April Photo of the Month

Mount Albion School, Lot 48, PEI.

Can anyone help identify the teacher and pupils? What year was this photo taken?

Please send whatever names you can to me at: demacdonald (at) pei.sympatico.ca .If you can help with this, I have an older photo of the same school to try later.

Jenkins Photo of the Month - March 2010

You never know where a priceless family photo is going to turn up. This picture was taken in the entrance to Piazza Joe's Italian Eatery & Bistro in Charlottetown, PEI. Look closely at the photo on the wall (click on it to enlarge). Would you have recognized it as the family of Robert Jenkins and Margaret Louisa (Young) Jenkins which was taken in 1901? And an original, not a copy, in the original frame! It has appeared previuosly on this site. One of the young girls is my wife's grandmother Hannah Belle Jenkins.

After finding the restaurant owner, Joe Lisi, I was told that he had bought the framed photo at a yard sale. As he was from the US it had no sentimental value to him, but was just an old family photo to go with a few others he had on adjacent walls of the entry to his establishment. After explaining the significance to our family, I asked if I could buy it from him. He replied that he would not sell it, but that what he wanted was an old family photo, and that if I could provide him with a suitable replacement we could make a trade. You will now find hanging in it's place a copy of the photo of the family of Isabella Jenkins and husband Kenneth MacDonald taken in 1903, which is also found in Nicolaus Henckell the Hessian, Vol. I, p. 242. Thank you Joe.

The moral of the story is to always keep your eyes peeled for old family photos. You never know where you might come across something which is priceless to the preservation of your family heritage.

If you have old Jenkins family photos to share on this site, please send a scanned copy to me at demacdonald@pei.sympatico.ca . And please don't forget to identify all your photos with who is in them so it won't someday be tossed out like the priceless Jenkins photo shown above.

Jenkins Photo of the Month - February

This photo of the Henry Boswall Jenkins family was submitted by his grandson Hudson Jenkins. It shows Henry Boswall Jenkins, born 23 February 1866 in Mount Albion, Lot 48, PEI; his wife Elizabeth Jane (Bessie) MacKenzie Jenkins, born 17 September 1877; and their sons. From the left, they are Lorne Alexander Jenkins, Robert Harold Jenkins and Henry Spurgeon Jenkins. It was undated, but appears to have been taken about 1908. You can find more on this family in Nicolaus Henckell the Hessian, Vol. 1, p. 241.

If you have old photos and/or stories to share, please email me.

How a Baby Received His Name

This photo of the family of Robert Jenkins was taken in the early summer of 1901 in Charlottetown. The baby shown on his mother's lap had been born 27 April 1901. The Governor General of Canada, His Excellency Lord Gilbert Minto, and his wife visited Prince Edward Island later that summer. During the visit Robert somehow managed to present this photo of the family to Lady Minto, requesting that she name the baby. She called him Gilbert, after her husband, and he thus became Gilbert Minto Jenkins. This begs the question of what he had been called before, and what his birth name might have been registered as.

Addendum #1 - Nicolaus Henckell the Hessian

The first four-page Addendum has recently been emailed in PDF format to those who have the 3 volume set of the book Nicolaus Henckell the Hessian. If you have the book but have not received Addendum #1 via email, it is because I do not have your email address. If you do have the book and wish to receive further complete updates as they become available, please send an email with your name to me at demacdonald@pei.sympatico.ca.

Also please remember to provide scanned copies of old family photos (with people identified) and additions and/or corrections to the above address, as a further addendum is planned for whenever there is sufficient material so that the information in the book may be kept up to date.

Jenkins Photo of the Month - January

This photo was submitted by Roddie MacLean of his great-grandparents Caroline Amelia Jenkins, born 1852, died 1944, (daughter of George E. Jenkins and Susannah Marie Hawkins), with husband J. Benjamin Mutch and young son Robert Everett Mutch. R. E. Mutch (1876-1957) was baptized 21 April 1879, the occasion for this photo. They farmed in Earnscliffe, Lot 50, PEI. Al Mutch tells of his grandmother Amelia taking his sister on walks to the shore to gather kindling chips from an area where ships were built in the 1800s. See more on the family in Nicolaus Henckell the Hessian: A Genealogy of Jenkins Families of Prince Edward Island, Vol. I - p. 36.

Do you have old Jenkins photos? Please take time to share them with relatives via this site. You can have them scanned and emailed to me at demacdonald@pei.sympatico.ca . Include a story about the photo if you can, or about someone in the photo in general, but this is not necessary.

Meanwhile, always remember to put names lightly on the back of your old photos, and dates if you know them. Otherwise future generations will not know who is in the photo or its significance to family history, and might just throw them out.