Robert Graham ~ Same Name Over 4 Generations

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025: Week 45 (MULTIPLE)

Scottish family naming patterns can make it challenging to keep who is who accurately recorded.

As shown here I have 4 generations in a row of Robert Graham, and all have no middle name.

When researching multiplie relatives with the same name over many generations it becomes a bit challenging to be sure sources, documents, and facts are assigned to the correct person.

Over many years of researching I have full confidence the above generations are accurate

Looking back to ensure all is correct!!! 

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Photos:

Clip from Ancestry, retrived November 4th 2025

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

John Robert (Jack) Graham ~ & The Deer

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025: Week 38 (ANIMALS)

This is my grandfather, John Robert Graham - he was known as Jack.

I never knew grandpa Jack because he left the family before I was born.

For that reason I was never able to ask him about this photo.

It appears that he is with a deer. 

The deer appears to be tame.

Then again, maybe that is not his house & it's  a game farm.

I'm not sure why it bothers me so much that I will never know why the deer is just standing beside Grandpa Jack.

Maybe Grandpa Jack was a deer whisperer.

I will never know the context of this Jack/Deer story. 

Remembering the grandpa I never knew:
John Robert (Jack) Graham 
B: 7 MAR 1930 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
D: 5 AUG 2011 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

His parents were:
Robert (Bob) Graham 
B: 3 May 1906 Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland
D: 10 Aug 1960 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
and
Nellie May (Con) Cannon 
B: 4 Dec 1904 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
D: 14 Sep 1984 Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

When it's too late to ask the questions!!! 

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Photos:

Personal

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

Robert Graham ~ Grocer

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2023: Week 46 (THIS ANCESTOR WENT TO MARKET)

My X2 Great Grandfather, Robert Graham, was born December 23rd 1884 in Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland.

His parents were Robert & Maggie (nee Burt) Graham. 

In the 1901 Scottish Census my X2 great grandfather, Robert Graham, is 17 years old with his Occupation listed as Grocer's Assistant residing at Imrie's Land, Holytown, Scotland with his mother & 2 of his siblings. I have not found where his father was for this Census.

He immigrated to Canada in 1911 with his wife Jessie Crawford Gray, and their 3 oldest children. 

Robert & Jessie Crawford (nee Gray) Graham

My Great Grandfather Robert (Bob) (Bobby) Graham was their oldest child (born May 3rd 1906 in Holytown, Scotland). 

In the 1916 Canadian Prairie Census X2 Great Grandpa, Robert Graham's,  Occupation is Grocer, and residing at 250 Washington Ave, East Kildonan (Winnipeg), Manitoba. 

In the 1921 Canadian Census X2 Great Grandpa, Robert Graham's, Occupation is Manager of a Co-Op Store, and still residing at 250 Washington Ave, East Kildonan (Winnipeg), Manitoba.   

The family is found in the Canadian Prairie Census 1926, but employment is not recorded. 

On November 16th 1927 (exactly 96 years ago today) my Great Grandfather, Bob Graham, married my Great Grandmother, Nellie May Cannon. 

On the marriage registry Bob's father was listed as a Store-Keeper.

We are unable to find X2 Great Grandpa in the 1931 Census because he died in 19292 years after the wedding X2 Great Grandpa Robert Graham died.

We do find X2 Great Grandma, Jessie, with 8 of their 10 children ranging in age from 4 to 21. Their 2 oldest were married by 1931, and are found with their spouse and firstborn child enumerated separately. 

X2 great grandpa Robert Graham's Official Notice Of Death lists his occupation as Grocer. It further notes he had been in the hospital for 10 days.  

His Medical Certificate Of Death notes he died of Influenza Pneumonia with Myocarditis as contributory. 

He was only 44 years old when he died of Influenza on January 13th 1929 at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 

3 generations of Robert Grahams with no middle name makes researching challenging!!! 

