When I've been searching the information on the S. S. Metagama, often the headline says the "Famous" Metagama. Even on Ancestry.ca, one of the welcoming banners talks about someone grandparents fleeing Poland on the Metagama. Below is a painting of the Metagama leaving Liverpool.
This is from the Library and Archives Canada website from 2010, which I can no longer find:
Settlement Schemes by Glen Wright, Library and Archives Canada
Introduction
The genesis of post-First World War settlement schemes began in Britain during the war as a plan to settle ex-service men and women throughout the Empire. An Overseas Settlement Committee was established and, for the first time, the British government took a direct interest in emigration. Legislation was passed, agreements were entered into with the various Dominions, and potential emigrants were recruited and selected to resettle in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These initiatives made the 1920s a unique decade in the history of British immigration to Canada.
Continue reading "Overseas Settlement Committee"To me, Grampa was always "old". In 1960, when I would have my first memories of Grampa, he was 80. So, yes, he was old. Between 1960 and 1968 (the year we moved from Rutherglen to Porcupine), I remember going to Aunt Edna's house many times for many occasions and seeing Grampa. I don't remember him at our house, which had been his home for many years.
Continue reading "My memory of Grampa Smith"The tale that was passed down to us was that as a teenager, Grampa stowed away on a British freighter and made his way to Canada. This is sorta-kinda true except perhaps the part about stowing away and the freighter. The closest truth to stowing was that Grampa left without telling his family and maybe without telling the Russian government.
My own memories of Grampa are very sparse. He smoked a pipe and he said god-damn a lot in his broken English. Everything was god-damn-this and god-damn-that, but he said it like it was just a part of the sentence. “I went to the god-damn store and bought some god-damn butter… I milked the god-damn cow and had some god-damn supper…”
Mom remembered having a dog when she was a child and they weren’t allowed to feed the dog at the table, but Grampa would sneak food off his plate to a waiting mouth under his dinner plate saying, “Take that, god-damn-ya!”
Johannes Õunpuu was born in Mustjala County, on Saaremaa Island, Estonia, an isolated island facing the Baltic Sea. The day he was born in 1896 was November 12. At that time Estonia was using the Julian calendar, but in February 1918, the country adopted the Gregorian calendar and 13 days were added to all prior birthdates to make up for an 11-minute per year drift. Therefore, in official Estonian records , Grampa’s birthdate is November 25. However, Grampa consistently reported his birthday to be November 13 on all his army documents.
In 1896, the country was still a territory of Imperial Russia. Czar Nicholas II had just become the emperor after the death of his father Alexander III in May of that year. There was a lot of tension between the wealthy German minority and nobility who “hindered the russification of the country and Estonia continued to serve as an outpost of Western culture.” This is a quote from a booklet sent to me by Kaido, my Estonian cousin. I was surprised to learn that Estonians are not ethnically or linguistically related to Russians, Germans, Latvians or Lithuanians, all of whom are Slavic, Germanic and Baltic origin. Estonians are closely related to Nordic peoples, especially the Finns and descendants of Vikings.
Mom told us to never say Grampa was from Russia or was Russian. That was a big NO-NO!
In 2025, I relented to a friend’s “no regrets” insistence and decided to subscribe to Apple TV. The first show I watched was The Reluctant Traveler with our own funny Canadian Eugene Levy. In Episode One, he was in Finland, the origins of the Estonian people.
Eugene’s summary is that Finns are the happiest people in the world. And the top three things that are important to them are family, animals and simple.
Most recently, in April 2025, I watched Sisu, a fantastical and over the top film on Netflix about a Finnish man who, against all odds and logic, survives being hunted by the Germans after the end of the war. (Yes, I watch too much TV.) While there’s no direct translation of the Finn word sisu, its meaning is a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. In the end, I could sense and see my grandfather in this almost Marvel-type character.
One of the most intriguing things about 23andMe was their DNA matching option to Historical DNA from archeological digs around the world. So when ancient Viking DNA matched my DNA, I didn’t even have to question that it came from my paternal side. Vikings' personality traits, according to Google, are courageous, independent, adventurous, honourable, disciplined and industrious. A letter from Grampa’s brother, Eduard, in Estonia mentions a fence that Grampa built to surround the family property before he left at age 16.
Knowing some history of Estonia and my grandfather’s backstory was extremely important in forming the full picture of my grandfather, why he thought the way he did, what motivated him and in the end, what pushed him into suspicion and silence.
