oakwriter

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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The ultimate meaning of life is to embrace that which compels you to act in spite of fear.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Quirpon and on


I got this picture today from my mom. Apparently this little cove is the first Canadian location anyone in my family tree called home. As you may've guessed, this is a shot of somewhere in Newfoundland. Well, this is Quirpon - where, I'm told, my great-great-grandfather (with perhaps another "great" in there), Henry Pynn, was the first Brit to set down roots. Word also has it that the windows and some of the boards of this house, now a Heritage Site, are from the original home, which dates back to around 1820. English adventurer and mariner Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who claimed Newfoundland as a colony, was reported to have yelled, "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!" as his ship went down in the North Atlantic. Well, I don't know if Newfoundland is close to heaven, but I do know Quirpon is a long way from Markham, Ontario, where I grew up! And it's probably closer to England than it is to Prince Albert, where other ancestors of mine lie buried next to an old prairie church. I think this warrants a visit east.
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(I apologize for the solid block of text. There's a new Blogger-Google thing going on, and I'm having trouble formatting... I should just switch to Word Press!)