Twenty years ago, I moved to Calgary from Ontario. As far as I knew, I was the first person in my family to put down roots in Alberta. Twelve years ago, my spouse and I relocated to Edmonton. Through work, I heard about “118th” and its community-building efforts. I felt we could be part of the neighborhood. My spouse was originally from Edmonton, so it was a good match. By 2012, we’d found an old house in the Spruce Avenue district. By 2016, I was deeply connected to my new neighborhood, including researching Spruce Avenue’s history.

I’ve dabbled in genealogical research, starting with the largely unknown-to-us roots of my maternal grandmother. In 2018, I was doing online research about my great-great-grandfather with the distinguished-sounding name of Joseph O’Kane Cameron. In Joseph’s 1949 Ottawa Citizen obituary, there was a curious reference in the “survived by” list of sisters: “Mrs. George Chase of Edmonton.” I did a double-take. I had a great-aunt living in Edmonton in 1949? How could that be? 

With great excitement, I put my trusty local history research to use. I went to the University of Alberta Peel’s Prairie Provinces website. Henderson’s Directories are posted here, back to the early 1900s. They list householders, addresses, and employment, along with useful city information, compiled annually. The Edmonton directories confirm when a house was built and the original residents or owners. In 1949, a short list of Chases, included a “Geo” – directory shorthand for George. George was listed with wife “Lorena.” They were retired and living west of downtown. Could this be the Cameron family great-aunt I was looking for? Time to cross-reference. 

Source: Henderson’s Directory for Edmonton, 1949. University of Alberta Library: Peel’s Prairie Provinces, (peel.library.ualberta.ca).

More digging on genealogy sites confirmed that Lorena Elizabeth Cameron was from the same town near Ottawa as Joseph O’Kane. They were, indeed, siblings. I had found Mrs. George Chase of Edmonton. Wanting to know more about her life here, I went back to the Henderson’s Directories and searched backwards for Mr. and Mrs. George Chase. 

Things got complicated because, earlier in the directories, spouses weren’t listed. I found two George Chases in Edmonton. Luckily, one of the Georges was in Edmonton in 1916, the same year as the Government of Canada’s 1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces. In the 1916 census, I found George Chase, listed with wife “Rena” and son Harry. Rena was born in Quebec and was the right age for my Lorena Cameron. They lived in the 119 block of 96 Street. What are the chances? Just a few blocks away from where I sat in my house!

Source: Government of Canada.Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916.

I went to Google Street View to look up 11919 96 Street, finding a pre-World War II one-story house that appeared to still be there. A check on the city’s website confirmed the bungalow was built in 1916. They lived in that very house and I could walk over easily and have a look. Wow!

Source: Google Street View, 2023

The Chases first showed up in Edmonton’s directory in 1916, the year their house was built. The 1916 directory said George worked as a shipper at Revillon Bros. Wholesalers. Revillon with its northern trading posts was a competitor to the Hudson’s Bay Company. George worked as a shipper and clerk. 

According to the The Free Library website, Revillon opened a warehouse in Edmonton in 1899, merging with the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1930s. That coincided with the directory, which showed George no longer worked there by the early 1930s. He and Rena are next listed in the directory as housekeeper and janitor at Sacred Heart Church (now Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples) on 96 Street. They lived there in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. By 1949, they were retired and living on 112 Street.

Source: Henderson’s Directory for Edmonton, 1916. University of Alberta Library: Peel’s Prairie Provinces.

When my mother visited Edmonton not long after this discovery, we stopped by the house on 96 Street and also by Sacred Heart Church. I shared her long-lost Edmonton roots through the stomping grounds of her great-great-aunt.

George and Lorena Chase lived in the church manse, at right, during the 1930s and early 1940s when they were employed at Sacred Heart Church in McCauley. Photo source: WinterE229 WinterforceMedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

The couple’s connection to Sacred Heart suggested they might be buried in the old St. Joachim’s cemetery off 107 Avenue. Early in the pandemic, a volunteer had indexed all the cemetery plots on the FindAGrave website. I found the listing for George and Lorena. When the nice weather arrived in spring 2020, my husband and I set off to the cemetery with a mason jar of lilacs. On that Saturday morning, my chance discovery of “Mrs. George Chase of Edmonton” in my great-grandfather’s obituary came full circle.

Source: Wesley Andreas [supplied by author]

When I came to Edmonton, I was looking for modern-day roots, a place where we could make friends, and contribute to community. By putting my local history skills to work, I found that my ancestral roots run through this land, too. I reflect on how my life today – living here, working downtown, volunteering -–  is an echo of my ancestors. I like to say that “Edmonton is such a small town.” Heck, you might even find that your relatives used to live a few blocks away and you didn’t even know it. I certainly did find my roots running deep, here on “118.”

This is part of a series for RCP, exploring personal reflections on local history research in the Alberta Avenue District.