52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks was
created by Amy Johnson Crow
and is a series of weekly blogging prompts to inspire genealogists and family
historians to write about an ancestor and then share it
online. The theme for Week 8 is "Heirloom".
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| Model ship built by James Henry Allan Annal (1849-1930) |
The heirloom that I have chosen to write about is a model ship built by my
2nd great-grandfather James Henry Allan Annal (1849-1930) who was a sailor all of
his life and
"as a boy was on a whaling expedition for three years in the Arctic."
James Henry Allan Annal 's obituary said that he "sailed every windjammer on the Great lakes a hardy and fearless sailor, and very expert in the construction of ship models."
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| My 2nd great-grandparents Mary (Hess) and James Henry Allan Annal celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1922 |
My great-great grandparents lived in Wallaceburg, Ontario near the St. Clair River:
"During
the heyday of water transportation along the St. Clair River, from 1840
to approximately 1931, thousands of schooners, ferries, steamers and
flat-bottomed freighters known as scows congested the waterway, hauling
goods and passengers up and down the strait, making the river one of the
most important arteries in the Great Lakes." (Source: Wallaceburg Courier)
My 2nd great-grandfather John Henry Allan Annal sailed until he was seventy-three years old!
James Henry Allan Annal had emigrated from his birthplace in the Orkney Islands in 1870 sailing to New York with his sister and the Sutherland family on the steam ship Columbia
that left Glasgow, Scotland on
November 5, 1870 and arrived in New York on November 5, 1870.
The details of this voyage can be read at
http://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.ca/2018/02/william-sutherlands1870-passenger-list.html
Model Ship Building
There is a very long tradition of sailors and merchant seaman crafting model ships to pass the time on long voyages. (See PBS Antique Road Show
http://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-appraisal-folk-art-model-ship-ca-1900/ )
The boat that my grandfather crafted had three masts and it is encased in glass and, based on the handy chart below, I believe it to be a schooner.
We have heard many cousins speak of model ships built by our great-great grandfather (and his
son John Annal) that they remember seeing in their youth but this is the only one that I know of that is still in existence. This treasured family heirloom is in the care of my brother for safekeeping.
