Genealogical profile: Francis Metherall Powell

All it takes is a single memory or scrap of information. That leads to a document, which reveals more information, and suddenly you have a rich story about your family's history.

My father is a Rutter, and my mother is a Powell. This is a story about the Powells.

From my mother, I obtained a memory and a scrap of information:

1. The memory: When she was 7 years old and school had just started for the year, she was taken to Vancouver General Hospital to say goodbye to her father's father "Grampa Frank", who was dying of cancer in his early 60s.
2. The scrap of info: We are closely related to Lord Baden Powell (the creator of the Scouting movement).

This post is the start of a series of articles using the memory and genealogical techniques to determine if the scrap of information is true.

A name, a date, or a location

Genealogy is the study of family ancestries and histories. It uses stories, memories, letters, photographs, documents, and other sources to piece together information about individuals and families. A name, a date, or a location is often enough to begin researching.

Who was "Grampa Frank"?

More than a century ago, the nickname Frank was always a shortened version of Francis. Therefore, the birth name of "Grampa Frank" would have been Francis Powell.

In Canada, the schoolyear begins in September. The September my mother was 7 years old was in 1959. The memory has already provided us with this information:

name: Francis Powell
date of death: September 1959
place of death: Vancouver General Hospital
cause of death: cancer

Using that name, date, and location, we can run an online search for death certificates. This one seems like a fit:

Information from the death certificate:

name: Francis Metherall Powell
place of death: Vancouver General Hospital
date of death: Sep 9 1959
length in Vancouver: 15 years
length in BC: 15 years
length in Canada: life
address: 3517 West 12th Ave, Vancouver, BC
racial origin: English
marital status: married
spouse: Audrey Emaline Knowles
place of birth: Saskatchewan
date of birth: Nov 3 1897
profession: storekeeper (paint and hardware) retired in 1954 after 10 years
father: James Bradrord Powell (born in Ontario)
mother: Margaret Priscilla Kinley (born in PEI)
medical history: diabetes for 12 years, bronchopneumonia for several days, arteriosclerosis
cause of death: malignant lymphoma
undertaker: Chapman Funeral Home, Vancouver
burial: Sep 12 1959 Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver

This particular Francis Powell was born in Saskatchewan (central Canada) in late 1897, so he was almost 62 when he died. His widow's name was Audrey, which was the name of my great-grandmother I knew in the 1980s. Nothing contradicts with what is confirmed, and several things line up perfectly. It's a match! That's my great-grandfather's official death certificate.

Suddenly, I know more about him. He had been diabetic for 12 years before his death, and eventually developed arteriosclerosis and cancer (both caused by smoking). My mother remembers that he was a smoker, something he likely picked up during his time serving Canada in World War 1. And he had run a paint and hardware store in Vancouver between 1944 and 1954.

Wait, that explains something I've always wondered about!

I got that open-end wrench along with some other tools from my grandmother several years ago. It's nothing special, but had belonged to my grandfather. Some research revealed they were made in Canada around 1940. I've been wondering if he picked it up second-hand, or received it from his father (Francis Metherall Powell) upon his death a couple decades later. Knowing Frank owned a hardware store makes it very likely these were his personal tools!

More documents

The confirmed data on the death certificate generates new searches, which bring up more documents that can be matched to Francis Metherall Powell.

In genealogy, there are guidelines, and things that work better than others, but there is no singular strategy that must be followed. Figuring out how to get where you want to go is part of the process. I personally really enjoy that aspect of it! I chose to check the Obituaries.

Sure enough, an ancient newspaper clipping surfaced, likely from either The Province or The Vancouver Sun.

An obvious match, which provides its own trove of information:

name: Francis M Powell
date of death: Sep 9 1959
address: 3517 West 12th Ave
spouse: Audrey
children: Gordon of Vancouver, Margaret Guse of Kitchener Ontario, Joyce Pedersen of Vancouver
grandchildren: 7
surviving brothers: 1
surviving sisters: 4
funeral: Sep 12 10am, Chapman Funeral Home 802 West Broadway, Rev Dr. George Mettier-Millar
burial: Mountain View Cemetery

He died 15 years before I was born, and I'd never been told much about him, so these details not only gave me new info about my great-grandfather, they also helped me feel closer to him.

A search of Mountain View Cemetery reveals his gravestone:

name: Francis M Powell
burial: Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver
date of death: 1959
date of birth: 1897

I wish I had known this a few years ago when I was living in Vancouver. I was in the neighborhood of that cemetery regularly. Now I don't know when I'll be able to get down to Vancouver again.

We know Francis was born in Saskatchewan, and his 3 children were Gordon (my grandfather), Margaret, and Joyce. His wife was Audrey. We can use this in a search of Canada's most-recent census available, which is 1926. And we get a match:

(Aw, there's my "great aunt Joyce" at 11 months old. She died about 20 years back. I'll always remember playing card games with her and her sense of humour.)

name: Francis M Powell (28)
spouse: Audrey (24)
children: Gordon (4), Margaret (2), Joyce (11 mo)
address: Wapella, Saskatchewan

So we were from a little farming town on the prairies called Wapella.

