Showing posts with label New Westminster Public Library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Westminster Public Library. Show all posts

Monday 28 November 2011

British Columbia City Directories

The staff of the New Westminster Public Library pointed out this great resource for British Columbia city directories online. The British Columbia City Directories site is a genenalogical and historical resource at the Vancouver Public Library. City directories, dating from 1860 to 1940, are available online, with the exception 1930 and 1932. Happy searching!

Cheers, K.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Thomas and Annie Ball - Final Resting Place

Thomas and Annie Ball were buried in the New Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC. This is a map of where the cemetery is located:


View Larger Map

Their headstone reads: Ball / Mother / Annie / 1877-1947 Father / Thomas / 1875 – 1941 / At Rest. The "/" represents a new line of text on the headstone or marker. The staff of the New Westminster Public Library kindly provided the transcription.

Cheers, K.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Cunningham Hardware

The city directories show that Thomas Ball worked as a plumber for Cunningham Hardware in New Westminster, starting in 1909 until 1929-1930.

Cunningham Hardware was a fixture in downtown New Westminster on Columbia Street. It was owned by Jim Cunningham (1834-1925), a local hardware merchant and real estate investor, who was helped to rebuild New Westminster after the 1898 fire which ravaged the Royal City's downtown core. Cunningham first came to British Columbia to mine the goldfields in 1860, and settled in New Westminster. He used his assets to invest in real estate in the growing city; and, in 1904, he was recorded as the 'chief taxpayer of the city'. He was prominent in local affairs, elected Mayor of New Westminster in 1873, and Member of Parliament in 1874-78. (Source:Cunningham Block and New Westminster News Leader).

These photos from the New Westminster Public Library photo database will give you an in idea of what Cunningham Hardware was like:

Exterior, 1903



And a store interior, possibly of Cunningham Hardware, 1900-1910:



Cheers, K.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Bowell Funeral Home Records

As I mentioned in my last post, I found a wonderful database of Bowell Funeral Home Records on the local history section of the New Westminster Public Library website. It is easily searchable by surname or date and contains a wealth of information on deaths, burials and funeral services in New Westminster, BC. Kudos go to the staff of the Library for putting together this great set of records and for always being very helpful. They have a great information/reference service , which I have used often and would recommend to anyone looking for genealogical data from New Westminster.