Dear members I am starting a series of stories about the people I found in my tree that may be of interest. People think genealogy is boring and dull but if they would just look they would be surprised what is out there.
My first story is of George J. Quick my mother’s grandfather. The following is his obituary as written in May of 1924. George J. Quick, eighty years of age, died at the home of his daughter Mrs. Evelina Sargent in Bridgewater May 15. Mr. Quick was born on the Isle of Wight, England. At the age of 14 he was taken on board a British school ship. He was in the navy that went to China to open up the Chinese ports to the British trade. After eight years of naval service he came to Halifax where he bought his discharge and received his medal. When Livingstone, the great explorer and missionary to Africa, was lost in the heart of that black continent, Mr. Quick was one of the volunteers who offered his services that he might go into Africa to find him. He later moved to New Brunswick and for 40 years was a member of the militia of that country. He was the father of six children, his wife and the children still living at that time. His later years were quietly spent in his farm home in Peel and there was not a more highly respected citizen in the entire Province of New Brunswick than he.
George was the oldest of seven children and the only one to come over, he had one brother who came over for a visit and never saw the others again as far as I know. I do have pictures of them taken back in Liverpool, England around 1860 on tintype. My mother was pleased that I found out the name of Georges father James who was in the navy and his wife Harriet from Stonehouse, England. George was from Stonehouse not the Isle of White but several sisters were. Other children were born in Yarmouth so you can see that their father mover from port to port. As a friend told me because of the class system in England if you were a poor boy you had two choices work on a farm or go to sea.
As for the two medals the one George got from New Brunswick went to one of my sisters and the one from England I have. I will bring it to the next meeting for everyone to see. I am very pleased to have this medal and a picture of George in my position. So you see genealogy can be interesting if you look. The information is out there if you just look some may be in your back yard.
Respectfully submitted, Orlan Smith
Vice President’s Message, October 2013 by Heather Feuerhelm is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at ac-gs.org.