Grampa was a typical Estonian in being well educated in a country where elementary school was free and compulsory. While Russia’s illiteracy rate was 70.4 percent, Estonia’s was 3.8 percent. During the 1940s and 1950s, Grampa wrote many letters to Eduard, his brother, which I had translated into English. My translator, Ellen, was impressed with Grampa’s writing and said she could tell he was well educated. He also had beautiful penmanship. My mother thought the letters would likely have been written in secret, as Mary forbade Grampa from speaking or communicating in Estonian.
At the time Grampa left his homeland, Estonia and half of Latvia were sometimes called Lifland or Luuimaa in Estonian. In one of Grampa’s military documents, he claims his birthplace as Arensberg, Lifland, which was previously Kuressaare until the Russian occupation.
Estonian peasants got their surnames between 1822-1835. In fact, the 1826 Estonian census is the first one where peasants are listed with surnames. They were previously known by the farms they lived on. Also because Estonian documents were often written by Germans or Russians, the surname Õunpuu was misspelled as Ounpu or Aunpuu or Aunpu because in the Russian or German language, there’s no letter for Õ.
It seemed next to impossible to not only locate the Estonian documents I needed, but then I couldn’t read them. They were written in Estonian or German. Luckily, I connected with a relative, Maale Jaagola, in Estonia who went to the archives at the University of Taartu, retrieved documents, translated them and mailed them to me. Maale only asked that I reimburse him for his costs.
Grampa was the oldest of nine children of Mihkel Õunpuu and Leen Toompuu. Two of the children died as babies which was sadly common at the time. What is a little different is that the next child to be born after the death of the baby, was given the same “christian” name as the one who died. So Grampa had two brothers named August and two brothers named Eduard.
When Grampa left Estonia at the age of 16, he left behind two sisters, Aliise age 2, Juuli age 8, and two brothers Juulius age 9 and Kaarl age 12. He had witnessed the birth and death of another baby sibling August in 1903. My grandfather had pictures of Juuli, Juulius and Kaarl with their birth and death years on them. All in all, Leen Toompuu had lived through the deaths of four children, before dying in 1932.
On Saaremaa Island where Grampa was born, surnames assigned or chosen were based on many different elements including nature and thus my ancestors chose Õunpuu meaning "apple tree"; a compound of õun (apple) and puu (tree). Ellen told me over tea one day that my great-grandmother’s surname, Toompuu, is based on a blooming tree in Estonia similar to Canada’s dogwood tree.
In a letter from Kaido Õunpuu, Grampa’s nephew in Estonia, dated June 1, 1988, he says “He (Grampa) lived a short time in Tallinn and then escaped on board a ship to England.”
Documents actually show that in 1913, before the Russian revolution, Johannes Õunpuu, age 16, was possibly recruited by Alexsander Matt, a fellow Estonian born in Arensburg, who at the age of 19 had already made several ocean crossings, always with a different group. On June 13, the S.S. Columbia made its way from Finland to Glasgow, carrying Estonians, Finns and Russians whose destination was “CPR, Chapleau, Ontario”, Canada. On June 16 the ship arrived at Ellis Island, New York. The ship’s manifest states he is able to read and write English, while this may have been true, he couldn’t speak English. He had $25 and his destination was a “friend”, Johannes Lonn, in Chapleau.
I have no proof that Grampa ever made it to Chapleau, as my enquiries to CP Rail were dead ends. They claim they never kept any of those records. Canadian Pacific Railway were huge supporters of the war effort and encouraged their workers to sign up, offering six-month wages to full time workers and their jobs back upon their return from the war. All this brings me to the conclusion that he never made it there, otherwise, why would he not go back to CPR. By the time Grampa enlisted, he would have had three years with the railroad, qualifying him for the incentive.
Sometime before 1916, Grampa changed his name from Johannes Õunpuu to John Edward Gaalson, which morphed over the years to Gaallson, then Gallson. There is no Estonian word “Gaalson” and even though the suffix “son” was observed in Estonia as being “son of”, the word “gaal” means nothing. Also, in the Estonian birth registry, there’s no indication that Grampa had a second name, and if he did, it wouldn’t have been Edward. John’s youngest brother was Eduard, which leads me to conclude that Grampa’s second name was a fabrication as well. According to the Vital Statistics from Tallinn, none of the Õunpuu family had second names.
