The maiden voyage to Canada...

When I was downstairs putting my plate in the dishwasher, my parents were having lunch. They filled me in on a few more details.

My great-grandmother was named Ellen, like my mother. But she went by Nelly. She had a brother in Canada, who she came to visit one year. In the 1904 letters, she's signed her name "Nelly Smith", which means she wasn't yet married. But she's sending them from the Northwest Territories, which means she was already here.

To get to Canada, Nelly took a boat. And on that boat, my mother just told me, she met a man who was moving to Canada to start his life as a farmer in the Prairies.

I'll tell you more as I go... it's best to hear the story from Nelly, I suppose.

p.s. I'm posting a picture of the farm painting to set the scene.