Question about the Blastorah Name

A question about the name Blastorah and my answer, so that everyone can see it. To make a long story short, I don't know what the origin of the name is but I will try to find out! It's interesting to see how the name evolved in the census, in which the recorders were known to make mistakes and write down names as they heard them. I will be heading to Vienna and Venice in August to search through the military and church records and see what I can find.  

Hi Jennifer,  What do you know of the origin of the name Blastorah.  I would like to think I have the story correct.  I noticed the spelling in some of your records as Blastore.  I had always heard that it was at one time Blaustora, a German spelling.

A.K.

Answer: The name Blausaura I've seen before...my dad had it written down on one of his many papers. It's actually an old German name for prussic acid or hydrogen cyanide I think. There are so many stories I've heard about the origin of the name, and the disappearance and reappearance of the h. I think the family members that went to the States during WWI took off the h in order to stay hidden from the conscription authorities (as you see in the Salt Water Taffy shop photo). But the h appeared already in the 1901 census, so I have a feeling it was around for quite a long time. Each census the name was spelled differently, but all the family members signed the name as we spell it today, dating all the way back to the 1910s. Here is the information I have right now on hand about the spelling of the name in the censuses:

1881: Blastore
1891: Blastero
1901: Blasterah
1911: Blastorah

1911 Census - First time recorded spelling 'Blastorah' listing Catharine, Margaret (Geta), and Will

(this info will be helpful for anyone wishing to search through the census data themselves...without the exact spelling, you don't get any hits! So it takes a lot of guesses before you find it!)
Canadian Census Archives

I can't find any ship records with the name Bernard or Blastorah (or anything similar) on it around the time he would have immigrated. He probably came over in secret, since I heard he jumped ship and then the name wouldn't have been recorded. What I will do is have a look for this guy named Dickson. Apparently, the original Blastorah came over with a Brit with the last name Dickson whose uncle ran all the Mills around Harwood at the time.
(My guess is that this man, Samuel Dickson, was his uncle)

If I can find out who Dickson was, which I think I'm on the trail, then I can try to figure out which ship they came over in and go from there.

Jen
ps: If anyone else has any tips or hints, I would love to hear them. Even the smallest detail might help in the search for old records.

Frederick Leo Blastorah (1874-1930)

Frederick Blastorah died on September 12th, 1930. It’s usual to describe a person beginning with the start of their life, but I’d like to begin at the end. Fred’s little brother Bernard was deeply affected by the passing of his brother, as the inscription on the cover of this book attests.

 In the year he died, Fred was listed in the U.S. Census as living in Atlantic City, New Jersey with his wife (Julia) Annie (Corkery) Blastorah (1868-1947) and with his two daughters (Mary) Anastasia (1906-1983) and (Bridget) Corrinne (1909-1996). My dad tells me that Fred died of cancer, but I’m not sure of what kind. The girls were in their twenties when their father died.

 Fred had immigrated to the United States in March of 1917. It seems that several of the siblings left Harwood around that time (Will and Katie as well). I have been told that one reason for this was to escape mandatory military service during WWI. Fred travelled with his wife and two daughters via ship first to Rochester, New York and then continued on to St. Albans, Vermont. He registered himself as being of Irish origin at the time of his border crossing, probably to avoid suspicion.

(For information about the ferry crossing, see this website: http://www.cobourghistory.ca/ferry.htm  )

Fred was born around 1874 in Harwood, Ontario. His name first appears in the 1881 census where he is listed as being 7 years old.

He and his family had spent some time in Ste. Anne de Monts in Quebec during the first decade of the 20th century. There exists a picture of his eldest daughter Anastasia in her first carriage in that town.

 

Anastasia, it has been said, suffered from Schizophrenia and lived most of her life in an institution in the state of New York. Her illness likely caused great grief to her family, particularly during an era where stigmas surrounding psychological disorders remained strong. As far as I know, neither of Fred’s daughters had any children of their own.

Fred was the eldest son of the first generation of Canadian Blastorahs. His father, Bernard Blastorah, an Italian immigrant, would have been around 50 years old at the time of his son’s birth. His mother, Catherine O’Sullivan Whaley, was born in the U.S. to Irish parents, and was raised in the Northumberland, Ontario area. She would have been around 25 when Fred was born.