Her immigration documents describe her as having brown hair, brown eyes and she is 5'1".
Florence's time in Canada from February to October will likely remain a mystery but on October 23, 1920, she attempted to cross the American border to Buffalo, NY. I say "attempted" because there are TWO border crossing forms. The first one on October 23, 1920 is stamped REJECTED, but is then marked "passed NF 10/25/20" with her passport number. The second one is dated the day she actually crossed the border. I am assuming that the normal procedure to cross the border for non-Americans included a 2-day waiting period. The information on these cards are repeated on the large list below.
Continue reading "Florence – Domestic Whirlwind"Mae “Maisie” Huard was my Mom’s half sister.
Mae Helen “Maisie” Huard (nee Gallson), passed away peacefully at the Algonquin Nursing Home in Mattawa, Ontario, in the early morning hours of March 22, 2022. She was 82 years old.
The pictures below are the only toddler pictures we have of my Mom (Joan), Aunt Jean and Uncle Phil. Its very odd there aren't more, because the picture of Grampa with Aunt Jean as a baby shows they had a camera. The story that Mom relayed was that Mary originally told the children that Mary was their real mother and that Gramma Gallson was there looking after them while Mary was away. This would mean that Mary would need to destroy any photo that existed of Gramma with her children.
In 1976, my sister Carol wrote to the Ministry of Health, St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital, asking for information about Gramma. At that time, the hospital preferred to communicate with physicians, so instead of answering Carol directly, they sent a letter to Dr. Wall, Carol’s doctor in North Bay.
The additional information given here is that Gramma was only in St. Thomas Hospital from November 1945 to February 1960 - less than 15 years. She was actually in Toronto for the first 15 years of her commitment, from December 1929 to November 1945. Its very ironic that Mom worked and lived in Toronto in 1942. From Frankish Avenue to New Toronto Mental Asylum is a 50-min transit ride. So close and yet so far!
Carol wrote again in 1980, requesting more information.
From December 21, 1929 to November 9,1945 Florence was at New Toronto Hospital when she was transferred to St. Thomas hospital. This letter says she lived in Mattawa, but all documentation shows she was only in Widdifield.
Below is a picture of the New Toronto Hospital from inside one of the "cottages".
The Mimico Asylum was referred to as a "cottage system" with underground tunnels connecting all the cottages. This is the best site I found with pictures and history of the hospital. (CLICK HERE). The verandas have been removed and the buildings and property are now the Lakeshore Campus of Humber College.
Interesting side-story:
In all the years I lived in Toronto, I only ever tried to find the "hospital" by just driving around the area where the downtown hospital used to be. I didn't do a lot of research and only had a foggy idea about the "cottages". I even took Mom for a drive once to look around in an area I thought may have been where the hospital used to be, but didn't find anything interesting. Around 2010, I joined a theatre group called Etobicoke Players and volunteered to work as their Front of House Manager. I drove to the building where they held the plays, an older early 1900's type building, parked the car and looked straight ahead out the front windshield and saw this.
And I knew immediately what I was looking at. It was an epiphany!! 🙂 I remember saying out loud, "Holy crap! Thank you Gramma!"
In 1986, I wrote to the St. Thomas hospital, trying to prob them for more information.
Years later, I went to the Ontario Archives and made a personal request for information and this is all they would give me.
And in 1988, I wrote to Mary Morrison asking for information as I had nothing to lose.
And that was that!
Below is a map sketched by Hilda Howard, Mom's half-sister, when I visited her in Toronto the in late 1990's maybe.
So while she was trying to remember the layout of the Mattawa farm, she also was remembering things about Grampa.
Continue reading "John in Mattawa"In 1942/43, my Mom went to Toronto to work at the Inglis factory which had been retrofitted for bullet and guns manufacturing in support of the war effort. It was an opportunity for Mom to make the extra money she needed to pay for her wedding dress. She went with my Dad’s cousin, Iva Rose and my Dad’s sister Vera.
While working for Myrtle, Joan took a 3month course at Algonquin Secondary School with Lloyd's other sister, Vera, and his cousin, Iva Rose. It was a training course for women who wanted to assist in the war effort. Joan took Drafting and Machine Shop. This course would also give Joan a good paying job in Toronto so that she could save for her wedding.
Continue reading "Joan in Toronto"