World War II : Philip Service Cassidy (1863-1930)

I’ve been working for some time [as part of my work-in-progress, the genealogy book: see my piece around his daughter, my great-grandmother, here] to research the details of my second great grandfather, Philip Service Cassidy, including why he moved from Grenville, Ontario into the American Dakotas, where he married a local girl, and they had the first four of their eventual mound of children. They moved back to Carleton County after a while and had at least eight more children. Philip later signed up to fight in the Second World War, a war record I couldn’t quite figure out how to read.

Thanks to an assist from Marjorie Stintzi, I’m able to discern that the birthdate he offers when registering to join the 156^th Overseas Battalion Canadian Expedition Force, having previously served as part of the Kemptville-local 56^th Lisgar Rifles, is actually false. Apparently he was beyond the age for enlisting, claiming his birthdate as May 6, 1871 in Richmond, Ontario, which would have put him at forty-five years old instead of fifty-three. I knew there would have been an age minimum, but hadn’t realized a maximum, and I hear from multiple people that they knew of relatives pretending to be younger than they were. He apparently suffered a hernia while moving boxes later that same year, refused surgery, and was found at the medical examination to be overage, which even Stintzi suggests might have allowed him a way out.

What becomes frustrating: various sources on Ancestry and otherwise replicate Philip’s deception, instead of what the 1901 census offers as his birthdate: May 9, 1863. Ten years earlier, a further census lists his birthday as “about 1865,” but the 1881 census returns to the correct year, if nothing else, which puts him precisely at fifty-three during that 1916 paperwork. Apparently his reward for fudging his age was a truss, as he sent home to Kemptville. Completely unable to find a birth record or notice for him, I actually can’t find a death notice or obituary for him, either. He died somewhere either in British Columbia or Saskatchewan in 1930, having moved out that way, most likely, to live with one of his grown, married daughters. His story an enigma I’ve yet to fully discern.

 

some recent substack posts: reading in the margins + the genealogy book,

I’ve been working a couple of threads over at my incredibly clever substack over the past few months, most of which has been my ongoing genealogical non-fiction project, “the genealogy book,” exploring new genealogical threads as well as seeking further details along previously known genealogical threads, working my family histories in multiple directions, now that I’m aware of the biological threads of my adopted-self (here's a recent example). I’ve been working this particular manuscript since June of last year, and have been finding out some really fascinating details and connections, and the comparisons between my previously-known self (McLennan/Campbell/Aird/Page/Swain/Friend and other lineages throughout) against the newly-explored biological threads (Adams, etcetera) I’m finding pretty interesting. The biological lines have been over here far longer, for example, including numerous United Empire Loyalist lines (which I haven’t had before this), leaning into some pretty neat stories, connections and lengthy histories across Dundas County, the War of 1812, New England and the American Revolution, none of which I thought I had any connection to.

My other ongoing thread is a series of short essays on fiction writers, “reading in the margins: a writing diary,” with the most recent piece is on London, Ontario writer Jean McKay, focusing on her 1983 “autobiographical novel” Gone to Grass (Coach House Books). Naturally, this is a book I highly recommend, if you can find a copy. Previously posted pieces across this same series include write-ups on Gail Scott, Joy Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Kristjana Gunnars. I’m slowly (very slowly, it might seem) working on further pieces, on Dany Laferrière, LM Montgomery and Sheila Heti, among others. We shall see how far it goes.

I’ve also been posting the occasional short story (here's a good one), from a manuscript I’ve been slowly carving over the past few years, a follow-up to this fall’s On Beauty (University of Alberta Press), a book already on pre-order, I might add. I’ve also been sprinkling through some small bits of flash fiction, a manuscript nearly a decade in-progress (an example, here), furthering The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014), a book still available through Invisible Publishing.