Fred, Katie, Fred Triplican, Will, Captain (the dog)

Fred lived a short life, having died in his fifties. For this reason there is relatively little documentation about him. While most of his siblings returned to Harwood at some point in their lives, Fred was never afforded the chance. Nevertheless, from the existing information, it seems Fred was close to his siblings and enjoyed spending time with them, hunting and spending time outdoors during his youth. Any further information about Frederick Leo Blastorah (not to be confused with his nephew Leo Frederick Blastorah) would be appreciated. Feel free to contact me by email, or make additions in the comments section here underneath my post.

J.B.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Sources

Canada Censuses. Library and Archives Canada.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/census/index-e.html (accessed 08/07/12)

Family Photographs

Family Oral History

https://www.familysearch.org/search/records/index#count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3ABlastorah~ (accessed 08/07/12)

http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/person/9056024/corinne-blastorah-profile-and-genealogy (accessed 08/07/12)

http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/person/19339828/anastasia-blastorah-profile-and-genealogy (accessed 08/07/12)

*As I'm unsure about the spelling of Frederick (due to various spellings documented) I decided to use 'Frederick' until I'm told otherwise. 

Tierney House- Update

As a quick addition to my post on the Tierney House in Fort Francis, I have a document to add. I had forgotten that in one of Bernard Blastorah's (II) old ledgers he had a hand drawn map of the house plan. I will upload the pics below.

Jen

Bottom end of drawing

Top end of drawing

***Second Update
I came across a couple of other records in B. Blastorah's personal book that document this property on 250 Church St. as well:

1920 Vehicle Permit

1922 Renting of Basement

1925 Sale of House

Six Siblings

Katie and William Blastorah

Over the next weeks I will be introducing the six siblings of the second generation of Blastorahs. Born in Harwood, Ontario to Bernard Blastorah and Catherine O'Sullivan Whaley, three sons and three daughters were born. The girls were Katie, Margareta, and Mary and the boys were Bernard, William, and Fred. For some of the siblings I have a lot of interesting information to share. For others, like Fred and Mary, I don't know very much at all. If you have any further information about these people, please let me know! I appreciate it.

Bernard Blastorah II

Mary Blastorah

Geta Blastorah

Fred Blastorah

Fort Frances Family Home - The Tierney House

Bernard Blastorah (II) lived in Fort Frances with his family starting around 1911 until 1924 when his wife died. During some of that time I believe they may have lived in the Tierney House at 250 Church Street. Today, that address belongs to the Royal Canadian Legion. This is a comparison between an old photo, which I think may be the old house, and the property as it looks today:

This is only a guess. I'm making this guess based on two other documents I have. One is an old school book which belonged to Iva Tierney. This book is dated January 20th, 1913 at the address 250 Church Street, Fort Frances, ON. It seems the book was then used further by Catherine Blastorah, daughter of Bernard Blastorah (II) who wrote from Harwood ON in March of 1926:

In several letters dated from the year 1921, Bernard Blastorah made moves to purchase the Tierney residence from the Conmee estate:

It is my belief that Bernard Blastorah bought the house where the family lived until moving back to Harwood. Catherine found or was given the schoolbook of Iva Tierney which she then brought back to Harwood. I'm thinking that the property in the black and white picture is the same property which now belongs to the Legion. These are all inferences on my part, and if anyone has any further information, photos, or documents, please let me know! Or feel free to discuss them below.

Jen

Sealo the Seal Boy

This personalized postcard was found in Bernard Blastorah's things. I believe the card was addressed to his son, Leo Fredrick Blastorah. Can anyone tell me who Dorothy is?

Read about Sealo here:
Sealo the Seal Boy

This is the Beginning

Dear Family, friends, and any other interested people. This blog will be used by me to post information about an ongoing project I'm working on which deals with Blastorah family history. For the purposes of this blog and my research I want to document all that I come across, and I ask that if you have any stories, pictures, or documents to share, PLEASE do so! It's my hope that this collection will be used to do an even bigger project later on, but first I need to know that I have all the information that is still available to me.

I'm mostly interested in the period between circa 1824 (birth of the first known Blastorah) and the post-WWII period when the fourth generation began. So if you have anything you would like to share, particularly that which pertains to this period, everyone may be able to benefit from it (especially me! :)
So keep in touch and have a look at the blog once in a while.
Thanks so much,
Jen Blastorah.