I have a grandmother—of the Great persuasion—about whom little to nothing is known. There is a great smoking hole of documentation from Upper Canada after 1790 to about 1820. The first formal census was in 1851. In the interim various UEL land claims point to some names. Christiana is not among them and even as there is precedent naming and likely birthdates amongst probable American and British colonials they can’t be connected, or, too, have gaping holes in their stories.
I am left after years of thrashing and 17 pages of notes and references with the conclusion that she can only be from the early Mennonites settling in the Niagara region around Thorold as early as 1796.
So I recall this photograph shown to me as a child of a frail elderly woman sitting on a couch, and being told it was my great grandmother. I didn’t know I should have asked an encyclopedia of questions.
But her dress stuck with me. A bonnet? Or scarf covering her head. Long plain dress. Plain top. Black and white photograph. The gear is Mennonite. I never saw the photo again. I don’t know who had it, or has it, or even if it still exists.
Less likely it is that this image was made in 1870. More likely that it was made about 1908. So it may not be Christiana Smith born about 1813. It might be Alice Robins, born 1872.
