was delighted to hear from a cousin.  However, she didn’t have the slightest interest in family history although her father was quite interested in it.  

She gave me the phone number of another sister, Glenda and thought perhaps she would know where the family history went and photo album that Ellwood Brennan had made, went to.

So, I called Glenda and left a message, explaining who I was, how I was related, who had given me her number and asked if she knew where the family history that her father and put together might be.

At this posting, we are still waiting to hear back from Glenda.