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Photos:

Personal

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

Winter is Coming ~ Finding the Starks

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2020 Week 51 (WINTER)

I am Canadian. Much of the world believes that we live in one of the snowiest placed on earth. I live on the west coast of British Columbia. I fondly call it the WEsT COAST. The first winter we lived here there was 42 days in a row of measurable rain. Not one bit of snow. It never got very cold, but I spent that winter thinking I would never get warm. The dampness is hard to shake. For something different - it's raining again today, and there is no snow in our 14 day forecast. 

Every year I wish for a White Christmas, and most years I am disappointed. 

This Christmas will be no different. There is no snow in the forecast. With the Covid essential travel only orders I don't think we will even get to go to the ski hill.  Here are a few photos of family ski trips of the past. 

I wonder if my kids remember when we used to have snow when we lived in the interior of British Columbia. I would shovel it into piles up against our cedar hedge yard perimeter so the town deer could have some winter snacks. Our neighbours burlap wrapped their cedars to protect them from the deer all winter. Oddly enough our cedars were always healthy and full all year round even with the deer partaking. One year we shaped the piled snow into a ginormous whale extending the full length across the front of our yard. We made it a rainbow whale by 'painting' it with spray bottles of water & koolaid powder. That was the most beautiful whale I had ever seen. I return to the original question - do they even remember that beautiful rainbow whale?

I remember playing in the snow as a youngster. My dad built me a skating rink in the back yard. It came from a kit that had a giant bag you filled up with water, and then cut the plastic off once frozen. In Edmonton it was cold enough to freeze through the giant thickness. When we lived in the BC Interior it wasn't cold enough for that. I laid a giant tarp over the garden. I added an inch or so of water to the tarp, once frozen added another inch, and continued until we had a skating rink in our backyard. We had two older gents who lived on our street who would stop to chat from the fence when they saw me working on the skating rink. Each time they would tell me that it wasn't going to work because it no longer got cold enough to freeze solid enough to skate on.

 

Later, when they stopped to watch our boys skating they would comment that it only worked because I was too stubborn to know better. I have such fond memories of watching our boys skating in our backyard by the light of the moon. I wonder if they remember?

When I was small we lived in Quebec & then in Alberta before moving to the mountains of British Columbia. The photo below is of my mom and I building a snow fort when we still lived in Quebec. 

 I have always loved playing in snow.  

I think that is why I wasn't surprised to find a branch of STARKS in my tree.

I did a Which Game of Thrones family do you descend from, and not surprising House Stark was the answer. 

WINTER IS COMING 

I sit the Iron Throne
at the PNE in 2014

My 6th great grandmother

Anne Stark

BIRTH ABT. 1757 • Lanarkshire, Scotland

DEATH Scotland

her husband, my 6th great grandfather

John Weir

BIRTH ABT. 1755 • Lanarkshire, Scotland

DEATH Scotland

As usually happened in these 'royal' family lines intermarrying resulted in intertwining lines. I descend via one Stark family line, and another (or maybe the same one) married into the same family line.

Anne's granddaughter, and my 4th great grandmother

Susanah (Susan) Hamilton

BIRTH 03 NOV 1814 • Carnwath, Lanarkshire

DEATH 11 APR 1894 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland

married my 4th great grandfather
Robert Graham

BIRTH 16 JAN 1814 • Thornhill, Closeburn, Dumfries-shire, Scotland

DEATH 24 MAR 1892 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Robert's sister, and my 4th great aunt

Elizabeth Graham

BIRTH 10 FEB 1821 • Muirkirk, Ayrshire, Scotland:

DEATH 22 NOV 1903 • 16 Anderson Street, Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire
married
William Stark 
whose family of origin I have not yet researched. 

House Stark's family motto WINTER IS COMING holds very different meaning for me now that I live on the WEsT COAST. The 2020 Coronavirus has made our usual 'lets go play in the snow' daytrips illegal under the current Provincial Health Orders.  The longterm forecast does look like some snow between Christmas and New Years.

WINTER IS COMING!!!