Prior to that, I’m sure you saw all the excerpts from the “Lecture for an Empty Room” non-fiction project, focusing on reading, literature and community (here's my piece on John Cage, for example, as part of such), “A river runs through it: a writing diary,” my lengthy essay on collaborating with Denver poet Julie Carr and the lengthy essay (posted in two parts: one and two) on the thirtieth anniversary/history of above/ground press! There’s also been a piece or two on “the blue year,” a writing journal/diary from 2019-2020 that I have yet to rework (an example, here), a hefty manuscript from a period of father illness (als), my weekends attending care and his eventual death, new half-sibling discoveries, Christine’s health crises and eventual pandemic (there was a lot to process during that period, honestly). I’m hoping to get into that again at some point, once the genealogical project is further along. Also, I’m hoping to get back into the novel I began in 2021, one that furthers some threads from On Beauty, so once I’m there I’ll start posting those as well. There are other threads too, but I'll let you figure that out on your own. Beyond that, who knows? Really, this whole substack process I deliberately began to push me further into a couple of prose directions, assisting to get pieces furthered, furthered and finished. Having the weekly slot does provide a good impetus for getting a piece done.

Right now I’m attempting to post weekly (although recently I accidentally posted two pieces recently on the same day, oops), with every third or fourth piece for paying subscribers only. I mean, I’m attempting to treat this like a weekly column, in a certain way, but it would be nice to have a few dollars in my pocket also, along the way. And can you believe I'm only 9,750 away from ten thousand subscribers?

the genealogy book

 , on Ed Norton, Pocahontas and John Rolfe,

American actor Ed Norton, who hears on a 2023 episode of Finding Your Roots that he is a descendant of Pocahontas (c. 1596-1617), the Native American woman born with the name Amonute, also known as Matoaka. She belonged to the Powhaten, the indigenous people who first associated with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, a site founded by the English settlers who first landed in 1607. Pocahontas married the tobacco planter, John Rolfe, in 1614, and gave birth to their son, Thomas, less than nine months later. Norton seems shocked that this research could even be possible, let alone what it reveals. There’s a paper trail, he’s told. It’s all there. Near the end of Norton’s episode, he speaks to how every single person “here” (presumably suggesting a white settler sentiment around either the United States of America specifically or the New World generally) is from somewhere else, away. Suggesting that everyone “here” is an immigrant, a sentiment that does Pocahontas, and so many, many others, a serious disservice. Where did Norton think Pocahontas was from, exactly? The host agreed, good naturedly so, yes. Is this why the Indigenous are so poorly treated across North America? Go back to where you came from, white settler descendants yell at First Nations protestors, all of whom stand on traditional lands. That absolute inability to realize that there are entire populations exactly and precisely from where you, sir, are standing?

for further excerpts of this work-in-progress, sign up for my increasingly clever substack, here.

the genealogy book : an ongoing work-in-progress via substack,

In case you haven’t caught, I’ve been posting excerpts (six so far) of my current non-fiction work-in-progress on my substack for a while now, “the genealogy book.” With the discovery of my birth mother’s name and other details over the past decade, I’ve been deliberately working to explore some of these new threads and their implications. Over the past two months, I’ve been posting pieces on various Loyalist/New England threads, including Puritan (Boston, etcetera), German (I’m currently working a piece that references Philadelphia’s Germantown), Irish (the Peter Robinson settlers of Ontario) and Dutch (the New Netherlands settlement), as well as the counterpoint of my Glengarry Scottish upbringing and foundation. I have a whole new family tree, someone said. I think, instead, I simply have two trees that meet at the roots. Am I any less one side now because of this other?

I’m attempting to treat the substack like a weekly column, and most pieces that I’m posting these days are from this new project, although I am also interspersing with short stories and the occasional other essay on prose writers (I recently posted one on Joy Williams and another on Ernest Hemingway, for example, with another on Gail Scott forthcoming). You can sign up for free, or for the paid option. I’m only posting “paid” pieces every third or fourth, as there’s still a part of me that can’t quite offer terribly much that excludes non-paying options.