Thought I better say which Halifax we were in as there is definitely more than one. :)
Monday meant my sister and BIL were back at work. She had thought she'd be finished and could spend time with us but it turns out that there was more work involved than she thought at the time we talked.
After downloading the pictures from the day before and taking Calloway for a walk (where she conned J into giving her an extra treat) we decided to head back down to the Harbourwalk and Pier 21 Museum of Immigration. Unfortunately we didn't leave for there till almost noon and finding parking was definitely a chore. :) Finally we found a pretty empty lot down where the 2011 Junior World Beach Volleyball Championships are going to be held in September. It was a bit of a walk back from there to the Hart & Thistle Gastropub we'd seen yesterday that we'd decided we'd have lunch at but that was ok. We got a great table on the patio looking out over the harbour. I couldn't decide so I had the scallops, shrimp and haddock - hey I'm in the Maritimes I'm eating fish. :) For the life of me though I can't remember what J had. While we ate the Navy towed the museum ship HMCS Sackville (HMCS = Her Majesty's Canadian Ship) back to her moorings behind the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and J (being the ship nut that he is) took lots of pictures of that.
After our nice leisurely lunch we headed back in the direction of the car as I wanted to do a wee bit of shopping at Amos Pewter. I'd seen a Christmas decoration of the Bluenose the day before that I wanted to add to our Amos Pewter Christmas decoration collection.
After a quick stop at the tourist bureau for some information on what was happening on Canada Day we decided that instead of walking down to Pier 21 and then back again to the car we'd just drive down there and hope for a parking spot. There were 2 ships (Holland America's Maasdam and the Caribbean Princess) in that day and the Harbourwalk was pretty busy so bypassed all those passengers returning to their ships. When we pulled into the parking lot where we'd parked the day before the attendant asked why we wanted to park there and we said we wanted to go to the Pier 21 Museum. He waved us right in (no charge) and told us to enjoy it. That's one thing we found in Halifax - everyone is so super friendly and helpful.
When we paid our fee and got our little badge type thingy they asked if either of us had a link to Pier 21. I said I might as my Mum's family came over from Scotland. When she asked what year and I told her she said that would have been Pier 2 as Pier 21 had not been built until 1928 but to check out the research centre before leaving. We headed upstairs for the tour. I only did part of it as by now my back was bad and I hadn't brought my cane with me so that I couldn't stand in one place for any extended period of time. But what part I did see was very meaningful for J - he found a picture of one of the ships he had sailed on with his mother. He took a couple of pictures of it and then continued on the tour while I headed for the theatre and it's comfortable seats.
Once the movie presentation was over we headed back downstairs to the research centre where I chatted with one of the research assistants there. I told her I didn't know the exact year my Mum and her family came over or whether they even came through Halifax. After a few questions she got onto the database and the first screen she called up with my Grandfather's name was actually HIM. What were the odds of that. I mean I was guessing at his year of birth and year of his immigrating. But I recognized that signature plus some of the other information fit. From there we started looking for my Grandmother, mother and my mother's sister and brothers. I couldn't believe it we found all of them and now I've got a lot more information than I had before. I've now got copies of their passenger declaration forms. That truly made my day! I couldn't wait to tell my sister & BIL (he's also working on the family tree so he was delighted). I couldn't believe with my BIL living right there that he had never been to the research centre. J meanwhile was having her help with finding out his info as he came over as a child and there is no one left in the family to fill in the information for him. She gave him some forms to fill out and send to Ottawa to see if they could help him get the forms from Scotland or England (he didn't know which one he'd left from) and also gave me forms to get my Dad's records from World War II from Ottawa. Like I said it made my day and she even gave us her card with her e-mail address if we needed her help with anything else. Like I said - Haligonians are so friendly and helpful.
Now I bet you're wondering - so where are the pictures. Well, the next morning I realized that the card was still in the computer and all those "pictures" J had been taking didn't exist. ARGH!