When you find your family in Pop Culture!







This is why I search - 



Cause ... 





You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
















***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***









Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

___________________________________________________________

The Sea Chase ~ Searching For Jack In A John Wayne Movie

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2020 Week 39 (SHOULD BE A MOVIE)

Family tales begin with a nugget of information, and then the search is on.

Hey Family
- cousin Doug shared that grandpa Jack Graham was in a movie.....
He says:

"It was only a small part near the end of the film, but John Wayne was a Captain of a British/Canadian? destroyer, and it sank a German Cargo boat, and as the survivors climbed on board the destroyer, Jackie was one of the guards." 

"Doug says - near the end of the film, Jackie is standing with a gun as the survivors climb on board.... he says it was black and white."

I wasn't surprised to hear that Grandpa Jack has been in a movie. I had heard the stories about Jack through the years, and saw the photos. Jack was a confident attractive guy. On that set he would have made a gorgeous sailor any director would have wanted in his movie. 

With the details from cousin Doug I began searching for a John Wayne movie that fit the description. I found THE SEA CHASE. As usually happens with family lore there were a few details amiss, but not terribly different. It was surprisingly easy to find the movie. What wasn't easy was trying to find a venue to watch the movie. In the end Amazon provided. 

The replies I received to the message I sent at the top helped fill in a few details. 

"I know that he was in a movie. Gram was an usher at the theater in Victoria. Every time his scene  would be coming up they would run and get gram to come in and see him on screen."

"I'm pretty sure Dad was in his uniform with other soldiers on the deck of the ship while something was happening with John Wayne and the other stars."

"Dad was in a John Wayne movie. Mom took us to see it when we were very little. She said we were watching and then all of us were yelling Daddy when his face appeared"

Jack's three little girls about the time the movie was released 

Jack with his wife, three little girls and mother
(about the time THE SEA CHASE was released)

"mom dressed us all up and marched us down to the theatre so we could see him."

An example of how they were dressed up alike - a few years later 

Going back to cousin Doug's description I watched the movie waiting until a scene fit.
I was delighted when the described scene appeared:

As the scene came to an end I wondered how those little girls even recognized him since neither guard turned around. Thankfully I was watching with my husband who said "I don't think that's the right scene. It sounded like his face was on the screen." We continued to watch the movie. 

At the end I had no idea if I had just seen my grandfather in THE SEA CHASE. All I knew was that grandpa Jack was tall, dark haired, and thin. 

It reminded me of the year I lived in Vancouver when I stared at every bus driver to try to figure out if it was my grandfather. 

I never knew if my grandfather was the driver of the bus I rode on or if I had seen him in the movie I just watched. 

The legacy of a fractured family tree with broken branches. 

A few days after watching THE SEA CHASE my father came over for dinner. He had known Jack, and offered to help me figure out where Jack was in the movie. 

Dad wondered if that was Jack in the background of the photo below. 

Could that be Grandpa Jack behind?

Thinking back to the reply I had about Jack being in uniform I wondered if Dad was right. I compared the sailor in the scene above  with the photos I have of Jack from about the same time.

Definitely a maybe. 

When I sent the screenshot to my mom's sisters it remained a maybe. 

After looking at the stills of the scenes with actors in the background in the photos below we still aren't sure where Jack can be found in THE SEA CHASE.

Do I know which was Grandpa Jack in this film? No. 

Do I know I have the right film? Yes.

Remembering my Grandpa

John Robert (Jack) (Jacky) Graham

BIRTH 7 MAR 1930 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

DEATH 5 AUG 2011 • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Chasing the family stories!

This is why I search - 



Cause ... 





You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
















***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***



Sources:

Farrow, J. (Producer) & (Director). (1955). The Sea Chase [Motion Picture]. United States: Warner Brothers.

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

___________________________________________________________

Leaving the Old & Embracing the New ~ Canada Bound

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2020 Week 30 (THE OLD COUNTRY)

This week's prompt THE OLD COUNTRY had be searching through my tree on my mother's paternal line looking for how far back in the old country I had gotten in my research. I found the line below that I have been stuck for many years.