Audrey (my "great Grandma") was born in 1902, and she lived until 1989. She was 18 or so and living at home with her parents on a farm outside Wapella when she met Frank. I remember her as a petite old artist/crafter widow. She was of Irish heritage. I recall her telling me once that her husband left her too soon, but that I would have liked him.

Now we can find the entry for Francis in the 1921 census. He would have been back from the War for a few years at this point, preparing to marry Audrey and get their own place.

I'll decipher the relevant information:

name: Frank Powell (22)
father: James B Powell (63) (born in Ontario)
mother: Margaret D Powell (58) (born in PEI)
address: Wapella, Saskatchewan
place of birth: Saskatchewan
racial origin: French
religion: Methodist
marital status: single
profession: public school teacher

Hello, great-great-grandparents! That's a match with the death certificate.

As a young man, he was working as a teacher at the public school. He's listed as French racial origin, but only speaking English. His father was from Ontario and his mother was from Prince Edward Island, collectively known in Canada as "back East". The family was Methodist.

At the time of the 1916 census, Francis was an 18-year-old freshly-graduated schoolteacher, working at the local school and living on nearby Maple lane. His older brother and cousin are listed as being stationed at nearby Camp Sewell, a major training area for Canadians, most of whom served in France in 1917.

Francis can also be found as a 13-year-old student (likely at the school he later taught at) on the 1911 census. He is also recorded as an 8 year old student on the 1906 census, and a 3 year old preschooler in 1901.

Knowing Francis was born in 1897 in Saskatchewan, record of his birth can be found online:

An exact match for first and last name, and for date of birth. The middle name ("Nuhlerall" instead of "Metherall") is likely a clerical error.

Another search of that index brings up 6 Powell children born in Saskatchewan during the 1890s:

From that we can infer the correct name of his father (James Bradford Powell) and mother (Margaret Drucilla Kinley). More on them in another post.

We have now located all the major documents, and uncovered all the vital information, on Francis M Powell! It can now be collated.

Summary

name: Francis Metherall Powell
birth date: Nov 3 1897
birth place: Wapella, Saskatchewan
father: James Bradford Powell (born in Ontario ~1858)
mother: Margaret Drucilla Kinley (born in PEI ~1863)
racial origin: English/French

religion: Methodist
spouse: Audrey Emaline Knowles (married 1921)
profession: Wapella public school teacher in 1916 and 1921, Vancouver paint/hardware storekeeper 1944-1954
children in 1926: Gordon (4), Margaret (2), Joyce (11 mo)
children in 1959: Gordon of Vancouver, Margaret Guse of Kitchener Ontario, Joyce Pedersen of Vancouver

address: 3517 West 12th Ave, Vancouver, BC
death date: Sep 9 1959
death place: Vancouver General Hospital
cause of death: malignant lymphoma
medical history: diabetes, arteriosclerosis, bronchopneumonia
funeral: Sep 12 1959, Chapman Funeral Home, 802 West Broadway, Vancouver
burial: Sep 12 1959, Mountain View Cemetery

Francis Metherall Powell was born in late 1897 in Wapella, a small Saskatchewan farming town. He was named after his great-grandfather, Francis Metherall, a prominent Methodist preacher who immigrated from England to Prince Edward Island about 1830. His father worked as a dairyman and carpenter, while his mother raised him and his 6 siblings. He attended the local Wapella public school, and after graduation, worked as a schoolteacher.

In addition to serving Canada in the first World War doing resupply, Frank married a local Irish girl named Audrey Knowles. They got their own house and had 3 children: Gordon, Margaret, and Joyce.

At the end of the second World War, Frank and his family left Wapella for the West coast city of Vancouver, where he operated a hardware and paint shop. Gordon married and settled nearby, as did Joyce.

Frank was known as a kind grandfather who usually had a smile. He developed diabetes at about 50, followed by hardening of the arteries, likely related to his smoking. Eventually he was diagnosed with lymph cancer, which spread to the lungs, and in 1959 he died at the age of 61. He was buried in a nearby cemetery in the heart of Vancouver. Francis Metherall Powell was survived by 5 of his 6 siblings, by his 3 children, by several grandchildren, and by his wife Audrey.

( Source: D Rutter family photographs. )

It will take more research to find out if Frank Powell was related to Lord Baden Powell of the Scouting movement. In a future post, I will look into Frank's father, James Bradford Powell, and his mother, Margaret Drusilla Kinley. This post succeeded at uncovering and getting to know my great-grandfather, and lining up some future research. I think it also demonstrated that blockchain technology like Blurt is useful for things most of us hadn't considered, like recording genealogical profiles of ancestors. I intend to keep this post updated as more documents are discovered and details are dug up.

DRutter