I decided to blog as cousin bait.
It worked last time.
I hope it will again!

My 5th great grandmother Marion Weir. I have quite a bit of confirmed information, and DNA matches to support my research this far. 

Marion Weir (my 5th great grandmother)
BIRTH 14 JUL 1781 • Lesmahagow, Carnwath, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 17 AUG 1826 • Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland


her parents (my 6th great grandparents)
John Weir 
BIRTH ABT. 1755 • Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH Scotland
and 
Anne Stark 
BIRTH ABT. 1757 • Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH Scotland

This is where I am stuck on this family line. I have tugged on ancestry, but with such common names of the time I am not confident the records or trees are for the correct person.
I only have 4 other children besides Marion


Marion Weir married
Andrew Hamilton (my 5th great grandfather)
BIRTH 2 SEP 1775 • Baddom, Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 28 JAN 1836/37 • Goathouse, Lesmahagow, Lanark, Scotland

I descend through their child 
Susanah (Susan) Hamilton
BIRTH 03 NOV 1814 • Carnwath, Lanarkshire
DEATH 11 APR 1894 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland
and
Robert Graham
BIRTH 16 JAN 1814 • Thornhill, Closeburn, Dumfries-shire, Scotland
DEATH 24 MAR 1892 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Skipping a few generations forward - it's Marion and Andrew's great grandchild, Robert Graham) who brought my family line to Canada.

Robert & Jessie Crawford (nee Gray) Graham
my X2 great grandparents

Robert Graham
BIRTH 23 DEC 1884 • Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 13 JAN 1929 • St Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
married to
Jessie Crawford Gray
BIRTH 23 JUN 1884 • Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 17 JUL 1952 • Manitoba, Canada

They immigrated to Manitoba in 1911 with their three oldest children. They had 7 more children in Canada. My great grandfather was their oldest child. He was 5 when they immigrated to Canada, and settled in Manitoba.



Robert & Jessie Crawford (nee Gray) Graham's 10 children:


Robert (Bob) (Bobby) Graham (my great grandfather)
BIRTH 3 MAY 1906 • Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 10 AUG 1960 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Jessie Crawford Graham
BIRTH 29 JUL 1908 • Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH 18 MAY 2001 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Margaret Burt (Meg) Graham
BIRTH 29 JUN 1911 • Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH DEC 1985 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Charlotte Gray (Dot) Graham
BIRTH 11 JAN 1913 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 8 DEC 2008 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Susan Hamilton (Sue) Graham
BIRTH 5 FEB 1915 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 15 FEB 2001 • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada


William Gray (Bill) Graham 
BIRTH 15 DEC 1916 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 1 APR 1993 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Douglas Charles (Doug) Graham
BIRTH 19 MAR 1919 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 11 NOV 1979 • Shoreham, Worthing, West Sussex, England


Andrew Burt (Burt) Graham
BIRTH 2 MAY 1921 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH Ontario, Canada


Georgina (Ina) Gray Graham
BIRTH 20 MAR 1923 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 13 APR 2011 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada


Jean Gray Graham
1927–2006
BIRTH 21 JAN 1927 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DEATH 2 JUL 2006 • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Jessie Crawford (nee Gray) Graham
my X2 great grandmother

Meg Jesse Bill Sue Dot
Burt Doug Ina
Jean

Bill Doug and Burt

Bob Jessie Bill
Doug Burt

My great grandfather, Robert (Bob/Bobby)
is missing from this photo
his ex-wife Nellie and son Jack (my grandfather) are in it

Jessie centre back
Doug's wife Josephine holding son Doug
and others

This is where my story began

My mom with her parents
father Jack is the first Canadian born
in my mother's paternal line

Proudly Canadian because my ancestors chose this country!







This is why I search - 



Cause ... 





You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
















***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***






Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

___________________________________________________________